Blogs in Language Learning Enhancing Students’ Writing Skills through Blogs

Abstract

Unlike receptive skills, such as reading and listening, writing has received relatively little attention in second language learning. The reason for this lack of attention is that reading and listening are assumed to create competence in second language learning since they form the input on which learning is based. Moreover, a number of studies in several English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts have indicated that second language learners consider writing skills as the most difficult skills to master. A number of studies also promote the use of educational technologies in teaching the English language, and blogging, in particular, is considered to be one of the promising educational media that can be used as a genuine tool to teach EFL in a way that enables the learners to use English for authentic and day-to-day life situations. The use of blogging has been shown to enable the students to learn English for real-life situations and purposes which eventually will enhance the EFL learners’ English language competence in general and their writing skills in particular. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to examine the extent to which this new technology can enhance EFL Omani writing. In this study, multiple qualitative methods were used within an interpretivist approach and a case study methodology to gather the required data. Therefore, after choosing the study context and working with foundation students at the Institute of Health in Oman, the following methods were applied. First, an open-ended questionnaire was used to establish baseline perceptions and to select the six students for in-depth examination. Second, a student blog was created and implemented, in which each participant had to write three original essays plus an edited version of each one based on peers’ comments on their work. Subsequently, field notes were applied within the participants’ writing class, and finally, the participants and their teacher were interviewed. The study obtained the following findings. The use of blogging as a new medium in teaching writing skills enabled Omani students to have a new learning experience where several changes occurred: 1. A change in understanding of being a writer, 2. A change in understanding of a text, 3. A changing pedagogy for the writing classroom and 4. A changing classroom culture in the EFL writing classes. This study is characterised by its original design and approach, by its context within the Arab world and its findings are likely to influence teaching L2 writing skills while applying new educational technology. The study offers compelling evidence that blogging facilitates interaction with peers and teachers and that this interaction changes both the understanding and practice of writing