FOSTERING LEARNER AUTONOMY AND ACADEMIC WRITING INTEREST VIA THE USE OF STRUCTURED E-FORUM ACTIVITIES AMONG ESL STUDENTS

The study seeks to examine the use of structured e-forum activities designed to help ESL students to be autonomous in learning academic writing. This case study was conducted for a period of eight weeks among 18 ESL Tertiary level students at MARA University of Technology who were taking an ESL English proficiency course which includes an academic writing module. The structured e-forum activities were part of the special online writing module for the students enrolled in a supplementary online writing program which was developed using a Learning Management System known as EDU 2.0.The research tools include a set of survey questionnaire and interview questions. The findings indicate the special e-forum activities not only helped the students to be autonomous in learning to write academic essays but to enjoy their learning process as well.