Enhancing writing skills through blogs in an EFL class

Ruby Vurdien

Spain

White Rose Language School

Submitted: 09/07/2021

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Accepted: 09/07/2021

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Published: 03/22/2012

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4995/eurocall.2012.16214
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Keywords:

blogs, peer feedback, self’reflection, collaborative skills

Supporting agencies:

This research was not funded

Abstract:

Today Web 2.0 technologies, including blogs, are presenting both teachers and learners with new horizons in the field of language teaching and learning. A blog is an online journal which can be continuously updated by its users (Matheson, 2004). People can write their views at their own pace without space and time constraints. Blogs aid in the development of interpretive and critical thinking skills. The present study explores how a blog as a computermediated tool engages a group of EFL learners, at a language school in Spain, in reflective and collaborative learning, and argues that personal blogs can motivate students to build on their writing skills through self-reflection and peer feedback. The students had become more careful with planning their task and error correction before submitting their work. Collaborative skills were also fostered through students’ regular interaction on the blogs.
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References:

Goodwin-Jones, R. (2003). Blogs and wikis: Environments for online collaboration. Language Learning & Technology, 7(2), 12-16.

Godwin-Jones, R. (2008). Emerging technologies: Web-writing 2.0: Enabling, documenting, and assessing writing online. Language Learning & Technology, 12 (2), 7-13.

Lee, L. (2010). Fostering reflective writing and interactive exchange through blogging in an advanced language course. ReCALL, 22 (2), 212-227. https://doi.org/10.1017/S095834401000008X

Lowe, C. (2004). Moving to the public: Weblogs in the writing classroom. Into the Blogosphere. http://Blog.lib.umn.edu//blogosphere/moving_to_public_pf.html. Retrieved April 16, 2009.

Matheson, D. (2004). Weblogs and the epistemology of the news: Some trends in online journalism. New Media & Society, 6 (4), 443-468. https://doi.org/10.1177/146144804044329

Richardson, W. (2005). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

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