GENDER AND EFL WRITING: DOES WHATSAPP MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

WhatsApp is a potentially influential informal learning tool that may be used on the go. This study examines its potential utility in EFL writing with special reference to gender. The treatment encompasses a WhatsApp-based instructional program designed specifically to help develop writing performance, along the aspects of content and ideas, organization and mechanics, vocabulary, and language use, among 98 Jordanian eleventh-grade students. The participants were divided into two experimental groups, one male and one female, taught through WhatsApp. The data were collected by means of a pre-/ post-test whose analysis revealed improved writing performance, more for female participants than for their male counterparts.