The Effect of Topic Selection on EFL Students’ Writing Performance

The present study aimed at measuring the effect of topic selectionon English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ writing performance. To this end, aquasi-experimental design was used in the study. Topic selection was considered as theindependent variable and the students’ writing performance as the dependent variable. Atotal of 30 students were selected based on their performance on the placement testadministered initially and then randomly assigned into two groups, self-selected topicgroup (SST) and teacher-assigned topic group (TAT). An independent-samples t test wasconducted to compare the scores for the two groups. Findings of the study indicated asignificant difference in the performance of the students who wrote on theirself-selected topics (M = 34.53, SD = 3.32) and for those who wrote on ateacher-assigned topic, M = 26.53, SD = 5.24, t(28) = 4.98. The magnitude of thedifference in the means was large (η2 = .46)