Esl and Internet Review

Based on my research proposal topic which is on the influence of internet to students’ ESL learning, I have picked three journal articles that are related to my topic and make a critical review of the articles. The review is aimed to critically evaluate and comment on the three articles to help me in pursuing to finishing my research proposal. The first journal article entitled Does Home Internet Use Influence the Academic Performance of Low Income Children? by Linda A. Jackson, Alexander von Eye, Frank A. Biocca, Gretchen Barbatsis, Yong Zhao and Hiram E. Fitzgerald from Michigan State University. The purpose of the article is to investigate the influence of home internet use to the academic performance of low income children by the usage of a longitudinal field study called HomeNetToo. I think this article is worth to be reviewed because it includes a comparison of the influence that internet has on the children’s performance between reading and mathematics and the findings show positive results on the reading side than mathematics, thus is suitable to relate with my research topic. I choose this article too because I think there are enough criticisms I could point out such as its strengths and weaknesses. Preceding the study, the authors manage to find out from other researches regarding the application of computer-based technology in school learning and the researches show inconclusive findings because the results vary. Rochelle and colleagues suggest that positive effects are most likely to emerge when technology is used to support the four fundamentals of learning: active engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction and feedback, and connections to real-world contexts (Jackson, Eye, Biocca, Barbatsis, Zhao & Fitzgerald, 2006). Participants in the HomeNetToo project were 140 children residing in a midsize urban community in the Midwestern United States (Jackson, Eye, Biocca, Barbatsis, Zhao & Fitzgerald, 2006). Basically the