A Case Study Of Students’ Perception Of The Use Of Automated Writing Evaluation Tools In And Outside EFL Classroom

Targeted at investigating Chinese learners’ perceptions of AWET-assisted Writing Instruction as both a learning tool and a formative assessment tool,probing into the factors contributing to learners’ perceptions and furthering the research of the implementation of the AWET,this study adopted a case study,which was conducted in a senior high school in Shenzhen,in China and the participants were Chinese learners studying English as a Foreign Language(EFL).The study was carried out by implementing a formative writing English writing course,which lasted for four weeks during the spring course.During the course,six Senior-Two Chinese students participated in a process writing program with the assistance of AWET.In the class,students were encouraged to select a writing topic,navigate the Internet to find relevant information,write online,evaluate their essays via PGS,and revise their works online.The data were gathered from reflective learning journals and interviews.The learners were required to write a reflective journal,concerning the knowledge,experiences and skills they gained from the course and their perceptions of the utilization of new technologies as both a learning tool and a formative assessment tool,and their feelings and preference for them in Chinese immediately after the dismissal of each class to ensure truthfulness,accuracy,and reliability of data.Two kinds of interviews were carried out.For one thing,six students were selected for follow-up interviews based on their writing proficiency.Those interviews were carried out to serve as supplement to learning journals and an effective method in understanding complex and deep issues because they gathered information that was difficult to be elaborated,including participants’ feeling and attitude,interpretation of certain events and description of previous events.The other was focus-group interviews as to expand results collected after analyzing all the learning journals.Meanwhile,the individual interviews showed that students held favorable attitudes towards using AWET as a writing tool,but were less positive concerning its use as an essay grading tool.Moreover,interview data revealed that the computer-mediated feedback had a positive effect on writing skill development,particularly in suggesting changes for form rather than for content.The results generated from the analyses of these journals and interviews indicated that in spite of some drawbacks,PGS was a helpful tool for learning writing.The students reported to a higher level of preferences of AWE-based Writing Instruction because of the following aspects: 1)Learners’ personal goals and motivation;2)Learning environment;3)Learning techniques and effect;4)The role of formative assessment within student’s learning;5)Use of feedbackApart from this,factors that might have influenced students’ perceptions were also explored by adopting GTA(grounded-theory analysis)and AD(Affinity Diagram).The results revealed that factors covered four dimensions consisting of technology,the learner,the instructor and course design.