The Comparison of Typed and Handwritten Essays of Iranian EFL Students in terms of Length, Spelling, and Grammar

Journal of English Language Pedagogy and Practice

مقاله 6، دوره 9، شماره 19، بهمن 2016، صفحه 104-118   

نوع مقاله: Research Paper

نویسندگان

Behrouz Sarbakhshian؛ Mahnaz Saeidi^*

Department of English, Tabriz branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran

چکیده

This study attempted to compare typed and handwritten essays of Iranian EFL students in terms of length, spelling, and grammar. To administer the study, the researchers utilized Alice Touch Typing Tutor software to select 15 upper intermediate students with higher ability to write two essays: one typed and the other handwritten. The students were both males and females between the ages of 22 to 35. The analyses of the students’ scores in the three mentioned criteria through three paired samples t-tests indicate that typed essays are significantly better than handwritten ones in terms of length of texts and grammatical mistakes, but not significantly different in spelling mistakes. Positive effects of typing can provide a logical reason for students, especially TOEFL applicants, to spend more time on acquiring typing skill and also for teachers to encourage their students with higher typing ability to choose typed format in their essays. 

کلیدواژه‌ها

typed؛ handwritten؛ spelling mistakes؛ grammatical mistakes؛ length of text

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