Abstract
<p>Use of educational technologies has become increasingly significant in the field of English Language Learning. Both the teachers and students are dependent on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and its different tools for teaching and learning in particular, and socialization in general. The scope and significance of the study on the use of ICT tool such as online discussion forum in facilitating English as a foreign language teaching and learning therefore is quite relevant considering its potential in exchanging information using the target language (L2). The study included 56 participants (<em>N=56</em>) at post-foundation level from Al Musanna College of Technology in Oman with the objective to find out the effectiveness of online forum discussions on the learners’ EFL (English as a Foreign Language) writing performance in terms of its linguistic complexity. The experimental group (<em>N = 28</em>) was involved in synchronous online forum discussion, and the control group (<em>N = 28</em>) was engaged in asynchronous blog writing for a period of one semester. Pre-test and posttest were administered to collect quantitative data, and the participants of the experimental group were interviewed to collect the qualitative data. The post-test analysis of the quantitative data found no significant (<em>p = 0.05</em>) statistical difference between the groups’ writing performance in terms of linguistic complexity. However, the analysis of the qualitative data collected through interview found that the use of online forum discussion in facilitating EFL writing has much positive effect on the learning process. The findings, discussion and recommendations are included in this article.</p>
Highlights
With technological advancements, many Information and Communication Technology (ICT) platforms such as different chat platforms, blogs, threaded discussions, etc. have come into existence to promote online discussion among participants
The t test analysis (Table 3) has found that there is no significant difference between both the groups t (54) = -0.53, p = 0.59 (p > .05). These results suggest that the lexical diversity in the Online Forum Discussions (OFDs) writing and Blog writing is not statistically different from each other
The research revealed that the OFD mediated writing treatment has no statistically significant effect on the English as foreign language (EFL) learners’ writing performance in terms the linguistic complexity of the written output
Summary
Many ICT platforms (tools) such as different chat platforms, blogs, threaded discussions, etc. have come into existence to promote online discussion among participants. Many ICT platforms (tools) such as different chat platforms, blogs, threaded discussions, etc. Online Forum Discussions (OFDs) are considered as ‘heart of the course’ (Kelly, 2014), and these discussion forums promote learner-to-learner interaction, and between learners and teachers. OFDs are conducted synchronously and asynchronously to meet the learners’ social, academic and future professional needs according to varying learning and communicative situations. The significant growth and influence of ICT in education, and the learners’ need to interact with each other through different ICT tools emphasize the importance and scope for incorporating synchronous online forum discussion in English as foreign language (EFL) writing
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