The Impact of the Interactive Whiteboard on Medical School Students' ESL Essay Writing

ABSTRACT This study aimed to investigate the impact of the interactive whiteboard (IWB) on the Egyptian medical school students’ ESL (English as a Second Language) essay writing and attitudes towards writing. The study clarified the evidence regarding Egyptian medical students’ relative weakness in writing as compared to the other language skills. It therefore investigated the general areas of writing, and identified the writing skills essential for the medical students, and designed a module based on these identified skills. An experimental design was adopted. The sample was composed of sixty students randomly selected and later divided into two separate groups: one intervention group which was taught by the IWB and a control group by the traditional method which involved teaching with a pen and paper, and a whiteboard. Four instruments were used: 1) a writing micro-skill questionnaire investigating specialists’ views on the skills important to the medical students; 2) a writing test assessing students’ achievement in ESL essay writing; 3) a writing attitude survey assessing students’ views about writing before and after both methods were used. These instruments were applied to both groups, as well as an additional IWB Attitude survey assessing students’ views about the IWB before and after the intervention for the intervention group. Results reveal that twenty nine writing skills were required by students, according to the specialists’ views and, more importantly, the IWB had no positive impact on the Egyptian students’ attainment in ESL essay writing (a non- significant effect size of -0.18). By contrast, it is revealed that the IWB had a positive impact on students’ attitudes towards both writing (effect size of 1.88) and towards the board itself