The Effect of One-way and Two-way Jigsaw Reading Task on the Writing Performance of Iranian EFL Learners

Writing is viewed as one of the most important language skills both in L1 and L2 learning. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of one way and two-way task types through jigsaw reading activities on the writing performance of Iranian EFL learners. The participants of the study were 90 B.A. Students at the intermediate level and they were studying English in intact classes. These 90 learners were divided into three equal groups of 30 and homogenized prior to the administration of the treatment through giving them a PET as a proficiency test. Following that, a pretest of writing was given to the three groups. Next, the two experimental groups received one way and two-way jigsaw reading activities while the control group did not receive such treatment and followed the conventional method of instruction based on the syllabus set by the university. The length of the treatment was ten sessions and each session was 90 minutes. At the end of the treatment, the participants were given the posttest of writing the scores of which were used to address the research question. The results of statistical analyses indicated that two-way tasks were significantly more effective on the writing performance of the participants.