Developing Students’ Communicative Writing Skills through Blogging

  • Nurul Fadilah Universitas Ahmad Dahlan, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
  • Akmal Akmal Universitas Ahmad Dahlan, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
  • Kamisah Ariffin Akademi Pengajian Bahasa, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia

Abstract

Blogs have gained popularity among language teachers as a tool to develop students' writing skills. However, using blogs in teaching writing has not been widely practised in Indonesia depite the positive effects on students' learning as reported in the literature. This paper examines the development of students' communicative writing skills through blogging. The data were collected from students' writing based on different themes posted in a class blog over a five-week period. Using Franker's ELT blog rubric as a framework for analysis, the findings were classified into four codes of communicative skills in writing: creativity, critical thinking, voice and comment. The findings indicate a general improvement on the students' communicative skills in writing based on these codes. Students also responded positively towards the use of blogging in developing their communicative skills in writing. Not only blogging helped to develop their minds critically and evaluatively, they were able to write their thoughts and respond to others' point of view freely without the presence of the instructor and fellow friends. Such findings indicate that with advance of technology in education, blogs can be an alternative medium for teaching writing in class, especially in this IR4.0 era.

References

Akçay, A., & Arslan, A. (2010). The using of blogs in Turkish education. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.171

Alsamadani, H. A. (2018). The Effectiveness of Using Online Blogging for Students ’ Individual and Group Writing. 11(1), 44–51. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v11n1p44

Amezotchi, L. (2009). Defining “Voice” in Writing. Retrieved December 18, 2012 From http://www.thewritenetwork.com/defining-voice-in-writing

Bloch, J. (2007). Abdullah’s Blogging: A generation 1.5 student enters the blogosphere. Language Learning & Technology, 11(2), 128–141

Campbell, A. P. (2003). Weblogs for use with ESL classes. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. IX, No.2, http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Campbell-Weblogs.html

Chu, S. K. W., Chan, C. K. K., & Tiwari, A. F. Y. (2012). Using blogs to support learning during internship. Computers and Education. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.08.027

Cutmore, G. (2012, March 31). 5 Different Blogging Voices. Retrieved December 18, 2012, from http://gracie-senseandsimplicity.blogspot.com/2012/03/5- different-blogging-voices.html

Efimova, L. (2009). Weblog as a personal thinking space. Proceedings of the 20th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia, HT’09. https://doi.org/10.1145/1557914.1557963

Grand, T.C (2013, February 4). Bloggers love positive feedback. Retrieved from http://fitknitchick.com/2013/02/04/bloggers-love-positive-feedback-blogcomment-love-roundup/Goins,

J. (2011). What Blogging Everyday Taught Me About Creativity. Retrieved from http://goinswriter.com/blog-every-day/

Grover, S. (2013). Poetic thought, creativity and expression. Retrieved from http://www.tapnetwork.org/arts/poetry/poetic-thought-expression-and-creativity/

Gunelius, S. (2013). Blogging Guide. Retrieved from http://weblogs.about.com/od/bloggingglossary/g/CommentDef.htm

Gutkind, L. (2007). Fame and Obscurity (with Appreciation to Gay Talese) and our Search for the Best Creative Nonfiction. Creative Nonfiction, 32. Retrieved from https://www.creativenonfiction.org/online-reading/whats-story-32

Hale, A. (2008). Daily Writing Tips. Retrieved December 17, 2012 from http://www.dailywritingtips.com/creative-writing-101/

Hamon, K. W. (2011). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms Organization Management Journal. https://doi.org/10.1057/omj.2011.19

Ingold, T. (2007). Writing texts, reading materials. A response to my critics. Archaeological Dialogues. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1380203807002176

Johnson, A. (2004). Creating a Writing Course Utilizing Class and Student Blogs. The Internet TESL Journal.

Lai, E. R. (2011). Critical Thinking A Literature Review Research Report. London Parsons Publishing.

McGuinness, M. (2013). Blogs + Links: Blogging for Creative Professionals. Retrieved from
http://www.wishfulthinking.co.uk/books-links-blogging-forcreative-professionals/.

Mishne, G., & Glance, N. (2006). Leave a reply: An analysis of weblog comments. Proceedings of the3rd Annual Workshop on the Weblogging Ecosystem, 15th World Wide Web Conference, Edinburgh.

Muse, K.T. (2009, November 12). How to Write a Critical Comment. Retrieved from http://www.geeknewscentral.com/2009/11/12/how-towrite-a-critical-comment/

Pawliczak, J. (2015). Creative Writing as a Best Way to Improve Writing Skills of Students. Sino-US English Teaching, 12(5), 347–352. https://doi.org/10.17265/1539-8072/2015.05.004.

Pinkman, K. (2005). Using blogs in the foreign language classroom: Encouraging learner independence. The JALT CALL Journal, 1(1), 12–24. https://doi.org/10.29140/jaltcall.v1n2.r2.

Pohl, M. (2000). Learning to think, thinking to learn: Models and strategies to develop a classroom culture of thinking. Cheltenham: Hawker Brownlow.

Ramadhani, P. (2018). Using Facebook Comments in Teaching Writing Skill. Proceedings of the ICECRS. https://doi.org/10.21070/picecrs.v1i3.1398.

Stanley, G. (2005). Blogging for EFL. The Teaching English Website [Online]. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/ articles/blogging-EFL.

Sullivan, M., & Longnecker, N. (2014). Class blogs as a teaching tool to promote writing and student interaction. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.322.

Sun, Y. C. (2010). Extensive writing in foreign-language classrooms: A blogging approach. Innovations in Education and Teaching International. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2010.498184

Trisnaningsih, W. (2017). Increasing Students’ Creativity And Writing Skill Through Pjbl. Vol 6. Premise Journal, 4(1), 9–15.

Waldman, N. (2007, October 20). Metaphors: Creating Illusions. Retrieved December 20, 2012, from http://practicallycreative.net/2007/05/03/metaphors-creating-illusions/

Warschauer, M. (2010). Digital literacy studies: Progress and Prospects. In M. Baynham & M. Prinsloo (Eds.). The future of literacy studies. pp.123-140. Houndmills, Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Wang, Q.Y., & Woo, H. L. (2010). Investigating students’ critical thinking in weblogs: An exploratory study in a Singapore secondary school. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. (Online) Retrieved July 20, 2010 from http://www.springerlink.com/content/7737572334g7794n

Yang, W. et al. (2009). Study of Comments on Official Movie Blogs. International Journal of Electronic Business Management, 7(3), 201-210.

Zhang, W. (2010). Blogging for doing english digital: Student evaluations. Computers and Composition, 27(4), 266–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2010.09.003

Zwilinski, L. (2009). HOT Blogging: A Framework for Blogging to Promote Higher Order Thinking. The Reading Teacher. (Vol.62), 650-661.
Published
2020-08-01
How to Cite
FADILAH, Nurul; AKMAL, Akmal; ARIFFIN, Kamisah. Developing Students’ Communicative Writing Skills through Blogging. International Journal of Modern Languages And Applied Linguistics, [S.l.], v. 4, n. 3, p. 1-13, aug. 2020. ISSN 2600-7266. Available at: <https://myjms.mohe.gov.my/index.php/ijmal/article/view/9107>. Date accessed: 07 nov. 2024. doi: https://doi.org/10.24191/ijmal.v4i3.9107.