Applying blog to motivate the students of class 11a4 at quynh tho high school in studying writing skill

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY No2 TRINH THI PHUONG LIEN APPLYING BLOG TO MOTIVATE THE STUDENTS OF CLASS 11A4 AT QUYNH THO HIGH SCHOOL IN STUDYING WRI

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY No2

TRINH THI PHUONG LIEN

APPLYING BLOG TO MOTIVATE THE STUDENTS OF CLASS 11A4 AT QUYNH THO HIGH SCHOOL IN

STUDYING WRITING SKILL

(GRADUATION PAPER SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH)

SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI HA ANH, M A

Hanoi, May 2014

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to take this chance to express my greatest gratitude to Nguyen Thi Ha Anh, MA, my supervisor, for her patience in providing continuous and carefully guidance as well as encouragement, indispensable suggestions and advice

I wish to thank all the lectures at Hanoi Pedagogical University Number

2, especially the lectures in the Foreign Language Faculty for their dedicated instructions during my years of university work

I am particularly grateful to my close friends for their enthusiasm and kindness in helping me collect valuable reference documents and data for my research

Last but not least, I owe a debt of gratitude to my beloved family, for their whole-hearted encouragement and endless support

ABSTRACT

Writing is viewed hugely important, yet it is a daunting task for both English as a second language (ESL) teachers and learners With the development of different approaches to teaching in general, numerous approaches to the teaching of writing have been evolved such as product, process and post process approaches Although these approaches have changes the role and status of writing over the years Writing still appears as one of the difficult areas to tackle as students lack academic writing skills and they are de-motivated to write in English In view of this, researcher shows an interest in looking into the possibilities of using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools for language teaching and learning and Blog is known

as an effective method in ESL classrooms The aim of this study is to apply blogs in developing the writing skills of ESL learners The study will further highlight the benefit of weblogs logging activities and the impacts of these activities on students‟ motivation to write in English as autonomous learners

Date submitted: May 2014

Student

Trinh Thi Phuong Lien

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: The use of blog in the students‟ previous writing classes

Figure 2: The experience with blog of the students before this writing

Figure 3: The students‟ ideas about writing and giving feedback through paper Figure 4: The method which the students like better: traditional (paper/ pencil)

or blog

Figure 5: The feeling of the students about using blog in writing

Figure 6: The studentsattitudes towards using peer feedback to complete writing

TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL : English Foreign Language

ESL : English Foreign Language

ICT : Information Communications Technology

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

Chapter 1: Introduction 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2.Research questions 3

1.3 Research objectives 3

1.4 Research scope 3

1.5 Research tasks 4

1.6 Significance of the proposed research 4

1.7 Design of the research work 5

Chapter 2: Development 6

2.1 Literature review in brief 6

2.2 Blog 8

2.2.1 Definition of blog 8

2.2.2 Characteristics of blog 10

2.2.3 Functions of blogs in development of writing skills 12

2.2.3.1 Benefits of using blog 12

2.2.3.2 Challenges in using blog 14

2.3 Writing 15

2.3.1 Definition of writing 15

2.3.2 The types of writing 15

2.3.3 Audience 16

2.3.4 Context 16

2.3.5 The characteristic of good writing 16

2.3.6 The importance of writing 17

2.3.7 The process approach for teaching writing 17

Chapter 3: Research Methods 20

3.1 Rationale 20

3.2 Participants 21

3.3 The setting 21

3.4 Research instruments 21

3.5 Procedure of the study 23

3.6 Data analysis procedure 25

Chapter 4: Results and Discussion 27

4.1 The attitude of students before using blog 27

4.2 The attitude of students after using blog 32

4.3 Discussion 35

Chapter 5: Suggestion and Conclusion 37

5.1 Conclusion 37

5.2 Limitations 39

5.3 Suggestions for further study 39

APPENDICES 40

APPENDIX A 40

APPENDIX B 41

REFERENCES 45

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Nowadays, the internet has emerged as a prominently new technology and played an important role in learning and teaching English in Vietnam The influence of such a powerful technological tool has pervaded all aspects of the education, business and economic sector of our life We can find any kind of references on internet very quickly and internet widely spreads in numerous fields and domains The technology has a lot benefits in learning foreign language The use of technology helps teachers and students in different ways Besides, it helps to motivate students to learn four English skills Students have opportunities to work in collaborative manner and share what they know or what they do not know with friends all over the world “Technology gives students opportunities to use their productive and receipt ability for real purposes, such

as publishing a new letter or writing interactive journals” (“school computing”, e-book) Face book, Twitter, Google, Zing me or Weblog, etc are social networks applied as means of technology in order to support for students in learning English Students can share thoughts, photos, music, links, ECT through social networks and they can communicate with all friends all over the world, and do research

The term “blog” is a contraction of two words: web and log Blog is known as a tool for written communication and interaction The term weblog refers to a personalized webpage, kept by the author in reverse chronological diary form Blogs are personal online journals which have recently become a collaborative technology, regarded as a new way for people to express their thoughts in public The form of writing has become popular among internet uses Most blog writers (bloggers) use this environment, as writing in blogs to help people become more thoughtful and critical in their writing Blogs can also

be used to publish and exchange personal knowledge The idea of using blogs in language learning is similar to the use of journal writing which is a way to help

students explore and assimilate new ideas, create links between the familiar and unfamiliar, mull over possibilities, and explain them to others Every student can get chance to express himself or herself and publish his/her thoughts On the other hand, the teacher and other students can contribute their understanding on the publication Hence, the students can strengthen their knowledge, by constructing their own meanings in writing and interpret these meanings based upon their understanding and experiences Blogs, therefore, should be used to promote writing skill among ESL learners

The differences in the system of language may bring about learning problems for foreign language learners Hence, Vietnamese students face difficulties in writing There are four component skills in learning English, namely: reading, writing, speaking and listening In other word, writing can be a way of expressing ideas through written form By writing, we can compare our opinion with the people who read our writing Writing can be considered as media in expressing feeling and self expression and it can be enjoyed not just for the writer itself but also for the reader That is why people write to express their feelings, ideas, or thoughts and to be read by other

In teaching four skills, there are many techniques usually used by teacher But a lot of teachers say that they face difficulties in teaching writing English because it is not easy to find out the effective way to motivate students in writing lesson

Blog is viewed as a tool in facilitating the development of writing skills to ascertain such contention Several research studies concur that the use of a blog can positively enhance learning in the second language classroom Moreover blog can improve writing skills Research has confirmed positive uses of the blog which include writing for an audience and peer review, the development of

a sense of community in a class through a collaborative learning environment Blog can stimulate student‟s interest and also increase the student‟s ability in writing especially in making sentences

In fact, after I practiced teaching English writing at class 11A4 of Quynh Tho high school, I knew that many students did not like writing because they were not motivated in writing class Besides, many of my colleagues said that it

is too difficult for their students to take part in writing class enthusiastically As

a teacher, I found that applying blog in writing class may help to solve these problems and improve the students‟ attitude towards writing

Based on the explanation above, the writer is interested in concluding a research entitled “Applying blog in teaching writing English at Quynh Tho high school”

The study is aimed at the following goals:

To evaluate the effects of blog to facilitate the students at Quynh Tho high school in English writing

To find out the benefits of blog in improving the student‟s English writing

1.5 Research tasks

The study involves fulfilling the following tasks:

1 To study the effects of blogs on improving writing skill

2 To apply blogs into practice

1.6 Significance of the proposed research

In accordance with the problem stated above, this research is expected to

be beneficial to the following subjects:

3 The students have tutor that can help them if they find any difficulties

in learning writing skill

4 To build up consciousness of the importance of writing to support the mastery of language skills

For the teacher

English teacher can choose and apply blogs to motivate students in learning English writing Teachers can help the students to improve four English skills by applying new way of teaching English

For school

Applying blog in teaching English improved and encouraged students in

learning writing in school where the research was done

For the researcher

The researcher shows interest in looking into the possibilities of using Information and Communication Technology tools for language teaching weblog as an effective tool in ESL class

1.7 Design of research work

The paper includes five chapters, namely: Introduction, Development, Research methods, Results and Discussion and Suggestion and Conclusion

Chapter 2: Development 2.1 Overview of blogs and blogging

Blogs and Blogging

Blogging as defined by Johns (2003) “is short for web logging” (p.1) Blogging is the act of keeping a diary or journal online This online journal or blog with dated entries are linked to other sites on the web, usually other blogs, thus creating a virtual community (John, 2003 cited in Coquina and gustily, n d) Blood (2002) in Ellison and Yu (2008) further defined blogs as, “online public writing environments in which postings are listed in reverse chronological order” Campbell (2003) categorized blogs into three types which can be use for ESL class rooms, tutor blog, learner blog and class blog The tutor blog is an online journal created by a teacher himself/ herself whose objective are to encourage students to read by providing texts written in casual and natural way native speaker write, to promote exploration of web resources related to lessons, to encourage verbal exchanges where students can provide feedback or comments on blog entries, to provide information about syllabus, and to encourage self-study by providing links like online quizzes, audio and video files for ESL The learner blog, on the other hand, is owned by individual learners This can be an avenue where students can keep online journals for writing practice by posting either their reactions to teaching texts or their responses to writing assignments Lastly, class blog, is a product of collaborative entries in which students can post messages, discussions, and images related to classroom lessons In this way, students can better understand lessons in class since they are further discussed and elucidated through online forums in a class blog

The term blog is a contraction of two words “web” and “log” Blog is a tool for written communication and interaction The term “weblog” refers to personalized web page, kept by the author in reverse chronological diary form

As “log on the web”, it is kept first and foremost on the verb, either on a static

web page, or via a data base-backed website, enable through blogging soft ware Blogging as defined by Jones (2003) “in short for web logging” (p.1) Blogging

is the act of keeping a diary or journal online This online journal or blog with dated entries are liked to other sites on the web, usually other blogs, thus creating a virtual community (Jones, 2003 cited in Cequena and Gustile, n d) Blood (2002) in Ellison and Yu (2008) Further defines blog as “online public writing environments in which postings (individual writing segments often containing hyperlink to other online sources are listed in reverse chronological order” (p.105) Campbell (2003) categorized blogs into three types which can be used for English classroom including: tutor blog, learner blog and class blog According to him, a weblog can be though soft ware that enables one to easily

do so In educational settings worldwide students are increasingly using blogs and a lot of support for blog has been generated Zhang (2009) affirms that;

“Blogs have formidable potentials as a useful tool for the teaching in classes.” (2009: 66)

Blog offers a collaborative environment where by student can read each other‟s posts and in some blogs they have a facility to comment on each other‟s work Therefore students are essentially writing for an audience which is said to improve writing capacity (Zhang, 2009) Moreover, blog can successfully promote self expression in a place where learner and blogger are developing deeply personalized content dealing with their language learning Being both potentially individualistic barrier and may be used for language learning purposes, where bloggers become a part of a discourse community in a complex multimodal setting, and learning together in collaborative spaces where people negotiate and construct meaning and texts

Blog can also be used to publish and exchange personal knowledge The idea of using blog in language learning is similar to the use of journal writing which is a way to help students explore and assimilate new ideas, possibilities, and explain them to others Every Student can get the chance to express himself and publish his thoughts

On the other hand, the teacher and other students can contribute their understanding on publication Hence, the students can strengthen their knowledge by constructing their own meaning based up on their understanding and experiences Blog, therefore, should be used as they should be to promote writing skill

2.2 Blog

2.2.1 Definition of blog

The term blog is a contraction of two words: web and log, it is best described as an online journal Blog is known as a tool for written communication and interaction The term „web log‟ refer to a personalized webpage, kept by the author in reverse chronological diary form The term „web log‟ was coined by Jorn Barger bin 1997 (Blood, 2000) However, Justin Hall, who began his personal online journal in 1994, is considered to be one of the first bloggers Over 4 million weblogs had been created by the middle of 2003 and over 60 million were created by May 2005 (Huann, Ow, & Ho Pau Yuen, 2005) There are more than 900,000 blogs post a day with a new blog created every second (Richardson, 2005) Blogs can be about any topic and can include pictures or even video They often incorporate links to other blogs or websites Most, though not all, blogs provide the option for reader to comment on the journal entry The feature makes blog a truly social communication tool

Weblogs, commonly referred to as blogs, are asynchronous communicationmediated-communication tools that were introduced, in the form they are known today, according to Blood (2000), in 1999 despite winner‟s claims that they have been in existence since the beginning of the world wide web itself

According to Campbell (2003) a weblog can be thought of as; “An online journal that an individual can continuously update with his/her own words, ideas and thoughts through software that enables one to easily do so”

Blog is a website that consists of series of entries arranged in reverse chronological order, often update on frequently with new information about particular topics The information can be written by the site owner, gleaned from other web sites or other sources, or contributed by users

Blog often has the quality of being a kind of “log of our times” from a particular point-of-view Generally, blogs are devoted to one or several subjects

or themes, usually of topical interest, and, in general, can be thought of as developing commentaries, individual or collective on their particular themes Blogs may consist of recorded ideas of an individual or be a complex collaboration open to anyone Most of the later are moderated discussions

Blogs offer a collaborative-environment where by students can read each other‟s posts and in some blogs they have a facility to comment on each‟s work Therefore, students are essentially writing for an audience which is said to improve writing capacity (Zhang, 2009)

Since there are a number of variations on this idea and new variations can easily be invented, the meaning of this term is apt to gather additional connotations with time A popular blog is Slashdot.org, the product of programmer and graphic artist Rob Malden and several colleagues Slashdot.org carries discussion threads on many subjects including: Quake, Netscape, Sun Microsystems, Hard ware, and Linux Slashdot.org solicits and posts interesting stories reported by contributors, includes a link to the story, and manages the threads of the ensuring discussion by other users Another well-known weblog is Jorn Barger‟s Robot Wisdom Log, which is more of collection of daily highlights from other Web sites Jessamyn West‟s librarian.net is a daily log of items interesting to librarians and possibly others, too As a format and content approach for a Web site, the blog seems popular because the viewer knows that something changes every day, there is a personal point-of-view, and, on some sites, there is an opportunity to collaborate or respond with the web site and its participants

by use of comment buttons, provided class or syllabus information, and serve as

a resource of links for self-study Learner blogs are run by individual learners themselves and they are best suited for writing classes The class blog is the result of the collaborative effort of an entire class It can be used for posting messages, images, and links related to classroom discussion topics Class blogs could also be used as a virtual space for an international classroom language exchange (Campbell, 2003)

The Tutor Blog

This is a kind of weblog that is run by the tutor for the learners It serves the following purposes:

It gives daily reading practice to the learners Sometime students find assigned reading material too boring, difficult, or hard to relate with This is because it is often written with another purpose in mind So who better to write

to them than the person who knows them best: the teacher New vocabulary words can be linked to definitions on other sites found with a search engine Furthermore, a casual, natural writing style can be used by the tutor to develop learner familiarity with native language patterns

It encourages online verbal exchange by use of comment buttons At the bottom of each entry, any blog reader can make a comment that can be read and further commented on by all who access the site Ask your student‟s questions, give those riddles, and challenge their views; whatever it takes to encourage them to comment

It provides class or syllabus information Entries in the blog can also serve

to remind students about home work assignments and upcoming discussion The

tutor can also follow up on difficult areas of classroom work that might need review or clarification In addition, a permanent link to the classroom syllabus and rules can be included on the blog

It serves as a resource of links for self-study In the right and/or left margins of the blog, permanent links can be set-up and organized to aid the learner in self-study, for example links to online quizzes, English news sites, key-pal networks, audio and video files for listening practice and ESL interactive websites

The Learner Blog

These are blogs that are either run by individual learners themselves or by small collaborative groups of learners In ESL, learner blogs may be best suited for reading and writing classes A common reading assignment can be followed

by blog postings on the thoughts of each learner or group of learners Furthermore, the act of constructing the blog may encourage the use of search engines and net surfing in English to find the appropriate sites to which links can

be made This will empower the learner to direct the reader to sites of choice for further reading Individually, blogs can be used as journals for writing practice,

or as free-form templates for personal expression The idea here is that students can get writing practice, develop a sense of ownership, and get experience with the practical, legal, and ethical issues of creating a hypertext document In addition, whatever they write can instantly be read by anyone else and, due to the comment features of the software, further exchange of ideas is promoted Tutors can even run a mega-blog of select topics of interest gleaned from student blogs so that the broader issues brought into focus on single website

The Class Blog

It could be used like a free-from bulletin board for learners to post messages, images, and links related to classroom discussion topics It could also

be a space for them to post thoughts on a common theme assigned for homework

Class blogs could also be used as a virtual space for an international classroom language exchange Learner from different countries would have joint access and publishing rights to the blog The entire exchange would then be transparent to all readers and could be followed and commented on by other learned tutors, parents and friends

For reading and writing classes, it might also involve the use of knowledge management software, like User land‟s Manila, that allows for a great deal of threaded discussion behind the scenes Much like a publishing group, individual learners can be given varying a mounts of responsibility to publish material arising from posting on the discussion list The results of this effort are what are seen on a website by the public at large

2.2.3 Functions of blogs in development of writing skills

2.2.3.1 Benefits of using blog

There were lots of benefits and advantages cited by the lectures during the interviews when blogs are used with their students As indicated by one of the interviewees, blogs can help to seal the connection between the students and the lecture added that, blogs help to gain free interaction so it‟s more non-formal, and there are no language barriers while writing in their blog However, it will not be appropriated to simply say some improper commands of language to lecture but it can be used in blog anytime Students can also use blogs for education not totally for socializing Students can ask about assignments and talk about lesson

The statement was also supported by another quote from fellow lecturer saying that blogs help to communicate more in written English rather than doing

it face to face They are not shy to express themselves better There are lots of benefits in using blogs such as interaction and expressing themselves This also supports that blogs provide a platform for individual expression and support reader commentary, critique, and interlink age as subsequent steps In other words, blogs foreground the individual

Students generally find weblog writing valuable for language learning (Arana, 2005; Blackstone, et al; 2007; Hall, 2005; Pink man, 2005; Tan et all, 2005b; walker, 2005; Ward, 2004) Learners at college level found writing weblogs a motivating activity as they were able to experience authentic writing in context (Brooks et al., 2004; Laitner, 2007), help create a collaborative class environment where learners can give and receive feedback (Barrios, 2003; Kavaliauskiene‟ et al., 2006; Kennedy, 2003, Laitner, 2007; Minugh, 2008; Tan et al., 2005b) and present learners with a space to reflect on their language learning (Mynard, 2007) The use of class blogs also allow students to see comments that were written for the class as a whole as well as comments that were directed to them individually Learners can also see for themselves how their writing has progressed over time through the use of weblogs (Johnson, 2004)

By providing students with an audience who are located outside the classroom walls along with the possibility of getting comments from them, blogs give students a sense of recognition The students realize that their teacher is no longer the only member of audience for their work and that what they write and have to say on their blogs are read by a bigger audience made up of their peers, teacher and possibly other readers

This motivates them to produce better quality of work as they would not want to publish work that they would feel embarrassed about (Halavais as cited

in Online Classroom, 2004) The comments feature found in blogs can be used

to further enhance the interactivity of blogs Through the comments feature, students can receive feedback from not only the instructor but also from their peer (Blackstone et-all., 2007; Ward, 2004) Discussions between students are

no longer bounded by time or place Students can now share ideas more effectively, review each other‟s work and discuss corrections with one another (Blackstone et al, 2007; Flatley, 2005) Comments allow students to both give and receive feedback (Blackstone et al, 2007); Kavaliauskiene‟ et al., 2006; Kennedy, 2003) Weblogs also provide students with an opportunity to develop their writing skill (Brook et al., 2004; Davis, 2006, 2008) Developing a voice is

important in learning and for students to participate in conversations on blogs effectively In addition, Weblogs have great potentials for developing relationships between learners and building communities (Bloom, 2008; Tomei& Lavin, 2007; Standley, 2005a, 2005b) Students have been found to use the comments of weblogs to give each other compliments, to correct errors and give suggestions, to show care about the perception of their entry, give personal responses and additional information, express disagreement and different opinions, make comments on comments that have been written by others before them, pose question to the blogger and answer their readers question (Bloom, 2008) The use of weblogs in education enables students to make choices and take ownership not only of their weblog space but also of their learning process (Ferdig & Trammell, 2004; Davis, 2006, 2008; Tan et al., 2005a; Ward 2004) This empowers the students by letting them take control of how they learn

2.2.3.2 Challenges in using blog

There are many challenges that hinder the lectures from encouraging ESL learners to use blogs for improving their writing skills The lack of time, students‟ lack of skills and less participation from the students are regarded as some of the existing challenges As for the lack of time, one of the lectures mentioned that: another problem will be time constraint whereby I need to spend quite sometimes to check their blogs Students sometime also have less time to arrange their works in blogs Some even simply post useless things However, as started, it is not always about time but sometimes it is due to the lack of skill acquired by the students as highlighted by one of the lectures When it is not about time and skill, sometimes the students are too passive in involving themselves through blogs One of the interviewees mentioned that some students did not participate, or they participated, they just gave you some lines They just wrote a few lines and you need to encourage them Therefore, although blogs are very useful, there are still some challenges which need to be tackled to ensure their effectiveness

2.3 Writing

2.3.1 Definition of writing

According to Byrne (1989) that the writing is clearly much more than production of graphic symbol, just as speech is more than the production of sounds The symbol should be arranged according to certain convention: to form words and words have to be arranged to from sentences Writing involves the encoding of a message of same kind that is translated into language

According to Lever (198:1) that writing is one way of making meaning from experience for one self and for others Furthermore, he says that writing serves as the most available and the most compelling way because the outcome, visible language is satisfyingly permanent record of thoughts and felling

From the argument above, it is clear that there are various definitions of writing, each definition is a reflection of the underlying theories or perspective that the authors assume However, we can understand that writing is way of human being to communicate and express their idea or encoding a message through the graphic symbol and the writer draws a conclusion that writing can

be defined as a process of transferring what someone has in his mind to the written language

2.3.2 The types of writing

The types of writing are based on three factors: purpose of writing into three categories: to persuade, to inform and to entertain

a To inform

The writer generally explains or describes an idea, a process, an even, a belief, a person, a place or a thing to give information The writer also gives the facts and explains the causes

b To persuade

The writer tries to change the audience or behave differently In this sense, the writer appeals to the readers‟ logic or emotion

Reader and audience are not physically present when a writer is writing a topic

2.3.4 Context

Context means the use of conventions appropriate the topic and discourse type Context also includes some consideration that a writer is going to say about extensive series of detain, various view point and so on

2.3.5 The characteristic of good writing

Good writing simply means writing has no mistakes and no errors of grammar, punctuation, or spelling In fact, good writing is must more than just correct writing Its writing that responds to the interests needs of our readers

Briefly, characteristic of good writing need these criteria:

+ good writing has a clearly defined purposed

+ it makes a clear point

+ it supports that point with specific information

+ the information is clearly connected and arranged

+ the words are appropriate, and the sentences are clear, concise, empathic and correct

2.3.6 The importance of writing

Ur (1996) categorized writing purposes into three sub-categories Firstly, writing is used as “a convenient means for engaging with aspects of language other than the writing itself” (p.162) Through writing activities, students attend

to and practice a “particular language point” Secondly, writing is considered “as

an end”

Accordingly, various writing activities, including “micro” and “macro” activities, invite students to develop their writing skills The third kind of writing combines “as both means and end” (p.162) It is a mixture of “purposeful and original writing and learning or practice of some other skills or content” (p.162)

Doff (1988, p.148) provided a detailed comment on the importance of writing at lower levels of learning English as a foreign language “students” need for writing is most likely to be for study purposes and also as an examination skill The main importance of writing at this level is that it helps students to learn”

Tribble (1996, p.7) made a list of reasons why school students have to involved writing in their study Writing has the positive effects on their creativeness and first language acquisition Accordingly, writing gives school students opportunities for language practice by reviewing grammar and vocabulary and creative language use Because of a general educational value, writing in foreign languages can help students become better writers in their first language

In short, for students who study foreign languages, writing has current immediate values, including language practice and examination for students Also it embeds future values such as professional benefits, development of creative language and educational values

2.3.7 The process approach for teaching writing

Writing in 1986, Applebee pointed out that product approach is a largely

“prescriptive and product-centered” way of teaching writing Product approach

pays much attention to the final witting paper of learner With this approach, the favorite class activities are engaged in imitating, copying, and transforming models of correct language

The process approach to writing has been seen as an improvement over the traditional methods of writing instruction in recent years and have been widely implemented in teaching writing in the first language and the second language as well

Process approaches to writing tend to focus more on the varied classroom activities which promote the development of language use: brainstorming, group discussion, re-writing Such an approach can have any number of stages, though

a typical sequence of activities could proceed as follows:

Stage 1: Generating ideas by brainstorming and discussion Students could be discussing qualities needed to do a certain job, or giving reason as to why people take drugs or gamble The teacher remains in the background during this phase, only providing language support if required

Stage 2: Students extend ideas into note form, and judge quality and usefulness of ideas

Stage 3: Students organize ideas into a mind map, spider gram, or linear form It means that the stage helps to make relationship of ideas more immediately obvious, which helps students with the structure of their texts

Stage 4: Students write the first draft This is done in class and frequently pairs or groups

Stage 5: Drafts are exchanged, so that students become the readers of each other‟s work By responding as readers, students develop an awareness of the fact that a writer is producing something to be read by someone else and this helps them to improve their drafts

Stage 6: Drafts are returned and improvements are made based upon peer feedback

Stage 7: A final draft is written

Stage 8: Students once again exchange and read each other‟s work and perhaps even write a response or reply

In conclusion, the approach can benefit students in their writing Process writing views text as a resource for comparison and ideas as the starting point; focuses on more than one draft, purpose, theme, text type, collaborative; and creative process It also empowers students by getting them to talk about their writing process It is this “talk” that you will be engaged in as tutors and about their writing process

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODS

Methodology

The purpose of this chapter is to provide rationale regarding the research approach and methodology used in the study, and to present the data analysis that was done in order to investigate whether the blog can be seen as an effective tool to improve writing in the second language classroom

of the users There are three types of weblogs used in English language classrooms which are the tutor blog run by individual learner themselves or by small collaborative groups of learners, the class blog-the result of the collaborative effort of an entire class (Campbell, 2003) However, the learner blog is supposed to be the most suitable for writing class Blogs can provide an exciting and motivating learning environment where students have a sense of ownership and readership They can be used to enhance students‟ analytical and critical thinking skills, create social interactions between students and the instructor (teacher) Blogs are used widely in EFL writing classes and useful for both of learners and teachers Influence of using of blogs on developing writing skills have to do with motivation and attitudes Therefore, it is the reason why the researcher chose to apply blog in English writing class at the class 11A4 at