EFL Students’ Perceptions towards Using Google Docs and Google Classroom as Online Collaborative Tools in Learning Grammar

Abstract

In teaching English as a foreign language, numerous Palestinian institutions rely on traditional approaches towards grammar. Grammatical rules are taught to students directly from the textbook and in return, students are required to complete a number of activities in their workbooks to showcase their understanding and application of such rules. There is a lack of student exposure to technological learning tools and the application of a flipped classroom approach to teaching. With that said, the present study is an attempt to elicit students' responses prior to using Google Applications namely Google Docs (a web-based application allowing for documents to be written, edited, and stored online) and Google Classroom (a web service which enables teachers to create, share, and evaluate assignments within a paperless environment) in their grammar course and after doing so for the purpose of finding out the effectiveness of such applications in building a collaborative learning environment and adhering to the principles of a flipped classroom. Data was elicited from six EFL university students taking a Grammar I course at Palestine Ahliya University in Bethlehem via pre and post-questionnaires as well as a semi-structured interview. The findings of the study suggest that according to the students, Google Applications help establish a collaborative learning environment since they support teacher-to-student and student-to-student interactions and the majority of the participants prefer using such applications for future courses given that they can benefit from the availability of teacher written feedback and the easy access to course materials.

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