الفهرس 
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Abstract
The study presented is an attempt to implement a virtual environment in developing a six-unit English language course for the students of the Faculty of Commerce. The thesis is divided into three chapters, an introduction and a conclusion. The three chapters are a review of the related literature, methodology, and results and discussion.
The objective of the researcher is to study the effect of the virtual environment (Edmodo.com) in developing a course to be introduced to the first-year students at the Faculty of Commerce (the target population). The aim of the course is to enhance their reading and writing skills.
Like most of the educational institutions in Egypt, the Faculty of Commerce in Alexandria University suffers the massive increase in numbers of students compared to the low capacity of classes. The students registered there (the target population) need to improve their language skills and, at the same time, they are highly computer-literate which encourages the use of CALL in teaching English as a foreign language. CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) is a recent area of study which suffers from lack of research in Egypt.
Today students are well acquainted with computer, internet and social networks; which made the researcher think of exploiting that knowledge in teaching them new skills. The main role of CALL is that it extends classrooms for purposes of review and for classes missed. For example, there could be open discussions on classroom materials or as a supplementary tool for further research on topics discussed in conventional classrooms. Another benefit of CALL is that it exposes students to authentic language in authentic situations. CALL also empowers students as they will need technology and language in their future careers. Using CALL enhances the students’ reference skills, discovery learning, learner autonomy and learner centeredness (Erben et al, 2009).
Virtual learning environments, also called e-learning or computer-mediated communication (CMC), provide a social space where students and teachers can interact. There are two types of virtual environments or CMC; synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous CMC takes place at the same time through chat rooms, videos, voice conference…etc. Asynchronous CMC, on the other hand, takes place at different times when participants use e-mails, messages, posts ...etc. Examples of social networks are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Academia.edu, Nicenet and Edmodo.
The site chosen by the researcher to carry out the study through was www.edmodo.com for the following reasons. Firstly, Edmodo is a private social learning network for teachers and students (parents are allowed only through their children for the purpose of supervision). Edmodo is not only a learning-centerednetwork; it is also easy to use that it is perceived by its users as the “Facebook of schools”.
As a learning-teaching tool, Edmodo (Appendix G) provides links to websites and databases that can be attached to assignments which help enriching students’ reference skills. Edmodo also enables students to communicate with their counterparts studying the same field in other schools, universities or other educational institutions in Egypt and abroad.
The study in hand entails a significant number of topics such as technology and education, ESP and business English, reading and writing skills. All will be tackled in the literature review