The Correlation between Students’ Grammatical Mastery and Writing Ability in Recount Text at Junior High School

Abstract

Writing ability represents one of the core productive skills in English learning because it enables students to communicate ideas effectively through written language. Although grammar is commonly regarded as an important foundation for writing, previous studies have produced inconsistent evidence regarding its contribution to students' writing performance. This study examined the relationship between grammar mastery and writing ability in recount texts among eighth-grade students at an Islamic junior high school in Tasikmalaya. A quantitative correlational design was employed involving 42 students selected through proportionate simple random sampling. Data were obtained from a grammar mastery test and a recount writing task. Students' written work was evaluated analytically by two independent raters using a rubric focusing on text organization and grammatical accuracy. After the normality assumption was examined, descriptive statistics and Spearman's Rank-Order correlation were applied to analyze the data. The results showed that students achieved relatively low grammar mastery (M = 33.29), whereas their writing performance was comparatively high (M = 83.10). The correlation coefficient indicated only a very weak positive relationship (r = 0.157), and the result was not statistically significant (p = 0.321). These findings suggest that grammar mastery did not significantly influence students' ability to write recount texts. Instead, students' writing performance appeared to be associated with multiple factors, including their ability to organize ideas, communicate meaning, and apply the generic structure of recount texts. The findings imply that writing should be understood as a multidimensional skill rather than an outcome determined solely by grammatical competence. Future research is recommended to examine additional variables influencing writing performance, including vocabulary mastery, motivation, writing strategies, and exposure to English, using larger and more diverse samples.