Another point about the teacher‟s corrections revealed from the interview is that
the teacher‟s oral corrections and comments were given generally for the whole class and the
online corrections did not specifically indicate the students‟ mistakes. When asked about the type of feedback they wanted from the teacher,
the students responded:
Well, every time we do an assignment, the teacher gives comment, telling us in which part we made grammar mistakes
. MD44
Of course I look for corrections in all parts, especially about grammar. Because it is the most confusing. LN30
Well, the type that when I make a mistake the teacher tells me the correct answe
r and how the grammar rules apply. NP34
The students expected for more individualized, explicit feedback from the teacher, specifically pinpointing their mistakes. From here, we can see that the time and
feedback principle was not applied really well because although the students were given sufficient time to finish a task, they personally had problems with their time
management; and the feedback from the teacher was not individualized and explicit enough for the students.
h. Authentic audience
The lowest scored principle applied in Sentence Writing class is authentic audience, seen from the total score of 3.53 in the questionnaire results. The
strength of the principle application in this class is thus considered as low. Authentic audience is foc
used solely with the meaning of the writer‟s message Johnston 1999. In Sentence Writing class, the principle of authentic audience
was actually applied well. Based on the questionnaire, when reading their classmates‟ passages, the students concerned more on the content rather than the
grammar. This is also confirmed in the interview:
When reading the passages, more on the content . Also, the grammar, but
not all. I don’t want to be a smarty LN10. ...
Honestly, for passages, I see for the content SV16 ... I want to know more about the story
.. SV17
However, the principle application in general was considered low because when it came to commenting their friends‟ sentences and passages, the students focused
their attention on the grammar. It can be seen form the statement “When giving
comments to my classmates‟ sentences and passages, I was concerned more on the content or message rather than the grammar
” received a very low score response. The statement was also confirmed in the interview.
I look at
the grammar for my friends‟ sentences only
... I also concern with
the grammar when dealing with passages, but not as focus as when I’m with
sentences. SV17
Regarding the orientations to the writing teaching, the Sentence Writing class emphasized on the language form and content of a subject matter. As seen from
the sentence writing exercise, the students were required to write 15 sentences about a certain topic with correct grammatical patterns according to the grammar
material in each week. Also with the passage writing exercise, the students had to write a 250-word passage about a selected topic. Later on, in the passage
comment menu of ELTGallery, their classmates would correct the grammatical mistakes using the marking symbols provided and give comments in the comment
box given. From here, we can see that both structure and content were indeed the main concerns in the course. That is why, when commenting their classmatess‟
work, the students also paid attention to the grammatical correctness of the sentences their classmatess had made. In short, the authentic audience principle in
the web-based Sentence Writing class was not fully applied because refferring to
the writing course focus, grammar was still one of the primary concerns in the course besides content.
From the discussions above, it can be concluded that the web-based Sentence Writing class applied all of the eight CALL principles. In line with
Egbert, Chao, and Hanson-Smith 1999 saying that the eight principles act and interact differently in different classrooms, some principles were applied more
dominantly than the others in this Sentence Writing class. The principle applied with the highest intensity is authentic task. In the web-based Sentence Writing
class, the students were very well involved in authentic tasks in the way that the sentence 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. The less
dominant principles applied but still considered having high intensity are: opportunities for exposure and language production, attention to the learning
process, learner autonomy, interaction, and atmosphere with an ideal stressanxiety level. In the Sentence Writing class, the students were given
opportunities for language exposure and production through grammar explanation from the web and the teacher, the writing exercises, and the comments and
corrections form the teacher and the classmates. They were also directed to attend to the learning process as the web-based class provided the students with
explanations on how to learn using the web both form the teacher and the web and opportunities to check learning progress, challenging grammar practice, and
opportunities to improve scores and participation through the grammar exercise and sentence and passage comment. Further, the web-based Sentence Writing
class really supported the students‟ autonomy by providing complete features with flexible online access to let the students have control over time, pace, the path to
the goal, and access to the measurement of success for their sentence writing learning. Next, the interaction in Sentence Writing class took place mostly when
giving and receiving feedbacks among the students and between the teacher and the students; the principle could be applied well because of the ease in doing both
online and face-to-face interactions. In addition, the ideal atmosphere in Sentence Writing class was realized through the collaborative and relaxing class situation.
As for the time and feedback, the intensity of the application is considered fair. The time and feedback principle was not applied really well because although the
students were given sufficient time to finish a task, they personally had problems with their time management; and the feedback from the teacher was not
individualized and explicit enough for the students. Last, the principle applied with the lowest intensity is authentic audience. The principle was not fully applied
in the web-based Sentence Writing class because refferring to the writing course focus, grammar was still one of the primary concerns in the course besides
content.
B. The Enhancement of the S
tudents’ Learning Achievement in the Web- Based Sentence Writing Class
This section consists of two parts referring to the second and third research questions of this study. The first part provides data presentation from the open-
ended item of the questionnaire, interviews, and statistical test. The second part contains thorough discussions about how the application of the CALL principles
in the web- based Sentence Writing class enhances students‟ achievement.
