Tapping the potential of e-book writing software on TESL pre-service teachers' academic writing performance.

Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) pre-service teachers must gain writing proficiency as well as writing pedagogies in order to serve as English as a Second Language (ESL) writing teachers. They must be conscious of their own writing abilities, as well as their knowledge of the writing process and, more importantly, their capability to teach ESL writing. In this regard, combining digital tools with process-based approach (PBA) is a promising option for writing instruction in 21st-century education. Hence, this study looked into the use of e-book writing software on TESL pre-service teachers' academic writing performance. The concepts of digital literacies and PBA synergized to function in tandem and corresponding ways in the study. The participants moved back and forth within the writing process, from drafting to writing to revising, while using the technological knowledge to write and publish academic papers as an e-book. Two groups of TESL pre-service teachers (treatment=20 and control=20) from one Institute of Teacher Education (ITE) in Malaysia were chosen using purposive sampling for the quasi-experiment. SPSS Version 26 was used to analyze the quantitative data from pre-and post-tests. Independent samples t-test yielded statistically significant difference in the population mean scores. The results indicated that the use of e-book writing software increased the participants' academic writing performance. Pre-service teachers also benefited from the use of e-book writing software because it provided an alternate way to emphasize the PBA in order to help them improve their academic writing and better prepare them to teach writing skills to their future students. Future research should be conducted using the e-book writing software to write other genres and publish them in an e-book form as products of ESL writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]