The Role of Mobile-assisted Language Learning on EFL Learners’ Development of Writing Accuracy, Fluency, and Complexity

Abstract

The present study was an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) in comparison to lack of it in improving learners’ writing accuracy, fluency, and complexity. To this end, a total of 39 English as a foreign language learners took part in the study. In the experimental group, learners were exposed to technologically enhanced writing practices through the Telegram application, where they were engaged in a collaborative writing task accomplished through interaction by the peers and the teacher as group members. The control group learners, on the contrary, wrote about the same topics on the paper without any collaboration from others. The results of statistical analysis revealed that although the writing fluency and complexity of experimental learners flourished in comparison to their control peers, the accuracy dimension followed a reverse pattern. In other words, control group learners were the ones who could improve their writing accuracy.The results are discussed in light of the assumption that synchronous interaction provides learners with more opportunities to write using a syntactically complex and fluent language which are in a trade-off relation with accuracy.

Keywords

• mobile-assisted language learning (MALL)
• writing skill
• accuracy
• fluency
• complexity