Use of Google Documents in Teaching and Learning English Online to Enhance Students’ Writing Performance

Abstract

According to Richards and Renandya (2002), writing is considered as the most difficult skill for second language learners to master of putting together strings of grammatically of correct sentences. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has made the transition from the traditional face-to-face learning to online learning, which created considerable challenges for both teachers and students.

Due to the evolution of technology, there have been many useful tools such as computer-based activities and word processing used to assist students to write high–quality essays. Thus, the researchers decided to use Google Docs as one of the tools in teaching writing. The authors carried out a case study to analyze the effectiveness of using Google Docs in writing skill and also bring out the difficulties faced by using it. Besides, this study aims to investigate the students’ attitude after using Google Docs for their online course. The participants in this study were 30 first-year English non - major students in their writing lessons in the Academy of Journalism and Communication who engaged in an English online course during two months of the pandemic. Two sets of questionnaires and the analysis of writing samples combined with semi-structured interviews were conducted to determine the improvements of the students’ writing skill and their positive attitude after the course.