Abstract:
This study examined the effectiveness of Telegram social network on the writing performance of adult English as foreign language (EFL) learners at intermediate level. To achieve this, Oxford Quick Placement Test (2004) was administered to 46 EFL learners at Zaban-e No language institute in Talesh, Iran. Those who met the selection criterion, i.e., performed one standard deviation above and below the mean on the test were divided into two classes (n = 30): control group (n = 15) and experimental group (n = 15). Participants in the experimental group were provided with writing instruction and contributed cooperatively to the task of writing through Telegram for 8 weeks (2 sessions each week, and 90 minutes per session) while the control group underwent a traditional instruction of writing. Pretests and posttests of writing task were administered and t tests were used to compare means of test scores within and between groups. The results revealed that while the two groups were homogeneous in terms of their writing performance before the treatment, the experimental group outperformed the control group on the posttest. That is, teaching writing through the Telegram social network was a significantly effective model to improve EFL learners' writing performance.
Machine summary:
com Abstract This study examined the effectiveness of Telegram social network on the writing performance of adult English as foreign language (EFL) learners at intermediate level.
Several studies in Iranian EFL context have indicated that CALL programs have positive influence on different aspects of foreign language learning: these studies have investigated the effect of cooperative modes of CALL on improving high school students’ reading comprehension, as well as on the participants’ foreign language learning anxiety (Ahangari & Sioofy, 2013), the effect of CALL on listening skill (Barani, 2011), the potential effect of CALL on vocabulary achievement (Barani, 2013; Pahlavanpoorfard & Soori, 2014)), the effect of CALL and grammar-teaching software on beginner learners’ grammar (Ghorbani & Marzban, 2013), the relationship between CALL (use e-mails) and grammar learning (Pirasteh, 2014), the relationship between CALL and speaking skill (Poursalehi, Aboulalaei, and Zohrabi, 2014), the relationship between learning English language particularly idioms through using computer programs as well as the effect of CALL programs in changing learners’ negative attitudes toward learning English idioms (Tabatabaei, 2012), and the impact of CALL on students' pronunciation skills (Talebi & Teimoury, 2013).
Therefore, the study seeks to answer the following research question: Does teaching writing through Telegram social network have any statistically significant effect on learners' writing performance in an EFL context at intermediate level?
The finding that differences between the means were considerably significant in the experimental group and were not significant in the control group suggests that EFL teachers have to take into consideration the use of Telegram social network as an effective technique in teaching writing.