Examining the Role of Digital Tools in Pre-service English Language Teachers Self-efficacy in Writing

Abstract

Writing is regarded as one of the most challenging skills for language learners due to its multifaceted nature. Similarly, writing instruction involves a composite skill set varying from teaching structural knowledge to linking ideas logically through using appropriate lexicon and cohesive devices. Like many other EFL learners, most students with intensive English instruction at Turkish universities often report difficulties in their in-class and extracurricular writing tasks, and they do not feel a sense of achievement and self-efficacy in writing in English as a foreign language (L2). Through this study, the researchers provided 35 English preparatory students with 6-week writing instruction integrating digital tools to examine the effectiveness of this intervention in promoting the students' self-efficacy levels and sense of achievement in L2 writing. The study adopted a mixed-methods research model in which the Self-Efficacy Writing Scale (SEWS) created by Bruning et al. (2013) is used as the quantitative data tool, and the interview and minute paper techniques as the qualitative data tools. The study's findings revealed that digital-tool-supported writing instruction had promising impacts on fostering students’ self-efficacy in L2 writing, leading to gains in their ideation, use of writing conventions, and self-regulation abilities. The qualitative findings also suggested that digital tools empowered them as writers in L2 and led to improvements in their perceived sense of achievement in writing tasks.