Differentiated Instruction (DI): A Program to Enhance Functional Writing (FW) Skills for English Majors

This study investigated the effectiveness of a program grounded in Differentiated Instruction (DI), designed to enhance the Functional Writing (FW) skills of undergraduate English majors. To accomplish this objective, the study adopted a comprehensive list of FW areas and the specific skills appropriate for English majors (Abdelshaheed, 2025). Subsequently, a FW skills test and a corresponding rating rubric were developed to assess four key areas: formal and professional correspondence, informational and reporting texts, digital, public, and social communication, and academic and reflective documentation. These instruments were administered as a pre-test to a study group comprising 46 female English students. The group then participated in the program based on DI before the tools were reapplied as a post-test. Following the data collection, the results were meticulously analyzed and interpreted. The study concluded that the DI program proved effective in significantly developing FW skills for the student group, both as a whole and within each area and sub-skill. Considering these findings, the study recommends that the curriculum be enriched with diverse educational activities, that students’ needs be identified as a basis for targeted training, and that university exams incorporate essay questions to foster crucial skills like summarization.

• differentiated instruction
• functional writing
• English majors
• writing development
• digital communication
• reflective writing
• writing assessment rubric
• female university students

• 4 — التعليم الجيد

• EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning
• Learning Styles and Cognitive Differences
• English Language Learning and Teaching
• differentiated instruction
• functional writing
• English majors
• writing development
• digital communication
• reflective writing
• writing assessment rubric
• female university students
• Language and Linguistics
• Developmental and Educational Psychology
• Information Systems
• Arts and Humanities
• Psychology
• Computer Science