The effects of web-based learning on struggling EFL college writers

This study aimed at finding out whether there were significant differences in achievement between English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) freshman students exposed to traditional in-class writing instruction depending on the textbook only, and those exposed to a combination of traditional in-class instruction and Web-based instruction in writing. All students were pretested before instruction and studied the same writing textbook for 12 weeks. In addition, the experimental group of students received online instruction in which they posted their own threads, short paragraphs, stories, or poems on a discussion board. They located information related to themes covered in the book from Internet sites such as "Yahoo! Movies" and "WebMD." They word processed their paragraphs and checked their own spelling using Microsoft Word. At the end of the treatment, both groups were posttested. Results of the paired and independent t tests and Analysis of Covariance are reported.