The Relationship Between Grammatical Knowledge andArgumentative Essay Writing Proficiency Among IELTS TestTakers in Pakistan

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential correlation between grammatical knowledge and argumentative essay writing proficiency among IELTS test takers in Pakistan. Specifically, the study aimed to determine whether grammatical knowledge played a role in improving students' writing proficiency or not. To collect data, the researcher employed three instruments: a prompt for argumentative essay writing, a scoring rubric based on IELTS band descriptors, and a set of grammatical knowledge items developed by the researcher. A total of 131  students from various IELTS institutes in Pakistan were selected, including 86 males and 45 females. Data analysis was conducted using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23, utilizing Pearson Product Moment analysis to calculate the correlation between grammatical knowledge and argumentative essay writing proficiency. The results of the study suggest that there is no significant relationship between grammatical knowledge scores and argumentative essay writing proficiency (p =.002>0.05).