Read and Respond: The ‘Y’ Generation Speaks

The age of revolutionised internet fora has addressed Swain's (1985) primordial concern for successful language acquisition as interaction platforms for non-native speakers of the ‘Y’ generation. This paper reports a study investigating the effects reading materials, influence of background knowledge and sentence preference in forum contributions of two groups of university student pioneered through an online forum endeavor conducted after classroom hours. Contributions on current issues displayed evident findings of how reading materials are perceived and value of freedom of expression proves the vibrant of internet fora no longer serve learners as conservative training grounds but a discourse arena.