Development of Syntactic Complexity in Saudi EFL Male Undergraduates' Writings in the Light of Using Telegram

This research examines how different learning contexts affect the syntactic complexity of writing produced by Saudi undergraduate EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students in three distinct essay genres: argumentative, classification, and reaction. The study involved 16 participants, divided equally into a control group utilizing a traditional learning environment and an experimental group employing a blended approach augmented by Telegram. While the control group did not demonstrate significant advancements in syntactic complexity, the experimental group achieved considerable progress, largely attributed to the integration of Telegram into the learning process. These results underscore the efficacy of incorporating digital tools like Telegram in fostering linguistic complexity and offer strategic recommendations to the Ministry of Education for optimizing EFL pedagogy. The findings revealed no significant improvement in the writing performance of the control group, which relied on traditional methods.