WIKISPACES AS A MEANS TO DEVELOP ACADEMIC WRITING SKILLS OF EFL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AND THEIR ATTITUDES TOWARDS IT.

Abstract :
This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of Wikispaces on developing the academic writing skills and its attitude of EFL University students. Fifteen student teachers from fourth year English department at Mansoura FOE represented the sample of the study. Four Instruments of the study an academic writing skills questionnaire to determine the academic writing skills necessary for the students, an academic writing skills test, an academic writing rubric and an academic writing attitude scale were used to collect the data of the study. The research was based on a one group pretest-posttest design for the selected target subject. Four academic writing skills were integrated on wikispaces in a form of an online academic writing course were administered in the treatment. The four selected academic writing skills were writing a thesis statement, summarizing, data interpretation functions and documentation. During the treatment, the participants were asked to complete four main phases with different tasks. After experimentation, the group was tested using the academic writing skills test and the Academic Writing attitude scale to compare the results with the pre-application. Findings revealed that the integration of the selected academic writing skills on wikispaces was effective in developing the participants’ academic writing performance and their attitudes towards academic writing. The participants improved considerably in, documentation; data interpretation functions; summarizing and writing a thesis statement respectively. Participants’ use of wikispaces helped them to use various internet resources to research for data, summarize, draft, document and interpretation results. That showed that wikispaces seemed to enhance the students’ academic writing skills. This study recommends using wikispaces as a tool in teaching academic writing workshops.
Keywords: Academic Writing skills, Wikispaces, Attitudes, EFL university student.
Introduction
The transmutation of technology over the last two decades directs the call of a pedagogical change within the educational settings. The internet has offered various tools which have been widely used for educational purposes. Institutions of higher education, colleges, and universities throughout the world have increasingly embraced online education which raises the number of students enrolled in distance programs. In response to these changes in enrollment demands, many universities, institutions, and organizations should work on strategic plans to implement online education.
Godwin-Jones (2003) classified the internet first and second-generations; the first includes e-mails and discussion forums but the second includes more recent tools like blogs and wikis. So, many tools enable subscribers to broadcast their ideas and create aspirations to a potentially worldwide audience. The advent of new technologies has opened new approaches for designing advanced writing programs. Consequently, Social software tools enable learners to create their personal contact spaces, share ideas, photos, videos and documents with their social community, and at a more formal level, as a serious educational resource that facilitates