Bulletin of the Technical Committee on Learning Technology (ISSN 2306-0212) 2 Abstract—With the imminent role of ICT in education, schools are taking imperative measures to educate its learners by means of new technologies. This exploratory review elaborates on how existing computer facilities are being utilised to teach English, in particular the area of composition writing, to a class of Bruneian students where English is both a subject and a foreign language. This article focuses on the technology of Internet discussion boards and how they empower students through a socioconstructivist and collaborative approach towards composition writing. Index Terms—collaborative writing, computer assisted classroom discussion, computer mediated communication. I. INTRODUCTION he ‘model class’ portrayed in this review is a representative of a common upper secondary level class in any school in Brunei. The average number of students is 20 and their capacity in English is average [1]. The students have adequate computer skills as a result of their ICT learning experiences in primary school level [2] as well as external exposures based on using computers at home. These students are purportedly ‘Millenials’, meaning that they are born as ‘native’ users of digital technology [3][4]. English language teachers for the secondary level usually abide to a set curriculum, syllabus and government issued textbooks. However teachers are able to deviate from this convention and are encouraged to exploit other resources that befit their students. The use of computers is greatly supported to the extent that English Language teachers are always prioritised to utilise them. One area of concern for English teachers is composition writing. Brunei Darussalam ultimately assesses its students using the Cambridge GCE ‘O’ Level Examinations. Composition writing carries the bulk of the qualitative marks and thus this task is a common challenge for students, as it tends to focus on both accuracy and creativity. Teaching composition writing to students involves time-consuming rituals of classroom discussions, writing drafts, individual consultations, and proofreading and editing in phases. The primary objective of using Internet discussion boards is to provide a medium where students can communicatively collaborate by discussing ideas for writing and peer proofreading. Hitherto it is anticipated that less classroom time would be exhausted and more opportunities to communicate could be gained through posting comments and real-time chat beyond the temporal and spatial boundaries of a classroom. P. S. P. Omarali is with the School of Environment, Education and Development, Oxford Road, the University of Manchester, M13 9PL, the United Kingdom (e-mail: pengiranhajishaiff.omarali@manchester.ac.uk). Discussion boards are a medium of both Synchronous and Asynchronous Computer Mediated Communication and as such the discourse of this review revolved around these communicative features of online discussion boards. II. LITERATURE REVIEW A. Conceptualising Computer Mediated Communication This review focuses mainly on elaborating and exemplifying text-based Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and its sub variants, viz. ‘one-to-one’, ‘many-to-many’, ‘synchronous’ and ‘asynchronous’. CMC in relation to online discussion boards can be reviewed through the conceptualisations of Computer Assisted Classroom Discussion [5] and Asynchronous Computer Conferencing [6]. Furthermore, due to the similarity of ‘CMC in collaborative learning’ and ‘Computer Mediated Collaborative Learning’, the two terms are used interchangeably. Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) is a term to define communication that uses computers which involves among others, e-mails, chatting, forum boards and video-conferencing [5], [6]. Educationists identified these methods of communication as potentially useful to learning thus consequently integrating CMC in teaching and learning. English learning benefits from CMC because it “provides opportunities for language learners to practice their language” [7]. CMC is also perceived as a “possible cognitive amplifier that can encourage both reflection and interaction” [8] and as a bridge that connects speech and writing allowing both reflection and interaction to take place in one medium [9]. In addition, Computer Conferencing has been defined as “a group communications medium enabling groups of people to exchange ideas and opinions and to share information and resources.” [10]. The keywords that could be extracted from the last paragraph are ‘medium’, ‘interaction’ and ‘reflection’. ‘Medium’ in this case exists as a virtual classroom environment where students have opportunities to learn and be taught together; ‘interaction’ as a means to communicate among students and between students and teacher(s), and ‘reflection’ as the facility to revisit what has been interacted through the medium. Hence, compared to the ephemeral properties of unrecorded spontaneous speech in onsite classroom discussions, the discussion board medium has the useful attribute of retaining all text-based communication that in turn encourages students’ reflexivity. To successfully implement CMC into learning, the ‘medium’ of choice should cater effectively to the needs of reflection and interaction where optimal collaboration can take place and very little of the social dynamics of the classroom is lost. In essence, A Review on Using Internet Discussion Boards to Supplement Collaboration in English Language Composition Writing Pengiran Shaiffadzillah Pengiran Omarali 1 T