Public Internet Forums: Can They Enhance Argumentative Writing Skills of Second Language Learners?

Abstract

Improving university students’ writing skills is always a challenge. In a third‐year French composition course, the researchers introduced the use of public Internet discussion forums to see if that would help achieve the argumentative writing skills goals that were set for this study. The results show that participation in the forums had a positive influence on students’ argumentative skills. The forums forced them to choose a topic, read about it, obtain different points of view, and develop their own, therefore entering a community of practice where language accuracy was important. Students felt that it was beneficial to their intercultural competence and that it had a positive impact on their confidence to use their second language because they were able to interact with native speakers.

An International Students’ Perspective Toward Using Online Collaborative Platform to Enhance their Academic Learning Skills

“…First, as confirmed earlier, all participants perceived ODBs as an inclusive learning environment. It developed their intercultural competence and awareness, which is important to be employed in effective communication with others (Hanna & de Nooy, 2009;Ritchie & Black, 2012;Ruane & Lee, 2016). Similar to findings from previous studies (Bassett, 2011;Shana, 2009), it also offered students an opportunity to increase their confidence and expand their understanding through the exchange of thoughts with a more flexible learning environment.…”

“…Other research (Balaji & Chakrabarti, 2010;Bassett, 2011;Du, Zhang, Olinzock, & Adams, 2008;Shana, 2009;Zhang, Goa, Ring, & Zhang, 2007) has examined and explored how students' communication skills, critical thinking skills, and literacy skills and their academic achievements improve overall through ODBs. Some research (Bliss & Lawrence, 2009;Peterson-Karlan, 2011;Kessler, Bikowski, & Boggs, 2012;Lin & Yang, 2011;Ritchie & Black, 2012;Wegmann & McCauley, 2014) has focused on discovering the importance of integrating discussion boards, online chats, and Wikis into the education process. In addition, they explored how students improve in their writing skills by using Web-based boards in English writing courses, and some in many-to-many/group-to-group collaborative writing.…”

“…Findings from prior research support Lin and Yang's study investigating the public Internet discussion forum in an advanced writing class. Researchers (Ritchie & Black, 2012) found that the online public forum positively influenced students' argumentative writing skills and impacted students' intercultural competence when using their second language and interacting with native speakers. In contrast, the negative impacts of this public forum are the lack of interactivity and feedback from other participants.…”

The effects of browse time on the Internet on students’ essay scores

“…Willoughby et al asked 100 undergraduate college students to browse the Internet and then write two essays: one essay was on a highdomain topic and one essay was on a low domain topic (2009). Ritchie and Black (2012) conducted a study in which they asked their university students in a French composition course to read through Francophone forums on the Internet and respond in the forums. If students had little knowledge of the topic, the time on the Internet did not help their essay scores.…”

The Argumentative Writing Skill with Multicultural Awareness in Indonesian Language for Foreign Learners

“…As for the writing skills of argument also has been studied by researchers who give the conclusion that writing argumentation is the kind of writing that is quite difficult. Therefore it is necessary strategies to give the material the writing skills of argument (Schneer, 2014;Ritchie, 2012). The application of the model and learning strategies undertaken to improve the learning process and results.…”