Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Marzyeh Eslamian ¹
• Seyed Rasoul Emadi ²

¹ MA in Educational Sciences, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran.

² Associate Professor, Department of Educational Sciences, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Abstract
Learning disorders cause many challenges in the academic field of students and have a negative effect on the academic and social performance of children. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of task-oriented teaching on the reading and writing skills of students with learning disabilities. The method of the current research was semi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of the research included third-grade primary students with dyslexia and dysgraphia in West Islamabad city (Kermanshah Province). A targeted sample of 34 students was selected from among the third-grade students and randomly assigned to two experimental (17 students) and control (17 students) groups. The research tools included Kormi Nouri's reading test (2005) and the researcher-made writing test (2017). For the experimental group, 11 practice sessions were conducted in the form of task-oriented teaching, and the control group remained on the waiting list. The results of the research showed that task-oriented teaching had a significant effect on the reading and writing skills of students with learning disabilities. Based on the results, it can be said that task-oriented teaching improved the reading and writing skills of students with learning disabilities. Therefore, it is suggested that primary school teachers use the task-oriented teaching method for students who have reading and writing disorders.
Keywords: task-oriented teaching, reading skill, writing skill, learning disability.
 
Extended Abstract
Introduction
Reading disability is the most common learning disability that affects 7 to 17 percent of children worldwide and is characterized by normal intelligence, poor reading performance despite adequate education, and poor spelling (Peters et al, 2021). Dyslexic children have cognitive deficits in visual processing, selective and sustained attention, and executive functions. They have problems in phonological processing, recognizing sounds in words and recognizing rhymes (Abdollahzadeh Rafi and Rahimzadeh, 2020). Difficulty in writing is determined by the disorder and weakness in the skills that are important in the writing process, such as writing speed, legibility of letters, and fine motor coordination, and weakness in any of these skills can make learning difficult. The prevalence of both learning disabilities is higher in boys than in girls (Romanovska et al, 2021).
One of the relatively new methods of teaching is task-oriented teaching, which is one of the active teaching approaches. In this approach, due to the continuous interaction of students with each other and their active participation in learning, social skills will increase and they will have high self-confidence. They can easily apply what they have learned in the real environment (Neto et al, 2021). From the point of view of Ellis (2009), Ellis (2009) the task-oriented method is a kind of communicative teaching method that emphasizes meaningful learning through doing tasks in the educational environment of learners. In simpler terms, it refers to a method in which assignments are used as the core of education (Roh and Kwag, 2018).
In general, the conducted research shows that the education of children with learning disorders requires special education, and also considering the background and prevalence of about 10 to 20 percent of learning disorders in children and the need of these children for special education methods, and the lack of research on the task-oriented teaching method in the field of learning disorders in the country, the present research seeks to examine the question of whether task-oriented teaching has an effect on the reading and writing skills of students with reading and writing disorders.
Method
The current research design was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of the research was male students in the third grade of elementary school with dyslexia and dysgraphia who were studying in the schools of West Islamabad city in 2018. Among the examined children, a sample of 34 subjects was selected according to the entry criteria and then assigned to two experimental and control groups (17 experimental, 17 control). In order to collect the data, the reading test of Karami Nouri and Moradi (2004) and the writing test developed by the researcher were used. In this research, the task-oriented method was used based on the book "Read and Write" in the third grade of elementary school. The content and educational materials were prepared completely based on the textbook in 11 sessions of 40 minutes. In this way, the experimental group was trained in the task-oriented method and the control group was trained in the usual way. At the end of the intervention, a post-test was taken from both groups. In this research, to analyze the collected data, the mean and standard deviation of the variables were checked using descriptive statistics, and multivariate covariance analysis was used to investigate the research question. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software version 27.
Results
Table 1 reporting the results of the analysis of covariance shows that after obtaining basic assumptions, there is a significant difference between the experimental and control groups on reading and writing (P<0. 01). Based on the results, after the intervention, the mean score of reading and writing have increased in the experimental group compared to the control group.

Conclusion
In explaining these findings, according to Baldi et al.'s (2015) point of view, it can be mentioned that educational experts believe that the use of process-oriented teaching methods, such as the task-oriented method, is a way to solve problems and eliminate the shortcomings of traditional reading teaching methods. Collaborative and two-way learning is superior to common one-way educational models, and it is emphasized to use two-way educational processes more than one-way transfer processes to improve reading. In fact, the general goal of task-oriented education is to create motivation for learning through activities based on meaning and form. In this method, all three dimensions of structure, performance and interaction are given importance (Operto et al., 2020). According to Ellis (2009), in this method, the use of things like asking, answering, explaining, searching, analyzing, creating and evaluating provides the possibility of interaction for the learner. In task-based education, attention, accuracy, evaluation, practice and coordination between different letters and words are emphasized in the process of checking and doing the task, and the students are fully involved in the exercises and with more motivation and self-efficacy while doing the exercises. In this way, their reading skills are strengthened.
According to Joshi and Bouck (2017), it is possible that children in a task-oriented approach perform various exercises to improve concentration and strengthen visual and auditory memory according to their ability level, which promotes effective writing. It seems that choosing and arranging appropriate words and vocabulary and understanding short phrases requires the process of word recognition, and this recognition is one of the complex activities of the nervous system of the brain (Wicki and Lichtsteiner, 2018). The fact that the child can find the right word to complete the sentence in the empty space and can determine the role of each word in the sentence is not an easy process for children with learning disabilities and it requires a lot of practice and homework, so the task-oriented approach can play an effective role in improving children's writing ability by using multi-sensory intervention such as auditory, visual and tactile senses and providing different assignments. One of the limitations of the present study was the limited sample of male students; another limitation was the impossibility of a completely random selection of the participants, and a follow-up stage was not possible. Therefore, it is suggested to conduct this issue in future research by randomly selecting a sample consisting of male and female students and by conducting a follow-up test.
Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
This article was extracted from the Master thesis of the first author in the field of educational sciences of Bu-Ali Sina University. The principle of confidentiality and ethical considerations were observed in the research.
Acknowledgment
We express our gratitude to the officials of the Department of Education and the school principals and students who cooperated in the implementation of this project.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest for this study.

Keywords

• task-oriented teaching
• reading skill
• writing skill
• learning disability