real-world communications which required English outside the academic purposes. The situations were, for example, when writing in social media like
Twitter and blogs, chatting online with friends abroad, and writing for personal matters, such as CV or works. In brief, the dominance of the authentic task
principle applied in Sentence Writing class is related to the fact that the sentence writing exercises and paragraph writing assignments in this web-based class really
supported the students to write in the target language, producing English sentences and passages, and function in real-world communications.
b. Opportunities for language exposure and production
The second highest rated principle applied in the web-based Sentence Writing class based on the results of the questionnaire is the opportunities for
language exposure and production. The principle highlights the importance of language input and production for language development Egbert, Chao, and
Hanson-Smith 1999. To realize this, the learning medium, i.e. the web-based writing class, should provide students with a rich source of language input and
opportunities to produce varied and creative language Krashen Terrell 1983, as cited in Egbert, Chao, Hanson-
Smith 1999, as well as opportunities to “read or hear modified compr
ehensible input” and “produce or write modified comprehensible output” Holliday 1999: 188. The results of the questionnaire
indicated that all of these conditions were met in the Sentence Writing class. In relation to providing a rich source of language input Krashen Terrell
1983, as cited in Egbert, Chao, Hanson-Smith 1999, the questionnaire results showed that the students responded very positively on how the website gave them
a sufficient number of exercises and lessons to learn English grammar, as seen
from the high score of 3.82. The grammar exercises and lessons supplied them with grammar knowledge that later on would be used in producing sentences. The
interview responses also support this finding.
That the grammar explanation is also useful. The grammar explanations in ELTGallery are harder to understand, and the ones explained in the
face-to-face meeting are easier. MD38
Hmmm.. the grammar explanation provided in the web helpful enough, but the in-class explanation by the teacher is much clearer than reading the
material. LN25
In the web-based Sentence Writing class, the students could get grammar materials from the web and the teacher during the in-class meeting. With
sufficient amount explanations, including examples and exercises, from the web and the teacher, the students got more input of English grammar.
Next, about opportunities to produce varied and creative language Krashen Terrell 1983, as cited in Egbert, Chao, Hanson-Smith 1999, the
students were required to use English not only when doing the sentence and passage writing exercises, but also when giving comments. The questionnaire
statements related to this were responded very positively, as seen from the scores of 4.08 very high and 3.81 high. It is also confirmed by the interview results as
follows. Yes, the assignments and exercises give me opportunities to write in English
because everything should be in English. LN12 the assignments and exercises really give me the opportunity to write in
English. I thus have more media like a social network to write in English. NP15
As the students had to use English when doing the exercises and giving comments, they were actually exposed to English as well as given opportunities to
produce varied and creative English sentences. Particularly about the writing
exercises, every week the students were assigned to write 15 sentences and every two week they had to write a 250-word passage about a certain topic. By doing
the exercises, the students were engaged to English and could express their ideas about the given topics in sentences using English creatively using the grammar
knowledge input they already got. Regarding opportunities to receive modified comprehensible input and
write modified c omprehensible output Holliday 1999, the statement “the teacher
and classmates‟ comments as well as corrections helped me to understand grammar better” statement got a fair response, as seen from the score of 3.73.
After the students wrote their sentences or a passage, they would have their classmate or the teacher commented their work in terms of grammar, content, or
punctuation. From the classmates‟ and teacher‟s comments or correction, the students received the modified comprehensible input of the errors they had made.
When working on “write sentences”, we can know our sentence mistakes from our friends‟ corrections. MD23
In passage writing our grammar is corrected ... the corrected passage is
given “stars” by the teacher. MD24... The reason of why the implementation of this got a fair result is clarified by the
interview results. The grammar checked in the passage is revealed when it has already been
scored, can be seen through the “stars” rate ..but we don‟t know where the mistakes took place. MD25
I got oral feedback from Mr. C. NP33 Their teachers‟ corrections for the passage are general for the whole
class ... So, we don’t know where our mistakes take place specifically
MD43
Especially regarding the passage writing, after submitting their passage, the students received oral feedback and corrections from the teacher. The feedback
and corrections about the grammatical mistakes were given generally for the whole class. This still provided the students with input, but could not tell the
students where the mistakes took place in the passage in specific. As a result, some students thought that the passage correction was very helpful and others saw
it just fairly. As for the opportunities to write modified comprehensible output, the students got them when given a chance to revise.
The passage comments are not so specific. But we can see from the passage scores. So we can see which parts to revise. SV42
After receiving comments on their passage or sentences, they could use these as inputs or considerations for writing the revision and thus improve their
next sentences and passages. As the students were engaged in this process, they were producing modified comprehensible output. In short, the web-based class
aspects, such as grammar explanation from the web and the teacher, the writing exercises, and the comments and corrections form the teacher and the classmates,
supported the students learning in terms of language input and production.
c. Attention to the learning process
