Use of Dialogue through E-Mail Technology in Developing Writing Skills to English as Foreign Language Learners (EFL) at Al-Imam Mohammad Ibin Saud Islamic University

Abstract

This study aims at exploring the use of dialogue through electronic mail technology in developing writing skills of the first-year English majors at Al Imam Mohammad Ibin Saud Islamic University. The sample of the study consisted of 42 male students enrolled in two sections, which were randomly selected out of five and were randomly assigned to both experimental and control groups. The subjects of the study were pretested at the beginning of the study to make sure that they were equivalent and homogenous. Afterwards, the experimental group studied the intended material via the use of dialogue through electronic mail technology in the E- Language Laboratory and the control group studied the same material in the traditional method using paper and pencil in writing about a certain topic. At the end of the experiment, the two groups were post tested using the same writing achievement test. The means of the pre and posttests for the two groups were calculated using the t-test. The results revealed significant differences between the experimental and control groups in favor of the experimental one.