Abstract
From face-to-face to online teaching an English for Reading and Writing course is challenging to provide learning strategies and assessments that fit the pedagogical style of the online environment since there are many online tools (e.g. translation machine, grammar check software, and websites) for assistance in English writing. This study aims to investigate students’ learning strategies in taking an online writing assignment, with an emphasis on using authentic assessments to encourage students to avoid using online tools and plagiarism in their writing. The findings show that during online learning, students made use of online tools, and they searched for the information on the internet as an assistance in writing an assignment. However, using Blended Learning and four different types of writing tasks significantly reduces the use of online tools, and it enhances students’ active participation in the assessment process. The guided instructions of each task also help students to improve their writing skills, and most of the students preferred to work in small groups to complete the activities online which enhanced interaction and the sense of an online learning community.Keywords: blended learning; writing assignment; online tools
Highlights
As in many countries worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic situation has posed unprecedented challenges in Thailand, which requires teachers to adapt from face-to-face to online teaching
In teaching English writing online, the teachers may confront some of the challenges to find out some practical ways to help students improve their writing skills since writing in a foreign or second language is intricate, and it is a courageous experience for students whose native language is not of the same origin as the target language
With the benefits of Blended Learning (BL); the present study aims 1) to investigate students’ learning strategies in taking an online writing assignment, and 2) to investigate if learning English writing via BL reduces the use of online tools and enhances their writing skills
Summary
As in many countries worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic situation has posed unprecedented challenges in Thailand, which requires teachers to adapt from face-to-face to online teaching. In teaching English writing online, the teachers may confront some of the challenges to find out some practical ways to help students improve their writing skills since writing in a foreign or second language is intricate, and it is a courageous experience for students whose native language is not of the same origin as the target language. Nowadays there are various online tools, which in this study are defined as translation machine software and grammar checker software, that can facilitate students to write English sentences and paragraphs, and websites that allow students to take the work or ideas of other people. According to the study of Lee (2020), it found that translation machine software can be useful to language learning as a teaching guide, but teachers must be aware of its limitations and provide enough guidance to students for learning benefits
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