scholarly journals The Impact of Collaborative Writing on EFL Learners’ Writing Development: A Longitudinal Classroom-Based Study in Saudi Arabia

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 174-185
Author(s):  
Khaled Salem Aldossary

No previous studies have employed sociocultural theory and the notion of collaborative dialogue to examine collaborative writing in Saudi Arabia, where students favor writing individually. Exploring this topic is significant because of the importance the Saudi education system places on learning English, especially at the university level. Therefore, this longitudinal classroom-based study tested how collaborative writing affected the development of university students learning English as a foreign language in Saudi Arabia. The 46 participants were evenly divided into a control group, who wrote essays individually, and an experimental group, who worked on essays in small groups. Both groups took a pre-test before the eight-week intervention and a post-test at the end. The experimental group also took an end-of-study questionnaire. Although both groups showed improvement, the experimental group improved significantly more on the post-test than the control group and expressed positive attitudes toward collaborative writing on the questionnaire. The study concludes with theoretical and pedagogical implications and recommendations for future research.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khaled Salem Aldossary

No previous studies have employed sociocultural theory and the notion of collaborative dialogue to examine collaborative writing in Saudi Arabia, where students favor writing individually. Exploring this topic is significant because of the importance the Saudi education system places on learning English, especially at the university level. Therefore, this longitudinal classroom-based study tested how collaborative writing affected the development of university students learning English as a foreign language in Saudi Arabia. The 46 participants were evenly divided into a control group, who wrote essays individually, and an experimental group, who worked on essays in small groups. Both groups took a pre-test before the eight-week intervention and a post-test at the end. The experimental group also took an end-of-study questionnaire. Although both groups showed improvement, the experimental group improved significantly more on the post-test than the control group and expressed positive attitudes toward collaborative writing on the questionnaire. The study concludes with theoretical and pedagogical implications and recommendations for future research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 569-576
Author(s):  
Murad Al Kayed ◽  
Majd Alkayid ◽  
Mohareb Ali Alsmadi

Purpose of the study: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of dialogue journal writing (DJW) on learning the vocabulary, organization, and grammar of English. It also explores the impact of DJW on the attitudes of students towards writing in English. Methodology: The sample of the study consists of 50 undergraduate Jordanian students divided equally into an experimental and control group. The control group was given traditional writing instruction while the experimental group was taught using dialogue journal writing. The study used a pre and post-test to investigate the impact of DJW on writing skills, while a questionnaire was used to unveil the attitudes of students to writing. Main Findings: The results of the research revealed that the vocabulary, organization, and grammar learned by the experimental group were significantly improved (p<0.05) compared to the control group. The study also found out that students taught using DJW developed positive attitudes towards writing better than students exposed only to conventional teaching methods of writing. Applications of this study: The present study is beneficial in providing teachers of English as a foreign language with new methods to teach writing skills. Novelty/Originality of this study: The current study is significant since the impact of dialogue journals on writing is under-researched in the Jordanian context.


Author(s):  
Mehrak Rahimi ◽  
Seyed Shahab Miri

In this chapter the impact of using a leaning management system (LMS) to manage homework assignments on students' achievement in a letter writing course was investigated. Additionally, the relationship between students' attitudes toward the online system and their motivated strategies for learning was investigated. Two groups of students participated in the course. The experimental group used the LMS as the homework assistance to submit their homework for one semester. The control group did and delivered their homework using paper-and-pencil approach. The result of the data analysis revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in the writing post-test. Further, the students were found to have positive attitudes toward using technology to manage their homework and this attitude was found to be related to their motivated strategies for learning. The motivated strategies were found to be related to achievement in writing, while attitudes towards the system were not.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Amal Aamir Al Badi ◽  
Mohamed El Tahir Osman ◽  
Abdo, M. Al-Mekhlafi

The present study aimed to examine the impact of Virtual Writing Tutor (VWT) software on the academic writing skills of Year 1 Omani EFL students in the College of Applied Science, (CAS)-Sohar and their attitudes towards using VWT software to enhance their academic writing skills. The sample consisted of 35 students in the control group and 35 in the experimental group (Total N= 70) who were enrolled in the English for Academic Purposes (ENAP1002) course at CAS-Sohar. The data collection tools included pre-test and post-test for the two groups, and attitude scale for the experimental group. The findings of the study showed a positive large effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.88) of VWT on writing skills. In addition, Year 1 students in the experimental group enjoyed using the VWT software and found it beneficial and helpful in checking the accuracy of their essays including spelling, punctuation, grammar and vocabulary. In light of the research findings, implications and recommendations for future research were outlined.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1622-1629
Author(s):  
Nawaf J. Alsubaie

The present study aims at investigating the attitudes of Saudi non-English major students towards learning English at the University of Bisha, Bisha, Saudi Arabia. In addition, the study attempts to identify how the students view the culture of English, English native speakers, and the importance of English in the present time. The data were collected from 80 Saudi non-English major students at the University of Bisha through a three-point Likert scale questionnaire with 13 closed-ended items. The data obtained from the questionnaire were analyzed quantitatively using SPSS. The results of this study show that the students have overall positive attitudes towards learning English. Apart from this, it was found that the students are aware of the importance of English in the present time. Interestingly, the students reflected positive attitudes towards the culture of English and English native speakers. Finally, some implications for teachers and recommendations for future research are presented.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-33
Author(s):  
Duong Thuc Phuong

The current study aimed to examine the impact of using videos on students’ listening learning and their attitudes towards using videos in listening learning. The study was conducted with 71 participants in two groups in Foreign Languages and Informatics Center of PPC II (People’s Police College II). The first group of 35 students worked with 10 audio recordings, while the second group of 36 students worked with 10 videos in a 10-week treatment. The listening materials for both groups had the same scripts. Although there was no statistically significant difference in the pre-test between the two groups, the statistics of the post-test shows that the EG (experimental group) outperformed the CG (control group) in listening comprehension. Besides, the data from the questionnaire indicates that the participants had positive attitudes towards using videos in listening learning. These findings could be explained by visual elements of the teaching materials. Therefore, it was suggest to use videos in listening learning to promote students’ listening comprehension.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 107
Author(s):  
Abdul Majeed Al Tayib Umar ◽  
Abdurrahman Abdulmlik Ameen

This research attempts to find out the impact of formative evaluation on Saudi male learners’ achievement in medical English. The study also seeks to find out instructors’ and students' views and attitudes towards formative assessment.   The sample of the study involves 98 subjects chosen purposively from among the Preparatory Year students at Umm-Al- Qura University in Saudi Arabia. They were divided into two equal groups; one is intended to act as an experimental and the other is taken as a control group. The experimental group was taught their ESP material following the formative evaluation techniques whereas the control group was taught the same material in accordance with the summative assessment principles. The experimental group instructors were given intensive training courses in Saudi Arabia and abroad on how to use formative evaluation principles in classroom. In the last week of the experimental period which lasted for sixteen weeks, the two groups sat for the final exam which was intended for all pre-medical students in the Preparatory College. The grades of all students in the two groups in the final exam was compared. The experimental group students performance was found to be much higher than that of the control group. Students' and instructors’ attitudes towards formative evaluation were generated through a questionnaire and a series of interviews. Advanced statistical analysis of the responses of the instructors and students has shown their positive attitudes towards this form of evaluation. The study concludes with some recommendations to enhance this type of assessment and to conduct further studies on female students learning different language skills for different purposes. Suggestions to improve formative evaluation practice were also given to make this form of assessment more motivating and more enticing.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marzieh . Shamkhani ◽  
Ali . Khalafi

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of positive learning on happiness, Aggression and hope for adolescents with leukemia in Ahvaz. The sample consisted of 30 people who were selected by available sampling method. 15 subjects in the experimental group and 15 in the control group were randomly assigned. The experimental design was a pre-test-post-test type with control group and follow-up period. Measurement tools included Oxford Happiness Inventory (Argyle, 1989); Ahwaz's Aggression Questionnaire (Zahedifar, Najarian, and Shokrkon, 2000); Hope Scale (Schneider, 1991). To run, at first, the pre-test was taken from both groups. Then, the experimental group was trained in 14 sessions of 90 minutes, and after each group, they were subjected to post-test. And one month later, the follow-up process was completed. Data analysis was performed using multivariate covariance analysis (MANCOVA) and one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The results showed that positive attitudes toward happiness, aggressiveness and hopefulness of adolescents with leukemia in Ahvaz were effective.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 1025 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Reza Nemat Tabrizi ◽  
Mahnaz Ranjbar

The study investigates the impact of IELTS listening strategy use on the reduction of listening test anxiety and on the listening performance of the IELTS test takers in light of the data of 80 participants on the pretest and post-test IELTS listening along with the participants' score on pre-anxiety and post anxiety scale. So, drawing on the instruments including a proficiency test, pre/post-test, anxiety questionnaire, materials for strategy instruction, the participants were randomly divided into two groups: Control Group and Experimental Group, each including 40 participants. As per the procedure, after tackling their pre-listening performance and pre-anxiety score, one group was treated with IELTS-Listening related strategies and the other group was not treated, but both were administered listening test. The results of the study indicated that those treated with IELTS strategy outperformed ( t (78) = 4.57, p = .000, r = .460 ) those receiving no listening-related strategy. Furthermore, the results of a t-test run on the post-test of the groups anxiety arrived at a statistically significant difference (t (78) = 5.77, p = .000, r = .547), representing that the control group outperformed the experimental group. Also, Pearson Correlation done for finding out a potential relationship between anxiety and listening performance indicated a negative and weak to moderate relationship ((r (78) = -.26, p = .020). The pedagogical implications of the study are in detailed argued.


Author(s):  
Mustafa Braiek ◽  
Abdulhamid Onaiba ◽  
◽  

This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of using flipped classroom model on learning English as a foreign language and students’ attitudes towards flipped classroom. The sample of study consisted of 31 students at Faculty of Arts, Misurata University. The participants were divided into two groups: 16 students for the experimental group and 15 students for the control group. The data collection tools used in this study were an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) test and a questionnaire to explore students’ attitudes towards flipped classroom. Participants in both groups were pre-tested using the EFL test before the experiment. Then, the experimental group was taught using flipped classroom strategy while the control group was taught using the traditional teaching method. After the experiment, students in both groups were post-tested using the EFL test while the questionnaire was administered to the students of the experimental group only. The results of the study showed that applying the strategy of the flipped classroom had a significant effect in increasing the students’ performances in learning English. The questionnaire responses showed positive attitudes regarding the use of flipped teaching.


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