چكيده
The teaching and learning of English today which emphasizes more on the communicative and cooperative approaches has led to the emergence of communicative, cooperative teaching and learning methods. Problem-based learning is a method believed to encourage the writing skills of the students which needed improvement. This study investigates the effectiveness of Problem-Based writing instruction on argumentative writing skills of the Iranian introvert vs. extrovert EFL learners. It employs a quasi-experimental study by involving the upper- intermediate level learners of Namavaran Language institute in Ardebil, Iran as the experimental and the control groups. To homogenize the participants, the participants were asked to complete the Nelson proficiency test. Then, they were administered an Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire to distinguish extroverts from introverts. In order to homogenize the learners, a written test or better yet, an argumentative writing was administered as a pre-test. Then two-way ANOVA was used to analyze the data. Eight sessions of problem-based learning were conducted for experimental group and traditional treatment for control group and the researcher administrated the post-test to both experimental and control groups. The findings show that there is a significant difference in the mean scores of argumentative writing skills of students taught using Problem-Based writing instruction compared to those taught using traditional instruction. The findings also reveal that introverts are better learners of EFL writing skills as compared to the extroverts. The results confirm that Problem-Based writing instruction can be recommended as an alternative teaching strategy particularly in teaching argumentative essay writing.
