Peer Scaffolding Using WhatsApp
Description
This study explored the Omani EFL learners’ perception of WhatsApp as a peer scaffolding tool, in online teaching and learning (henceforth OTL). Using a questionnaire, the data was collected from 138 Omani undergraduate EFL learners majoring in English. The questionnaire targeted the learners’ overall perception of the usefulness of using WhatsApp and their preference for peer scaffolding strategies when using WhatsApp during OTL. The participants have an increasing appreciation for using WhatsApp as a platform for peer interaction and collaboration especially during and after the OTL. The students use a variety of peer scaffolding strategies via WhatsApp with procedural strategies on-task completion being the most preferred. The findings indicate that WhatsApp is an affordable, accessible, and easy-to-use social media platform that offers students a virtual ZPD for language learning. In addition, peer scaffolding via WhatsApp is equally multidimensional as face-to-face peer scaffolding.
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Steps to reproduce
A questionnaire was used to collect data from the participants. The students were invited to reflect retrospectively on their experience of using WhatsApp as a peer scaffolding tool during OTL. To assess whether the shift to OTL influenced their overall perception of WhatsApp's usefulness, they were asked to reflect on their use of WhatsApp both before and after the transition to COVID-19 OTL. The questionnaire was divided into three themes with a total of 20 items. The three themes of the questionnaire were peer scaffolding via WhatsApp before COVID-19 OTL (three items), peer scaffolding via WhatsApp during COVID-19 OTL (14 items), and peer scaffolding via WhatsApp after COVID-19 OTL (three items). The first and the second themes included five-point Likert scale items ranging from 1(strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). The third theme also contained five-point Likert scale items ranging from 1(always) to 5 (never) and two additional checkbox items which allowed the participant to choose multiple answers from a list of choices and add their answers using the option “other” if needed. The five-point Likert scale questions in theme three were adapted from Yawiloeng (2021) who explored peer scaffolding strategies.