Wiki A Tool to Enhance the Reading and Writing Skills of TOEFL Aspirants

Abstract

A single group experimental study was carried out to find out the feasibility of training TOEFL aspirants in developing their reading and writing skills with the help of the technological tool, Wiki. It was conducted on the first-year engineering students who aspired to pursue higher studies abroad and expressed their willingness to enroll themselves for an online course on TOEFL Reading and Writing. The study was planned in three phases, namely, the pre-training phase, the training phase and the post-training phase. In the pre-training phase, with the help of a questionnaire, data on the participants familiarity with the Internet and TOEFL were collected. Further a pre-test on TOEFL reading and writing was conducted to understand the existing competency level in reading and writing, in order to determine the gap in the sample s performance, identify the problems faced by them and accordingly plan the training method. Based on the analysis of the data collected (in the pre-training phase) the training phase was planned. A workspace was created at PB works Wiki and in it a 23-week training programme was designed using Scneiderheinze s (2005) adapted version of Dick and Carey (1978) model of instructional design. The training phase consisted of four modules namely preparatory module, reading module, writing module and consummatory module. In the preparatory module, orientation to the tool Wiki and TOEFL was provided. The reading and writing modules included tasks that offered exposure to the TOEFL pattern. Explicit instruction in reading strategies and the process approach to writing was provided as part of training. Learning objects, namely Slide share presentations, YouTube videos, images, web links, and avatars that are freely available over the Internet were used as instructional materials. Every week two formative assessment tests on the particular weekly lesson were conducted and the students performance was observed. Similarly, every week the students were asked to respond to a questionnaire on the newlineeffect