Developing Writing Abilities Of Efl Students Through Blogging

Abstract

Due to a rapid development and expansion of technology and, as a result, Web 2.0 technologies are providing both teachers and learners with new solutions to the limitations of traditional method in the field of language teaching and learning. The research compared students' writing ability before and after they were taught through blog, a new medium or tool for written communication and interaction in many different languages around the world.The research design is a kind of one group pretest posttest. Participants were 35 firstyear students. They were divided into eight groups. Four or five students in each group created a blog, www.blogger.com, and they worked together for twelve weeks to produce six pieces of writing assignments.Each member in the group worked through providing comments, editing and revising on the blog until the group got a final writing and submitted that to the teacher for grading. The instruments used in this study were: two writing tests  a questionnaire surveying students' attitude toward learning through blogs, and  postings on blogs to reflect their learning experiences.The results revealed that after the students worked together on weblogs, their English writing mean score of the posttest was higher than that of the pretest, and they had positive attitudes towards using weblogs in learning. Regarding cooperative learning experiences through using weblogs, most students thought that it was interesting, a new experience to work with their friends on the weblogs.

Using Blogs in Teaching Tertiary Esl Writing

“…Findings drawn from survey questionnaires and focus group discussion revealed that, in general, students viewed blogging as a beneficial platform in helping them practice their English writing skills, expressing their thoughts and ideas freely, and facilitating online peer engagement, among others. These findings corroborate with the results of recent studies (Kitchakarn, 2014;Kaupmees, 2015;Oliver, 2016;Akdag & Ozkan, 2017;Hernandez, Amarles, & Raymundo, 2017) that underscored the applicability of integrating blogging into writing classes as afforded by its accessibility, flexibility and interactivity features, to name a few. However, limitations to technological access such as availability of internet-capable devices and stable internet connection remain to be significant hurdles to the successful use of blogging in any classroom; hence, this should implicate educators to consider their own contexts and to decide cautiously whether or not their institutions and classes are ready for this digital innovation.…”

“…Furthermore, these findings corroborate with the results of previous studies (Cequena, 2013;Kitchakarn, 2014;Akdag & Ozkan, 2017) indicating the educational benefits of using blogs in the English writing classroom to develop and enhance students' writing skills.…”

“…This observation corroborates with the established literature on blogging in writing classes (Said et al, 2013;Karlsson, 2014;Kitchakarn, 2014;Akdag & Ozkan, 2017) demonstrating the pedagogical potential of blogging in developing and enhancing students' writing skills. With the excitement of trying a new mode of communication and connecting with a virtual audience beyond the confines of time and space in the traditional writing classroom, students were motivated and thrilled to see their ideas published on the web instantaneously and accessed by their classmates and teacher -a departure from the time-constrained traditional paper-and-pen inclass writing activity.…”

“…Cequena (2013) found that essay writing through blogging improved her students' writing skills, which also corroborated with the students' positive perception on their peers' constructive feedback on their blog posts. Kitchakarn (2014) reported that his students' writing ability improved through collaborative writing activities in blogging such as commenting, editing and revising blog posts.…”

A Comparative Study between Presentation, Practice, Productive (PPP) and Artworks Techniques toward the Enhancement of Students’ Descriptive Writing Skills

“…However, Warschauer (cited in Kitchakarn, 2014) stated that writing can be considered as an irksome learning experience for some students who do not have sufficient ideas, knowledge and skills to process. Richards and Renandya (2003) concurred that writing is difficult skill to develop for second language learners because in order to write an effective writing, a person must comprehend the writing components of the target language.…”