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Computer Assisted Language Learning

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Improving English as a foreign language

writing in elementary schools using
mobile devices in familiar situational
contexts
a

Wu-Yuin Hwang , Holly S.L. Chen , Rustam Shadiev , Ray

b

Yueh-Min Huang & Chia-Yu Chen

Graduate Institute of Network Learning Technology, National

Central University , Jhongli City , Taiwan (R.O.C.) , Taoyuan
County
b

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Department of Engineering Science , National Cheng Kung

University , Tainan City , Taiwan (R.O.C.)
c

Institute for Information Industry , Taipei , Taiwan (R.O.C.)

Published online: 16 Oct 2012.

To cite this article: Wu-Yuin Hwang , Holly S.L. Chen , Rustam Shadiev , Ray Yueh-Min Huang &
Chia-Yu Chen (2014) Improving English as a foreign language writing in elementary schools using
mobile devices in familiar situational contexts, Computer Assisted Language Learning, 27:5,
359-378, DOI: 10.1080/09588221.2012.733711
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2012.733711

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Computer Assisted Language Learning, 2014

Vol. 27, No. 5, 359378, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2012.733711

Improving English as a foreign language writing in elementary schools

using mobile devices in familiar situational contexts

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Wu-Yuin Hwanga, Holly S.L. Chena, Rustam Shadievb*, Ray Yueh-Min Huangb
and Chia-Yu Chenc
a
Graduate Institute of Network Learning Technology, National Central University, Jhongli City,
Taoyuan County, Taiwan (R.O.C.); bDepartment of Engineering Science, National Cheng Kung
University, Tainan City, Taiwan (R.O.C.); cInstitute for Information Industry, Taipei, Taiwan
(R.O.C.)

This research proposed a situational learning system to help elementary school

students practice and improve their English as a foreign language (EFL) writing
skills. Students carried out assigned writing tasks using the support of mobile
devices in situations deemed to be familiar to the students, such as on the school
playground, within classroom facilities, and at lunch. The study recruited 59 sixthgrade students from two separate EFL classes. A class of 28 students was identied
as the experimental group, and another class of 31 students was assigned as the
control group. The students of the experimental group carried mobile devices to
carry out EFL writing assignments within specic and familiar subject environments, stimulating real-life situations or contexts. The results of the experiment
indicated a signicant dierence in learning achievement between the two groups.
Students in the experimental group perceived the designed activities to be fun; thus,
they were more inclined to maintain interest in situated learning scenarios.
Furthermore, based on interviews with participating students from both groups, we
found that the activities presented within familiar contexts, and supported by our
proposed EFL writing system, inspired students to not only write more sentences,
but to describe the target objects clearly and thoroughly.
Keywords: situated learning; familiar context; mobile learning; EFL writing

Introduction
In todays world, interaction in English as a foreign language (EFL) is becoming
increasingly frequent. English is one of the worlds primary languages; the default
language of activities such as international conferences is English. In the Asia-Pacic
region, governments of countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan,
and Taiwan emphasize the importance of English prociency (Nunan, 2003).
Guilherme (2007) pointed out that the ability to be procient in the English language
is crucial for sustaining a competitive edge on an international scale.
Over the last 10 years, the Taiwanese Ministry of Education has established
English-learning environments for situated learning such as the English Village

*Corresponding author. Email: rustamsh@gmail.com

2012 Taylor & Francis

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W.-Y. Hwang et al.

(Kelch, 2010, pp. 3739). The goal of the English Village is to improve language
skills for elementary school students, especially to enhance English communication
skills such as listening and speaking. However, solely focusing on these two skills is
not enough because language achievement depends on the well-balanced development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing abilities (Lerstrom, 1990). In order
to balance English learning goals, students must become adept at language skills
such as constructing sentences, writing tasks (Chuang, 2006), reading aloud
(Grimshaw, Dungworth, McKnight, & Morris, 2007), and reading peers writing
and correcting any identied errors (Yeh & Lo, 2009).
Most language writing programs are implemented in junior high school (Tsui &
Ng, 2000) or high school (Ferris, Pezone, Tade, & Tinti, 1997). However, researchers
have found that elementary school students are at a suitable developmental stage for
learning a second language (Butler & Hakuta, 2008). Furthermore, writing plays a
prominent role in second language acquisition (Harklau, 2002). The literature
suggests it is not easy to design writing tasks for EFL novice learners as elementary
school students have to work hard to complete writing tasks, even if tasks are
conducted in their mother language. Thus, how to make EFL writing tasks
interesting and engaging for novice learners is a challenge for any instructor. In this
study we tried to enhance the basic writing skills of EFL elementary school students
by inviting them to accomplish writing tasks in familiar contexts. Learners could
accomplish writing not only in the classroom but outside of it; they could get insight
of a specic and familiar environment with real-life situation or context and describe
it in English.
Writing processes include tasks such as planning, drafting, and revising (Arslan
& Sahin-Kzl, 2010; Sun, 2007). Planning is often dened as the initial stage in the
writing process. After a learner has assembled some ideas about content, he/she will
write a rst version which can be polished later after receiving feedback from peers.
Previous studies have reported that contextual learning can promote students
motivation (Dornyei, 2003), and the rich visual resources, which derive from
context-based learning scenarios, will help students learn to write (Vincent, 2001).
Lan, Sung, and Chang (2007) and Stockwell (2007) revealed that mobile devices are
convenient tools for students to use to conduct a wide range of activities, particularly
for tasks involving learning English within certain contextual constraints. According
to Hwang and Chen (in press), a mobile device can help EFL students, particularly
novices, to extend learning and practicing EFL to outside of the classroom
environment by working in familiar situational contexts. Thus, learning becomes not
only a deliberate event or situation but it takes place spontaneously in learners daily
lives. Mobile devices are easy to carry into real contexts and they provide learning
content (i.e. pictures, voices, vocabularies, and sentences) based on contexts (Hwang,
Wu, & Su, 2008; Lu, 2008). Therefore, mobile devices were used in this study to help
elementary school students with sentence construction and basic writing in familiar
situational contexts.
This study proposed a system that used mobile devices to facilitate situated
writing tasks for EFL elementary school students. This novel system also provided
writing support: subject-related vocabulary words, a help with sentence patterns, and
the opportunity for students to take pictures of items they wrote about in given
situated writing activities. Moreover, students were encouraged to read peers writing
in familiar situational contexts and provide comments, which opened up more
opportunities to engage the students in situated writing activities.

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The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, this study sought to propose a
writing system and to design situated writing activities for EFL elementary school
students to support their writing tasks. Second, this study was conducted to
empirically determine if the proposed system and designed activities could lead to
more eective writing. The following points of interest were researched:
(1) Explore the impact on students learning achievement while using the
proposed system.
(2) Investigate students perception of the proposed system and activities, their
intention to use the proposed system in their writing, and the relationship of
students perception and their intention.
(3) Analyze system usage in situated writing scenarios, follow-up commenting
and writing support, and the impact on learning achievement.
Literature review
English writing for beginners
Literature on development of English writing shows that children are ready to
acquire writing skills since early childhood; no matter whether they are native or
non-native English-speaking children (Butler & Hakuta, 2008; Samway, 1992).
Therefore more and more students start to learn EFL at a very early age (Butler &
Hakuta, 2008; Curtain & Dahlberg, 2004; Hwang & Chen, in press; Lan et al.,
2007; Matsuda & De Pew, 2002). This notion suggests that more attention needs to
be paid to research related to early EFL writing which will greatly contribute to
the development of theory and practice of the eld (Matsuda & De Pew, 2002).
The research results of the National Writing Project (US) (2003) indicated that
writing skills attained in early childhood will be engendered through painting,
conversations, spelling development, and picture stories. The research has also
shown that EFL students, who complete writing practice exercises at an early stage,
perform well in English writing afterwards. As writing is a formative capability,
writing skills are created by practicing and learning through experience (Myles,
2002). Therefore, it is important to oer students writing practice exercises at an
early stage of their development (Curtain & Dahlberg, 2004). To enhance writing
skills, schools are strongly recommended not only to allow students to practice more
(Canado, 2010; Johns, Lee, & Wang, 2008), but also to provide rich and diverse
writing materials in the face of learning challenges (Arslan & Sahin-Kzl, 2010). For
primary learners, lack of inspiration is a common obstruction. Therefore,
instructional learning materials need to be developed which may enrich a students
life experience.
In order to evaluate writing of students research conducted in Ontario, Canada
(Cheng & Myles, 2003; Ministry of Education and Training, 1999) has recommended
certain criteria. The criteria used to evaluate the work of rst to eighth grade
elementary students in Ontario, Canada (Ministry of Education and Training, 1999)
have been modied to include four dimensions: Reasoning, Communication,
Organization, and Convention.
In this research project, the design of writing activities is based on real situations.
Through existing real-world entities, the writing topics are created with rich visual
resources, which help the students to write. In turn, the motivation and thinking of
EFL students are stimulated.

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Situated language learning

There are relationships between real-world, living-related scenarios, and knowledge
learning. Students require familiar contexts to support learning (Hwang & Chen, in
press). When students understand that knowledge can be acquired in the contextual
scenarios, they will be more inclined to learn and, in turn, apply that knowledge to
solving problems in daily life (Hwang, Shadiev, & Huang, 2011). This kind of
circular interrelation forms a progression model. Herrington and Oliver (2000)
claimed that situated learning environments maintain some critical characteristics,
such as: (1) provide authentic contexts that reect the way the knowledge will be
used in real life; (2) provide authentic activities that have real-world relevance, and
which present complex tasks to be completed over a sustained period of time, rather
than a series of shorter disconnected examples; (3) create an opportunity for the
sharing of narratives and stories and access to learners in various levels of expertise;
(4) promote reection; and (5) provide for authentic assessment of learning within
the tasks. According to Collins (1988), the situated learning approach emphasizes
teaching knowledge and skills in contexts that reect how the knowledge will be used
in real life situations. Additionally, situated learning can cultivate creativity and
students can realize the meaning of knowledge. Lave and Wenger (1991) have
emphasized the importance of learning taking place in a specic context; they argued
that learning is context-related. As for learning English, Hwang and Chen (in press)
and Hwang et al. (2011) claimed it is also signicantly inuenced by situations.
However, learning which takes place in classrooms nowadays is abstract and
disconnected from real-life scenario.
According to Hwang and Chen (in press), a mobile device can help EFL students,
particularly novices, to extend learning and practicing EFL to outside of the
classroom environment by working in familiar situational contexts. That is the
boundaries of the classroom can be extended through mobile learning, enabling
continuous learning under suitable and motivational situations. Students can apply
what has been learnt in class or from textbooks in real-life situations, thus, learning
becomes not only a deliberate event or situation but it continues outside of the
classroom by taking place spontaneously in learners daily lives. A mobile device
enables students to conduct a wide range of activities, particularly for tasks involving
learning English within certain contextual constraints. A mobile device is easy to
carry into real contexts, it provides learning material (i.e. pictures, voices/sounds,
vocabularies, and etc.), it allows creating, recording, sharing content (i.e. narratives
and stories), and also accessing content of learners with various levels of expertise.
Furthermore, the familiar context can help learners reect on what they learnt as
they are able to contact that familiar context frequently. The concept of combining
mobile learning and context-aware learning promotes the idea of continuous
learning (Hwang & Chen, in press). Students can benet from applying the
knowledge obtained during traditional course teaching and learning in outside of
classroom scenarios. In short, by combining the concepts of mobile learning and
situated learning, students can reach a point of continuous learning in any
scenario that benets from learning under course and peer instruction. However,
recent evidence suggests that research on mobile devices is mostly focused on
reading, listening, and speaking skills (Hwang & Chen, in press; Hwang et al., 2008;
Lan et al., 2007; Lu, 2008; Stockwell, 2007). In this research, we focused on
improving EFL learners writing skills through situated writing activities.
Elementary school students are surrounded by familiar situations situations they

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363

would nd themselves in on a daily basis with mobile devices. The students describe
objects from multiple angles through eld observations and then they provide
comments to peers using high-level thinking skills. They compare, communicate,
think critically, and engage in interactions that stimulate a motivated learning
environment.

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Meaningful comments
Peer feedback is dened as an evaluation method wherein a group of learners who
share similar learning experiences or backgrounds (i.e. learners who are in the same
year of study or in the same class) evaluate one anothers work (Topping, 1998).
Learners give feedback on their peers work based on analytical thinking,
comparisons, and communication (Arslan & Sahin-Kzl, 2010; Loewen & Erlam,
2006). Learners of a similar age or learning experience can understand their peers
questions and learning diculties (Fallows & Chandramohan, 2001). Most scholars
regard positively the application of peer feedback in an educational setting. It can
inspire learning and stimulate high-level thinking to achieve more eective results
(Topping, 1998). Additionally, peer feedback during the prewriting phase can
prompt a higher degree of student autonomy (Yang, Badger, & Yu, 2006). In recent
years, more research has applied peer feedback as a mechanism to evaluate primary
and secondary English writing skills (Yeh & Lo, 2009). It has been observed that
peer feedback can increase learners interest; therefore, teachers should provide
opportunities for their students to engage in such activities.
Pairing network technology with the peer feedback activity not only reduces
waste by eliminating the need for traditional pens and paper, but it also records the
learning path and stores every learners feedback through the use of a computers
recording capability. Furthermore, enabling learners to give expressive anonymous
feedback using a system encourages their openness and honesty; learners try to post
comments with meaningful content since they do not need to concern themselves
about whether their identity can be revealed, thus increasing overall reliability and
validity of their feedback.
Using mobile devices to elicit peer feedback not only takes advantage of
computer capabilities, but it also engages the characteristics of ubiquitous
computing. Learners can attain higher performance with the exibility to move
between their learning environments, engage in face-to-face interaction, and directly
communicate with peers (Liu & Sadler, 2003).
Stanley (1992) developed a four-step procedure to improve peer commentary
when discussing how to make students become better peer reviewers. These steps
were developed from an inductive analysis of diverse oral communicative behaviors
found to help shape peer revision in previous training studies and to help examine
peer negotiation. The rst step involves clarifying the writers intention: reviewers try
to get further explanation of what writers have said or what is not clear to them in
the writing. The second step includes identifying the problem: reviewers announce a
problematic word, phrase, sentence, or cohesive gap. The third step concerns
explaining the nature of the problem(s): reviewers explain why they think a given
term, idea, or organization is unclear or problematic (and why something should or
should not be used in the writing). The fourth and nal step requires making
suggestions: reviewers suggest ways to revise the words, content, and organization of
the writing.

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Many primary EFL learners have issues with initiating eective peer comments.
Since primary learners have limited capabilities with vocabulary terms, sentence
types, and writing, identifying a way to help them comment on peers writing in real
scenarios is important yet challenging. Primary learners need positive writing
support structures, such as vocabulary libraries and sentence-type libraries. In this
research, situated peer comment activities are designed to enable learners to view
peers writings and to comment on them through mobile devices. According to the
four steps proposed by Stanley, the real context helps primary learners clarify the
authors intention and verify the topic. Learners observing the real context can easily
identify problems in peers writings and then give more specic suggestions for
improvement to peers in the comments.
Research design
This study used between-group, a quasi-experimental design, following the general
recommendations of Creswell (2008). The experimental group used our proposed
system to facilitate the English writing exercise in familiar contexts. The control
group, on the other hand, used a paper-and-pen-based method to carry out EFL
writing with picture support in the classroom. In this study we explore the impact of
using the proposed system on experimental students learning achievement by
evaluating dierences in learning achievement of the control and experimental
groups. We investigated perceptions of the experimental group toward using the
system and activities by administering a questionnaire survey. We also evaluated the
relationship between learners perceptions and intention to use the system. Finally
we analyzed learners system usage for situated writing, providing comments, and
writing support, and their relationship with learning achievement. The relationship
among variables was tested using various statistical methods discussed in the
following sections.
Research structure and research variables
We conducted one quasi-experiment (Creswell, 2008). Two classes participated in
this study: one class was identied as the experimental group and the other class was
identied as the control group. The experimental group used our proposed system to
facilitate their English writing exercises in familiar contexts. The control group
employed a traditional paper-and-pen based method with related pictures for their
EFL writing. In this study the same teacher has instructed both groups using the
same teaching materials. However, the English writing exercises were conducted by
students dierently. We wanted to explore whether there is signicant dierence
between the students learning achievement after the experiment.
Furthermore, this research studies the relationships of research variables of users
perceptions with intention to use the system and then it discusses the reasons behind
the participants perceptions. Figure 1 shows research variables of this study.
According to the denition of Davis (1989), a systems ease-of-use is related to
the degree of users who perceive that the proposed system is easy to use. This gure
is estimated by questionnaires in the research. A systems usefulness is related to
the degree a user believes our system could increase the performance of English
learning. Activity usefulness is dened as the degree of a users perception that our
activity could help them learn English. Activity playfulness indicates that a user is

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Computer Assisted Language Learning 365

Figure 1.

Structure of research variables in the study.

interested in and enjoys the activities to learn English. The users intention to use
is dened as a users intention to use our proposed system in the research. System
usage is related to the number of times a user actually employs the proposed system
during the research experiment.
The following six research variables related to students EFL writing activity
were determined in this study:
(1) Writing about objects: number of writings about objects related to particular
topic (e.g. the whiteboard in the topic of classroom facilities).
(2) Number of sentences: total number of sentences in a students writing.
(3) Useless comment: number of comments unrelated to topic.
(4) Encouragement comment: number of encouraging comments.
(5) Useful comment: number of helpful comments.
(6) Writing support: number of students using writing support. The writing
support for conventions in English includes vocabulary about objects in
contexts, as well as related paradigms including adjectives, adverbs, and
sample sentences.
Writing performance represents a learners performance using an English
language learning system under familiar contexts. We modied the existing rubrics
for evaluating writing skills of elementary school students (Ministry of Education
and Training, 1999). In this experiment we used four dimensions: reasoning,
communication, organization, and convention.
(1) Reasoning represents whether or not the writing is on topic.
(2) Communication reects whether or not the purpose of a specic writing
exercise is clear and interesting. Also within the scope of this criterion is
whether or not dierent sentence patterns are used in the writing.

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W.-Y. Hwang et al.

(3) Organization stands for whether common ideas mentioned in specic writing
are grouped together.
(4) Convention represents whether the grammar, spelling, and punctuation used
in the writing are accurate and appropriate.

Learning achievement represents the outcome of a learning activity. In this

research, learning achievement was measured using a score of a learners post-test.
The post-test is designed by an elementary school teacher using teaching material.

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Participation
Two classes, totaling 59 sixth-grade elementary school students (12 or 13 years old)
participated in our experiment. One class of 28 students was employed as the
experimental group. The other class of 31 students was employed as the control
group. Participants shared similar cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds.
According to observations from the instructor, who taught the students for
approximately 2 years, most students believed the school was a good learning
community. These students were not only involved in school activities, but they also
had positive interactions, such as helping one another or constructing knowledge
collaboratively.
The experimental group used our proposed system to facilitate the English
writing exercise in familiar situated contexts. The control group, on the other hand,
used a paper-and-pen-based method to carry out EFL writing with picture support
in the classroom. Both classes were provided with English language writing support
such as vocabulary, phrase and sentence examples. The experimental groups
support was pre-installed in the system. The control groups support was paperbased. For the control group, pictures related to writing subjects were provided.
During the experiment, the two groups had the same teacher and teaching materials
for their English classes, only the English writing exercises were conducted
dierently.
Experimental design
The experiment started in November 2010 and the participants met three times a
week, for a total of one and a half months. Participants had seven classes (45 min
each class) every week for learning English. Four of them were regular classes when
learners read text and the instructor taught them new vocabulary, about creating
sentences, grammar, etc. Then three classes which were allocated for situated writing
activities followed. The activities of the experiment included three situated subjects:
classroom, meal, and playground. Each situated subject could be divided into two
stages. During the rst stage learners visited real-world, life-related environment (i.e.
familiar contexts) where they were engaged in situated real-time writing with mobile
devices. During the second stage learners were engaged in peer commentary exercises
with mobile devices in the same familiar context. The situated writing activities were
90 min in duration, and the situated comment activities were 70 min in duration.
Each subject ran for 2 weeks, with three experiments per week, totaling 160 min. The
entire experiment spanned 6 weeks. Applying mobile devices to specic subject
environments, which were stimulated by situations and providing support for writing
tasks were the major activities of the rst 2 days of each week. After the data from

Computer Assisted Language Learning 367

each mobile device were synchronized, learners proceeded to the peer comment
phase using the mobile devices in accordance with content written by peers in specic
subject environments. The two stages of the English writing activities are described
below.

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Situated writing
The three situated subjects the classroom, mealtime, and the playground were the
learners daily venues for studying and playing. Cross-eects exist between real
situations and knowledge learning (Hwang & Chen, in press; Hwang et al., 2011).
Students require familiar, real-context support to learn. After understanding the
knowledge concept that can be found in a given context, a learner can apply it in his
or her daily life to solve problems (Hwang, Yeh, & Lee, 2003). Learners can
determine a writing topic which they nd interesting. As shown in Figure 2, while
logged in to the mobile device, learners can view the map of this subject. Once a
specic topic is identied, the learner can create a writing record by clicking on a
corresponding location. Taking pictures of specic objects related to the writing
topic and uploading attachments is actually the beginning of writing. The
corresponding mission explanations, vocabulary, phrases, and writing samples are
provided by the mobile devices. Learners can look up support in real-time. When
nished, this step is saved and learners proceed to the next record insertion.
Situated comments
Before the commentary stage, instruction is provided to teach learners how to read a
peers writing and how to give comments appropriately within the four dimensions:
reasoning (determined by whether or not words and expressions used in writing
contents match the subject); communication (whether or not the writing content
applies a vivid statement or self-perceived point of view); organization (the degree of
uency or continuity of expressed content); or convention (whether there are
spelling, grammar, punctuation, or caption mistakes in the writing content). The
experiment targets primary English writers and the purpose of the evaluation activity
is to give comments to other learners in a familiar situation to facilitate the
development of high-level thinking abilities. Therefore, the language itself is not the
primary concern; the comments are mainly written in Chinese. The system enabled
learners to give expressive anonymous feedback which encouraged their openness

Figure 2. Experimental activities. (a) Map of subject in the mobile devices. (b) Situated
writing. (c) Situated comment.

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W.-Y. Hwang et al.

and honesty. That is learners tried to post comments with meaningful content since
they do not need to concern themselves about whether their identity can be revealed,
thus increasing overall reliability and validity of their feedback. After synchronizing
the writing content to each mobile device, learners can view the comments and
pictures written by peers. This can be done based on subject or content, and then
learners may proceed to peers comments based on their contexts.

Research tools

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The system for situated learning to write in English

The system architecture is shown in Figure 3. The operation of the database in a
situated English learning system consists of database synchronization and database
reconstruction. When the mobile clients connect to the Internet, the students can
initiate database synchronization or database reconstruction through a synchronizing agent. The function of database synchronization is to synchronize data between
mobile devices and the database server to reach information consistency using a
synchronizing agent to compare the data. There are multiple mobile users with one
database server. The modication of the learners writing content and the attached
photos, available oine (through the local database), will synchronize to the serverside during database synchronization to enable learners to receive the latest
information, and vice-versa.
As for database reconstruction, if the local database in a mobile system is missing
or corrupted, learners can reconstruct a database from the server-side. This is
extremely important for information backup and recovery. However, if the
connection is disrupted during database synchronization or reconstruction, it will
lead to an incomplete and damaged database that cannot be accessed. The database
recovery mechanisms provided in the system constitute the database reconstruction.
To sustain continuity, the whole server-side data must be synchronized to local
databases.
Before the activities start, the map, mission instructions, vocabulary, and writing
samples will be synchronized to the local databases according to a particular topic,
shown in Figure 4. Each learner can browse the topic and map after logging in with a
proper ID and password. The information helps learners to understand how to

Figure 3.

System architecture.

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Computer Assisted Language Learning

369

Figure 4. Situated writing and situated comments. (a) Main screen. (b) Writing support for
writing tasks. (c) Double-click the nodes to read the content. (d) Provide comments and
suggestions.

complete the mission of a given week. The proposed system provides examples of the
mission instructions, vocabulary, and writing.
(1) Situated writing
The rst step in this process is to click Add Writing and select the
corresponding location of the contents in the map. The contents are not
restricted to text form. Learners can take pictures and attach them to the
writing to increase the richness of the experience.
(2) Situated comments
Before processing peer comments, the server-side database is synchronized to
each local database to let learners read peers writing exercises. After
choosing a selected topic, or a peers ID, only corresponding content will
appear in the map. Learners can read the content and view pictures by
double-clicking the icon. Also, learners can provide comments and
suggestions by clicking Reply or View All Comments to read all
information provided by peers.
Questionnaire
The questionnaire was designed as a general survey of 70 items, in accordance with
the Likert ve-point format (i.e. Strongly Agree, Agree, Undecided, Disagree,
Strongly Disagree). The questionnaire consisted of ve subscales including system
ease of use, system usefulness, activity playfulness, activity usefulness and
intention to use. The questionnaires dimensions were based on the theory (and
previous research) of design (Davis, 1989; Potosky, 2002; Woszczynski, Roth, &
Segars, 2002).
All items of the research questionnaire were derived from the questionnaire of
our past research (Lu, 2008). Some puzzling or ambiguous items were modied,
removed, and arranged in accordance with experts comments regarding proper

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procedure. Before asking students to ll in the questionnaire, two elementary school

teachers provided comments to ensure their students understood the questionnaire
items. We then modied the questionnaire again. The questionnaires were given to
28 students in the experimental class, and 28 completed questionnaires were received
(100% return rate).
The study used the reliability analysis function of the Statistical Package for the
Social Sciences (SPSS) software package to analyze the internal reliability of the
questionnaire. The results indicate that the reliability of the questionnaire is
suciently high (total 0.971). Details are shown in Table 1.
Writing rubrics
Writing performance represents the learners performance in using the English
language learning system within certain contexts. We discussed and modied existing
rubrics for evaluating writing (Ministry of Education and Training, 1999) with an
English elementary school teacher to suit the purposes of this study. The evaluation
criteria of the four dimensions are as follows:
(1) Reasoning represents whether the writing is on topic or not. Using
supporting details that enhance the description is another criterion to
evaluate in this dimension. Therefore, in this research, the criteria (what,
appearance, position/taste, feeling/function of described objects) are applied
as the evaluating indices.
(2) Communication refers to whether the purpose of a specic writing exercise is
clear and interesting. The use of various sentence patterns also belongs to the
scope of this criterion. Therefore, in this research, the amount of adjectives
and the number of varying sentence patterns are applied as the evaluating
indices.
(3) Organization refers to whether common ideas used in a specic writing
exercise are grouped together. In this research, if the writer divides his writing
into three parts: beginning, middle, and end, then he get credits in this
dimension. Additionally, whether or not conjunctions are used is another
criterion.
(4) Convention represents whether the grammar, spelling, and punctuation used
in the writing are accurate and appropriate. In this research, the number of
errors corresponding to grammar, spelling, and punctuation are applied as
evaluating indices.
Table 1.

Reliability of the questionnaire.

Dimension

Value

System ease of use

System usefulness
Activity playfulness
Activity usefulness
Situated writing
Situated comment
Intention to use
Total

0.875
0.858
0.920
0.933
0.880
0.870
0.900
0.971

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371

Results and discussion

This section is divided into ve subsections. The variables of the research and the
results of the questionnaires were analyzed with SPSS 12.0. They are presented
below.

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Comparison of the experimental group and the control group in learning

achievement
A pre-test was prepared and given to all participants before the situated writing
experiment. According to the descriptive statistics of the pre-test, the experimental
group scored higher (mean 52.50) than the control group (mean 50.16). In
examining the mean score dierences between the experimental and control groups,
the t-test procedure indicated no signicant dierences between the two groups for
the pre-test (p-value (0.764) 4 0.05). The results suggested that students in both
groups performed similarly in writing sentences in English.
After the experiment, a post-test was given to evaluate whether the
experimental group performed better in writing sentences in English than the
control group. Results of the post-test revealed that the experimental group
attained a higher value (mean 74.29) than the control group (mean 55.52). The
results of the t-test further showed that the experimental group scored signicantly
higher than the control group (p-value (0.001) 5 0.01). This implies that
students in the experimental group could achieve more academically than the
control group.
The scores of the post-test consisted of four parts, including reasoning, communication, organization, and convention. The results of a mixed design ANOVA
analysis further showed that the interaction eect was signicant (p-value
(0.000) 5 0.01) between the two groups and the four parts of the post-test
(group 6 post-test). The study then ran the simple main eect test. The analysis of
the homogeneity of variance listed the value (p-value (0.007) 5 0.01) for reasoning,
(p-value (0.000)  0.01) for communication, (p-value (0.187) 4 0.05) for organization, and (p-value (0.070) 4 0.05) for convention. This analysis implied that
reasoning and communication belonged to heterogeneity and organization and
convention belonged to homogeneity. That is, the variances of reasoning and
communication are dierent signicantly. Table 2 and 3 list the descriptive statistics
and the results of simple main eects.
According to Table 3, the within-subject eects of both the experimental group
and the control group were signicant. Moreover, the between-subject eects for the
dimensions of reasoning, communication, and organization were signicant. The
results of this study also conrmed that the experimental group strived to make
sentences that described objects in a contextual setting more than the control group

Table 2.

The descriptive statistics about the post-test.

Reasoning

Communication

Organization

Convention

Groups

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

Experimental group
Control group

19.36
14.52

4.183
6.722

20.96
11.97

3.283
6.210

17.54
14.29

4.811
6.225

16.43
14.71

5.189
6.599

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did in the classroom. In terms of reasoning, communication, and organization of the

writing, the experimental group wrote sentences that were relevant to the subject,
and they used more adjectives and varying sentence patterns. The experimental
group also structured their writing exercises in several paragraphs to facilitate better
reader comprehension. The experimental results of this study revealed that the
experimental group performed signicantly better than the control group. Thus, it
can be surmised that the students who used the proposed system in familiar
situations can create better sentences and, in turn, they achieve a better mastery of
basic writing skills.
The relationship of students perceptions and intention to use
A multiple linear regression was used in this analysis. As the results show, the value
of the Pearson correlation is 0.462** (p 5 0.01) system ease of use; 0.761***
(p 5 0.001) system usefulness; 0.855*** (p 5 0.001) activity playfulness; and
0.612*** (p 5 0.001) activity usefulness. That is, signicant relationships exist
among these variables. By the stepwise method of linear regression, the activity
playfulness predictor can explain 72.1% of the variety and it can anticipate 85.5%
of the intention to use. The results are displayed in Table 4.
According to the results from the questionnaire analysis, most students thought
that the designed activities were playful and they were interested in situated
learning. Moreover, these activities inspired the students of the experimental group
to make sentences describing the target object in a contextual setting, which
improved their performance in learning English. These students intend to
participate in the designed activities to continue learning English. Most students
thought that the proposed system was useful for them in situated
learning. Additionally, most students also thought that the proposed system was
easy to use.

Table 3.

The results of simple main eects.

Within-subject eect
Experimental group
Control group
Between-subject eect
Reasoning
Communication
Organization
Convention

SS

df

MS

336.214
152.452

3
3

112.071
50.817

38.913***
11.208***

0.000
0.000

344.779
1190.746
154.954
43.468

1
1
1
1

344.779
1190.746
154.954
43.468

10.750**
46.875***
4.942*
1.219

0.002
0.000
0.030
0.274

Notes: *p 5 0.05, **p 5 0.01, ***p 5 0.001.

Table 4.

Prediction of intention to use with multiple linear regression.

Predictor
Activity playfulness
Note: ***p 5 0.001.

R2

Adjusted R2

0.732

0.721

70.900***

1.071

0.855

8.420***

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The situated writing performance and the eect on learning achievement

As Vincent (2001) pointed out, students writing outcomes grew in volume and
linguistic complexity when they were oered the opportunity to use visually rich
technology such as animation features of the software. Due to visually rich
multimedia and environments, students tried to describe the diversity of objects
through observation in given contexts.
Table 5 lists the descriptive statistics about the amount of objects writings, the
amount of sentences, the average number of sentences per each writing, writing
performance as it pertains to reasoning, writing performance as it pertains to
communication, writing performance as it pertains to organization, writing
performance as it pertains to convention, and the writing performance sum. Results
showed that students could describe 11.46 objects, including 50.68 sentences in
situated writing activities. That is, students characterized each object using about
4.20 sentences.
A multiple linear regression was used to analyze the students writing performance in the situated writing activities. As the results show, the value of the
Pearson correlation is 0.757*** (p 5 0.001) for reasoning; 0.799*** (p 5 0.001) for
communication; 0.699*** (p 5 0.001) for organization; and 0.569** (p 5 0.01) for
convention. Signicant relationships exist among these variables. By the stepwise
method of linear regression, the predictor is communication, which can explain
62.4% of the variety and it can anticipate 79.9% of the post-test scores. The results
are displayed in Table 6.
According to the results of interviews, most students preferred to make sentences in
familiar situations because they just described what they saw. The resources in familiar
situation decreased students anxieties about what would they write. The experimental
results revealed that students depicted an object using about four sentences. The
students work increased in volume and linguistic complexity. Additionally, results
conrmed that students could present detailed descriptions via observation in set
contexts. The results supported the idea that the students who used the proposed
system in familiar situations provided more detailed descriptions and the volume of
new vocabulary words and sentences used increased. The students linguistic
complexity also increased; they used more adjectives, conjunctions, and sentence
Table 5.

Descriptive statistics about writing performance in situated writing activities.

Writing
about Number of
Writing
objects sentences Average Reasoning Communication Organization Convention performance
Min
3
Max
25
Sum
321
Mean 11.46

Table 6.

3
147
1419
50.68

1.00
7.27
117.49
4.20

10.13
24.30
452.54
16.16

11.82
24.70
486.18
17.36

5.54
24.53
401.82
14.35

5.47
24.61
430.24
15.37

34.51
97.79
1770.78
63.24

Prediction of learning achievement with situated writing activities.

Predictor
Communication
Note: ***p 5 0.001.

R2

Adjusted R2

0.638

0.624

45.876***

3.104

0.799

6.773***

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W.-Y. Hwang et al.

patterns to portray a diversity of objects through observation in given contexts. Since

the experimental results of this study revealed that communication could anticipate
79.9% of the post-test scores, the results also supported the position that it is helpful to
use more adjectives, conjunctions, and sentences. In other words, by increasing the
opportunities to practice using adjectives, conjunctions, and sentence patterns,
students learning acquisition in English writing can be rened.

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Situated comments and the eect on learning achievement

As claimed by Yeh and Lo (2009), the use of online annotations to correct errors and
to provide corrective feedback would support students writing tasks in English. The
proposed system provided several convenient tools for students to store and query
their work and comments.
Table 7 lists the descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation between the posttest scores and situated comments. As the results show, the value of the Pearson
correlation is 0.778*** (p 5 0.001) for useful comments; 0.038 (p 0.423 4 0.05)
for encouragement comments; and 70.190 (p 0.167 4 0.05) for useless comments. Signicant relationships exist between the useful comments and the post-test
scores.
A multiple linear regression was used in this analysis. By the stepwise method of
linear regression, the predictor is useful comments, which can explain 59.0% of
the variety and it can anticipate 77.8% of the post-test scores. The results are
displayed in Table 8.
According to the results of the interviews, most students stated that they were
interested in situated writing. Moreover, these students would like to read a peers
writing about a familiar context (e.g. playground) and look at the target object in the
context in order to verify whether a peer could describe it correctly or not. If a peer
did not complete the description of the object then students could give a meaningful
comment related to his/her writing. These situated activities created more
opportunities for students to think and practice writing tasks in given contexts.
The more engaged students were in writing useful comments in situations, the greater
the possibilities were for them to learn and improve their English skills.

Table 7.

Descriptive statistics about situated comments.

Useful comments
Encouragement comments
Useless comments

Min

Max

Sum

Mean

Pearson correlation

2
9
0

63
63
10

531
888
32

18.96
31.71
1.14

0.778***
0.038
71.900

Note: ***p 5 0.001.

Table 8.

Prediction of learning achievement with situated comments.

Predictor
Useful comments
Note: ***p 5 0.001.

R2

Adjusted R2

0.605

0.590

39.885***

0.745

0.778

6.315***

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Relationship between writing support and learning achievement

The proposed system also provided writing support for English conventions such
as vocabulary terms related to contextual objects, related paradigms including
adjectives, adverbs, and sample sentences. These features worked together and
helped students with their writing tasks. After analyzing the system log of students
using our provided writing support for EFL writing, we found that students
actively employed the writing support and perceived it as useful. The descriptive
statistics related to students who used writing support for each writing task: 91.46
(avg.) and 27.18 (SD). We further analyzed the Pearson correlation between the
writing support oered by the proposed system and the post-test scores. The value
of the Pearson correlation of writing support for writing tasks is 0.819***
(p 5 0.001). Signicant relationships exist between writing support for writing
tasks and the post-test scores.
In this study, we found a noteworthy case: one student made just one sentence in
each theme activity. The remainder of the time, he looked for interesting objects. He
then consulted the relevant vocabulary with the proposed system. Finally, he
replaced his original sentence by substituting a subject or adjectives rather than
creating a new sentence. In the interview, the student explained that he recognized
too few words to make sentences so he spent a lot of time reading and memorizing
new situational words. The students pre-test score was 49 and the post-test score
was 72. This implies that memorizing vocabulary words can help a student learn
English and the writing support provided by the proposed system satised students
requirements, as seen in this case.
According to the interviews, the number of students who used system-provided
vocabulary words was greater than those who used mission explanations and writing
samples. The reason is that vocabulary writing support provided by the mobile
system can help students with situated writing assignments and they do not have to
look up meanings in a dictionary. Furthermore, looking at real objects in a real
situation inspires students to search related vocabulary words like the name, shape,
color, or taste of the objects. Therefore, the interviews supported the ndings
obtained by the statistical analysis: what our proposed system contributes most to
writing performance is improved communication.
Conclusion
Writing in real-life situations for elementary school students is a challenging task.
This study was based on designed learning activities and a proposed situated writing
system for elementary school students to practice English writing tasks in familiar
contexts. By analyzing the data from pre-test scores, post-test scores, questionnaires,
interviews, and learning performance in familiar contexts, the results showed that the
students who used the proposed system in familiar situations could create better
sentences and achieved greater basic writing skills.
The experimental results were encouraging because the students of the experimental group were found to have performed signicantly better than the control group
in writing tasks. Moreover, the experimental results supported the idea that students
could present detailed descriptions via observation in real contexts and they could
structure writing content by grouping common ideas. The experimental results of this
study also revealed that communication (i.e. the variable of situated writing) is the
signicant predictor of writing outcomes and that using more adjectives, conjunctions,

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W.-Y. Hwang et al.

and sentences is helpful for writing exercise. Therefore, we may conclude that
increasing the opportunities for students to practice using adjectives, conjunctions,
and sentence patterns can improve students learning achievement in English writing.
Regarding the use and perception of the proposed system, the more students were
engaged in writing useful situational comments, the greater their learning
achievement in English. Additionally, the results of the experiment revealed that
the writing support provided by the proposed system satised an important
requirement of some students: the opportunity to review and memorize vocabulary
terms related to familiar contexts. According to the result of analyzing the
questionnaires, most students stated that the proposed system and designed activities
inspired them to make sentences to describe the target object in contexts and
improved their ability to learn English.
In the future we will extend the scope of our study and apply the experimental
system in language learning throughout the school and involved neighboring
schools. Moreover, the system application can be extended further in the countrys
elementary education system as a whole.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by the National Science Council (NSC), Republic of China
(Taiwan), under Grant NSC 101-2511-S-008-013-MY3 and NSC 101-2511-S-008-012-MY3
and it was conducted under the Project Digital Convergence Service Open Platform of the
Institute for Information Industry which is subsidized by the Ministry of Economy Aairs of
the Republic of China (Taiwan).

Notes on contributors
Wu-Yuin Hwang is the professor at the Graduate Institute of Network Learning Technology,
National Central University, Taiwan. His research interests include second language learning,
HCI, and knowledge construction.
Holly S.L. Chen is a senior PhD student at the Graduate Institute of Network Learning
Technology, National Central University, Taiwan. Her current research interests focus on
mobile and game-based learning.
Rustam Shadiev is postgraduate research fellow at the Department of Engineering Science,
National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. His research interests include second language
learning, human-computer interaction for collaboration, and speech to text recognition
technology for learning.
Ray Yueh-Min Huang is the Distinguished Professor at the Department of Engineering Science,
National Cheng Kung University and he is the Dean of College of Health and Information,
Chia-Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Taiwan. His research interests focus on eLearning, multimedia communications, articial intelligence, and embedded systems.
Chia-Yu Chen graduated from Master program of the Graduate Institute of Network
Learning Technology, National Central University, Taiwan. Her research interest includes
mobile and second language learning.

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