The Purposes of Self-Sponsored Digital English Writing of EFL Learners

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the purposes of Thai EFL learners’ self-

sponsored English writing on digital platforms. The participants were 43 English major students enrolling Academic Writing course in the 1/2020 semester of the University of Phayao. The data were collected using a questionnaire, an interview, and the instances of participants’ self-sponsored written texts. The results of the questionnaire showed that the participants performed self-sponsored English writing to have informal interactions with others in their social network most, and to practice their English writing skills least. The findings of the interview and the instances of self-sponsored written texts revealed that there were seven purposes of self-sponsored writing including sharing feelings or opinions on some issues by posting statuses, chatting with friends and family, expressing their opinions on friends’ status or photos, encouraging themselves and others, blessing themselves or others on special occasions, teasing friends and creating humor, and practicing English writing. It could be concluded that the participants did self-sponsored writing in English on digital platforms to build and maintain relationships with others, do self-expressing and self-improving.