Facebook: An Online Environment for Learning Coherence and Cohesion in Higher Education: The Case of Second Year Students at Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi Ouzou
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Date
2014
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou
Abstract
The current study focuses on the impact of Facebook as an online environment on learning
coherence and cohesion in higher education. It investigates whether using Facebook as an
academic tool would lead the involved participants — Second Year students of English in The
Department of English, University of Mouloud Mammeri, Tizi-Ouzou — to write more
coherent essays. It also investigates students’ cohesion and coherence problems in English as
a Foreign Language (EFL) essay writing. To reach this objective, an experimental research
design has been adopted. It involves the comparison of the essays written by a control group
(CTR) and an experimental group (EXP) during a pre- and a post-test in terms of cohesion
and coherence. An additional research tool, namely an online questionnaire has been used to
get an idea about the participants’ motivation and attitudes towards the use of Facebook as an
academic learning tool. The results obtained show significant differences between the EXP
group and the CTR group. The former made a noticeable progress concerning the different
aspects of coherence and cohesion, whereas the latter did not demonstrate a considerable
improvement. In other words, the findings validate the idea that the use of web based
instruction as an additional segment to classical in-class writing instruction is considerably
more pertinent and appropriate than writing instruction dealing exclusively with traditional
teaching
Description
66p.:ill;30cm.(+cd)
Keywords
Facebook, coherence, coherence, learning, writing, pre-test, post-test, experimental group, control group
Citation
Language and Communication