Abstract:

The study analyzes the use of online i-Learn web-based resources for learning academic essays among a group of intermediate ESL tertiary level students. The students were 20 students enrolled in an English proficiency course at MARA University of Technology. The web-based resources were selected based on the course syllabus and uploaded in the university’s LMS known as i-Learn. The students were given the freedom to choose the web-based resources they prefer to use to aid them in learning to write descriptive essays. In addition, they were also required to use the prescribed textbook. The data were collected from the students’ on-going writing tasks as well as the students’ reflective journal. The main findings revealed the web-based materials were useful in aiding the students to produce better descriptive essays. Moreover, the students prefer to use them compared to the prescribed textbook as they were more interesting and effective.

Keywords:

Web-based resources, ESL writing, e-learning, CALL.