Antecedentes ideol´ ogicos del Neoliberalismo

consuming experience for both teachers and students (Spelkova & Hurst, 2008). The difficulty of teaching and even learning these skills escalates when applying a specific teaching method such as the process genre approach in different teaching

contexts/environments, and on a large number of participants who are divided into small groups. In other words, because the researcher divided the research participants randomly into six groups, with three pairs of groups for the purpose of comparison, there was a need to recruit a fellow colleague to teach two of these groups. With such help, the research objectives would hopefully be met, and its questions would be undertaken and answered accurately by being capable of assessing and measuring the outcomes of learners in the three learning contexts; a point emphasized by Thompson and Wrigglesworth (2013). Since one of any research aims is to eliminate extra variables which would jeopardize its findings, the researcher worked as a teacher for four of the groups and as a coordinator with the teacher of the other two groups. This was very important to make sure that the other teacher and the researcher covered the same textbook chapters, used the same teaching method—process genre approach—, the same supplementary materials, and required students to undertake the same writing tests, weekly assignments, and activities. The teaching and learning contexts and participants are outlined in the following:

133 3.6.1 Traditional learning context groups for level one and six students

(TLC1/TLC6).

The writing skills traditional learning context in this study means a form of education which was based on face-to-face classroom methods. In other words, all students were required to attend their writing skills class on-campus. The teacher of these groups was a professor of English writing skills in the college. The class was equipped with white and smart boards, a projector, and a PC. The teacher was asked to use the equipment when teaching (i.e., TLC1 and TLC6 groups) the writing skills. The number of participants was 15 students at level one, and 10 students at level six. Student assignments such as writing paragraphs or essays, revising their writings, correcting their fellow students’ writings, answering some of their writing skills textbooks’ exercises, and receiving feedback from the teacher were undertaken in class and at home. Based on the teacher’s and fellow students’ corrections and comments, students were asked to do multiple drafts for every single topic and submit them to the instructor by hand during their following classes.

In addition, in this type of class, students had supplementary materials and exercises (e.g., lessons and sample texts found on professional writing skills websites/books), to help them master the composition skills of argumentative and classification paragraphs/essays. Participants were told to analyze these sample texts. The analysis was to underline the words, phrases, expressions, or even sentences that students thought were worth incorporating in their forthcoming paragraphs/essays. The explanations of these words, expressions, and sentences, how to use them correctly and accurately, and other lessons were taught by the instructor in the classes.

3.6.2 Blended learning context group for level one and six students (BLC1/BLC6). The writing skills blended class in this study means a form of education which

combined face-to-face classroom methods with computer-mediated activities. In other words, the participants in this category were exposed to two different learning environments (i.e., traditional and online learning contexts). Every other week and until the end of the semester, participants (i.e., BLC1 and BLC6 groups) were taught by the researcher in either their traditional class, and all of their assignments, and activities were undertaken in class or at home, or in a cyber-environment in which their classes were held online, and all of their assignments with their requirements, and activities were undertaken online on designated blogs. A detailed description of how the online learning context works will be described

134 below. The total number of students in this category was (level one: 15 students, and level six: 10 students).

3.6.3 Online learning context groups for level one and six students (OLC1/OLC6). The writing skills online learning context in this study means a form of education which took place with computer-mediated technologies and on a website on the Internet. In other words, all students were required to follow their writing skills class online on a specialized website, which the researcher had designed with the help of a professional website-designing company. The website is entitled ‘English Online Collaborative Learning:’ (Eocl.net/#). It consists of three forums. One is ‘Forums,’ which consists of many sub-forums/blogs. For example, for both OLC1 and OLC6 groups, they have separate sub-forums i.e., ‘English

Writing Skills Level One (OLC1),’ and ‘English Writing Skills Level Six (OLC6),’ each of

which contains five child forums: course syllabus, general discussions, general questions, online classes discussions/questions, and assignments. All participants in the above groups were required to use these child forums accurately. For example, if they wanted to know the syllabi of their courses, they could browse the threads specified for them where the researcher had put copies of them in .pdf files. Furthermore, if participants wanted to discuss general issues regarding improving English language skills –especially writing-, raise some questions about them, or watch and listen again to their recorded online classes, they can do so in the designated forums.

Moreover, students were asked to do their assignments in composing paragraphs or essays, revising their writings, correcting their fellow students’ writings, and answering some of their writing skills textbook exercises on the assignment forum. They were also required to follow and take into consideration the teacher’s and fellow students’ corrections and

comments before posting their new drafts on that specific blog. Finally, in that blog students had similar extra supplementary materials and exercises to those of the traditional group students. However, the only two differences between the four groups (TLC1, and TLC6, and OLC1, and OLC6) were that the analyses undertaken by participants in the latter two groups were posted on the designated blogs, and their explanation together with the other

incorporated lessons by the instructor took place in online lectures. These lectures had been recorded, and the explanations of the analyses (i.e., on how to use the underlined words, phrases, expressions, and sentences accurately) had been put verbatim in the blog.

The second forum is ‘Chatting.’ In this section, participants have two types of synchronous computer conferencing, all of which “allow…students and instructor…to

135 interact in real time using personal computers [laptops, or smartphones] to deliver a variety of text, voice, visuals, shared applications, and videos” (Moore and Kearsley, 2012, p. 80). The first type—known to be the oldest and the simplest form—is ‘Website Chatting,’ which permits participants to interact with each other by typing text messages, and recently, posting icons of self-expressions and emotions (i.e., emoji; a Japanese word for a picture letter), recording and sending voice(s), and sending files. Yet, the highly text-form conversation within this system is “multiperson[s],” because everyone in the class can see it. The strength of this kind of chatting is that it “allow[s] question-and-answer sessions and a chance for participants to complement the more useful asynchronous communications on forums and bulletin boards with the experience of exchanging ideas spontaneously.” Nevertheless, it is not considered to be a “powerful tool for online classes” (Moore and Kearsley, 2012, p. 80). The reasons are that not only does it lack the basic elements of an effective class such as a whiteboard, but there is also an issue of learners being prevented from engaging in the

negotiation of meaning as a consequence of not being able to see each other or their instructor (Schenker, 2015). Therefore, it was obligated to use other types of synchronous computer conferencing.

The second type of computer conferencing is ‘Online sessions’ in which participants can attend their online/virtual classes. In other words, because participants were required to attend their writing skills classes online, the researcher had integrated a program called Adobe Connect within the website. Adobe Connect is simply a software designed and developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated which works on the Flash Player base, and which is used for online training/teaching materials, learning modules, and web conferencing. The software has many capabilities such as multiple meeting rooms per user, polling, file sharing, audio and video conferencing, meeting recording, screen sharing, chat, whiteboards, and notes (Adobe Systems Incorporated, 2016). Inside the online sessions’ section, participants have links with their groups’ names for their online class. The strength of this type of computer conferencing is that it will ignite “collaborative learning [between participants] that goes beyond

information exchange and necessitate moderated critical discourse to realize new and worthwhile learning” (Kaye, 1992, as cited in Garrison & Akyol, 2013, p. 104).

The third forum is ‘Videos and Audios’ in which many free videos and audios made by professional English native writing skills teachers had been uploaded, and which explain the types of lessons students were required to study. These lessons were about developing topics, supporting, and concluding sentences, and how to construct argumentative and classification paragraphs/essays. Following some of the suggestions of Naidu (2013), the researcher showed

136 “a great deal of care and consideration...[when]…selecting [only] the [appropriate] media that [would] enable the achievement of the intended learning outcomes” (p. 270). OLC1 and OLC6 group students were asked by the instructor to view these videos and audios, and to post their comments, suggestions, and questions of these clips on their designated forum(s). These students were also given permission to share only free writing-skills-related

videos/audios by uploading them on the website.

3.7 Materials and Procedures for Data Collection