Pen Pals Are Now in Your Finger Tips— A Global Collaboration Online Project to Develop Writing Skills

Abstract

Many Malaysian students have an aversion towards writing. This study explores the potential of using an online material entitled, PenPal Schools, in the English as Second Language (ESL) classroom to develop writing skill with peers around the world via an online collaborative project. A research was carried out to provide insights into the aspects of PenPal Schools that are useful in developing writing skills and to find out the potential of this material as a teaching and learning tool in writing lessons. Thirty 12-year-old primary school students from Cheras, Selangor were chosen as the participants based on their March 2018 school based assessment writing results together with May 2018 school based midterm writing results to avoid any biasness. After the March test, they were required to join PenPal Schools and take part in the online collaborative project. The research used mixed-method design where quantitative data from pre-and post-tests and responses from semi-structured interviews were used to measure the outcome. The post test result reflected the improvement in their writing skill and it had found out that this educational website could make the writing lessons become more interesting as they could communicate and learn with peers around the world, particularly native speakers. This positive engagement in a dynamic and collaborative classroom is hoped to shed new light on the era of 4.0 education.

Enhancing English Language Learning and Teaching via Qgram (Telegram and Quizlet) Innovation

“…In addition, this innovation gives teachers more contact hours with the students in Telegram in a very feasible, interactive, interesting and less-stressed medium. Lie and Yunus (2018) support the idea of all educators should clinch to authentic materials to help our students to enhance their English language skills outside of the classroom.…”

“…Hence, it is crucial for teachers to put high priority on learners' interests and learning preferences in selecting the best educational tools in teaching and learning. If applications like Telegram and Quizlet are utilized its use to the maximum, teaching and learning will be more engaging, interactive, feasible, and inspiring as according to Lie and Yunus (2018), learning starts with engagement. In addition, Qgram innovation indirectly lessens teachers' workload as Quizlet automatically generates the result for students to review with the teachers.…”

“…So, according to Betser and Brand ( 2013), many of present learners are visual learners as technology has become the integral part of their lives and without technology, learners may not be able to learn effectively. It is important for teachers and educators to cater to this important needs of the learners as according to Lie and Yunus (2018), education begins with engagement. So using Qgram perhaps caters this alpha generation's interests on mobile application and strong engagement to their smart phones will hopefully enhance their interests in English language learning.…”

Learning English from Home during the Covid-19: Investigating Learners’ Experience for Online and Autonomous Learning

“…Online learning has long become an alternative mode of instruction, providing another option of learning for individuals who cannot attend a regular classroom for specific reasons (Gemin & Pape, 2017). Some studies had also reported that this learning instruction model provides learners with some advantages including the exercise of autonomy (Ardi, 2017), learner-centered, and global connection by having collaboration with other language learners or native speakers (Lee & Kim, 2018;Lie & Yunus, 2018).…”

Enhancing Malaysian Primary Pupils’ Vocabulary Skills using Pocable Game and Pear Deck

“…However, English is the second language in Malaysia. Lie and Yunus (2018) also mentioned that English is the global language of interaction. It is crucial for a person's competencies development.…”