SYNCHRONISING ONLINE RESOURCE (PENZU) AND COMPUTER APPLICATION FOR LANGUAGE INSTRUCTIONS: A PAKISTANI POST COVID-19 PANDEMIC CONTEXT

Abstract

Pakistan is going through a period of transition after Covid-19 pandemic situation which created a dire need to use computer as a tool and other online resources in the classrooms. To contribute to this situation, the present study investigated the effects of using computer as a tool and Penzu software as online source for language instructions. The study used experimental design and conducted a classroom experiment of 40 higher secondary school students (20 experimental & 20 in control group) through pre/post-tests over different period of time to examine development in students’ writing skills. On post-test-I, it was observed that students in the control group showed sudden rise in the development of writing skills compared to experimental group. But, on post-test-II and III, students in the experimental group showed consistency in the development in writing skills while control group could not maintain their consistency of development in writings. Hence, findings of the study revealed that using computer as a tool for instructions and Penzu as online resource to conduct writing activities proved more useful in improving students’ writing skills compared to the students in the control group. Finally, findings also revealed that students became more independent in self-corrections in the experimental group and continued to expand their learning outside the classroom while control group was dependent on teacher and could only find time in the classroom for corrective feedback which limited students’ learning to their classroom. In addition to this, the study recommends that further computer applications and other online resources can be more useful in language instructions apart from teaching writing skills. Besides, findings of this study have significant theoretical and practical implications pertaining to EFL teachers’ professional development, teaching skills and students’ learning environment.