Abstract
For many Japanese students, writing is probably the most difficult skill in English. The Ministry of Education of Japan (MEXT) conducted research on the English proficiency of the third year (senior year) students of high school in 2014 and 2015. They reported that in writing and speaking the scores of tests were significantly lower than in reading and listening. What can reduce writing anxiety, or change learners’ attitudes toward writing, and improve their writing? In this study, the changes of the learners’ attitudes toward writing in English and the perception of an online writing tool are examined to understand how they feel about writing. Therefore the research question was: How can introducing an online writing tool affect the English language learners’ perception of writing in English? The participants were the university students of English writing classes. The questionnaires were distributed and collected at the beginning and at the end of the semester. The survey was divided into four sections: on writing in English, on the targets in learning how to write in English, on using computers in learning English, and on the online writing tool. Before they used the online writing tool, they were motivated to improve their writing, but their images of writing in English were very vague and they did not know what they needed to improve their writing. But at the end of the semester, they showed more focused images of writing in English, and kept their motivation to write.
Author Information
Midori Mashiyama, Fukuoka Women's University, Japan
Paper Information
Conference: IICLLHawaii2017
Stream: Language education
This paper is part of the IICLLHawaii2017 Conference Proceedings (View)
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