چکیده:
This study aimed to discover whether an online writing system has any effect on Iranians’ EFL academic writing performance. The study also sought to find out whether the proficiency level of learners influenced the effect of the system on academic writing. To meet this end, an online writing system was developed and 68 undergraduate students of the General English language course studying at Sharif University of Technology were requested to participate in this study. First, their English language proficiency was measured by a language proficiency test that included 80 questions of one of the latest versions of the official TOEFL iBT test, which was provided by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). Then, over an eight-week period, the participants were assigned to write eight versions of academic writing that followed a genre-based teaching approach through computer-based instructions. The writing scores were statistically analyzed and the results revealed that providing students with computer-assisted instruction (CAI) led to significant improvements in their academic writing performance. Moreover, according to the findings of this study, the learners’ level of proficiency did influence the effect of the system.
خلاصه ماشینی:
An Online System’s Effect on Iranians’ EFL Academic Writing Performance across Different Proficiency Levels* Ali Jahangard** Assistant Professor, Languages and Linguistics Center, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
The current study contributes to our knowledge by addressing two crucial dilemmas: first, this research signifies the position of computer technology in educational settings as it specifically involves an investigation of the effect of an online writing program on the ability of Iranian EFL students to write for academic purposes.
With the intention of making this function clear, the following research hypotheses were formulated: H01: An online writing system has no effect on the EFL academic writing performance of Iranian university students in the intermediate-low proficiency level.
Very recently, in order to examine any usefulness that learners may find in blog-based activities and any notable development in EFL writing, Arslan and Şahin-Kızıl (2010) conducted a study in which 50 intermediate English learners at a Turkish university were split into a control group receiving in-class writing instructions and an experimental group integrating blogs into their writing processes.
Although the study of Yeh offered a comprehensive view regarding the efficacy of the online system on the overall academic writing performance of students, the author calls for the implication of the system over a broader range of population from different language proficiency levels, which is the motivation behind the present study.
Considering the identified research gaps and the findings of prior reports in the literature, it is a requirement to conduct further study for a variety of Iranian learners from different language proficiency levels in order to investigate their progress in developing writing abilities after the application of technology-based writing intervention.