Using Blogs in Teaching Tertiary Esl Writing

Abstract

Anchored on the Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge or TPACK Framework (Koehler & Mishra, 2009) and Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition or SAMR Model of Technology Integration into the classroom (Puentedura, 2014), this study investigated a corpus of 58 blog posts written by ESL learners through weblogs. It aimed to determine the views of students on the use of blogs in learning English writing skills and to explore students' feedback on the advantages of blogging as a virtual writing platform. Research participants were 58 freshman university tourism students enrolled at a Study and Thinking Skills class in a private university in Manila, the Philippines during the first semester of the academic year 2017-2018. Research data drawn from students' blogs, survey questionnaires and focus group discussion revealed that despite accessibility issues due to technological resources, the learners viewed blogging as a viable platform in learning English writing skills because it affords them freedom to express their thoughts, it develops or improves their writing skills, and it allows them to connect and engage with their peers online, inter alia. Pedagogical implications for ESL writing teachers and researchers are offered based on these results.

The Use of Travel Blog Writing in a Tertiary Level English for Specific Purposes Course

“…The experience of travelling and writing about the local attractions of one's city via a personalized blog was reported to increase writing motivation, boost autonomous, reflective and collaborative learning, raise cultural awareness and have positive impacts upon learners' self-expression and L2 writing improvement. These findings are in line with those of several studies regarding the advantages of blog use in ELT (Akdag and Ozkan, 2017;Aydan, 2014;Aydin, 2014;Campbell, 2003;Featro and DiGregorio, 2016;Grami, 2012;Gunduz, 2016;Kovalchuk and Krasnokutska, 2017;Kuimova and Zmekov, 2016;Johnson, 2004;Lee, 2010;Mabuan, 2018;Musa, 2016;Nepomuceno, 2011;Pinkman, 2005;Sun and Chang, 2012;Zhang, 2010). The findings of the study about the affordances of travel blog writing also support the suggestions of Pascual (2019), Pascual Oliva (2017) and Romaniukha et al (2020) in that integration of this genre into EFL settings would develop linguistic skills, enhance verbal creativity and increase learning motivation.…”

“…Blogs are reported to develop linguistic skills, particularly writing and reading as well as grammar and vocabulary, enhance interaction and collaboration, build confidence in writing, encourage autonomous learning, augment analytical and critical thinking skills, increase writing and reading motivation, sense for responsibility and desire for lifelong learning (Akdag and Ozkan, 2017;Aydan, 2014;Aydin, 2014;Campbell, 2003;Featro and DiGregorio, 2016;Grami, 2012;Gunduz, 2016;Kovalchuk and Krasnokutska, 2017;Kuimova and Zmekov, 2016;Johnson, 2004;Lee, 2010;Mabuan, 2018;Musa, 2016;Nepomuceno, 2011;Pinkman, 2005;Sun and Chang, 2012;Zhang, 2010). On the other hand, blog use in English lessons is said to have some challenges like complicated tasks, intense workload, and technological limitations like internet problems or unavailability of computers (Aydan, 2014;Featro and DiGregorio, 2016;Kovalchuk and Krasnokutska, 2017;Mabuan, 2018). Among blog types, travel blogs can present certain benefits to language learners, yet this type of blogging has received little attention in ELT literature.…”

“…A further benefit is that by means of blogs, students open their works to a broad audience, which potentially increases their motivation to produce works of high quality (Sun, 2009;Ward, 2004). Consequently, blogs set the grounds for not only personal but also social spaces for learners to express thoughts and feelings, and develop a digital identity to make connections with others within a wide virtual learning community (Mabuan, 2018). Drawing on Vygotsky's (1978) educational theory, the use of blogs in language learning can be defined as a social constructivist approach (Fageeh, 2011;Ferdig and Trammell, 2004;Sun and Chang, 2012).…”

Online Learning at Early Pandemic Situation: Grassroots Voices

“…Second study used Facebook as their virtual classroom and found that Facebook helps to engage the students on the path of personal development (Milošević et al, 2015). Moreover, other study concluded that blog offered online peer engagement (Mabuan, 2018). Other study also found that students' English language productivity increased using digital platforms .…”

Boosting Students’ Confidence and Skill in Writing Using Social Media

“…Adas & Bakir [10] noted that blended learning can be a solution to the writing problem since it allows the teaching and learning writing less monotonous. Furthermore, current practice in teaching writing trough distance learning is mostly used blog as a learning tool (such as in (Nepomuceno [11], Artvianti [12], Shana & Abulibdeh [13], Kuimova & Zvekov [14], and Mabuan [15]). However, the use of social media in teaching writing remain unexplored since most previous studies on the use of social media to teach writing focus on discovering the role of social media to assist learning and limited studies about the used of social as a medium to teach and learn English skill, particularly writing.…”