Using Writing Assistive Technology to Improve EFL University Students Performance

Success at university depends on the possession of outstanding writing skills. Yet of all language skills, writing is the most arduous to master and the situation gets even worse in the case of second or foreign languages. The current study investigated the suitable ways to overcome the difficulties students of English face with writing especially in terms of vocabulary items and spelling mistakes by exploring the effects of adapting autocorrect and spell- checkers technologies on their writing skills. The research data comes from an experiment conducted at Adrar University, south of Algeria, in which 18 LMD (Licence-Master-Doctorat, equivalent to the BMD, BachelorMaster-Doctorate) students utilize autocorrect and spell-checkers as assistive technology. The finding of the experiment shows that the use of assistive technology has perceptible effects regarding the quality of students’ production as these technologies displace the attention from worrying about spelling mistakes to other aspects of writing. The paper also proposes some suggestions to improve writing skill at the level of Algerian Higher educational institutions (HEIs).