The role of social media in the writing skills of first-year high school EFL students
Palabras clave:
Escritura en inglés; redes sociales; retroalimentación; Bachillerato; EFL.Resumen
Con el objetivo de determinar los cambios en el desempeño de la escritura en inglés como lengua extranjera de estudiantes de primer año de Bachillerato tras la implementación de una intervención estructurada mediada por redes sociales, se llevó a cabo una investigación preexperimental de un solo grupo con 34 alumnos de primer año de Bachillerato de la Unidad Educativa Simón Bolívar. La intervención abarcó un total de ocho clases en las que se llevaron a cabo tareas de tipo Instagram, Facebook y WhatsApp, tanto de retroalimentación docente como entre pares y en relación a la revisión. El rendimiento escrito se evaluó a partir de una rúbrica analítica detectada acorde a A2 (Content, Organisation y Language; 0-15) y las percepciones se recogieron a partir de una adaptación escolar de 18 ítems del SMU-EW. Debido a la circunscripción de puntuaciones y en atención a un alto número de empates se utilizó la prueba de rangos con signo de Wilcoxon. La puntuación total pasó de M=12.53 (DE=1.05) a M=13.00 (DE=0.65), cambio medio=0.47, W=10, p=.006. Content y Organisation mejoraron significativamente, mientras que Language no mostró cambio detectado (M=3.85 en ambos momentos, p=1.000). Doce (35.3%) alumnos mejoraron su puntuación total, veinte (58.8%) no presentaron cambio y dos (5.9%) presentaron la consiguiente disminución de puntuación. Behavioral Intention obtuvo la media perceptiva más alta (M=4.09) y Facilitating Conditions obtuvo la media más baja (M=3.81). Los resultados son en parte congruentes con las investigaciones acerca de la escritura mediada en redes sociales y la retroalimentación; no obstante, el efecto techo observado en Content y la no existencia de cambio en Language obligan a interpretar la mejora como algo focalizado y no extendido. La intervención estuvo relacionada con una mejora grupal estadísticamente significativa, pero modesta, centrada en Content y Organisation. La no existencia de grupo de comparación y la necesidad de una segunda calificación externa e independiente limitan las inferencias causales y de fiabilidad entre evaluadores.
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