The Effect of Using Hypermedia Web Browsers on EFL Students' Achievement in Writing Academic Essays

Abstract

This study assesses the effect of using hypermedia web browsers including hypertext links on EFL university students' achievement in writing academic essays in English compared to using other two writing approaches ( The product writing approach and the process writing approach). The participants of the study (108 undergraduates enrolled in Writing II Course at Al-al-Bayt University) were assigned to 3 groups: group A (36) used the product writing approach; group B (35) used the process writing approach; whereas group C (37), which was assigned as the experimental group used the hypermedia web browsers approach. Every participant in the three groups produced four essays on topics chosen from current oriented events under the required conditions of each approach. Twelve weeks later, the participants were asked to write the same three essays after implementing the experiment. Two English language instructors from the English Language Department were asked to follow the procedures and instructions of teaching this writing course. One has taught groups A and B in the classrooms using the product writing and the process writing approaches while the other taught the experimental group (group C) via using hypermedia web browsers approach in the computer lab. Means, standard deviations and ANCOVA were used for statistical analysis. Three categories of assessing the writing essays (organization, content, style and mechanics) were considered in correcting the participants' written essays. The experiment lasted for three months during the first semester of 2015/2016. The findings indicated that there were statistically significant differences in the mean scores of the post-written essays of group C due to browsing the web for relevant information on current events. Recommendations were included for pedagogical purposes in the writing courses in English for EFL students at the university level.