Exploring the Effect of Three Asynchronous Online Tools on Iranian EFL Learners’ Writings in a Blended Learning Setting

This paper aimed at investigating the effectiveness, together with the learners’ perceptions of three different online writing activities (forums, blogs and messengers’groups) in a blended learning course of English as a Foreign Language in one of Iran’s universities. Previous research on the use of blogs or any other asynchronous onlinewriting tools has not succeed in creating a comprehensive evaluation system, therefore in determining learning outcomes. Triangulation was fulfilled through a mixedmethodapproach using survey, interview, and text analysis. By means of the survey, it was found out that the learners have a positive attitude towards the blended learningcourse of online writing activities. Qualitative analysis of the learners’ online writings indicated some progress in terms of lexical density, style differentiation and useof collocations. The interviews signify that the learners perceived blended learning design as beneficial with regard to creating challenges for them, increasing their motivations, and adding fun to learning English.

Keywords:

Blended learning , collaborative learning , forum , blog , messengers’ groups , EFL learning