Enhancing Students’ L2 Writing Skills Online: A Narrative Inquiry Approach on an Introductory English Literature Course for ESL Students

Language teaching and learning, among other humanities subjects, have incorporated advanced forms of learning that are machine-based, AI-assisted, and instrumental, favoring linguistic approaches over literary training. As Kernan (1997) observes, literary studies in particular “have become a less and less significant part of higher education” (p. 5). This research paper is based on a case study of a successful introductory literature course (Student Feedback Questionnaire averaging 4.6/5.0) that has been offered at a Community College in Hong Kong for three consecutive years (Semester 2, 2018-19; Semester 1, 2019-20; Semester 1, 2020-21). The 2020-21 cohort had the entire course online using Zoom, which is considered to be the “new normal” of higher education under the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this research article, the cohort of 2020-2021 will be the focus group as students were instructed solely online via Zoom without any face-to-face or hybrid teaching. The paper reports and highlights how individual Zoom essay consultations, together with collaborative writing on Padlet scaffolds and enhances students’ essay writing skills in English. In addition to that, the paper argues that online technologies expand the dimension of literary education and empowers it as a form of content-based second language instruction (Byrnes, 2005) for Hong Kong tertiary level students.