Abstract
In this paper, I attempt to investigate whether online writing checkers, including tools looking at grammar, punctuation, spelling and composition, do in fact help potential ESL writers, and if so, to which extent, in what areas, to what effect and at what cost. The small-scale study involves 23 university level ESL students who compose various texts as part of their training. Data was collected using pre and post writing samples, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The analysis used a descriptive statistical method, Likert-scale and correlations and qualitative analysis for the three methods respectively. The results are inconclusive as students reported different opinions. It was found however that students who are frequent users of features such as MS Word Thesaurus and Online Corpora are more likely to incorporate online writing checkers and therefore found them more helpful. It was also found that regardless of their effect, students always welcomed tools available that can provide feedback to their compositions. The writing software used, AccurIT, also showed improvements in students’ ability to write correct collocations.
Highlights
The errors were categoried but the focus was on collocational, idiomatic and phrasal as well as incorrect word choice since AccurIT deals with these types of errors
Students A, B and C are from the group that relied exclusively on conventional feedback (Group A), while students D, E and F are from the group that was taught to use feedback from AccurIT as well (Group B)
Accuracy and correct word choice were considerably better in the test that employed AccurIT to provide feedback
Summary
The last few years have witnessed an increasing interest in developing automated assistance software in ESL writing. The studies in the field according to [1] are both quantitative and qualitative in nature, as well as being collaborative and individual in target They believe that the overall majority of research in L2 writing technology has a positive effect on both achievement and perception. [2], on the other hand, looked more exclusively at students’ perceptions of L2 writing programs She found that students expressed positive attitudes towards feedback provided in the forms of screencast, video and text feedback for their efficiency, clarity, ease of use and heightened understanding. Her observations further corroborated students’ perceptions since those who employed technology in L2 writing took less time to revise their texts. The experiment should be carefully documented and investigated in order to highlight any potential challenges and come up with possible solutions
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