“I can upgrade my writing power:” Online Writing in a 6th Grade EFL Classroom
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea
ABSTRACT
I recently worked as an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher in a public elementary school in Seoul, Republic of Korea. There was a large emphasis placed on English education, in the school and in Korean culture and workplace, and students are pressured to learn English from a very young age, with some students first learning English in kindergarten. In my sixth grade EFL class, writing in English was only done by copying sentences and words directly from the textbook. I decided to use Glogs, online interactive posters, to see how they would affect students’ writing skills, as well as their confidence and motivation. I used quantitative and qualitative methods over a three month period to collect data from the students and my coteacher. The data showed that students’ writing skills slightly increased, and their confidence and self-esteem in regards to writing also slightly increased. Students’ motivation initially increased, but as the intervention went on it decreased.
KEYWORDS
Online writing, writing skills, action research, glogs