5. Improving Students’ Argumentative Writing and Oral Proficiencies

Argumentative writing and oral proficiencies are two skills many students around the world are required to develop in their learning of the English language. However, these are two areas where not all students excel in. This chapter reports two studies that examined the effect of using blended learning approaches to improve students’ argumentative writing and oral proficiencies. The two studies relied on objective measurements of students’ performance outcomes such as their argumentative essay test scores, and oral proficiency scores determined by the Analytic Oral Proficiency Assessment Rubric, instead of students’ self-report data of their perceived writing or oral proficiencies. The first study employed a one-group pre- and post-test research design to examine the impact of a blended learning approach on grade 9 students’ ability to make claims, challenge them, and back them up by producing valid reasons. The results from a Wilcoxon Matched-Rank test showed a significant improvement of the students’ performance in their overall score in the post-test essays. The second study utilized a pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental design to investigate the use of a blended learning approach utilizing a Voice-Over-Instant-Messaging tool (Skype) on freshman’s English oral proficiency. The results from an ANCOVA test suggested that students in structured online discussions with the facilitation of English teaching assistants (ETAs) scored significantly higher in their oral proficiency tests compared to their counterparts in unstructured online discussions or structured online discussions without the facilitation of ETAs.