Using Google applications to promote learners' writing skills

Language is the main means of communication between people. Through language, people can share their feelings, thoughts, ideas in their hearts. Writing is an integral part of language, from which one can draw conclusions about people. That is, well-written work proves that man has a broad, knowledgeable worldview. Writing is the main evaluating criterion in learning a second foreign language in the modern world. There are some common difficulties in teaching writing skills in a second foreign language. Students do not express their opinions in English unless they have to.

The writing requires the writer not only to compose a sentence grammatically, but also to elucidate the structure and its essence. The remaining 3 skills (listening, reading, speaking) must also be mastered in order to master the writing. To enhance on EFL learners’ writing skill teacher should pay attention not only its complexity and difficulty of writing, but keep also a perfect and regular training. This issue was thoroughly studied by Hedge and according to his results only 9% of adults spend their time on writing and 91% of people found difficulty in conveying the message that they exactly want to express.[2,98]

While learning writing students may find it tedious and grueling. In an age where information is important, in addition to skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration, being useful and competitive is also required. With an understanding of social and educational realities as well as the modern nature of the 21st century learners who have ‘24/7/365’ fingertrip access to technology, the 21st century English language educators must ensure that they teach their students with the end-goals in mind by harnessing the myriad of modern technological resources and carefully intergrating them into their classroom contexts via varied means such as “substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition.[7,2]We know that today’s youth have been familiar with any electronic devices, including the use of mobile phones and the internet since they were a little child. That is the reason why teachers are supposed not to be left behind their students in using this technology. Pensky called the majority of students “digital native”.[6,4]

Therefore, non-traditional use without the traditional method is becoming a demand of today. Chamberlain and Neumann maintains “Education is developing owing to the impact of the Internet. We cannot teach our generation in the same manner in which we were taught. Change is vital case to engage student…” [5,]

Google has released a lot of applications to support teachers' information technology-based teaching and learning. At present these applications are available for free and can be accessed using smart phone, tablet, laptop and other appliances. To illustrate Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google sheet, Google Talk, Google Classroom, Google Hangouts on Air, and many others. Like other teachers,

Revere and Kovach believes that innovative programs and activities designed to increase learned-centered environment and improve their learning outcomes are a key tool in enhancing students' learning potential.[9, 113-124] Google Apps for education (GAFE), which is considered informational technology solution, helps students and teachers to work together collaboratively and communicatively in real time.[10,895] GAFE is a facilitator for controlling practices like rating, ranking and ordering. Moreover, this kind of technologies make easer to overview, sort the task and compare students.[4,15] Through collaborative learning and self, peer and group assessment represents an alternative paradigm system thinking approach is developed with the help of Google Apps.[8, 19-25]

Before getting started, the important thing to be able to use Google Apps for education is to have a Google account or Gmail. Google Drive is an alternative version of Microsoft Office for word documents and an alternative version of iCloud drive owned by Google to store your documents online. Rather than writing on a piece of paper, it is preferable for to students type their writing draft, for instance, on their Google Docs and save it on their Google Drive. Thanks to the great feature of Google Doc, which automatically saves written forms every two seconds, you no longer have to worry about losing any documents. Also, there is at least 15 GB of free storage if students work with their personal Gmail account in Google Drive. Students can save lots of files forever as far as Google exists and update any file any time from PC, iPads, smartphones they have as far as they can go online. Through Google Docs and Google Drive, students and teachers can share their drafts with others. It is a great opportunity for students that they can change, suggest or reedit their peers’ drafts further enhancing the meaning and its content. Bijami M. and his colleagues mentioned that the importance of peer editing and peer feedback in the process of teaching writing.[1,91] Without any face-to-face interaction, the teacher can give feedback and suggestions on the shared files, and students can receive the feedback and suggestions immediately.

Another handy Google application is Google Classroom which is can be used by teachers to provide online classes. Google Classroom can be considered as the main platform for having online lessons and it gives a teacher a chance to post the assignment, set the deadline, watches students who do tasks and those who do not, even provide online feedback, and scores students’ task any time.

Google hangouts is an excellent service that enables both individually and group chat with several people at a time.[3,3] Students and teachers can utilize this app not only for video-based communication, but can also text and add voice messages through this app. According to Lander hangouts is an alternative of Google chat and Skype. Hangouts on Air is a tool for teachers to enable to broadcast their communication or presentation both on YouTube and through your Google+page. Google hangout is a medium to interact with students when you are away.

The use of Google apps in the learning process helps to make the lesson quality and relevant. But in addition to its many advantages, there are some shortcomings in its implementation. a reliable internet connection and a constant power supply can be cited as the main drawbacks. In addition, Culture shock during the lesson also occurs among teachers and students as one of the shortcomings. Some students can find it uncomfortable but I am sure in the following meetings will be all fine.

I Have discussed some reasons why these applications can be handful for teachers make the writing class more effectively. Furthermore, the detailed information was given on how to utilize these applications for teaching writing. In addition to being convenient and useful, there may be some inconveniences. But these shortcomings may not be a major obstacle in teaching writing skills. I hope this article will be of great help to some teachers in improving the quality of education.