Education Journal 2015; 4(3): 132-138 Published online June 4, 2015 (http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/edu) doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20150403.16 ISSN: 2327-2600 (Print); ISSN: 2327-2619 (Online) Internet Self-Efficacy in Writing Processes Task Performance Amin Shahini 1 , Majid Nemati 2 1 Department of Languages and Literature, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran 2 Department of English Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran Email address: shahiniamin@gmail.com (A. Shahini), Nematim@ut.ac.ir (M. Nemati) To cite this article: Amin Shahini, Majid Nemati. Internet Self-Efficacy in Writing Processes Task Performance. Education Journal. Vol. 4, No. 3, 2015, pp. 132-138. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20150403.16 Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of Internet Self-Efficacy on the process writing performance of EFL learners in two online environment—wiki and email. Forty male and female sophomores and juniors who were sitting a course on process writing participated in this study. The participants were randomly assigned to the wiki and email modules. The teacher required the wiki participants to write and post about given topics on the wiki and as for the email module the participants had to send their writing samples through email. In both modules, the participants were given feedback by the teacher in the email module and by the teacher and peers in the wiki. Each session each writing sample was rated by a writing process rating scale (Maftoon & Akef, 2010). Meanwhile, an Internet Self-Efficacy Measure was also administered to both groups. Results indicated that there were positive and significant correlations between the stages of process writing and Internet self-efficacy. Discussions, suggestions, and implications for research and practice are proposed. Keywords: Internet Self-Efficacy, Wiki, Email, Writing 1. Introduction In recent decades, collaborative online activities have extended their path to different areas of ESL teaching. One of the ESL fields which has steadily grown in its importance and scope in online environments is ESL writing. A great body of recent literature has focused on the online teaching methodologies and environments that attempt to propose new ways of teaching this skill (e.g. Chao & Lo, 2011; Kessler, 2009; Kost, 2011; Lee, 2010; Salaber, 2014). Most of these studies claim that the application of collaborative online writing tasks, carried out in a shared environment for discussing and working together improves writing performance by the provision of scaffolding through peer feedback, sharing of ideas, students' autonomy, and students' engagement in writing tasks (ibid). Collaborative writing whether online or conventional is, in essence, a form of collaborative learning. This view has long been supported by Vygotsky's (1978) social constructivism, stressing that collaboration is in the heart of any successful learning. This collaboration whether among peers or between peer and teacher is essential in assisting each student in fulfilling his or her task by advancing through his or her own zone of proximal development (ZPD) which is defined as the gap between what the learner could accomplish alone and what he or she could accomplish in cooperation with others who are more skilled or experienced (Chao & Lo, 2011). With the emergence of new technologies for collaborative writing such as wikis and also some less recent ones like emails, the concept of ZPD and its effect in successful learning has been revived once again, sparking a plethora of replicated studies this time in online environments with positive pro-online findings (e.g. Greenfield, 2003; Lee, 2010; Tharp, 2010; Salaber, 2014). However, it is not wise to select these environments for instructional purposes solely based on the desire for and the allure of new technologies (Hsu & Chiu, 2004). Since instructional technologies are new to many students, they may face a great number of problems in their online activities. Novice learners, for instance, may feel apprehensive about using instructional technologies which, in turn, may endanger their intellectual interaction and their ability to succeed in online learning. Feeling alienated from the online environment, the learners have to squander more time figuring out what to do to be able to communicate with