Using Wikis to Develop Writing Performance among Prospective English as a Foreign Language Teachers

This study aimed at investigating the effect of using wikis to develop prospective English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' writing performance. The participants were fourth year prospective EFL teachers at Suez Faculty of Education in Egypt. Thirty prospective EFL teachers participated in each of the experimental and control groups. Both groups were pre-tested by using the Writing Performance Test (WPT) for equivalence in their writing performance. The experiment was conducted at the beginning of the first term of the academic year 2009-2010. The experimental group and the control group were post-tested by using the WPT. Differences between the mean scores of the preand post-WPT were calculated by using the t-test. The results showed that statistically significant differences were found between the mean scores of the experimental group and the control group on the post-WPT in favor of the experimental group. The results also revealed that there were statistically significant differences in the mean scores of the experimental group between the preand post-WPT in favor of the post-WPT. These results revealed the effectiveness of using wikis in developing prospective EFL teachers' writing performance. It is recommended that formal training of EFL writing instructors should introduce programs that based on using wikis in writing classrooms to develop their students' writing performance. Suggestions for further research include investigating the effect of using wikis on developing prospective EFL teachers' collaboration and reflection.