Developing EFL Writing Skills through WhatsApp Dialogue Journaling

Ebru Noyan, Zeynep Kocoglu

Abstract


The present study attempts to explore the effects of WhatsApp and Pen/Paper dialogue journal writing techniques on university students’ writing performance. 45 freshmen students from Sociology department of State University in Turkey, participated in the current study forming three homogenous groups of 15, namely WhatsApp dialogue journaling (WDJ), pen/paper dialogue journaling (Pap DJW) and the control group. The experimental groups (WDJ and Pap DJW) received 12 treatment sessions expecting students to create dialogues through dialogue journaling while the control group had no treatment except weekly class requirements. Data were collected through a pre- and post-writing test administered to all groups and an open-ended questionnaire on attitudes administered just to the experimental groups. Paired-samples T-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted to determine the differences among the three groups while a content analysis was carried out to examine the attitudes. The findings related to the pre- and post-tests of all groups indicated a significant progress in overall writing production. When considering each of writing components separately; however, the differences between the pre and post tests revealed no improvement in vocabulary competence of WhatsApp group or organization skills of control group. On the other hand, pen and paper group students made a remarkable progress in all writing components. In addition, ANOVA results showed no significant difference among the groups regarding writing overall production or any component performance. Finally, both pen and paper and WhatsApp group indicated positive attitudes and a great desire towards utilizing dialogue journaling in EFL writing classes. This study will help teachers and learners of English and researchers to find out the efficacy of target writing techniques and thus make appropriate decisions concerning EFL learning.

Keywords


EFL Writing, WhatsApp Dialogue Journaling, Pen and Paper Dialogue Journaling, Mobile Learning, Social Media in EFL Classes

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.10n.2p.38

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