“
Global lingvistika: yangi yondashuvlar va tadqiqotlar”
mavzusidagi xalqaro ilmiy-amaliy anjuman
~ 118 ~
DEVELOPING WRITING SKILLS OF B1 LEVEL LEARNERS THROUGH
AI TOOLS
Inomova Hilola
Uzbekistan State University of World languages The faculty of Foreign Languages
and Literature The student of 2117 group
Supervisor:
Minniqulov İslom
Annotation:
Writing is claimed to be the most difficult skill for foreign
language learners. Thus, it needs an effective model of teaching to improve students’
writing skill. The present study investigates the use of internet technology in
improving writing skill of B1 level students and examines the effectiveness of the use
of internet technology in the teaching of writing by observing students’ writing in the
classroom.
Keyword:
Writing skill, internet technology, B1 level students.
Writing is one of the language skills used for expressing the ideas, opinions, and
the feelings in a form of written language. In this modern era, people use this skill
almost every day through e-mail, short message service in phone, and chatting in
social media. These examples are as proves that writing is an important skill to enable
people to communicate with each other. From this perspective, technology can
support to enable and liberate thoughts from mechanics and free up the expression of
ideas. In fact, research shows that technology-supported writing not only enables
skills but also teaches them at the same time, so that users grow their understanding
of mechanics, spelling, organizing, and so on when they write with technology tools.
Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the use of internet technology for
B1 level students in the teaching of writing. Particularly, the study examines writing
practices commonly utilized by EFL teachers to teach writing skills for B1 level
students in EFL classrooms. Advances in technology in education are inevitable as
technology has become an integral part of our everyday life. The new generations of
students have a high level of technology literacy. Hence, it is important to investigate
the teachers’ perception on the use of internet technology in the teaching of writing
classrooms as information regarding the benefits, implementation, and attitudes of
teachers will be a further probe.
It is important for teachers to explore multiple ways to make learning processes
significant and successful. Learning writing should be meaningful, as fostering the
use of internet technology in EFL classrooms, should support the development of
writing skill especially with B1 level learners. Having said this, the principal
objective of this review is to define the main concepts in this research. It is important
“
Global lingvistika: yangi yondashuvlar va tadqiqotlar”
mavzusidagi xalqaro ilmiy-amaliy anjuman
~ 119 ~
to clarify that these constructs are writing skill, and internet technology as a didactic
tool. In addition, this review not only shows the definition of the concepts, but it also
presents the principles of scholars in terms of writing as well as using internet
technology in the classroom.
From the point of Richards and Renandya, writing covers the process of
developing ideas, logical thinking, and language forms and transfers them into
graphic symbols on a paper by using appropriate conventions including content,
organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics. Learning to write seems as a
developmental process that helps B1 level students to write and choose their own
topics. Most of B1 level students may find some difficulties in accomplishing their
writing test. It is the most difficult skill for B1 level students to master. [Richards &
Renandya: 2002, p 83]
In addition, Warschauer also highlights that computers can be used to teach new
types of writing considering the online age that we live in today. He states that new
technologies can help us teaching writing in foreign language. [Warschauer: 2007,
pp. 907-912]
Following this, Healey stated that technology can help in many ways to achieve
some goals; improving writers’ ability to communicate with their readers, having a
sense of audience and writing to the expectations of that audience, using peer review
effectively, and revising and editing as needed. She also explained that some learners
are quite motivated at the thought of their work being read publicly as their writing
posted to a class newsgroup that gives sense of an audience larger than one consisting
only of the teacher. Moreover, other real-world tools for writing such as on-line
dictionaries, thesauruses, and style and grammar checkers are beneficial for the
learners as writers.
Considering the concepts of writing, Grabes outlined some principles in order to
guide teachers and students thinking about writing in the classroom. These principles
include the following ideas:
▪
Writing is a process; there are many writing processes We get better at
writing by writing
▪
Clear, logical writing reflects clear, logical thinking. Because students think
in all content areas, it follows that students should write in all content areas
▪
Writing is communication; the ability to communicate is essential
▪
Fluency must be developed before clarity; clarity (control) must be developed
before accuracy and correctness (precision). Wrtiers need to get it down before they
worry about getting it right [Grabe: 2007, p. 67]
Taking into account the principles of writing, Nicolini developed main
principles to structure how technology can support learning in the classroom
“
Global lingvistika: yangi yondashuvlar va tadqiqotlar”
mavzusidagi xalqaro ilmiy-amaliy anjuman
~ 120 ~
environment. These principles provided a lens to view technology in writing
classroom. They are as follows:
C.
Classroom instruction and information management can be strengthened
through the efficient use of technology
D.
Technology can support student learning
E.
Students need to know how to access and select from the avalanche of
information to help them solve problems
F.
Technology can and should facilitate the rethinking and the restructuring of
what takes place in the classroom. [Nicolini: 2006, p. 67]
Based on these ideas, technology was viewed as infusing the writing classroom
as a social area that provides multiple uses of technology-mediated writing
opportunities that offer a variety of experiences and choices for B1 level students.
Technology mediated writing in a socially constructed space allows students to
construct meaning from their writing with peers, teachers, and environments in
addition to the technology itself.
Research methods.
This study employed a qualitative research design in the form of descriptive case
study in regard to the consideration that the researcher focused on the observing,
interpreting, and understanding what the teacher and students did in writing class that
used the internet. This was done to gain an in-depth understanding of the situation
and meaning for those involved. The subjects of the study were B1 level learners that
the English ability of the students is intermediate.
The data was collected through non-participant observation. It was an
observation in which the researcher only observed the process of teaching and
learning. To obtain the data related to the use of internet technology in teaching
writing, students’ writing was taken to investigate their writing ability since the use
of internet technology was expected to help students to create a text based on
structure and language feature.
Analysis and result.
This study sought to investigate the use of the internet technology in teaching
writing to B1 level learners. It also investigated the development of students’ writing
abilities. From the result of the findings and discussion, it can be stated as follows.
The major conclusion of the study is that the use of the internet technologies as
an aid in writing class is successfully applied in some ways. With respect to the
internet use in teaching writing, it indeed gave benefits to the students as well the
teacher. Though the internet did not use as a tool to teach and learn writing in the
classroom, but it is useful as a medium for information collection, publication, and
deferred-time communication. In relation to the students’ writing skills, it is
significantly improved, in that they achieved the target genre. They learned to write at
“
Global lingvistika: yangi yondashuvlar va tadqiqotlar”
mavzusidagi xalqaro ilmiy-amaliy anjuman
~ 121 ~
greater length, with a clear schematic structure, indicating students’ improvement in
constructing text organization. The students were able to make a cohesion texts as
indicated by the conjunction system the students used in their writings after several
practices.
It can be concluded that using internet technology for teaching writing affect a
better result of writing performance for B1 level students. To reach optimum writing
achievement, the classroom environment should be provided by an internet access.
The teacher also has to provide specific sites dealing with the genre of writing and
determining the most current and hottest issues to teach writing. It may help the
students to explore the intended materials and find out the sample essays for the
selected sites. Thus, it is recommended that the teacher has to apply internet
technology for classroom activities in teaching writing and improve the students’
writing achievement.
References:
1. GRABE, W. (2007). Theory and practice of writing: an applied linguistic
perspective. Harlow, Essex, UK: Longman.
2. Nicolini, M. B. (2006). Making Thinking Visible: Writing in the Center.
Clearing House, 80(2), 66-69.
3. Richards, J. C. & Renandya, W. A. 2002. Methodology in Language
Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
4. Warschauer, M. (2007). Technology and writing. In C. Davison & J.
Cummins (Eds.) The International Handbook of English Language Teaching (pp.
907- 912). Norwell, MA: Springer.
5. Warschauer, M. (2010). Invited commentary: New tools for teaching writing.
Language Learning &Technology, 14 (1), 3-8.
