AN INVESTIGATION OF EFL LEARNERS ATTITUDES TOWARD COMPUTER-ASSISTED WRITING (CAW)

This dissertation studies attitudes of the Saudi university learners studying English as a Foreign Language (EFL) toward using the Computer-assisted Writing (CAW) applications, e.g., up-to-date versions of word processing programs, for doing English writing assignments. Research has confirmed that CAW applications, e.g., up-to-date versions of word processing program, have been utilized in and out of the class to supplement, but not to replace, the methods of learning and teaching writing. Previous studies have revealed that students attitude towards writing improves when they use the word processor. The current study aims at examining the hypotheses that the EFL learners have effective attitudes towards CAW for writing assignments in EFL, and that they have perspectives about the effects of their attitudes on their writing accuracy and fluency. While the dissertation discusses EFL learners attitude, it also highlights the significance of employing computer technology, e.g., Learning Management Systems (LMSs), Computer-mediated Communications (CMCs) in EFL and in English as a Second Language (ESL) writing instructions. The researcher selected participants pursuing undergraduate English courses in the English Department at three different Saudi university campuses. The sample of the subjects was selected after they were surveyed in the first place for determining their prior knowledge and previous experiences of CAW applications and their ability to write at least a paragraph in English. A 5-point Likert-scale questionnaire, adapted from K. Cunninghams (2002) article, was responded by a total 150 subjects, and open-ended questions were answered by 50 of them to gather and analyze data about their attitudes and their attitude influences on their learning EFL writing. Key findings of the study, concluded after quantitative and qualitative analysis, revealed that the majority of students had positive attitudes toward CAW on their general English writing and on their EFL writing assignments and practice in particular. Key findings of the study included, but are not limited to, the fact that the students positive attitudes lead to raising significant awareness of their writing accuracy (i.e., mainly correcting grammar and spelling errors), writing fluency (i.e., vocabulary selection), and improving their writing ability and revision. The study concluded with several suggestions for future research studies

Second language writing online: An update

I last wrote an overview of developments in second language (L2) online writing 10 years ago (Godwin-Jones, 2008). Since that time, there have been significant developments in this area. There has been renewed interest in L2 writing through the wide use of social media, along with the rising popularity of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and telecollaboration (class-based online exchanges). The recognition of writing as a social act has also led to a significant rise in interest in collaborative writing. This has been aided by the popularity of tools providing a shared writing space, such as Google Docs. The importance and recognition of genre in both student work and writing theory have grown considerably among practitioners and researchers. The increased practice of integrating multimedia into writing is reflected in the popularity of multimodal projects, such as digital storytelling. At the same time, digital tools for evaluating writing have become more widely available in the form of digital annotators and automated writing evaluation (AWE) software, which take advantage of advances in corpus linguistics and natural language processing (NLP). In addition, tools for processing and evaluating large data sets enable approaches from data mining that provide valuable insights into writing processes. The variety and, in some cases, the complexity of online writing environments has increased the need for both learner and teacher training

The role of peer feedback through online word processors in acquiring accuracy on simple past tense usage

140 páginasThis research project aims to analyze the role of peer feedback through an online word processor in the improvement of simple past tense usage, with 10 to 12-year-old fifth-graders from a private Colombian bilingual school. The students are classified at the A2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), and after the analysis of various writing samples, their difficulties to use the simple past tense in written texts were evident. This project tracks their improvement in using the simple past tense accurately, as a result of collaborative work and peer feedback received from one another, when writing narrative texts, on an online word processor (Google Docs). The analysis of the data obtained during the implementation process through surveys, artifacts, checklists, semi-structured interviews, and a researcher’s journal suggests that the participants improved their accuracy in the usage of verbs in the simple past tense when writing thanks to the peer feedback strategy provided through the selected online word processor. Additionally, the participants increased their lexical variety and language awareness. Further research would enrich the discussion about the role of social interaction in the co-construction of knowledge regarding accuracy, as well as in the development of lexical variety

WRITTEN CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK ON EFL STUDENTS AT AN ISLAMIC JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Teachers provide students with corrective feedback for guiding them in the process of teaching a language. This study aimed to investigate the types of corrective feedback that the teacher used in teaching writing recount text, this also employed to reveal the students' motivation for writing recount texts, and to explore the benefit of teacher corrective feedback to the students' ability in writing recount text at Manbaul Huda Islamic Junior High School Central Java Indonesia. Descriptive qualitative method was employed by interviewing both the teacher and the second-year students. The participants were three teachers and twenty students. There were three guided Interview questions for teachers and two questions for students. The findings of this study turned out that the teacher employed indirect corrective feedback and gave symbols to the student’s error production. Most of the students are highly motivated to be able to write a status on Facebook or other online media by using English. The most important advantage of obtaining corrective feedback for the students is to understand the use of grammar in making a sentence. This study concluded that the motivation of the students to write recount text was to get teacher corrective feedback to be able to write the appropriate sentence and to increase their ability in writing English. This also implied that different types of corrective feedback might impact differently to the students in improving their motivation to learn English more

An analysis of focused metalinguistic written feedback: How would learners react?

Learners of higher education are encouraged to write a scholarly publication in that it helps corroborate them as professionals in their fields of study. Practices in academic writing are thus indispensable to do to achieve a higher level of competency. This study explores learners’ reactions towards focused metalinguistic written feedbacks provided by a lecturer. The lecturer used electronic mail to provide constructive feedback to her students. This mixed-method study involved 22 post-graduate students from an Indonesian university. In analyzing the qualitative data, the researchers employed Miles and Huberman’s qualitative data analysis approach. Meanwhile, the quantitative data, namely the basic analysis of focused metalinguistic written feedbacks were analyzed by employing Cumming’s writing approach. The findings reveal that: (1) learners revised and expanded their draft after getting back their paper; (2) lecturer’s feedbacks through email have reportedly motivated learners because such the feedbacks did not lead learners perplexity compared to the handwritten feedbacks; (3) the majority of participants used revising and responding, consulting a dictionary/grammar book, and referring to the previous composition as the ways to handle lecturer’s input

The effects of providing EFL students with asynchronous and online instant feedback

Esta síntesis de investigación tuvo como objetivo el analizar los efectos de utilizar retroalimentación asíncrona y retroalimentación instantánea en línea con estudiantes universitarios de inglés como lengua extranjera. Este estudio exploró las ventajas y desventajas de usar cada tipo de retroalimentación y los factores que los profesores de inglés toman en cuenta para elegir si usar retroalimentación asíncrona o retroalimentación instantánea en línea. Se seleccionaron veinte estudios empíricos realizados entre 2008 y 2021 para el análisis de datos de esta investigación. Los resultados de esta investigación indicaron que la retroalimentación instantánea en línea incrementa la motivación y las calificaciones de los estudiantes universitarios mientras que la retroalimentación asíncrona tiene efectos positivos en el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes en las cuatro principales áreas del lenguaje. Además, los estudiantes que recibieron retroalimentación asíncrona superaron a los estudiantes que recibieron retroalimentación instantánea en línea. Una limitación de este estudio es la falta de información sobre el uso de retroalimentación asíncrona y retroalimentación instantánea en línea en Latino América, por lo que se sugiere más investigación empírica sobre el tema en esta áreaThis research synthesis aimed to investigate and analyze the effects of using asynchronous and online instant feedback with EFL college students. This research also explored the advantages and disadvantages of each feedback method and the factors that influence teachers to consider using online instant feedback or asynchronous feedback. Twenty empirical studies from 2008 to 2021 were selected for the data analysis. The results of this research show that online instant feedback improves EFL college students’ motivation and grades while asynchronous feedback has a positive effect on learners’ academic performance in the four language skills areas, that EFL students who received asynchronous feedback can outperform the learners who got online instant feedback, and that EFL teachers prefer asynchronous feedback over online instant feedback. A limitation of this study is the lack of information about the use of asynchronous and online instant feedback in Latin American countries; consequently, further research in such contexts is being suggestedLicenciado en Ciencias de la Educación en Pedagogía de los Idiomas Nacionales y ExtranjerosCuenc

A classroom-based study on the effects of WCF on accuracy in pen-and-paper versus computer-mediated collaborative writing

This study compared the effects of computer-mediated (CM) versus pen-and-paper (P&P) writing on written accuracy and feedback processing in tasks written and rewritten collaboratively following a pedagogical treatment in two intact authentic classrooms. The study involved 32 secondary education low-proficiency English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners writing two descriptive texts collaboratively and receiving in-class training in the identification and correction of grammatical, lexical, and mechanical errors. Participants were provided with unfocused direct error correction (EC). Error logs were used to facilitate noticing of teacher corrections (i.e., feedback processing). Dyads were required to rewrite their texts for evidence of feedback uptake. Results indicate that writing collaboratively on the computer with the availability of the Internet contributes to increased grammatical and lexical accuracy. No differences were found between writing environments regarding feedback processing or accuracy of rewritten texts

Multilingual Students\u27 Perceptions of and Experiences with Instructor Feedback Methods in a U.S. First-Year Composition Class

While instructor feedback has generally been recognized as an essential factor in enhancing writing proficiency for multilingual writers, little known research has focused on students’ perceptions of and their experiences with different modes of instructor feedback. In addition, impacts of various feedback methods on students’ writing have remained debatable. This case study seeks to gain an in-depth understanding of the meaning and significance of three instructor feedback methods, namely written, oral, and audio-visual feedback, from students’ perspectives. Furthermore, it offers additional insights into the impacts of these three instructor feedback methods on students’ writing. To be more precise, this study aims to answer two main research questions: (a) What are multilingual students’ attitudes toward instructor feedback methods (i.e., written, oral, and audio-visual feedback)? and (b) How do these instructor feedback methods impact multilingual students’ writing and their writing experiences? In order to answer these questions, qualitative data, including three open-ended questionnaires administered after each specific feedback method is employed, transcriptions of thirty-minute recorded interviews with individual students after the implementation of the three feedback methods, and students’ written artifacts from their three ENG 101 essays, were collected from the two consenting students within one-semester of their first-year composition class at a Midwestern state university. Thematic content analysis of the questionnaire and interview data through the use of NVivo software program were organized into four critical areas: (1) Students’ introduction of their experiences with feedback, (2) Students’ various attitudes toward feedback, (3) Students’ applications of feedback, and (4) Various impacts of feedback. Additionally, the qualitative analysis of students’ written artifacts resulted in three emergent themes, including completely successful revision, considerably successful revision, and little successful revision. The findings show that although the two students perceived the three instructor feedback methods positively, there were not only variations in their perceptions of and experiences with each feedback format, but also different levels of success in their applications of each form of instructor feedback into their revisions. Based on these research results, possible implications are discussed for second language writing instruction and for further studies on the important topic of feedback in writing instruction