The use of instructional technology has opened up new avenues in education with broad implications in the foreign or additional language (L2) learning context. One of the research priorities is to explore student perceptions of the use of such modern means in their education which otherwise might not be anticipated. The present study aimed to determine (a) the perceived affordances as well as limitations of the information and communication technology (ICT) pedagogical application in coded corrective feedback (e-feedback) provision on L2 writing, (b) English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ perspectives on using e-feedback to reduce their local and global mistakes, and (c) the type of self-regulated learning (SRL) behaviours, according to EFL students’ self-reports, electronic feedback and learning logs called forth in cognitive, affective, and metacognitive domains. The participants (n=48) were high-intermediate to advanced EFL learners from four cohorts enrolled on an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) preparation course in a branch of the Institute of Science and Technology in Tehran. Each cohort went through 84 face-to-face tutorial sessions in four months. During this period, they also wrote essays and received e-feedback on 12 IELTS Writing Task 2 prompts with a minimum of drafting work three times for each on an e-learning platform (www.ekbatani.ir) specially designed for this study. The data from all four cohorts were collected over the course of 11 months, using semi-structured interviews, online structured and unstructured learning logs, and an open-ended questionnaire to provide an in-depth picture of student perceptions of this technology mediation. Through a purely qualitative research design, the log, interview, and open-ended questionnaire data were analysed, categorised and coded. The findings represented students’ perceptions of the benefits of the e-feedback and learning logs as (i) offering a motivating and empowering means of providing EFL writing support, (ii) enhancing the thinking and problem-solving processes, (iii) a flexible and fast scaffolding approach for L2 writing improvement, and (iv) encouraging student writers’ active knowledge construction by helping them notice mistakes, focus on writing specifics, overcome the fear of writing, and grow confidence in L2 learning. The self-reported data indicated perceived limitations including (i) the time-consuming nature of the e-feedback processes, (ii) the occasional need for face-to-face discussions, peer feedback addition, providing supplements to e-feedback such as on-demand e-tutorials, and (iii) increased workload for the teacher in proportion to the number of students. Specific writing improvement was perceived to be locally in the use of punctuation signs and grammar, in spelling skills and the scope of vocabulary; and globally in organising ideas, finding ideas in the form of blueprints, and developing ideas into full-length essays. The student perceptions demonstrated that the learner-centred e-feedback environment created different affordances for students’ cognitive, affective, and metacognitive behaviours: (i) cognitively, it assisted the use and development of various learning strategies, enhanced student EFL writing experience, and increased awareness of error patterns in their essays; (ii) affectively, it supported students’ motivational processes, ability to appraise their progress, restore, and sustain positivity, and greater perceived self-efficacy beliefs in their own L2 writing skills; finally, (iii) metacognitive affordances included the ability to rethink and amend their plans as well as seek out support, ability to reflect on the writing processes holistically, ability to self-monitor to remain on course, and ability to devise and implement a plan of action mostly by finding a strategy to deal with mistakes and by taking greater caution in writing their future drafts. Despite arising from a particular contextual framework with the experience of particular cohorts of students, the findings can hopefully be of value to researchers and practitioners in the fields of online language pedagogy, second language acquisition (SLA), EFL writing, and computer-assisted language learning (CALL) with communication uses. The findings can assist language courseware designers, e-feedback platform developers, and L2 writing course administrators to support and enhance their practices and decisions, especially in providing and implementing ICT and SRL initiatives in EFL writing.

The thesis deals with possible progress in writing in German of students at secondary schools by the use of didactic games. The theoretical part sets writing in context of language didactics and describes its significant aspects such as development, functions, and contribution to teaching a foreign language. It also focuses on conception of writing in the school educational plan of secondary school, at which the research was done. Then, it introduces games as a possible activating teaching method aimed at development of writing and describes their evaluation, roles of teacher, purpose, and classification. The practical part is devoted to the actual research. Firstly, it depicts writing games that are divided into three parts - preparing, building, and structuring, and designed to gradually develop writing of students. From these writing games, six were chosen to be practically verified at the secondary school. For this verification, two methods were selected, an experiment and a questionnaire. The aim of the thesis was to find out whether the selected writing games contributed to the development of writing of students at the secondary school. The results show clearly that the writing games contributed to the development of writing of the students at selected school. KEY WORDS German as second...

The aims of this Master's thesis are (i) to examine the suitability of using peer-to-peer assessment in teaching writing skills in Czech B1-level courses and (ii) to suggest recommendations for tutors who are considering implementing the method in their Czech classes. The theoretical part is concerned with the description of particular types and forms of assessment and it presents an overview of several studies, focusing on those conducted in the field of ESL teaching. The empirical part focuses on describing the design and execution of the experiment as well as on interpreting its results. The experiment was performed as an intensive online writing course in Czech; the participants were students preparing for a B1-level exam. The investigation aimed at the quality of students' comments and at the implementation degree of their suggestions shows limited effectivity of using peer-to-peer assessment in teaching Czech on B1-level. However, based on the data, the study managed to identify several shortcomings in the way the peer-to-peer assessment method was used and it suggested recomendations for their elimination. If the tutors decide to follow these suggestions this could lead to a more succesful use of the investigated method in teaching.

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