THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION APPROACH ON WRITING SKILLS AND MOTIVATION

Differentiated instruction is an instructional technique which focuses on the process of tailoring lessons to meet each student's individual interests, needs and strengths. This research was aimed at finding out the effectiveness of differentiated instruction in English on the writing skills and motivation of the fourth-grade students. This research used quasi-experimental design involving two sample groups: treatment and control group. The participants were Year Four students. There were 60 students participated in this study (30 students in an experimental group and 30 students in a control group). The participants were selected using purposive sampling. Data were collected using test and questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The findings of the study showed that there is a significant difference in the achievement of writing skill and motivation between the control group and the treatment group after the intervention. At the α=0.05 (p=0.000) level of significance, the results of the independent-sample t-test revealed a significant difference between the mean post-test scores of writing skills and motivation of the experimental group and the control group. In conclusion, differentiated instruction method can have a positive effect on the writing skills and motivation of students in English classroom. The implication of the study is that the curriculum planners, administrators and educators should plan and work hand in hand in developing their instructional techniques. The findings of this study may contribute to the knowledge base for differentiated instruction and a foundation for future studies.