• Naeem Akhtar Rana

  Author

• Asghar Tuba

  Author

The study was aimed to test the effectiveness of Information &
Communication Technology (ICT) to improve students’ Academics writing skills.
Academics writings are an integral part of syllabus of English in Pakistan where
English is taught as a foreign/second language. The idea to use ICT to improve
students’ essay writing skills came from the increasing use of technology in Pakistan.
The Educational system in Pakistan has many limitations which include obsolete
teaching methodologies, limitations of syllabus and discouraging environment for the
teachers which do not help many of the students to get good skills in writing. It has
been observed, all over the world, the ICT has become an important part of education.
Teachers use modern means of communication technologies in their teaching practices
which help the students to understand the lessons better and their individual skills are
enhanced by the help of these tools. However, in Pakistan, only at higher level of
education ICT is being encouraged, though, it is not being practiced with full effects.
The students after passing their intermediate join universities and degree awarding
institutes where they are expected to have good language skills. Unfortunately, their
twelve years of education had have not helped them improving language skills and
especially their writing skills. The study was conducted in a degree awarding HEC
recognized institute, Newports Institute of Communications & Economics, Malir
Campus Karachi, Pakistan, where 34 students of BBA & BSCS programmes were
selected for the study. The students were given an assignment to complete in eight
academic weeks by the help of ICT. They were asked to write an essay of 3000 words on
the topic of their own choices. They were guided and taught to use internet resources
effectively and they were instructed to avoid plagiarism which was allowed up to 20 %.
The students showed a positive response and most of the students were able to write as
per instructions. Majority of the students could not keep the plagiarism they were asked
but most of the students were able to keep the plagiarism less than 40 % which was
quite encouraging as their first attempt in a limited time. The research demonstrated a
welcoming sign of interest among the students and, the students were excited using ICT, helping to improve their academic writing skills. The Basic writing skills of the students
improved significantly and the mean of the students score also rose significantly which
was compared by the help of T-Test. It also suggested including ICT as a permanent
tool in educational system and especially its growing effects to improve students’
academics writing skills.

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