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      MA thesis: the impact of internet use on EFL learners' writing
      Submitted by sanaling on 23 May, 2011 - 21:15

      hello

      I'm preparing my MA thesis and I thought of investigating the effect of the internet use outside language classroom on learners' writing style and discourse. More generally, I want to investigate learning autonomy. This research will be carried out in a foreign language context where internet chatting and language forums are the most accessible tools for EFL learners to practice the TL with native speakers.

      I'm waiting for your suggestions.

       

      Thank you for your attention.

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      cmftrier's picture
      cmftrier
      Suggestions on what?
      Submitted on 26 May, 2011 - 16:29

      Hi Sanaling

      I think your project sounds very interesting, although the topic sounds very braod (dare I say vague?) at the moment. From reading your post, I'm not exactly sure what kinds of suggestions you'd like to here - maybe you can give us some more specific questions so we can help out with more specific responses?

      CMF

      sanaling's picture
      sanaling
      What kind of variables should i implement?
      Submitted on 29 May, 2011 - 16:36

      Hi CMF

      thank you for the reply.

      i know that this topic is too broad, and i'm still reading about it. Actually, i'm a little bit lost between two variables, whether i should investigate:

      • the effect of internet chatting on EFL learners' discourse, or
      • the effect of the internet use on EFL learners' writing.
      cmftrier's picture
      cmftrier
      Both of those ideas sound interesting
      Submitted on 1 June, 2011 - 16:22

      Both of those ideas sound interesting. Are you planning to conduct an experiment to assess some of the effects? If so, I'd say one focussing on writing is probably easier to control - e.g. by giving students specific tasks to complete using the internet, or specific exercises related to writing. Still, though, it might be hard to ascertain whether any changes were really due to the internet, or simply practising langauge / reading / etc skills (in which case the internet is just one medium/platform for practising these skills). Chatting would be a bit more difficult to really "test" - i.e. whether any differences in the discourse students produce is really due to any chat they might have had online. The only way to test the chat variable I can think of right now would be pairing some students up with online "chat buddies" and not doing so for the others, and then seeing if there are differences, but still ... it might be hard to tell whether it was really the online chat that really lead to differences.

      Not sure if that helps - but it's my two-cents' worth at the moment!

      CMF