Wikis as discussion forums: exploring students’ contribution and their attention to form

Abstract

The potential of wikis for learning has recently begun to capture the attention of English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) research. While students’ collaboration, attention to form, and perceptions of wikis in document mode have been widely addressed in previous research, the educational value of wikis used in thread mode, as discussion forums, has been rarely explored. In an attempt to fill this gap in the literature, the present case study reports on 20 EFL learners’ contribution to a classroom wiki during a 9-week writing course. The wiki is applied as a forum for out-of-classroom discussions regarding English writing. Focus is placed upon the type and degree of students’ contribution to the wiki as well as their attention to form while publishing their messages on the space. A total of 50 wiki posts was analyzed adopting both quantitative and qualitative measures. The results indicated that students were most likely to use the wiki for posing their questions and disseminating solutions for peers. They also appeared highly attentive to the form of their posts in terms of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. This study makes a contribution to research on wiki-based learning.

Keywords:

• wiki
• EFL learners
• attention to form
• thread mode
• document mode
• discussion forum

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fatemeh Nami

Fatemeh Nami is a TEFL major PhD candidate at Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran. She is currently teaching general and specific English courses at Alzahra University and Azad University (Shahr-e Rey Branch). Some of her current interests are CALL, CDA, and sociolinguistics on which she has presented various articles at different inter/national conferences.

S. Susan Marandi

(Seyyedeh) Susan Marandi holds a PhD degree in TEFL from the University of Tehran, and is currently an Assistant Professor of the English Department of Alzahra University, where she has established a TEFL PhD program, teaches various undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate classes, and established the first and the first CALL course in Iran. Some of her current interests are language (e-)assessment and CALL.