An Online Forum: A Tool for Enhancing Inter- Academic and Socio-cultural Interactions BERHANNUDIN MOHD SALLEH

This paper presents the findings of several short studies on the use of an online forum in learning the English language. Participants of the study consisted of several cohorts of Engineering and TESL undergraduates from Kolej Universiti Teknologi Tun Hussein Onn (KUiTTHO) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). It involved students interacting in an online conferencing over a period of about 15 weeks each. However, this paper shall limit itself to discussing the effectiveness of the online platform focusing on its usage as a tool for enhancing academic and social aspects of undergraduates ’ life as engineering and TESL students respectively. Using mostly qualitative means of data analysis, the findings reveal that the particular online platform has the power to enhance extensive use of the target language and nurture harmonious socio-cultural understandings and relationships between groups of students from distinct backgrounds