How Thai students use word processors to approximate Edited American English.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This qualitative case study's purpose was to explore how Thai students edit their writing using word processing programs as they seek to approximate Edited American English (EAE) in American colleges.
The research questions were as follows: (1) How or in what ways does a computer, with a word processing program, help or hinder Thai students as they produce texts that approximate Edited American English (EAE)? (2) What editing strategies do Thai students use with word processors and how?.
Traditional qualitative data collection methods were used such as case study, participant observations, ethnographic interviews, and document analysis (LeCompte & Schensul, 1990). Additionally, follow-up, open-ended surveys based on the preliminary case study were administrated to 33 Thai students at a research university.
Data from these resources were identified, coded, tallied, categorized and summarized according to Pennington's (1996) factors that contribute to the effectiveness of writing with word processing programs.
The study revealed that use of word processing programs helped Thai students approximate EAE. The word processing strategies that Thai students learned aided them with capitalization, singular and plural forms, subject/verb agreement, use of periods, and commas. Basic word-processing features provided such help: the red line as well as the spell check feature for spelling errors, the green line for grammar errors relate to end punctuation and apostrophe, and auto correction for misspelled words and capitalization errors.
Implications are that Thai students entering American colleges may benefit from more extensive instruction in using word processing programs to approximate EAE. It also suggests that writing instruction for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students may be enhanced by explicitly introducing students to word-processing tools that support their capacities to approximate EAE.
Much more research is needed on ways to build word-processing programs and EFL Writing Programs for diverse language users from various nationalities as they struggle to become fluent with EAE.