Tóm tắt luận Án(english) understanding the effects of blended learning on efl students’ writing a study in a vietnamese university

Conceptual framework on the BL effects on EFL students’ written products 16 CHAPTER 6 BLENDED LEARNING AND STUDENTS’ WRITING PERFORMANCE... In response, this research targeted a BL cours

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

CHU QUANG PHÊ

UNDERSTANDING THE EFFECTS OF BLENDED LEARNING ON EFL STUDENTS’ WRITING:

A STUDY IN A VIETNAMESE UNIVERSITY

SUMMARY OF PhD DISSERTATION

IN TESOL METHODOLOGY

Ho Chi Minh City - 2025

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

CHU QUANG PHÊ

UNDERSTANDING THE EFFECTS OF BLENDED LEARNING ON EFL STUDENTS’ WRITING:

A STUDY IN A VIETNAMESE UNIVERSITY

SUMMARY OF PhD DISSERTATION

IN TESOL METHODOLOGY

Supervisor 1: Raqib Chowdhury, Ph.D

Supervisor 2: Lê Thị Thanh Thu, Ed.D

Ho Chi Minh City - 2025

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.3.1.1 Learning in light of social cognitive learning theory 7

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.3.5 Questionnaire 10

CHAPTER 4 BLENDED LEARNING AND EFL STUDENTS’ WRITING PROCESS

4.1 Framework on the BL effects on EFL students’ writing process 12

5.1 Conceptual framework on the BL effects on EFL students’ written products 16

CHAPTER 6 BLENDED LEARNING AND STUDENTS’ WRITING PERFORMANCE

CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSIONS:

RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT OF BL FOR EFL WRITING

8.1 Revisiting the findings in response to the research questions 27

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the research

Among the varied forms of online learning, blended learning (BL), which is the combination of face-to-face and online learning where teachers and learners can deploy the advantages of both delivery modes, is growing in popularity (Anthony Jr et al., 2022; Atef & Medhat, 2015; Graham et al., 2013) With the current widespread use of technology in education, Selwyn (2023) called for the degrowth of technology use in education contexts This indicates that upcoming ICT research in the field of education

is worth doing to make it more effective and efficient with the voluntary engagement of multiple stakeholders

In Vietnam, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has issued numerous policies and documents on promoting technology use in education at all levels in the last

20 years, indicating that they support the inclusion of technology to boost educational quality (MOET, 2001) Especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the application of technology for online teaching and learning was effective in such a challenging situation and the deployment of BL has got increased attention from policymakers, spurring information and communication technology (ICT) use and recognizing the online learning as part of mainstream education (MOET, 2021, 2023, 2024), leading to the current growth of BL, especially in the university context Although BL has received much interest from researchers, educators, and policymakers, the voluntary application of this model remains very limited and mostly focuses on students’ attitudes (i.e Huynh, 2022), students’ writing results (i.e Luu, 2024, Phan, 2021) or students’ beliefs ( i.e Kieu et al., 2024; Tran et al., 2023), rather than on English writing teaching and learning practices which have received much research and investment in developed countries (Hill & Smith, 2023; Selwyn et al., 2021)

BL research has been extensive, and these have mostly reported positive results (Anthony Jr et al., 2022; Quvanch & Kew, 2020); nonetheless, the exploration of the impacts of BL on specific disciplines and topics (in the case of this study, business English correspondence writing) utilizing Bandura’s Social Cognitive Learning Theory (SCLT) (2002) as the analytic tool is limited, especially in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context such as Vietnam In response, this research targeted a BL course

in the context of a Vietnamese university under the light of Bandura’s (2002) SCLT as

a means to understand its influences on EFL students’ writing process, its effects on their writing competences and text features, and their willingness to accept it for learning English writing in the future

1.2 Research objectives and questions

This study targeted the emergent practices of BL in the Vietnamese higher education context to understand its effects on students’ English writing and consider the changes that BL is likely to facilitate toward education effectiveness Relying on this aim, the study was set to arrive at three objectives below

First, the research explored the students’ current English writing learning practices in the BL environment to understand their writing process and their beliefs

Second, the students’ written products would be deliberately examined to comprehend the effects of a BL course on EFL students’ writing competences and text features

Finally, the study centered on determining the various BL factors that affect the students’ English writing performance

The findings of this study were to answer three main research questions as follows

1 What are the effects of BL on EFL students’ writing process?

2 What are the effects of BL on EFL students’ written products?

3 How do BL factors impact their writing performance?

Once all the research questions are answered, I would suggest recommendations for better use of BL to teach and learn English writing effectively

1.3 Scope of the research

The study closely investigated the BL environment, students’ personal factors, and their behaviors, as well as their learning results when they went through two modes of delivery to write business English correspondence In the meantime, the study examined the various causative BL factors to understand how BL influences English major students’ writing

In addition, with an education focus, this study does not evaluate the policy on or its implementation of BL for English major students’ writing skills but explains the impacts

of BL on their English writing and predicts the change that BL may bring about

1.4 Significance of the research

Theoretically, this study's findings extend the current understanding to a certain type of

BL The study generates systems information on how BL affects EFL students’ writing The findings also help future studies generalize about the issues under scrutiny, not only

in Vietnam but elsewhere in contextually similar ELF settings

Practically, knowing the effects of BL on English major students’ writing and identifying the various factors affecting their writing performance serve as a well-founded basis for policymakers to construct better-grounded policies to boost the use of

BL in the educational environment and for teachers, learners, HEI administrators, and other stakeholders to spur more effective use of BL as the spirit of “digital degrowth” called for by Selwyn (2023)

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Blended learning

2.1.1 Problematizing “blended learning”

BL is also known as ‘hybrid learning’, ‘mixed-mode learning’, ‘integrated learning’, or

‘mixed-mode education’ (Graham, 2006; Smith & Hill, 2018), and among those various terms, BL remains the dominant name for an approach that combines the use of one or two different learning methods with one or two different models of instruction (Smith

& Hill, 2018) The literature indicates that researchers have considered BL as the blend

of methods, learning, teaching, programs, or environments (Mirriahi, 2015)

Graham’s (2021) defined BL as the strategic conbination online and face-to-face learning This definition is a student-centered approach to BL, indicating that it is the principled mix of two learning modes: online and face-to-face, and it is treated as a convergent act rather than a divergent one when students experience their learning in two modes

In this study, I used BL to mean the blend of learning as per Graham’s (2021) suggestion, stated above, which refers to a blended behavior that works in relation to blended media, modalities, and methods This is relevant to Bandura’s (1989, 2002) triadic reciprocal determinism (TRD) in a way that people’s behavior works under the influence of their personal factors and the environment As a result, EFL students’ writing was theorized

to be affected directly by their BL behavior and indirectly by their personal and environmental factors

2.1.2 Classifications of blended learning

2.1.2.1 Types of blended learning

The variation in the definitions of BL has come from the BL practices that are taking place in higher education institutions (HEIs) (Caner, 2012), and Graham (2006) has worked out that BL is carried out as four type: (1) BL “at the activity level takes place when an activity in the classroom contains both face-to-face and online or computer-mediated elements” (Graham, 2006, p.12) (2) A blended course, known as the most common BL type, “engages face-to-face and online activities as part of a course” (Graham, 2006, p 13) (3) At the program level, certain face-to-face courses come with others delivered at a distance or online (Graham, 2006) (4) The institution-level BL resembles program-level BL; however, in such situations, HEIs regulate that face-to-face and online teaching and learning take place throughout an organization (Graham, 2006)

In this study, BL under exploration was a form of a blended activity because the students studied business English correspondence writing in a BL course, in which they studied face-to-face during the first half of the course and then moved online for the rest of the course

2.1.2.2 Blended learning models

Driscoll (2002) reviewed the literature on BL research and concluded that BL is categorized on the time proportion and the content of the online part, and the result is a typology of BL models In the following section, the research will discuss eight typical

BL models categorized by Blended Learning Universe ([BLU], 2023): station rotation,

lab rotation, individual rotation, flipped classroom, flex, A La Carte, enriched virtual,

and face-to-face driver

Overall, the eight common models of BL above differ in the amount of time and content, with which students work online In this study, I used the discussion and the categorization of BL above to examine the BL practices, which was the context of this study A detailed description and identification of the BL model for English major students’ writing will be presented in Chapter 4

2.1.3 Blended learning research

The existing literature shows that earlier researchers adopted different approaches to examining BL They did a lot of BL research and made conflicting claims about its adoption

On the one hand, most researchers considered BL an opportunity to improve the quality

of education On the other hand, a minority of BL research targeted the challenges of implementing this model Earlier researchers also provided conflicting claims about BL adoption in the context of Vietnam While Do and Nguyen (2023) found that BL can improve EFL students' writing and attitudes, Kieu et al (2024) and Huynh (2022) reported that students were not skilled enough to study in BL, negatively affecting their learning results

Despite the two contrasting views of BL above, multiple studies called for the implementation of this model (i.e Hill & Smith, 2022), even those that mentioned the negativity of implementing BL (i.e Faizan et al., 2023) Fisher et al (2021) claimed that students’ perceptions and experiences in BL would change positively over time Then, the BL environment creates a good atmosphere for learners as it helps deliver the lesson well, increases learner engagement, and makes the learning experiences more interesting (Vu & Dao, 2021)

2.2 Second language writing pedagogy

2.2.1 Second language writing

The terms second language (L2) and foreign language (FL) are obviously different While an L2 refers to a language used on a daily basis, an FL is not usually used as a communicative tool for a speaker’s survival (Matsuoka & Evans, 2004) Some scholars have claimed a need to extend L2 writing research beyond the traditional L2 settings to

FL contexts (Shehadeh, 2011) In this study, L2 covers FL, which refers to the context

in which Vietnamese university students who speak Vietnamese as their mother tongue are learning to write business English correspondence as part of their tertiary-level program

Writing is an essential part of EFL teaching and learning and has several different forms

or types of messages with their own conventions (Rong et al., 2025) White (1987)

grouped writing into two major categories: “personal texts that include notes, telegrams, postcards, personal messages, diaries, and letters; and institutional texts that include

advertisement, instructions, public notices, business letters, catalogs, forms, abstracts and summaries, reports and essays” (p 261)

2.2.2 Writing process

Harmer (2007) defined a writing process as “the stages a writer goes through to produce something in its final written form” (p 4), and this process is usually mediated by the content (subject matter) of the writing, the genre (type of writing) and the medium in which a text is written Whether writing is taught and learned in a product-based, process-based, genre-based, or even a mixed approach, students hardly produce a piece

of writing in one sitting, and their act of writing is composed of various sub-activities in

a strategic manner (McKinley, 2018) Kellogg & Whiteford (2009) pointed out that most

cognitivist researchers agree that there are four stages of planning the text, translating

language, transcribing into the written form, and revising the draft

It is clear that the division of the writing process into these four major activities is appropriate for exploring EFL students’ writing behavior in this study The process above just describes what students do with writing in the manner that writing is shaped and mediated by the environment (i.e., peers, teachers, or available resources) or their personal characteristics (i.e thinking) or their behavior (i.e collaboration, drafting, or revising) Therefore, this writing process was employed to view how EFL students worked in each stage to produce a written text in the BL environment

2.2.3 Writing performance

2.2.3.1 Writing competence and performance

Oxford (2019) also defines competence as the capacity to do things, while performance means how well a person actually can do something These Oxford definitions suggest that competencies are the hidden ability in a person that empowers him/her to demonstrate a performance To put it simply, whereas competence defines the applied skills and knowledge that enable people to successfully perform in professional, educational, and other life contexts (Kennedy et al., 2007), performance is the actual realization of competence (idealized capacity) in a certain context

Overall, performance is the output, which refers to both a product and a process, as Brown and Lee (2025) suggested Measuring performance thus encompasses measuring competence as it is the indicator of performance In this study, I would like to understand the effects of BL on EFL students’ writing, which means that both the writing process and the written product were examined For writing performance as a process, I focused

on understanding how students experience their writing in the BL environment to produce a written text Then, writing performance as a product carries the students’ writing competences, which were used to categorize students to see how BL mediated each ability group’s products

2.2.3.2 Writing performance research

The literature review showcases that most previous studies drew on students’ writing results to conclude the effectiveness of the treatment Particularly, some earlier researchers relied on the perceived performance to observe English writing (i.e Alaslani & Alandejani, 2020), while others deployed the students’ average score or GPA (i.e Ramirez‐Arellano et al., 2018), English writing ability (i.e Liu, 2013), mid-term test scores (i.e Chung et al., 2021), or the quality of a written text (i.e Limp & Alves, 2017) as a means of measuring someone’s writing performance Whatever construct was employed to measure writing performance, most researchers took the quantifying procedure to view a written text, which naturally resulted in a score Then, a higher score

is associated with better writing performance, and such a way of evaluation cannot fully

measure the nuances of writing performance per se

The reality shows that the definitions of writing performance in the aforementioned studies were not comprehensive enough to encompass the specific aspects of “being a process and being a product” Therefore, those studies contributed to the low-level reliability and validity of the findings As a result, students’ writing performance in this study encompasses both the production and the product, as Xu (2016) suggested

2.2.4 Research gaps and research problems

Earlier researchers claimed that BL is an opportunity for education renovation (Arifin, 2020) and have supported the incorporation of BL in the training program at the tertiary level (Kieu et al., 2024) Nonetheless, the literature on BL research in the field of English writing teaching and learning reveals four major gaps as follows

Firstly, BL research focusing on business English correspondence writing is limited In

response, this study relies on this genre writing course to examine how BL influences

EFL students’ writing in terms of competences and linguistic features in terms of task

fulfillment, organization, vocabulary, and grammar under the VSTEP Writing rating

scale (MOET, 2015)

Secondly, BL research that elaborates extensively on how EFL students’ beliefs and

behaviors are impacted in the writing process is limited in the literature In response, I

decided to explore how students cognitively and behaviorally interacted with the BL resources to produce a piece of writing, and then both students’ behavior in the writing process and their beliefs were observed under the modified assumption of the triadic reciprocal influences of the personal, environmental and behavioral aspects in Bandura’s (2002) TRD

Third, studies to understand the systems information on how BL affects EFL students’

writing performance psychologically and technologically have so far been ignored In

response, I took into account the integral BL environment and developed a structural model in light of Bandura’s triadic reciprocal determinism (Bandura, 2002) and Venkatesh et al.’s (2012) extended theory of acceptance and use of technology to determine how BL factors affect students’ writing performance

Finally, an inclusive research model to measure the effects of BL on EFL students’

writing remains absent in the literature Therefore, this study was exploratory, and each

construct of the measurement model was built methodically with the involvement of both secondary and primary data

On the whole, the findings of this study could deeply address the research problems above, bridge the gaps in the literature of BL for English writing research, and simultaneously help reform and/or innovate the English writing teaching and learning approach As stated above, although the research site is confined to one university in Vietnam, the findings are likely transferrable to other universities in the country, as well

as elsewhere, especially in EFL countries with similar socio-economic profiles

2.3 Analytic approaches

2.3.1 Foundational theories

2.3.1.1 Learning in light of social cognitive learning theory

Research into acquisition and learning began as early as the 1950s under the guidance

of various schools of psychology as learning theories in an effort to increase teaching and learning effectiveness Back in the 1980s, researchers focused much on the social cognitive approach to explaining the nature of learning and knowing, and Bandura was

an eminent psychologist with his social cognitive theory (Yankov & Wang, 2024) SCLT indicates that individuals learn from interactions with others in the social context; thus, learning is both a product and a human behavior that mediates that product (Bandura, 1989) However, it is not shaped or mediated linearly by individuals’ interactions, their cognition, or the learning setting either separately or collectively, as earlier researchers had proposed Bandura (1989, 2002) explained that people’s behaviors directly affect the output of their learning, while the environment and their personal characteristics generate the indirect influences

Regarding the learning process and achievements, Bandura’s (2002) SCLT introduced the modeling process and TRD In the following section, the research presents these two concepts, which worked respectively as the conceptual framework for the qualitative research phase and the theoretical framework for the quantitative phase, outlined in more detail in the following chapter

2.3.1.2 Triadic reciprocal determinism

Learning and knowing was explained in Bandura’s TRD (Yankov & Wang, 2024) In more detail, a person learns by observing others’ doing things, and this behavior is greatly influenced by environmental factors and personal factors such as cognitive, affective, or biological aspects From another angle, personal factors are also influenced

by the situation and the learning activities The same is true for environmental factors when they are simultaneously affected by the other two (Li et al., 2023; Nabavi, 2012)

Personal factors refer to individuals’ mental characteristics and processes such as

experience, cultures, expectations, beliefs, self-perceptions, goals, and intentions, or their biological properties such as age, gender, race, and physical attractiveness (Bandura, 2002) Those factors are assumed to affect individuals’ learning and at the same time act in a bidirectional influence with the other two factors in the triad (Li et al., 2023; Nabavi, 2012) For example, people’s personal factors directly affect their act

of learning and concurrently direct their behaviors toward changing the environment and making it work for their learning In this sense, the personal factors affect one’s

LEARNING

Personal factors

Figure 2.1 Triadic reciprocal determinism of Bandura's SCLT (2002)

behaviors and the environment in which learning occurs In this study, EFL students’ personal factors such as beliefs, gender, experiences, ICT skills and academic performance were examined to see if they positively impacted their learning

Behavioral factors refer to one’s acts which are proactive, reflected, and

self-regulated (Bandura, 2002) Bembenutty et al (2016) also claim that “individuals are competent and active agents whose actions can influence their development, learning, and behavior” (p 216) In Bandura’s (2002) view, behaviors in the learning process modify the environment and their experiences in that environment increase their cognition In this study, EFL students’ behaviors were observed through their self-reflection and self-regulation in writing English correspondence in the BL environment

Environmental factors include the social and physical aspects of an environment where

individuals experience their learning with other individuals (Bandura, 2002) Such elements as the classroom, its facilities, teachers, and peers, and their synergetic input stimulate a dynamic throughput mechanism that generates their learning output (Li et al., 2023; Yankov & Wang, 2024) Nabavi (2012) explained that people are the producers and the partial products of the environment, which indicates the bidirectional relation between the environment and an individual’s behavior In fact, the environment influences how people behave, and the change of that environment also entails the corresponding change in their perception of it As a result, the BL environment in this study was explored to see how it impacted EFL students’ behaviors and their cognition Bandura (1989) asserted that the bidirectional relation of each pair within TRD is unequal, meaning that students’ learning is subject to the varying impacts of the environmental, behavioral and personal factors In his TRD, he claimed that people’s behaviors directly affect their learning, while the environment impacts their behaviors indirectly through their personal factors This assumption is applicable in locating the causal effects of the environment, behaviors, and personal factors on one’s learning (Li

et al., 2023)

In response, I used Bandura’s (1989; 2002) TRD as the foundational theory for this study For the qualitative part, I focused on EFL students’ thoughts and behaviors in the writing process when writing was subjected to the reciprocal influences of personal, behavioral, and environmental factors For the quantitative research, Bandura’s (2002) TRD oriented the calculation model, which was hypothesized to predict the BL effects

on EFL students’ writing results

To complete the research in a sound, responsible, and convincing manner, three major research models were employed to identify and measure the impacts of BL on EFL students’ writing under the light of Bandura’s (2002) TRD, the VSTEP writing rating grid (2015), and Venkatesh et al.’s (2012) UTAUT2 The different combinations of those three components were explained in three detailed frameworks presented in Chapters 4,5 and 6

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research design and procedure

The present study is based on the exploratory sequential mixed methods design, in which

“the researcher first begins by exploring with qualitative data and analysis, then builds

a feature to be tested (i.e a new survey instrument, experimental procedures, a new website or new variables), and tests this feature in a quantitative third phase” (Creswell

& Creswell, 2018, p 306) Under this approach, the specific procedure of this present study is composed of three phases

First, I targeted an extensive pool of scholarly literature on BL research and L2 writing pedagogy for about a year to build up the conceptual and theoretical frameworks Then,

I worked closely with the participants for about nine months in the second phase, in which qualitative data were methodically collected and interpreted Part of the qualitative findings helped shape the questionnaire Finally, the quantitative data analysis and interpretation were performed based on the questionnaire in the last phase Specifically, the qualitative research in the second phase drew on the ethnographic case study, a hybrid of an ethnography and a case study (Heigham & Sakui, 2009) The ethnographic approach was employed because I needed to observe the BL environment

to understand its socio-cultural nuances and figure out how it mediates EFL students’ writing process Concurrently, multiple case studies that shed light on particular individuals in their natural environment were adopted to understand their beliefs, behaviors, and performance results deeply As Fusch et al (2017) claimed that this blend allows for the best use of each design, mitigating the limitations of each as well, the ethnographic case study enabled me to observe both the shared BL environment and the focused individuals there

3.2 Sampling

In the academic year 2024, 175 EFL students learned to write English essays in Writing

2 and then business English correspondence in Writing 3 Before these courses, they had

studied in nine BL courses as required by UFM I relied on convenience sampling

(Crewell & Creswell, 2018) to choose all of them as participants for this study In Writing 3 when the data was officially collected, six selected students took part in the qualitative phase, while the rest responded to the quantitative questionnaire Besides, two teachers of EFL writing were also observed in their classrooms during the study

3.3 Research methods

3.3.1 Communication

In this study, communication was limited to eight participants (six students and two EFL writing teachers) It was embedded in the other qualitative methods in a way that made explicit emergent phenomena found in observations or document analysis Communicating with the participants depended on the delivery mode I also formed a Zalo group and an MS Teams class to maintain solid communication, especially after the BL course ended Regarding the topics, when I needed to make clear something unobservable or located an emerging issue that should be explained more, communication with the participants was helpful

3.3.2 Observation

Observations were made through both modes of delivery and served as an effective tool

to get firsthand data on the students’ behaviors in the BL environment, as Ghauri et al (2020) suggested In the classroom, the entire BL environment was observed in terms

of the setting, facilities, teaching and learning aids, lesson progress, and writing behaviors When students moved to the online mode, the observations were performed over shared screens, especially in the writing process The findings of this method were used to stimulate embedded communication with the participants, understand the findings in the content analysis, and inform the subsequent interviews and the questionnaire

3.3.3 Content analysis

In this study, six participants’ eight weekly written products were analyzed and rated to find out their writing competencies and linguistic features In particular, the papers over eight weeks were rated carefully based on the VSTEP writing rating grid and aligned with the conceptual framework To further support the content analysis, Text Inspectors and Grammarly were employed to evaluate students’ written texts Ju (2024) and Nguyen and Barrot (2024) claimed that researchers should combine human- and machine-based assessments to provide accurate results

All in all, the findings of this method uncovered students’ writing learning results manifested in the scores and linguistic features The scores then helped understand deeply how BL mediated WP, while the salient curves in content and language improvements were used as the topics for discussion in the interview and embedded communication

3.3.4 Interview

The interviews focused on six EFL students’ recall of their cognitive and behavioral engagements in addressing writing tasks Before the interview process, I developed an interview protocol for asking questions and recording answers as Creswell and Creswell (2018) proposed The semi-structured interviews, theoretically shaped mainly by Bandura’s (2002) TRD, Venkatesh et al.’s (2012) UTAUT2, and the VSTEP writing rating grid (MOET, 2015), focused empirically on the BL environment, students’ beliefs and behaviors in the writing process, and their written products To facilitate the interview effectiveness, the questions were available in English and Vietnamese; nevertheless, students chose the Vietnamese version

3.3.5 Questionnaire

The questionnaire is commonly used in a survey to get primary data for understanding opinions, attitudes and descriptions as well as establishing causal relationships in a project (Ghauri et al., 2020) When the questionnaire was completed, I sent it to the two EFL writing teachers for feedback After revising some minor errors, I piloted it with one class of 44 students via Google Forms Finding no errors in the procedure of delivering the questionnaire, I sent it electronically again to all four classes Finally, 148 responses were collected, and they were reported mainly in Chapter 6

3.4 Data analysis and interpretation

3.4.1 Qualitative data analysis and interpretation

Hair Jr et al (2020) explained that qualitative data collection and analysis “are often concurrent, with analysis stimulating additional data collection, which in turn will entail further analysis” (p 313) In this study, the primary data collected from interviews, observations, communications, and content analysis were analyzed and categorized in themes

Before being analyzed, qualitative data were cleaned or checked for accuracy, logic, and consistency in the recorded data Then, qualitative data went through data reduction and data display before conclusions could be made

When the raw data was reduced into codes and themes, the result was tentatively displayed correspondingly in each step as mentioned above in a way that data analysis was manageable and understandable After the data analysis was complete, the findings were interpreted and reported

3.4.2 Quantitative data analysis and interpretation

Quantitative data analysis went through three major steps, as Hair Jr et al (2021) suggested First, I reviewed the sample’s information to make sure that they are appropriate for participation in the survey and whether they could represent a larger population under study The second step was mainly for assessing the measurement model It involved outer loadings, indicator weights, internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity Finally, the analysis focused on the structural model

by assessing the coefficients of determination, predictive relevance and significance, and sizes of path coefficients

3.5 Ethical considerations

Ethical considerations are also related to trust (Hair Jr et al., 2020), indicating that all the parties trust one another and act openly in overt research to address the research problem; as a result, the participants were informed of the upcoming project and invited

to take part in it through different roles They signed the agreements showing their willingness to take part in the project of study, and their identities were kept confidential

to protect them from potential physical and mental harm Besides, I consulted previously published findings about using Grammarly and Text Inspector to ensure that subjectivity and bias could be limited

3.6 Validity and reliability

In qualitative research, the term “trustworthiness” is used to assess the quality and worth

of qualitative findings (Ahmed, 2024) The qualitative trustworthiness of this study conforms to the framework of credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability to increase the rigor and quality of qualitative findings as (Ahmed, 2024) suggested

In quantitative research, reliability and validity are ensured in the entire process of

examining the measurement and structural models All the indices of reliability and validity of each variable and its corresponding constructs must reach the thresholds, as Hair Jr et al (2021) proposed

CHAPTER 4 BLENDED LEARNING AND EFL STUDENTS’ WRITING PROCESS

4.1 Framework on the BL effects on EFL students’ writing process

Xu (2016) posited that evaluating one’s writing performance involves both the production and the product As a result, I focused on the former component to address Research Question 1, and the conceptual framework is illustrated below

This model served as the qualitative part of this study, in which Bandura’s (2002) TRD worked in collaboration with Venkatesh et al.’s UTAUT2 (2012) as the foundational theory to deepen students’ beliefs and behaviors in the writing process

4.2 Major claims

4.2.1 BL beliefs

Overall, the qualitative findings generally indicate that BL was technically and methodically easy and useful in enhancing students’ performance and forming their confidence in ICT use and writing business English correspondence

Firstly, given the learning modes, students perceived peers’ multiple influences on their

writing process The findings were in the same vein as Challob et al (2016), who

reported the positive effects of collaboration on students’ achievements, and Qureshi et

al (2021), who stated that collaborative learning reduces writing apprehension, while discussion and interaction help them deal with tasks greatly

Secondly, teachers influence students' writing in multiple ways This finding coincides

with Ma et al.’s (2025), who reported that teachers influence students’ engagement and their perception of the BL value This finding also aligns with Qureshi et al (2021), who reported that interactions with the instructors in collaborative learning enhanced students’ academic performance

Thirdly, with the availability of affordances, students felt confident in using ICT and

writing in the BL model In Callum’s study on ICT adoption (2011) and Li et al.’s BL

adoption (2022), self-efficacy is a good predictor of students’ behavioral use In this study, technology is the key to the implementation of BL, and students’ confidence was manifested in the efficacy of the BL model, ICT use, improved writing, and beneficial online resources

Figure 4.1 Framework for exploring the BL effects on students’ writing process