Good day dear teacher! Please allow me to introduce myself.

I am Thashalini Sanjilatheeban,
a final semester student at UKM, Bangi pursuing my Masters in Education (TESL). The
purpose of me conducting this interview is to investigate ESL teachers’ views on the benefits
AND challenges of using digital tools to support productive ESL skills. Productive ESL skills
refer to skills such as writing and speaking. Your responses are highly valuable to my study.
All information provided are confidential and will only be used for the purpose of this study.

Please scroll to the following page to answer the questions. Please type out your answers in
the empty boxes.
1. May I please have your name and age?
Hi, my name is Joan Saw. I am 27 years old.
2. The location of the school you are currently teaching at?
So, I am currently teaching at an outskirt primary school in Lenggong,Perak.
3. Your years of teaching experience in ESL?
This year will be my fourth year in teaching English.
Moving on,
4. Based on your understanding, what is meant by using digital tools in the classroom?
Digital tools are quite familiar for the 90’s generation, digital tools coverage from laptop, phone
LCD or even website and applications.
5. How many years have you inculcated the use of digital tools in the ESL classroom?
Same as number of years of me teaching English. Four years.
6. How would you perceive yourself as a user of technology in the ESL classroom?
(beginner/ intermediate/ advanced level) WHY?
Intermediate. The challenges of teaching in outskirt area would be the access to the digital tools
sometime my school will have no access of wifi internet but despite of that ,the minimum I will
do is powerpoint presentation and now canva presentation. So, I will download the teaching
materials ahead and I can bring into classroom. I perceive myself as intermediate because I only
can use minimum digital tools and when wifi access allow I will use quiziz and bamboozle with
my pupils.
Writing
7. What are examples of digital tools you have used in the writing classroom?
padlet
8. Based on your experience, what are the benefits gained as a teacher while using
 digital tools in the writing classroom? E.g. to prepare for writing lesson
Ive used padlet few times with my children in enhancing their writing skill. For Year 4 and Year
5 level, I enhance more on writing email and message. In padlet I can post picture and some
supporting words so that my pupils can follow the words to finish the writing. The benefits I
gained as a teacher will be I can teach my pupils to peer review their friends writing and also I
can show them the common mistakes of their peers. Of course the pupils did not have to type
their name so we will review critically as a class.

Please answer the following questions (only the ones applicable in your classroom).
i. Any benefit in terms of student motivation? How?
Pupils feel a bit excited compare to normal chalk and talk because I allow them to attach a
picture after they finished their writing. So they can have sometimes searching pictures online.
ii. Any benefit in terms of student engagement in lesson? How?
Because my school is low -enrolment school so there is only 3 children in a class. So, very easy
to observe their engagement. In small classroom, my pupils show more interest in answering
and willing to write.
iii. Any benefit in terms of student collaboration? How?
Not much but sometime I will ask my pupils to write an email in pair so they can share and
exchange ideas.
iv. Any improvement in terms of writing competency? How?
Yes, as I will provide a fill in the blank email in the practice phase. So they will fill in the blank.
Thus, in the production phase, pupils have to write at least 5 sentences paragraph for me.
v. Any OTHER benefit gained by students with the use of digital tools in the ESL writing
classroom? Please elaborate.

9. Based on your experience, what are the challenges faced as a teacher while using
digital tools in the writing classroom? E.g. to prepare for writing lesson
As teacher, the challenges will be the access of internet especially suburban area teacher. Next,
will be searching suitable and appropriate teaching materials for pupils as pupils have different
level of understanding and comprehending.
Please answer the following questions (only the ones applicable in your classroom).
i. Any challenges in terms of technical issues? How?
The lack of wifi support.
ii. Any challenges in terms of student attitudes? How?
At first pupils will have rejection in trying out the digital tools because pupils from outskirt area
family socio background don’t allow them to have access of internet if I stipulated a task to be
completed as homework.
iii. Any challenges in terms of difficult user interface of digital tools? How?

iv. Any OTHER challenges of using digital tools in the ESL writing classroom? Please
elaborate.

10. How comfortable/at ease are you at navigating through using digital tools in the
writing classroom post COVID-19 pandemic?
I am having difficulty during COVID-19 pandemic beside the access to digital tools. When I
teach writing I will start with introduction of vocabulary. For example, I am going to teach on
writing an email to your cousin to invite her to your birthday party. I will start with teaching
suitable vocabulary, revise on email format. Next I will go into sentence by sentence in guiding
my pupils to finish a complete email . So during covid 19, I use google meet to carry out my
class, so when I teach line by line step by step my pupils feel bored and they think it very
difficult to follow my instructions and some of them have internet problems. So, when they send
their homework to me after that , there are a lot of mistakes from the pupils.
Speaking
11. Now, what are examples of digital tools you have used in the speaking classroom?
YouTube, AI sound converter, recorder
12. Based on your experience, what are the benefits gained as a teacher while using
digital tools in the speaking classroom? E.g. to prepare for speaking lesson
I can create a lot of interesting idea to make them speak English.
Please answer the following questions (only the ones applicable in your classroom).
i. Any benefit in terms of student motivation? How?
As we know, for Malaysia English is our second language, therefore, it tends to have mother
tongue interfere. So, English is an alien English for them. In order to make my pupils feel
confidence to speak English,recently AI tool is very popular so I use AI converter tool and ask
them to speak a line and they can choose any artist voice that they want. They seem like it so
much and motivate them to like speaking English during my lesson.
ii. Any improvement in terms of student confidence? How?
Yes, I will create activity such as forecast reporter and they have to speak like a forecast reporter
 where I will prepare some simple backdrop. So, they will speak in pair normally. When they
speak in pair, they will be more excited to work with their friend and speak confidently.
iii. Any benefit in terms of student collaboration? How?
Yes, I asked my pupils to write their short forecast weather report together and listen to each
other first before present to the rest.
iv. Any improvement in terms of communicative abilities? How?
During my school English week, my pupils seem not very afraid to speak to each other or
teachers in English.
v. Any OTHER benefit gained by students with the use of digital tools in the ESL speaking
classroom? Please elaborate.

13. Based on your experience, what are the challenges faced as a teacher while using
digital tools in the speaking classroom? E.g. to prepare for speaking lesson
I think the only one is wifi access.
Please answer the following questions (only the ones applicable in your classroom).
i. Any challenges in terms of distraction among students while using digital tools? How?

ii. Any challenges in terms of student attitudes? How?

iii. Any OTHER challenges of using digital tools in the ESL speaking classroom? Please
elaborate.

14. How comfortable/at ease are you at navigating through using digital tools in the
speaking classroom post COVID-19 pandemic?
During covid-19 , it a bit easy compare to writing for me because at least I can ask my pupils to
read the text from textbook for me. Or after class task will be send a recording of you reading
the text to me.

Thank you once again for assisting me in completing these questions. I am truly grateful for
your patience and help.