CHAPTER :I

TITLE : RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE

NAME : NAMIRAH BT. AHMAD BAKARY

MATRIX NO. : UK13520

PROGRAMME : BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (CHEMISTRY SCIENCE)

SEMESTER :6

LECTURER : MISS SURIAHANI BT. IBRAHIM

 Based on the book of Collaborative Learning via Email was written by Dr.

Noraien Mansor which is currently the Head of Umt Publisher and English

Language Lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Terenganu (UMT). In this book, I chose

chapter one which the title is Research Significance. In this chapter, it was

divided into four part where are The Need for Research, Objective and Scope of

the Study, Justification for the Study and Theoretical Underpinnings of the Study.

1. The Need for Research

In this part, it was explained about the need for research and in the simple

work, how important of research. This research is used to investigate the ability

of email as a tool to enhance writing in a collaborative learning environment. On

2002, Barlie and Durso state that email is not an effective means for writing

collaboratively.

So, Sigrun Biesenbach Lucas and Donald Weasonforth (2001) is tried to

make research based on the above statement, they try to investigate whether

email is good for student in academic writing or not. Consequently, in the

potential research as the evident it was had unexplored area which involve the

investigation of the four matters where are integration of collaborative learning,

email discussion, wrting process approaches and their impact on students’

writing performance.

In the classroom, computer networks have been brought as innovative for

interactive and communicative competence of second/foreign language learners

(Warschauer,1995) in the last decade. CMC is the computer-mediated

 communications which able to facilitate communication, facilitate social learning,

increase oral discussion and reduce anxiety.

The presence of study is tried to obtain an instructional technique to

explore the impact of students’ interaction and knowledge construction process

on writing performance by using email discussion. This research tried to create a

useful provision for the reference of teaching and learning in computer-mediated

collaborative learning environment.

2. Objective and Scope of the Study

Hence, the Research Significance of the mainly purpose is to evaluate the

impact of students’ interaction and knowledge construction process on ESL

students’ writing performance. In this study, there are three scope that might be

focused where are interaction,

In the communication process, there are two matters involve where are

participation and interaction. Participation focused to student that posted

message. Besides, interaction was classified into two classifications where are

task-related and not task related.

In this study, it seeks to analyze the contain of email discussion messages

to identify how the medium assists the participants in the process of constructing

knowledge. In 2003, Pena-Shaff and Nicols was developed new method to

analyze the content of message by derivation from categories where are

question, reply, classification, interpretation, conflict, assertion, concencus

building, judgement, reflection and support.

 In 2000, Noraien and Sharon is developed a marking scheme to evaluate

writing performance which is called Academic Writing Skills course that been

starting since the year 2000 at KUSTEM and now UMT.

3. Justification for the Study

This study is did to increase the use of information communication and

technology (ICT) in the educational system due to the Malaysian government’s

aspiration. So, Malaysia plans for higher capacity for its educational ICT

infrastructure which is called School-Net from 1 Mbps up to 2 Mbps. Due to the

increasing of facilities that been given to improve the ICT in Malaysia such as

build of 4500 of computer laboratories and set up 250 Rural Internet Centres

(RIC), Ministry of Education, schools and higher learning institution must plan for

the integration of technologies in Malaysia educational system specifically to

increase the use of ICT in language teaching and learning.

This research also has been done because its significance in language

teaching and learning and email a form of asynchronous CMC is a medium of

real communication between student and teacher and it give a lot of advantages.

Email also give the students an oppurtinity to communicate with many student

and share information.

4. Theoretical Underpinnings of the Study

This study had provided a content of analysis technique to evaluate the

computer-mediated communication messages from email discussion. For this

study, the case study is based on social constructivist theory investigating the

students’ interaction activity and the knowledge construction process of students

using email to discuss a writing task. When the students discussed their ideas,

experience and perception with the peers, the learning become more effective.

Therefore, this research is important to make the learning of English

especially in writing performance by using email is interactive and innovative.