Catálogo de Investigaciones | 2012-2013

107 CATÁLOGO DE INVESTIGACIONES | AÑO ACADÉMICO 2012-2013 The effect of the Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM) on the levels of writing performance of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade English language learners from a rural public school in Orocovis, Puerto Rico Writing is an important way of communication. Puerto Rican students are required to develop writing abilities in Spanish and in English. Although writing is an essential skill, statistics have revealed that students across the United States are facing problems with writing. It has become a challenge for teachers to implement and use effective strategies to enhance the teaching and learning of writing. The purpose of the current investigation was to determine the effect of the Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM) strategy on the levels of writing performance of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade Puerto Rican English language learners from Orocovis, Puerto Rico. This investigation was based on Rumelhart (1980) and Anderson’s (1984) schema theory. The research design was a pre-posttest research design with three experimental groups. The population of the study was composed of elementary English language learners (ELL) from a public school located in a rural area in Orocovis. The sample consisted of fourth, fifth, and a sixth grade groups. The PWIM Writing Pretest, the PWIM Writing Posttest, and the English Language Writing Performance Scoring Rubric, were used to measure the variables of the present research. The three groups answered the PWIM Writing Pretest. Then they were exposed to the treatment under the same conditions. Finally, the students answered the PWIM Writing Posttest. Different statistical procedures were used to analyze the data including a paired t-test. After comparing the experimental group posttest and pretest mean scores, the paired t-test results revealed that there is significant difference on the levels of writing performance among the three experimental groups. The results of the present investigation demonstrated that PWIM is an effective strategy that can be incorporated to facilitate the teaching and learning process and to increase the levels of writing performance of Puerto Rican English language learners. paula c. cruz flores doctorado educación con especialidad en currículo y enseñanza mentor: dra. irma rodríguez vega pwim on writing performance picture word rural public schools puerto rico