Online Discussion via Facebook Messenger: Impact on students’ test performance of William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”

Abstract

The teaching of literature component in the English language classroom heavily relies on the traditional methods like "tell them and test them"[1]. Recent development and advancement of technology have called for a transformation in the literature classroom through the incorporation of internet technologies and applications with emphasis on self-directed learning by means of online discussion and negotiation. Thus, this study aims to explore the potential of technology integration in the literature classroom through the utilization of an online discussion platform. The objective is to examine its impact on students' test performance of William Golding's “Lord of the Flies”. This quasi-experimental study was conducted at a university in Iraq and forty-five undergraduate students enrolled in an English language course participated. The students were assigned to groups of four members and collaborated on Facebook Messenger as the online discussion platform for five weeks on various aspects of the novel. Scores from students English literature pre- and post-tests were analyzed descriptively and also using a paired sample t-test. Results revealed that there was a statistically significant increase in the students’ pre and post-test scores. This indicates that the use of online discussions to understand and learn various elements of the literary text was significantly impactful and the approach is recommended for the literature classroom to help improve the students' responses to the text and test performance.