ESSAY WRITING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN GLOBAL CONTEXTS: ANALYSIS OF PRE-POST INTERVENTION STUDY

Abstract

Essay writing in a foreign language is of a high demand in the labor market. Essay writing in a foreign language is intended for audiences – including online users - with diverse cultural background in different parts of the globe. the aim of this article is to analyze the effectiveness of techniques (digital tools, visual aids, and interactive activities) for essay writing in a foreign language via the study of the pre-post intervention. The evaluation study was implemented at Riga Ilguciema Elementary School in Riga, Latvia. The study took place in April 2024. 20 students took part in the quasi-experiment. The average percentage value regarding improvement or deterioration of the result during the experiment is 7.99%. This result is obtained using the average formula regarding the percentage of each student's result. This number indicates that the overall essay writing result among students in grade eight has improved at least by 8%. Thereby, the finding is that the leverage of three techniques – digital tools, visual aids, and interactive activities – are effective for the development of students’ essay writing in a foreign language.