TASK 2

Evaluating Students’ Performance in Learning Writing Through CALL Applications

Introduction

The methodology of teaching writing has changed over the years to match students’ performance and interests. In the year 1960s and 1970s, teaching writing were taught using the traditional way which was the product approach where the teacher will focus on form like sentence-level linguistic forms, controlled discourse. As for the instructional activities, the teacher will be focusing on the explicit grammar instruction, sentence combining, tense or voice shifting, choosing or filling transitions, etc. According to Kaplan (1966), and Connor (1996), the product approach is mainly using the Contrastive rhetoric in which the rhetorical patterns differ from culture to culture. Target language rhetorical forms need to be taught as well as linguistic forms.

The teaching of writing then evolved to process approach since the 70s until now where the teacher will focus on the writing process. During the process, some cognitive activities and strategies, and multiple drafts are required during the writing process. Teacher will also provide the students with explicit teaching of strategies at different writing stages such as brainstorming, clustering, outlining, researching and focusing a topic, etc. which are still being practice nowadays in many countries all over the world.

In this rapidly growing era, teaching writing has evolved once more with technology advancement becomes the main tool during the writing process. By having the Computer Assisted Language Learning or CALL Applications in writing process, the students’ motivation and performance will increase progressively compared by using the traditional way. Plus, the learning process will become more interactive and fun in which it will trigger students’ participation and responses during the writing process. In Malaysian education scenario, using CALL applications in teaching writing is still under supervision by the Ministry of Education (MoE) where certain schools were chosen to be one of the catalysts of the education advancement in the country.

Literature Review

With the reference of the research articles that have been chosen for the topic which is ‘Evaluating Students’ Performance in Learning Writing Trough CALL Applications’, there are several elements that capture my interest on doing this topic. Those elements were identified and extracted to become the variables for the topic. The elements that have been identified as the independent variable is the students’ interest towards learning writing by using CALL applications, while the dependent variables will be the students’ performance of using the CALL applications in their writing process.

According to Englert, Stewart and Hiebert (1988), Motivation plays a strong role in cognitive performance, but it is not clear what that role might be in relation to writing. However, researchers believe that students’ motivation can be increased by using the technological advancement in their writing process due to the features that they can get from the CALL applications in which they will not possess in the traditional way of learning writing.

There are several CALL applications that the teacher and students can use to help them in teaching and learning writing such as MS Word, Weblogs, E-Mail, etc. Cunningham (2000) has conducted a study about the usefulness of CALL applications such as MS Word where the analysis of the data showed that students found the computer-based writing class to be challenging and comfortable than the traditional way of writing. He also stated that the CALL application helped the students to improve their performance in writing. Moreover, the application benefited the learners in concentrating their attention on certain aspects of writing such as grammar, word choice and the organization of their compositions. Compared to the traditional way of teaching and learning writing, using CALL applications will bring positive outcomes in which it will contributed to improve writing abilities by increasing the students’ willingness to write and revise, and sharing ideas with others.

On the third article that I found for this topic, in order to use the CALL application in a writing class, the teacher should provide the students with the basic knowledge of computer skills so that the teacher can save time and makesure that all students can learn the writing with the same pace rather than to teach writing and the basic computer skills at the same time. But before word-processing can save time during the actual writing process, students must know how to type and how to use the computer. Typing speeds may be slower without proper instruction in typing; slower typing may lead to less quality and shorter length in writing assignments (MacArthur, 2000; MacArthur, Ferretti, Okolo, & Cavalier, 2001). If students cannot type fluently or must search for letters and numbers, the process may be slower than handwriting. Some students may have the good computer skills as they were exposed to it earlier outside the school compound, thus, they may have higher motivation and may opt to have better performance compared to those who do not have the basic computer skills. Thus, the teacher should provide the students with the skills first in order to teach all students with the same pace so that no students will be left behind, and all students can possess the equal motivation level during the learning process.

In the fourth article, the writer explains about the role of computers in the writing process. The writer believed that the use of computer in writing can make the writers’ job easy and the literature results showed that teachers, peers, instructional strategies and computer software all together have their importance to develop students’ writing ability. According to the Williams (2002), CALL software (applications) such as word processing, speech recognition, word prediction can be a valuable tool for many students especially to those who have learning disabilities to participate in well-developed classroom writing programs. In the same article, the writer also stated that the results of students who use the CALL applications do reflect on their performance in writing class. The result showed that higher ability writers such as the college or university students use prompts or the assisting tools from the CALL applications more often than school students use them, and take advantage of the opportunities given by the software (CALL applications).

In the fifth article, the writer explains about integrating Computer Games into the writing classroom where the use of computer games became the CALL applications for the students. The writer explained that the use of computer games can stimulate the students to participate in the activities with regards of the fun and interactive experience offered by the computer games to them. From that, we know that computer games can enhance students’ motivation to participate into the activity compared to the traditional classroom. After the activity, the teacher will provide the students with writing task such as weblogs where the students can share their experiences, their tactical or the computer games walkthroughs with their peers or other people. According to the writer, students can almost immediately see the effects of their writing as it circulates throughout the game community, seeing how their writing is quoted on blogs and forums but also how it is implemented within the game itself. Students will be better able to see how their “cultural products pass through a range of meanings and uses as they are taken up at various points in the social formation” (Trimbur, 2000, p. 196) of the computer games’ community. So, the use computer games as the CALL applications are believed can improve students’ motivation in learning writing besides to enhance their performance in the writing process.

CONCLUSION

In a nutshell, teaching and learning writing using CALL applications have its benefits and also the outcomes depending on how it is used. However, the use of CALL applications in education is essential in this era of technological advancement compared to the education back in 20 years ago. For my personal response, I believe that Malaysia is ready to apply the CALL applications in the education at a larger scale due to the readiness of the students towards this exciting feature. Based on the positive results and findings by most researches, it is hoped that this will help Malaysian students to improve their motivation in learning writing and to increase their performance and work rate in any writing programs that include the use of CALL application in the ESL teaching and learning.

REFERENCES

Englert, C.S., Stewart, S. R. and Hiebert, E.H. (1988). Young writers use of text structure in

expository text generation. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 80, No. 2, pp. 143 -51.

Cunningham, K. “Integrating CALL into the Writing Curriculum.” The Internet TESL Journal

(http://iteslj.org/Articles/Cunningham-CALLWriting), 6, No. 5 (2000).

MacArthur, C. A., Ferretti, R. P., Okolo, C. M., & Cavalier, A. R. (2001). Technology

applications for students with literacy problems: A critical review. The Elementary School Journal, 101, 273–378.

MacArthur, C. A. (1996). Using technology to enhance the writing processes of students with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 29, 344-354.

Trimbur, John. (2000). Composition and the circulation of writing. CCC, 52(2), 188–219.

Palmquist, Mike, Kiefer, Kate, Hartvigsen, James, & Goodlew, Barbara. (1998). Transitions: Teaching writing in computer-supported and traditional classrooms. Greenwich: Ablex Publishing.