O n f e r e n c e

Yuehchiu Fang 
National Formosa University, Yunlin, Taiwan 
[e-mail] 
EFL Learners’ Perceptions of the Use of CьLL in a College Class
Bio data 
 
Yuehchiu Fang
received her Ph.D. in Language and Literacy from The Pennsylvania 
State University in December 2002 in the United States. She is currently an associate 
professor in the Applied Foreign Languages Department at National Formosa University in 
Taiwan. Her interests include the teaching of ESL/EFL writing and oral fluency, and also 
the research related to the curriculum design in English language and CALL in English 
language. 
Abstract 
With the advancement of technologies in recent years, computers are playing an 
increasingly critical role in second and foreign language learning and teaching, especially 
in the area of writing instruction. This study aims to investigate the college learners’ 
perceptions of the use of CALL software in an EFL writing class. Thirty-one non-English-
major undergraduate students from an elective English writing course in a Taiwanese 
technological university were offered a computer-assisted writing program for one 
semester. 
After statistical analysis of a survey questionnaire completed by these 31 undergraduate 
students, the results demonstrated that the majority of the learners had positive 
attitudes toward the use of CALL software, favoring the function as an essay grader and 
as a writing tool. In addition, a further finding from the multiple choice question in the 
survey showed that all of the learners experienced the positive effects on using the 
computer-
mediated feedback for the revision of their essays. In terms of learners’ 
positive perceptions of the use of CALL software, it was found that five themes emerged 
from qualitative analyses of open-ended questions:
1.
Improvement in English writing skill 
2.
Correct use of grammar 
3.
Learning essay writing with the aid of call software 
4.
Self-revising essay skills, 
5.
Improvement in sentence and paragraph writing 
The difficulties and limitations of designing the study included the small sample size, the 
duration of the experiment for only one semester, and the generalizability of the findings 
limited to samples of a similar group, not applicable to learner groups within different 
educational settings. The discussion suggests that adopting the computer-assisted 
writing instruction as well as developing learner autonomy in the computer-assisted 
writing classroom be promoted in an EFL context.
 

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-144- 
2014 CALL Conference 
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