Innovation in Language Learning

Online writing activities for language learners usually include individual ones like writing messages in forums, or other social media, submitting homework and getting feedback from teachers via email or lms platforms, etc. There isn’t much interaction and collaboration among learners as they do in a real classroom setting.

Instead of telling the benefits of using online tools for further learner interaction and collaboration in essay writing, I wished to show it in the form of a real online lesson using the Moodle platform. It aims at using several Moodle tools to teach writing essays. The whole lesson consists of five steps imitating natural processes of writing an essay in real classrooms as follows:

1.     Presentation and brainstorming via File Uploading and Wiki tools

2.     Outlining, researching and sharing findings via Wiki and Forum tools

3.     Writing the first draft and peer feedback via Forum tool

4.     Writing the second draft, submitting it and giving feedback via File Uploading and Gradebook tools

5.     Voting for essays, and workshop for peer assessment via Forum, Choice and Workshop tools

All these stages of writing an essay are reflected/imitated by using appropriate Moodle tools: brainstorming (wiki), sharing info (forum), feedback (forum), peer assessment (workshop), choosing/voting (choice), all of which encourage some degree of learner interaction and collaboration.