Using Word Clouds for Teaching Sentence Writing in English at Tertiary Level

Kanog-on Pradaphon; Montarat Rungruangthum

Authors

Kanog-on Pradaphon Faculty of Liberal Arts, Rajamangala University of Technology Phra Nakhon
Montarat Rungruangthum Faculty of Liberal Arts, Rajamangala University of Technology Phra Nakhon

Keywords:

Word Clouds, Sentence Writing Activity, Thai University Students

Abstract

Word clouds present graphic visualizations of text data in different sizes and colors depending on how frequently words appear in the text. These images have recently been applied to English language teaching, as example, brainstorming students’ ideas, getting an overview of reading texts as well as engaging students in classroom activities. In consequence, this paper aims to examine what are the teacher’s and students’ attitudes towards the use of word clouds as a sentence writing activity for Thai EFL students. The participants in this study were fifty-seven undergraduate students and an English instructor. They were asked to complete the questionnaires reporting their attitudes towards the use of word clouds at the end of the writing task. The results show that most participants had positive attitudes using word clouds in sentence writing activity because it could highlight unfamiliar vocabulary and identify English parts-of-speech. The instructor also added that word clouds could be used for teaching different skills of English. The implications and limitations are discussed in this paper.

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