A Pedagogical Perspective on Promoting English as a Foreign Language Writing through Online Forum Discussions

Use of educational technologies has become increasingly significant in the field of English Language Learning. Both the teachers and students are dependent on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and its different tools for teaching and learning in particular, and socialization in general. The scope and significance of the study on the use of ICT tool such as online discussion forum in facilitating English as a foreign language teaching and learning therefore is quite relevant considering its potential in exchanging information using the target language (L2). The study included 56 participants (N=56) at post-foundation level from Al Musanna College of Technology in Oman with the objective to find out the effectiveness of online forum discussions on the learners’ EFL (English as a Foreign Language) writing performance in terms of its linguistic complexity. The experimental group (N = 28) was involved in synchronous online forum discussion, and the control group (N = 28) was engaged in asynchronous blog writing for a period of one semester. Pre-test and posttest were administered to collect quantitative data, and the participants of the experimental group were interviewed to collect the qualitative data. The post-test analysis of the quantitative data found no significant (p = 0.05) statistical difference between the groups’ writing performance in terms of linguistic complexity. However, the analysis of the qualitative data collected through interview found that the use of online forum discussion in facilitating EFL writing has much positive effect on the learning process. The findings, discussion and recommendations are included in this article.