Abstract:
This research work studied the effect of product and process methods on student achievement and interest in essay writing in senior secondary schools in Umuahia Education zone of Abia state. Four research question and four hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted quasi experimental design. The population of this study was 25,560 consisting all the senior secondary schools in Umuahia education zone of which 280 students drawn from four secondary schools, were used. The technique adopted was purposive sampling and essay writing as, instrument for collection of data. Reliability of the instrument was determined by the used of inter-rater reliability. The data was analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions. Ancova was used to test the hypotheses. The major findings of the research work were among others: that the process method had a more positive effect on student's achievement with regards to essay writing. Again there was an interaction between teaching method and gender on the mean achievement scores of students is essay writing. Further more, the process method had a more positive effect on students' interest than the product method. Recommendations were made that teachers of English language especially, essay writing should adopt the process method in which students interact with one another in their different groups and again the process method is recommended for such essays like narrative, descriptive, expository and the body of argumentative essay and letter writing, limitations of the study were stated and suggestions for further studies were also made.
