A Review of UiTM Students’ Writing Needs, Writing Problems, and Language Courses Prior to WeCWI’s Course Integration

Based on the performance analysis and the writing challenges prescribed in the SIL domains (Mah, Irfan Naufal Umar, & Thomas Chow, 2013) as well as the poor writing skills based on SIL’s learner domain (Mah & Khor, 2015), seven L2 writing challenges faced by UiTM students were identified. Hence, a supplementary WBI grounded on WeCWI was proposed and it was found appropriate to be integrated with WBI for an English writing course. A paper entitled A Review of UiTM Students’ Writing Needs, Writing Problems, and Language Courses Prior to WeCWI’s Course Integration were authored by Boon Yih Mah, Lim Teck Heng, Rosmaliza Mohamed, Rasaya Marimuthu, Liaw Shun Chone and Rushita Ismail, which has been presented by Dr Mah Boon Yih in International Conference on Education and Social Sciences 2016 (ICEdSS 2016) on 2-3 November 2016 at Parkroyal Penang Resort, Penang, Malaysia. Below is the abstract extracted from the original paper:

As reported in the past studies, an online instructional platform was needed to facilitate language teaching. Therefore, web-based instruction (WBI) was proposed as a supplementary instructional tool to tackle the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) students‟ writing problems besides fulfilling the learners and instructors‟ writing needs. To develop a WBI for enhancing writing performance and critical thinking, a hybrid e-framework namely Web-based Cognitive Writing Instruction (WeCWI) was recommended. A qualitative systematic review of literature was conducted on the related studies of UiTM students‟ writing needs and challenges as well as UiTM English courses before embracing WBI as a supplementary instructional tool of an English course. Based on the course syllabus, course structure, and assessment components focussing on report writing, BEL422 Report Writing was identified as the most appropriate course among all the UiTM English courses as offered up to 2013. Besides, this course was also vital to equip the students with the necessary writing skills to communicate effectively in their future workplaces. Thus, BEL422 Report Writing was selected to be integrated with WeCWI.