The Effects of Topic Interest and L2 Proficiency on Writing Skill among Iranian EFL Learners

This study investigated the effect of topic interest and l2 proficiency on Iranian EFL learners’ writing skill. To fulfil this objective, 60 (30 pre-intermediate and 30 intermediate) learners from two high schools in Zarindasht, Fars, Iran were selected based on administering an Oxford Quick Placement Test. The selected participants were then non-randomly divided into two equal experimental groups; namely Pre-Intermediate High-Interest Topics group (PHIT group) and Intermediate Low-Interest Topics group (ILIT group). After that, the topic interest questionnaire was given to the students to assess their interest level in each topic. When the students’ level of interest was specified, the PHIT group received five high-interest topics and five low-interest topics were given to the ILIT group. Then, the researcher measured the participants’ English writing skill by administering a researcher-made writing pre-test. In both groups’ classroom, the interested topics were taught to learners in 12 sessions and learners wrote on each topic. After the instruction, a writing post-test was administered to the both groups and finally the data were analyzed by using paired and independent samples t-tests. The obtained results indicated that there was a significant difference between the post-tests of PHIT and ILIT groups. The findings indicated that the PHIT group significantly outperformed the ILIT group (p < .05) on the post-test. The implications of this study can make the teachers aware that topic interest plays an important role in improving writing skill