شبكة المعلومات العربية التربوية

The current study investigates the implementation of brainstorming to promote learners’ writing skill. This research is centered around three objectives. First, it aims to identify the role of brainstorming sessions and activities in developing learners’ ability to write. Second, it strives to explore the extent to which brainstorming can promote learners’ writing skill. Third, this research attempts to find out learners’ attitudes towards the use of brainstorming as a teaching and learning approach in order to promote their writing performance. To reach these aims, a quasi-experimental research design was adopted during six months. It involves a comparison of written productions of a control group (CTR) and an experimental group (EXP) resulting from a pre-test and post-test analysis in the light of Raimes’ (1983) model of components of writing and Osborn’s approach of brainstorming (1953) [which has been reinforced by many authors like Cullen (1998)]. 26 questionnaires were used as a complementary data collection tool to check the learners’ attitudes towards the use of brainstorming to develop their writing performance. As far as data analysis procedures are concerned, mixed methods approach combining both qualitative and quantitative method was adopted. The quantitative data are analysed using the frequencies for the experimental research and the SPSS for the questionnaire, the qualitative results are analysed using the qualitative content analysis. The obtained results have shown considerable differences between the experimental group and the control group. The former made a significant progress concerning the different components of the writing skill; namely: the content, the writer’s process, word choice, organization, mechanics and grammar. However, the latter did not demonstrate such improvement in all aspects. Therefore, the findings confirmed the importance of the brainstorming approach in developing EFL learners’ writing skill. Moreover, the results of the questionnaire revealed that the participants in this study hold positive attitudes towards the use of brainstorming as a teaching and learning technique. (Author’s abstract)