Task 2 - Article Review

The article to being reviewed is entitled "Developing linguistic and cultural perspectives of English as a foreign language through email discussion". The author of this research article is Bahman Gorjian, an assistant professor from the TEFL department, Science and Research Center-Alvaz Branch of the Islamic Azad University, Iran. He has a P.hD in TEFL and has published several articles and books related to TEFL and English translation including this article.

The aim of this study is to investigate the role of email discussion in the development of linguistic and cultural perspectives of English as a foreign language (EFL), in Iran.

Before continuing with the experiment, this article has reviewed several literature on this topic, and based on its reports, one of the biggest challenges faced in the EFL environment is the teaching the culture of the L2. However, research has recently reported that computer-mediated communication has improved the process of acquiring the L2 at the same time increased the learners awareness of the culture as well. Lately, email discussions has shown great potential in not only enhance the teaching of language linguistically, but also culturally. This is due to the positive attitude that learners have towards technology. Through email discussions, learners acquire the language through interaction. The key to its success is feedback. Email discussions enables extensive amounts of feedback. Feedback is crucial in improving writing because it helps a learner see the mistakes and ways to improve their writing and email discussions provides more opportunities to optimize the role of feedback.

Methodology of collecting data in this study involve subjects consisting of 400 non-native intermediate students majoring in English Translation at the average age of 17. Other than the students, 18 non-native instructors were also involved with an average 12 years of experience in teaching English Translation, with an average age of 32.These subjects were selected based on non-random judgment sampling. The students were then given TOEFL test to determine the students' writing proficiency in order to create groups of students that are balanced. The students who were selected as part of the research population are the ones who scored around the mean. 4oo hundred students were selected and were randomly divided into two groups; two hundred in the experimental group (CALL group) and the other half in the control group (non-CALL group). 18 instructors were selected based on non-random judgment sampling. The CALL group were given access to computers. They were able to send essays through email and received feedback through email discussions from outside the university. Meanwhile, the non-CALL group learned writing in a non-technological way which is by using pen and paper. They feedback were also hand written.

5 instruments were used in this experiment. The first was the TOEFL test mentioned earlier to determine the students' proficiency. It was used to form the homogeneous groups. The second is a pre-test. The subjects are required to write a two paragraph essay at the beginning of the experiment. The essay is culture-oriented. Third is the 12 topics given to both groups for the next 12 weeks to both the groups. The topics were taken from "Bailey and Powell (1979)". Fourth is the post-test. After 12 weeks, the students are given another two paragraph cultural-oriented essay writing test. This test will determine whether there is any difference in improvements between the two groups after 12 months. And fifth was the 5point Likert-scale questionnaire for the instructors to give their ideas on the role of email discussions in learning L2 cultural values.

In general, the findings of this research has shown that the CALL group were more proficient in terms of writing the cultural-oriented essays at the end of the experiment. Initially for pre-test, both the groups performed similarly. After twelve months however, the CALL group performed significantly better than the non-CALL group.

Responses from the instructors showed that the instructors agree that using computers are effective in facilitating the learners L2 culture development in their writing. More importantly, they believe that the interaction between teacher and learners is very crucial in learners L2 cultural awareness.

Personally, this research is rather interesting. I strongly believe that a language can only be improved through interactions, but more to speaking skills. This study however has proven that appropriate interactions can also improve writing skills as well. Not only that, at a technological age of today, the need to use computers have increased and this method of teaching writing utilizes one of the most important tools to mankind today.

I think this research was conduct quite effectively. The study clearly showed the difference in performance between the two groups. It has achieved its aim in answering that question.

In the Malaysian context, if applied properly, this method would definitely have significantly good results. Not all schools will be able to apply this method. It requires a sufficient number of computers that can cater to the number of students in the schools. For schools that are able to meet the requirements, this method should prove the have a positive effect on the students writing. However, this study focused on only cultural-oriented essays. The students in the experiment were to write about cultural values of the L2. In my opinion, in Malaysia, the topic of the essays can be changed to meet the students' needs.