This study investigated the communicative competence of 28 English as a second language (ESL) students in grades 2-5 from 6 elementary schools in Singapore when using an electronic discussion board. Students participated in 3 online discussion activities in small groups. Their messages were analyzed using 19 competence indicators across 4 areas. The researchers found that the discussion board provided equal opportunities for students to participate actively and use different language styles appropriately based on audience and purpose. It helped students achieve goals of social interaction, personal expression, and using varied English registers. The study provides implications for ESL teachers to effectively incorporate online discussion boards to improve students' written communication skills.

1. COMPUTER APPLICATION
LITERATURE REVIEW
GROUP MEMBERS: SARAH KHAIRUDDIN 0713976
ESLAM ABDURABU 0614532
NURUL DIANA MD. RABI 0634264
NORAINI MOHD NOOR 0728928
COURSE CODE: ENGL 4740
SECTION :1
INSTRUCTOR : DR. ROZINA ABDUL GHANI
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2. Part A: Summary
In this article, “An Investigation of Communicative of ESL Students Using Electronic
Discussion Board”, the researchers, “Shenghua Zha, Paul Kelly, MeeAeng KO Park, and Gail
FitzGerald”, wanted to investigate students’ communication competence in a computer-mediated
communication environment and the effect of using technology specifically the internet in spite
the traditional methods such as drilling and practice.
Because of the internet become more accessible, computer-mediated interactions between
users in different locations were increased. In this research, the researchers used an Electronic
Discussion Board to encourage natural language learning environment by promoting social
interaction and creating a real discourse community among learners. Throughout the research,
learners were been given an equal opportunity to participate and students tend to take an active
role when they used CMC (computer-mediated-communication) rather than through face-to-face
communication. Studies done by Singhal (1998) and Warschauer (1996) suggest that both
learners’ knowledge and language production increase through online interaction. Students may
take a more active role in CMC than they do in face-to-face classroom communication (Chun,
1994). Another study done by St. John and Cash (1995) reports two benefit of using peer
interaction in online second language learning. First, the learner will be able to correct lexical
mistakes and second the learner’s pragmatics competence will be quickly improved.
This study involved 28 ESL studends in grade2-5 from 7 classes in 6 elementary schools
with different background and all of them are learning English as their second language.
Students from the same school were located separately to join another discussion group and they
were interacting using an electronic discussion board in discussing and sharing about something.
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3. They were given 3 activities to discuss about with their partners. Students’ messages were saved
using RTF (rich-text-format) and later on it is imported into Nvivo 2.0 (qualitative software
analysis). 19 competence indicators from 4 areas were used as coding nodes. After coding
process was done, children’s messages for three activities were further analyzed using both
quantitative and qualitative procedures.
After finalized the data, researchers narrowed the findings into 3 goals. The first goal is
to use English to participate in Social Interaction, secondly to use English for personal
expression and enjoyment, and thirdly to use an appropriate English variety, register, genre
according to the audience, purpose, and settings. These goals were achieved differently by
students and there were some factors that leading to these goals. Some students choose different
kind of writing styles based on who they were spoken to. Researchers also concluded that using
an electronic discussion board can provide equal opportunity and facilitate students in using
different language styles whether formal or informal.
The implication of this study presents several guidelines for ESL teachers for effective
use of electronic discussion boards to assist and improve ESL student’s written communicative
competence. First, electronic discussion boards can be utilized as learning environment to
encourage students to observe their peer written language and it is also apparent that online
group activities can be used to promote students’ use of language. Besides, it is also indicated
that teachers can help students distinguish different patterns of language variety, register, and
genre by having them involved in authentic language tasks.
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4. Part B: Relate the research article to any of the underlined aspects mentioned in the history
of CALL.
The article above is directly aligned with many aspects in the history of CALL mainly on
the issues of computer used as tutor, tool and pupil. The article at first highlights the importance
of language, communication and interaction. In the progress of CALL, computer was recognized
as a tutor, which directly touches interaction and communication and due to the current
technologies present at the time the interaction could occur both verbally and non verbally
(writing). In the study done in the article, it shows that the teachers had brought for the first week
of trainings the use of discussions boards online. This increased interaction among students and
the teachers which is useful in language learning. In the background study of the article it
signifies many importances on social environment being a key component in language learning.
Well known linguists such as Piaget and Vygotsky mentions that peer experiences in a
children’s life value in their process of language learning. There was a study done by St. John
and Cash (1995) that resulted in two further benefits of computer mediated learning, which to be
able to correct lexical mistakes by noticing peer usage of better language competence. By
posting on the discussion board, a student can easily press the spell check option to check their
spelling errors and by time having be able to recognize the correct spelling. In this way,
computer serving as a tutor has been highly achieved.
Later in the article, the authors speak of the role the computer serves as a tool to further
the communication between learners and the social environment. By using the computer to
perhaps comment on the discussion boards or even to simply “chat”, increases exposure for a
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5. learner to be more competent at language learning. Kern’s (1995) study showed that students
produce more sentences and learn variety of discourse functions.
In the research done, all the activities designed such as creating clubs, recommending a
holiday menu and planning a party increased the interaction between students. The laptops that
had been given to students served as a tool in the significant improvement of interaction that was
done in the discussion boards in this particular study. Students would pick up new greetings and
improve vocabulary due to the options that are present in the discussion board’s tools.
The third aspect that is covered by this article is the sociocognitive aspect of computer
mediated learning. Computer serving as pupil; now this matter is very important as in the
research a student cant be too directed to socializing through internet only but also increase face
to face interaction and make learners more sociable with one another; it also, increases the
mental ability of a learner to be competent in the language. Although in the findings, the results
for the improvement of social interaction between peers were discerned; it has significant results
on the personal expression of enjoyments and using language to extend communicative
competence.
Computer serving as pupil extends both interaction and students learning skills. Students
learn in various ways and explore their structural, cognitive and both sociocognitive dimension
in learning language. The research had its limitations such as students exposure to online
materials were less compared to what would be needed. There are many guidelines that need to
be followed by instructors and learners to conduct a computer mediated class.
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