Literature Summaries for ACMC articles

Summary on “The Effects of Electronic Mail on Spanish L2 Discourse” (MOHD AFIQ MOHD JANI)

The article by Manuela Gonzalez-Bueno analyzes the effectiveness of using email; asynchronous mode as a tool to promote foreign language (FL) learning in and out of the classroom. The goal of the study the attempt to generate hypotheses for future research by exploring and identifying specific features of foreign language generated through the electronic medium (Warschauer, 1997). An additional goal of the present study is to predict some aspects of foreign language learner behaviour resulting from the extension of students' roles as classroom learners into a wider perspective as world communicators.

The text-based nature of the language produced through CMC offers additional advantages for language learning by making the written performance available for detained revision and, hence, further learning. The kind of interaction analyzed in this study --instructor/student e-mail messaging-- may serve as a transition toward the use of foreign language in a real-cybernetic-world context. The initial opportunities to interact in the foreign language via electronic communication, as offered to students by their foreign language teachers, may provide the necessary first steps to render learners capable of navigating the Internet autonomously in a foreign language.

Methodology
50 students of first and second semester Spanish at the University of Southwestern Louisiana were offered the opportunity to increase their participation grade by communicating in Spanish with their instructor via e-mail. The subjects' participation was followed longitudinally over two semesters. Both the students' and the instructor's e-mail messages were systematically saved in a mailbox, which was consequently saved to a file for ease of retrieval. Messages were further organized by participant, chronologically ordered, and paired up with the corresponding instructor's responses.

Procedure
The interaction between the instructor and students was kept short and simple for the first two weeks, but when new vocabulary and grammar were introduced in the regular lesson class, the messages become more personalized. Students can put practice the language in a real communicative way as they participate in the e-mail dialogue journal.
Students establish a written "dialogue" with the instructor about a topic of their choice, for a purpose of communication that is important in the writing process.
Using the electronic medium to conduct dialogue journals in her intermediate ESL class had additional advantages over paper-and-pencil dialogue journals.

Findings
Dialogue journal in the electronic format is more beneficial than in the paper-and-pencil format. Computer-mediated communication is a heightened degree of participation over face-to-face communication. Some computer users may feel more comfortable than when interacting in the latter conversations. The foreign language learners can learn at their own pace with the instructor giving corrective feedback. Students can take their own time writing messages, usually outside the classroom. Instructors will not have to respond to 20-30 notebooks every time they collect the dialogue journals, and can answer the students’ messages at their own pace. Personal communications would save the instructor's messages for when they had more time to re-read them and consult references before answering.

Discussion
The pedagogical implications of using CMC for improving first and second language skills could be "enormous" (Ferrara et al., 1991; Warschauer, 1995). The newly learned language may allow FL students to communicate globally through the Internet. This study has been able to identify CMC features in L2 Spanish discourse, suggesting some implications that Internet communication may have for the enhancement and improvement of language skills in the FL classroom. Writing in e-mail dialogue journals may enable FL students to communicate with native representatives of the foreign culture on the Internet, thus continuing to develop their FL skills.

Conclusion
The present study adds to previous research in identifying some of the features that distinguish the foreign language produced via e-mail from that produced in traditional in-class paper-and-pencil assignments. Educators are responsible to offer students the most effective educational tool in learning foreign language skills, such as the e-mail version of dialogue journals. However, further research is needed on the particular features of e-mail that foster L2 acquisition in the FL classroom. This paper hoped to have contributed to a better understanding of the language learning process that results from the use of CMC in the context of a FL classroom.

Reima Sado Al-Jarf. (2005). The effects of online grammar instruction on low proficiency EFL college students’ achievement. In Asian EFL Journal, 7(4).
http://www.asian-efl-journal.com (ZAIN AKMAL KAMARUZAIN)


Teachers around the world have tried various kinds of techniques in order to create effective learning this is because, methods used for teaching English as a second language have evolved over time. Among the techniques used is the incorporation of technology which started in the sixties. Computer and internet have been used to assist language teaching including second language teaching. Various aspects of language are taught using computer and internet. One of the language aspects is grammar. Grammar is also found to be one of the difficult parts to be acquired in language learning since among the errors committed by the low proficiency students in written English are found to be grammatical errors especially in tenses. This research was conducted to observe the progress of a second language learner of English of intermediate level in learning English tenses specifically simple past tense, past continuous tense and past perfect tense through the use of internet.

The objectives of the study are to know whether the use of internet in English grammar learning can help to improve student’s understanding on the subject. Also to examine whether it is suitable to implement the use of internet in English grammar teaching process. Basically, this study focused only on a subject who is an intermediate learner of English as second language.
The research conducted is classroom observation whereby a subject of second language learner of English of intermediate level was chosen and observed. Data are collected from a pre-test, two learning sessions as well as a post-test.

Learning a second language is always found to be difficult. Therefore, the job of teaching the learners of second language is not a simple task and this includes teaching English as a Second Language (ESL). Teachers should be aware of different strategies of learning exist. They should know their students well and be able to adopt different styles of teaching in order to provide for various learning strategies used by the students. One of the important aspects that require attention by the teachers is teaching grammar. It is often said that grammar does not need to be taught but it has to be acquired naturally. Teaching grammar in a way that engages students may require creativity, but the teaching need not and should not be boring. Therefore, one way to enhance language teaching especially grammar is through activities and experiences made available through technology which is meant through computer and internet (Reima Sado Al-Jarf , 2004).

The study made use of grammar as meaningful form whereby it embodies the three dimensions of form, meaning, and use. Therefore, the subject was taught about the form of simple past tense, past continuous tense and past perfect tense. Then, it was told on the meaning that each of this tense form conveys. Next, the subject needed to apply the appropriate tense forms in the exercises given.

The advancement of technology has given impact on the way ESL classes are conducted. The introduction of new methods in teaching helps teachers to be creative in their teaching methods. One of the ways is teaching grammar online.
A study conducted by Reima Sado Al-Jarf (2004) in Arab Saudi showed that teaching grammar online can help ESL students of low proficiency to improve their grammar. Results from the study indicated that students can improve their grammar skills after they were engaged in online grammar learning. Furthermore, it was found that students showed interest in learning grammar online. In addition, it also stated that online grammar quizzes are found to be more interesting by students in learning grammar. However, the study did not indicate whether doing online grammar exercises helps to improve students’ proficiency in grammar. Furthermore, in the study, the internet was only used for exercises part.

Name:Abdul Raqib Karim ()426819)
Course: ENGL 4740, Section 2
Subject: “ASYNCHRONOUS FORUMS IN EAP: ASSESSMENT ISSUES”, Sara Kol and Miriam Schcolnik (2008)

Are reflection and interaction usable and sufficient criteria to assess student contributions? How do students feel about the use of forums? Does forum participation over one semester affect student writing in terms of language complexity? These are amongst the questions asked in this research. Online forum discussions are one of the various Computer Mediated Communications (CMCs) being commonly used to enhance the learning experience in certain courses, particularly in language courses.This paper reports on the use of forums for text-stimulated discussions in advanced English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses. Its main goals are to determine what constitutes as quality in an online forum discussion, which itself involves a criteria for assessing student contributions, and also to assess student's attitudes towards online forum discussions themselves.

Methodology

Research was carried out in Tel Aviv University over two semesters, the first being a pilot to determine criteria for accessing for student forum contributions, and the second being the main test to see if the determined criteria was usable and sufficient. The goals of the student forum discussions were to “provide a framework for text discussion where every student in the class could participate, to encourage thoughtful communication in English, and to offer an authentic and relevant writing experience.” (Kol and Schcolnik, 2008). The participants were freshmen taking one-semester advanced level EAP courses specific to their subject areas, taught by the researchers themselves. The participants were mostly native speakers of Hebrew, with a substantial number of Arabic and Russian native speakers. Their average age was 23 and both genders were equally represented. In each semester, the students were required to take part in 4 online forum discussions, and answer an attitude questionnaire at the end of each semester.

The purpose of the pilot was to determine criteria for assessing student forum contributions. The participants were 94 undergraduate students in four advanced-level EAP courses. Each forum was kept open for approximately two weeks. The instructors observed the forum activity, but did not participate. The students received credit for following the forum instructions, including asking and answering questions about the article and listing interesting points. Language accuracy was not assessed because the focus of the advanced EAP courses is text comprehension and language is not explicitly taught. The forum grades constituted 15% of the final mark for the course. At the end of the semester, the students completed a short questionnaire that tapped their attitudes toward the forums and their perceptions of the usefulness of the forums for text discussion and improving their English.

In preparation for the main study, four online tutorials were created to explain the nature of reflection and interaction and teach the language markers required for those functions. The tutorials explain how to agree and disagree, express an opinion, support an opinion, and interact with others. At the beginning of the semester, the markers of reflection and interaction were taught, and the tutorials were put online. The participants were 156 students in four advanced-level courses. The courses followed a mixed-mode, blended learning approach, in which most of the lessons were conducted in the classroom and occasionally in the computer learning center. Each of the classes had a course site, and a number of the homework assignments required use of the site for Internet-based tasks. Instruction and practice in digital literacy skills, such as skimming a digital article or using an online dictionary, were part of the course curriculum. Forums were an integral, graded part of the courses and took the place of text-based homework questions. A grade, along with teacher feedback on the contributions, was e-mailed to each student after each forum was closed

Data Analysis
In practice, the signs, more so than the markers, guided the assessment. In addition, the time spent assessing student contributions was recorded. To determine if reflection and interaction were sufficient criteria, the quality of 20 forum contributions was holistically assessed by the authors using a six-point scale (inter-rater reliability = 0.72) and compared with the grades given on the basis of reflection and interaction. In cases of discrepancy between the two, the data were analyzed to clarify the cause. To check whether the forum participation had affected the student writing, a text analysis was performed comparing the first and last forums, using a random sample of 20 students. To perform the analysis, all contributions to a forum by each of the 20 students were put together and analyzed using the Textalyser program. The program taps four measures: number of words (reflecting quantity or fluency), lexical diversity (reflecting richness of vocabulary), word length (reflecting lexical sophistication), and average number of words per sentence (reflecting syntactic complexity).

The goal of the qualitative analysis of the forum transcripts was to develop a better understanding of the features of communication in our text-stimulated forum discussions, for which students were given specific guidelines and assessment criteria. The goal of the quantitative analysis was to check the amount of student writing (length of contributions), the presence or absence of audience awareness (explicit acknowledgment of others but not necessarily implying interaction), and the extent of interaction (number of replies to a thread-opening message).

Discussion
The forum guidelines and the assessment criteria probably did affect student messages because the guidelines and the criteria played a part in forming the context for the forum communication. Assessment often has an effect on what students pay attention to and how they perform. The analysis revealed that the students did indeed follow the guidelines, as was reflected in the characteristics of their writing. Interestingly, informal conversational style was not seen as part of the guidelines.The insights that emerged from this study have deepened our understanding of the use of forums in EAP courses. Forums allow for written communication in English among students who would normally communicate in their native language. Students get experience in L2 communication, without slipping into their native language, as can occur in EFL class discussions.

Conclusion
In this study, the forum discussions required students to write about academic topics and express and support their ideas, while communicating with their peers in English. The asynchronous nature of the discussions allowed the students to think before "speaking," and the permanence of the writing may have encouraged them to be responsible for what they wrote. Asynchronous CMC seemed to encourage a unique type of thoughtful interchange.

Although the researchers originally thought that forum writing could substitute for text-based homework questions, the results of the study showed that the online discussions could not serve this purpose. Students were interested in discussing the ideas, especially the controversial ideas in a text, and not in checking to see if they were able to follow an argument correctly or understand a fine point. The students did not discuss the texts, as had been expected; rather, they used the forums to react to the ideas, the new information, and the authors’ arguments. The texts constituted the stimuli and provided the content, vocabulary, issues, and ideas for discussion. This may explain the results of the attitude questionnaire, which showed that very few students felt that the forum discussion helped them prepare for the quizzes or understand the texts. It may also explain the fact that students did not ask for text clarification in the forums.

However, Kol and Schcolnik's research findings suggest the fact that a large majority of the students felt that forums should be part of the courses and should be graded lends relevance to the quest for assessment criteria.on the positive attitudes of the students and their reflection and interaction in the forums, they conclude that there seems to be a place for text-stimulated forum discussions in EAP courses.