IMPORTANCE OF NATURE VISUALS IN IMPROVING WRITING SKILLS

摘要

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the positive effects of visuals related to the nature on writing skills of kids according to their grade levels. This study has been carried out with a total of 294 students from 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades. As the first step of data collection during the classical writing activity the children have been asked to write a composition about 'nature'. In the second step children were asked to choose one of the 40 nature visuals given and then asked to write a composition again about 'nature'. Essays of the children were analysed through content analysis. According to the results during writing assignments that were not supported with nature visuals students used nouns, adjectives, verbs, exaggerations, metaphors, descriptions, sayings, words and sentences less, variety of subjects were more superficial, title, introduction, body and conclusion paragraphs were more ordinary. However, after the nature visuals have been shown, there was a visible improvement in all of those categories. Therefore, we have come to the conclusion that nature visuals should be used in order to improve writing skills and nature awareness skills of children. Moreover, nature visuals are considered beneficial in learning other subjects and skills not only in learning the mother tongue and developing writing skills.