The Effect Of Web-Based Pre-Task Activities On Writing Complexity, Accuracy And Fluency Of Iraqi EFL Students

Abstract

This study was an attempt to examine the effect of web-based pre-task activities on writing complexity, accuracy and fluency of Iraqi EFL students. For this purpose, 60 Iraqi EFL learners from University of Babylon, Iraq were selected from a larger number of EFL students enrolled in the writing course in Fall semester, 2022-2023 based on their performance on the Oxford Qu[1]ick Placement Test and were randomly assigned into three groups of 20 making the three groups under scrutiny in this study. the first experimental group employed web-based pre-task activities in the process of writing like surfing the Net in order to find the appropriate written materials related to the writing topic, watching the video clips and listening to the audio clips related to the writing topic over the period of the treatment (12 weeks). The second experimental group received the traditional pre-task activities like brainstorming and outlining without any reference to the Internet, just based on the participants’ knowledge and memory in the classroom while the control group received no pre-task activities at all and immediately statrted the actual writing task. At the end, the writing performance of all three groups were examined regarding the measures of  complexity, accuracy and fluency. The results indicated improvement in Iraqi EFL learners’ writing complexity, accuracy and fluency under both Web-based and traditional classroom-based pre-task activities. This means that pre-task activities in general are effective in improving Iraqi EFL learners’ writing performance.