Academia.eduAcademia.edu

Outline

Weblogs for English language learning: students' perceptions

2011, The Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education

Abstract

The digital explosion of information on the Internet has resulted in a need for a new and up-to-date way for Digital Natives to learn English. Educators have reported numerous benefits of using weblogs in English language learning. This article presents a small scale study on the use of weblogs for English language learning at tertiary level in Malaysia. Twenty six students kept weblogs for a duration of a semester. This study investigated how students perceived the use of weblogs for English language learning. A questionnaire which was made up of both close-ended and open-ended questions was administered at the end of the study. A mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods was used to analyse the students’ responses to the questionnaire. The study found that students were aware of their audience when they blogged and that they geared their writing towards their audience. In addition, they also interacted with others through the use of the comment feature on their weblogs. Furt...

References (53)

  1. Arani, J. A. (2005). Teaching Writing and Reading English through a Web-Based Communicative Medium: Weblog. ESP World, 4(3). Retrieved September 29, 2008, from http://www.esp-world.info/Articles_11/TeachingReadingandWritinginESP throughaWeb-BasedCommunicativeMedium.htm
  2. Ary, D., Jacobs, L. C., Razavieh, A., & Sorensen, C. (2006). Introduction to Research in Education. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth.
  3. Baron, J. & Maier, H. (2005, December 4-7). The Challenge of Maintaining Momentum. Proceedings of the Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE 2005), Brisbane, Australia (pp. 57-66).
  4. Barrios, B. (2003). The Year of the Blog: Blog as Writing Practice. Retrieved September 21, 2008, from http://www.bgsu.edu/cconline/barrios/blogs
  5. Blackstone, B., Spiri, J. & Naganuma, N. (2007). Blogs in English language teaching and learning: Pedagogical uses and student responses. Reflections on English Language Teaching, 6(2), 1-20.
  6. Blogs Move Student Learning Beyond the Classroom: An Interview with Alex Halavais (2004). Online Cl@ssroom, 4, 8.
  7. Blood, R. (2002). The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog. Cambridge: Perseus.
  8. Bloom, J. T. (2008). A Community of Bloggers: A Study of Secondary School Class Blogs. PhD Thesis. Capella University. Retrieved January 3, 2009, from ProQuest.
  9. Brooks, K., Nichols, C. & Priebe, S. (2004). Remediation, Genre and Motivation: Key Concepts for Teaching with Weblogs. Retrieved December 12, 2007, from http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/remediation_genre.html
  10. Campbell, A. P. (2003). Weblogs for Use with ESL Classes. The Internet TESL Journal, 9(2). Retrieved July 13, 2007, from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Campbell- Weblogs.html
  11. Davis, A. (2006). Blogs and Pedagogy. Retrieved July 28, 2008, from http://anne.teachesme.com/2006/05/31/blogs-and-pedagogy/
  12. Davis, A. (2008). A Vision for Classroom Blogging. Learning & Leading with Technology, 17.
  13. Downes, S. (2004). Educational Blogging. EDUCAUSE Review, September/October, 14- 26.
  14. Farmer, B., Yue, A. & Brooks, C. (2008). Using blogging for higher order learning in large cohort university teaching: A case study. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 24(2), 123-136.
  15. Ferdig, R.E., & Trammell, K.D. (2004). Content Delivery in the ‗Blogosphere'. T.H.E journal online. Retrieved July 9, 2008, from http://www.thejournal.com/articles/16626
  16. Flatley, M. (2005). Blogging for Enhanced Teaching and Learning. Business Communication Quarterly, 68, 77-80.
  17. Godwin-Jones, R. (2003). Emerging Technologies: Blogs and Wikis: Environments for Online Collaboration. Language Learning & Technology, 7(2), 12-16.
  18. Hall, J. M. (2005). Weblogs in English Teacher Training Discussion at JALT 2005 -Sharing our stories‖ Retrieved December 12, 2007, from http://www.englisheducation.iwate-u.ac.jp/Hall/Blogs/BlogFrontPage.htm
  19. Herring, S. C., Scheidt, L.A., Bonus, S. & Wright, E. (2004). Bridging the Gap: A Genre Analysis of Weblogs. Retrieved October 5, 2007, from http://www.ics.uci.edu/~jpd/classes/ ics234cw04/herring.pdf
  20. Hourihan, M. (2002). What We're Doing When We Blog. Retrieved October 4, 2007, from http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/javascript/2002/06/13/megnut.html
  21. Instone, L. (2005). Conversations beyond the classroom: Blogging in a professional development course. Paper presented at ascilite, Brisbane. Retrieved September 16, 2008, from http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/brisbane05/blogs/proceedings/ 34_Instone.pdf
  22. Johnson, A. (2004). Creating a Writing Course Utilizing Class and Student Blogs. Retrieved on September 8, 2008, from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Johnson-Blogs/
  23. Kavaliauskiené, G., Anusiené, L. & Mazeikiené, V. (2006). Weblogging : Innovation for Communication in English Class. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 3(2), 220-233.
  24. Kennedy, K. (2003). Writing with Web Logs. Technology & Learning, 23(7), 11-13.
  25. Laitner, B. (2007, March 18). Dog won't eat this homework. Knight Ridder Tribune, p. 1.
  26. Lavin, R. (2006). Weblogs and wikis in language teaching. In K. Bradford-Watts, C. Ikeguchi & M. Swanson (Eds.) JALT 2005 Conference Proceedings. Tokyo: JALT.
  27. Leverett, T. (2006). This is your class on weblogs. Retrieved July 30, 2008, from http://www.iatefl.org.pl/call/j_tech25.htm
  28. Miller, C.R., & Shepherd, D. (2004). Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog. Retrieved October 6, 2007, from http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/ blogging_as_social_action_a_genre_analysis_of_the_weblog.html
  29. Minugh, K. (2008, April 10). Burbank students use blog to learn English. McClatchy- Tribune Business News. p. G1.
  30. Mynard, J. (2007). A blog as a Tool for Reflection for English Language Learners. Asian EFL Journal, 24. Retrieved July 08, 2008, from http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/ pta_Nov_07_jm.pdf
  31. Nardi, B. A., Schiano, D. J., Gumbrecht, M. & Swartz, L. (2004a). Why We Blog. Communications of the ACM, 47(12), 41-46.
  32. Oblinger, D.G., & Oblinger, J.L. (Eds.). (2005). Educating the Net Generation. Washington: Educause.
  33. Paquet, S. (2002). Personal knowledge publishing and its uses in research. Seb's Open Research. Retrieved July 25, 2008, from http://radio.weblogs.com/0110772/ stories/2002/10/03/personalKnowledgePublishingAndItsUsesInResearch.html
  34. Pinkman, K. (2005). Using blogs in the foreign language classroom: Encouraging learner independence. The JALT CALL Journal, 1(1), 12-24.
  35. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6.
  36. Raith, T. (2009). The Use of Weblogs in Language Education. In M. Thomas (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Web 2.0 and Second Language Learning (pp. 274-291). Hershey: IGI Global Reference.
  37. Richardson, W. (2004). Reading and Blogging. weblog-ed: learning with the read/write web. Retrieved September 20, 2008, from ttp://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache: 2GKiLReaOCoJ:weblogg-ed.com/2004/03/31/+reading+and+blogging&hl=en&ct= clnk&cd=5
  38. Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (2 nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press.
  39. Robertson, C. & Whiting, W. (2006). Weblogs: Building an Academic Community in Cyberspace. Retrieved July 9, 2008, from http://prof_chuck.edublogs.org/files/ 2006/02/weblogs.pdf
  40. Siemens, G. (2005). A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2 (1). Retrieved September 29, 2008, from http://itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm
  41. Smith, K. (2004). CCCC Waves and Ripples. Weblogs in Higher Education. Retrieved September 20, 2008, from http://www.mchron.net/site/edublogcomments. php?id= P2636_0_13_0
  42. Stanley, G. (2005a). Blogging for ELT. Retrieved December 12, 2007, from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/resources/blogging.shtml
  43. Stanley, G. (2005b). Why Blog? Retrieved July 28, 2008, from http://searchenglish.britishcouncil.org/attachments/se/Why%20blog.PDF.
  44. Song, H. S. Y. & Yuen, M. C. (2008). Educational blogging : A Malaysian university students' perception and experience. Paper presented at ascilite, Melbourne. Retrieved January 18, 2009, from www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/melbourne08/procs/song.pdf
  45. Tan, Y. H., Ow, E. G. J., & Ho, J. M. P. Y. (2005a). Weblogs in Education. Retrieved July 24, 2008, from http://www.moe.gov.sg/edumall/rd/litreview/weblogs_in_education.pdf
  46. Tan, Y. H., Teo, E. H., Aw, W. L., & Lim, W. Y. (2005b, May 19-22). Portfolio Building in Chinese Language Learning Using Blogs. Paper presented at the BlogTalk Downunder 2005
  47. Conference, Sydney, Australia. Retrieved May 7, 2008, from http://www3.moe.edu.sg/edumall/rd/publications/blogtalk.pdf Technorati (2008). State of the Blogosphere 2008. Retrieved October 3, 2008, from http://www.technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/
  48. Tomei, J., & Lavin, R.S. (2007). Weblogs for building learner communities. In K. Bradford-Watts (Ed.), JALT 2006 Conference Proceedings. Tokyo: JALT.
  49. Tu, C.C., Chen, P.C., & Lee, M.Y. (2007). Fostering EFL Learners' Writing Competence through Web-Based Guided Writing. WHAMPOA-An Interdisciplinary Journal, 53, 224- 244.
  50. Walker, J. (2003). Final version of weblog definition. Jill/txt. Retrieved September 29, 2008, from http://jilltxt.net/archives/blogtheorising/finalversion ofweblogdefinition. html Walker, J. (2005). Weblogs: Learning in public. On the Horizon, 13(2), 112-118.
  51. Ward, J. (2004). Having a BALL with Blog-Assisted Language Learning. LORE: An E- Journal for Teachers of Writing. Retrieved September 29, 2008, from http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/lore/digressions/content.htm?dis13
  52. Wells, M. & Maurer, E. (2004). Weblogs help English T.A.s Spark Online Discussions with First Year Students. Retrieved August 3, 2008, from http://www.e- strategy.ubc.ca/news/update0408/040825-weblogs.html
  53. Wu, W. (2005). Using weblogs in an EFL writing class. Paper presented at the 2005 Conference and Workshop on TEFL and Applied Linguistics (pp. 426-432). Taipei: Crane Publishing.