Online Learning Efficacy Research Database

Since interaction provides the opportunity for students to share their ideas, thoughts, comments and feelings with their peers and teacher, it can be claimed that it is an integral component of learning. The present study applied the Sinclair and Coulthard’s interaction (IRF) (1975) model on the English learners of two traditional and virtual classes in order to investigate the differences between their writing scores in these two classes on the one hand, and the extent to which the IRF structure occurs in these two classes on the other hand. For this purpose, 79 and 20 intermediate level EFL learners were selected from the virtual and traditional classes of Payame Noor University (PNU). They were given the pre-test at the beginning and post-test after eight sessions of the same treatment in both classes by the same instructor. Their pre- and post-test scores were compared. The results indicated that there was a significant difference between the participants’ post-test scores in two classes in terms of three components of the intended six components of the five-paragraph essay. This study concluded that the participants in the virtual class performed better than their peers in the traditional one. Moreover, the number of interactions between the participants and teacher was more in the virtual class. Since the effect of interaction between the students and teacher on better performance and learning was shown in this study, other teachers can take into consideration the importance of interaction as well as technology for better teaching-learning process. 
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Blended learning seems to be an emerging trend in education and has caught the interest of many educators and researchers as a new approach to encourage students in their learning process. Though blended learning has proven its success and efficiency in teaching and learning of English writing skills in many ESL and EFL contexts, no attempts had been made to investigate its effectiveness in teaching English writing skills in K.S.A. To fill in this gab, the current study attempts to examine the impact of blended learning approach on improving Saudi EFL students’ English essay writing. Moreover, it examines Saudi students’ perceptiveness toward implementing blended learning approach to develop English essay writing. Sixty participants were selected out of sixty eight English majors based on their scores on a piloted proficiency test. They were then randomly divided into two equal groups undergoing control and experimental conditions. The experimental group was taught through the use of blended learning approach whereas the control group was taught through traditional lecture method. To achieve the study aims, the researcher adopted a mixed method research design so as to collect qualitative and quantitative data. Data collection instruments were pre and post writing essays tests, questionnaire, and interviews. Teaching experiment was conducted for ten weeks in March-April 2017. The researcher used the following statistical methods to reach the results: (Mean, Standard Deviation, and T-Test). The results of the independent-samples t-tests showed that participants of the blended learning group significantly outperformed the control group in their writing performance. The study findings also revealed that there were statistically significant differences between the scores of the paired experimental group in the pre and post achievement test in favour of the post-test. This improvement was ascribed to the use of blended learning approach in teaching essay writing. Moreover, the analysis of the data obtained from the questionnaires and interviews indicated that students in the experimental group had positive perspectives towards the use of blended learning approach in teaching English essay writing. Finally, the findings of the study hold a number of pedagogical implications for EFL learners, language teachers, material developers, and those interested in essay writing. 
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Second language writing, not unlike other language skills, is an area of practice requiring due attention and meticulously planned instruction. With a prevalent shift of paradigm from product oriented to process-oriented approaches to writing instruction, such learner variables as language learning strategies came to the forefront. Among second language writing strategies, the locus of attention on pre-writing strategies has by no means been ample. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of pre-writing strategies in ameliorating the writing ability of second language learners. Furthermore, since computer technology has had a lot to offer in pedagogical environments, the implementation of pre-writing strategies-based instruction was examined through different modes of input delivery, i.e. web-based and hybrid environments (in addition to conventional classroom teaching). A sample of second language learners was chosen from among male and female English majors and was divided into four groups: control, conventional, web-based, and hybrid groups. A homogenizing writing pretest was administered to ascertain that the learners were not very different in terms of their writing ability. After five sessions of treatment, excluding the pretest and posttest sessions, a writing posttest was given to the students, the results of which revealed that the three experimental groups had significantly outperformed the control group, and hence indicating the effectiveness of teaching pre-writing strategies. There was not, however, a meaningful difference between the conventional and web-based groups. The hybrid group, on the other hand, had excelled all the other groups. 
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