Enhancing students writing skill through the use of blogs

Assignment Title: ENHANCING STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL THROUGH THE USE OF ONLINE PEER FEEDBACK – A STUDY IN THE CONTEXT OF THAIBINH MEDICAL UNIVERSITY • INTRODUCTION This paper is going

Faculty of Arts, Education & Human Development Assignment Cover Sheet

Family Name: Nguyen First Name: Thi Thanh Huong Student ID Number:

4462435 Unit Code:

AED5008

Unit Title: EVALUATION

Assignment Title: ENHANCING STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL THROUGH THE USE OF BLOGS

Name of Lecturer: Michael Watts Tutorial Group (Day & Time):

Date Submitted: 25/07/2014 Student Contact Telephone No./Student Email

Address:

Telephone No: Email address:

thanhhuongytb@yahoo.com.vn

Plagiarism and Collusion

Plagiarism is a practice that involves the using of another person’s intellectual output and presenting it as one’s own’ This includes the presentation of work that has been copied, in whole or

part, from other sources (including other students’ work, published books or periodicals, or unpublished works or unauthorized collaboration with other persons), without due acknowledgement

onsequences of Plagiarism and Collusion

A student found guilty of plagiarism will be subject to some or all of the following:

Referral to Course Coordinator for: counseling; submission of further work; use of the services of

Student Learning Unit; the placing of a record of the alleged infringement on the student’s file

Referral of the matter to the Head of School for: issuing of written warning; re-submission of

work for assessment or the undertaking of another form of assessment such as an oral or unseen

examination; allocation of a fail grade to part or all of the assessment; allocation a fail grade to the subject

Referral of the matter to the Dean for: suspension from the course; official disciplinary action by the

University Disciplinary Committee

Assignment Title:

ENHANCING STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL THROUGH THE USE OF ONLINE

PEER FEEDBACK – A STUDY IN THE CONTEXT OF THAIBINH MEDICAL

UNIVERSITY

• INTRODUCTION

This paper is going to present an evaluation of the research on using blogs to give peer feedback and its effect on students‟ writing skill, which was carried out in the context of Thai Binh Medical University In this paper, an overview of the rationale for the innovation, the procedure

in which the innovation was conducted, the research methodology and methods is going to be demonstrated A summary of the research findings, along with a reflection on the innovation and the research process is also discussed

• Rationale for the innovation

Since its existence, the Internet has demonstrated significant impacts on every field of life, including education In most of the universities in Vietnam, the access of the Internet has never been so easy for students Most students now have their own computer which can get access to the Internet almost everywhere, at school, in the library, at home or even in a café Students have

a wider choice of approaching their study, from finding study materials in online sources instead

of borrowing books from libraries, working in groups through creating forums instead of having

to meet face to face, attending an online course instead of a traditional course which requires them to be present at class, etc With such significant role the Internet has on students‟ life, the researcher has thought of some possible ways to make use of the Internet to assist students in

their study In fact, students now also spend a majority of their time for social networks such as blogs, Facebook or Twitter They use social networks as a means to express their feelings, share information and socializing The ideas of using social networks such as blogs in a language classroom, was accordingly proposed

Using blogs in language teaching is, in fact, not a new approach as it has been proposed by many other researchers One of the most frequent uses of blogs can be found in writing class, where students are supposed to post their writing on their blogs, give and receive comments and feedback via blogs, instead of using the traditional pen-and-paper method when students are required to write their essays on paper and hand in to the teachers (Tanti 2012)

The impacts of using blogs in writing class have been discussed in many previous studies It has been proved that online feedback has certain benefits to students‟ language learning Results from previous study has pointed out that teaching writing through blogs helped develop students‟ writing skill, enhance their mutual interaction, give them more motivation and confidence in writing and develop a variety of related skills like computer skills, critical thinking and communicative skills (Noytim 2009, Cequena 2013, Fellner & Apple 2006, Kashini et al 2013)

However, not always has consensus been reached Researchers actually share different viewpoints in some aspects in the benefits of giving feedback on blogs For example, it was found out in the study by Noytim (2009) that using blogs to give feedback enabled students to receive numerous comments from different people at the same time, which provided students with chances to self-assess their writing and basing on the feedback to upgrade their writing quality However, it was realized in the study by Wu (2006) that as the feedback was public online, most of them were complimentary and blessings, which were not of much benefit to

students Contrast viewpoints were also presented when discussing about the benefits of online feedback It was claimed that using blogs to give feedback enabled students to improve their writings in terms of content, organization and vocabulary use (Taki & Fadarshari 2012) Through receiving online feedback, students were pointed out the mistakes in their writing and better their subsequent writing versions Nevertheless, Kashani et al (2013) expressed the disapproval when regarding online feedback as ambiguous and incomprehensible She expressed the advocacy of the traditional method of giving feedback, explaining that by giving feedback face to face, students could clarify their peer‟s comments and avoid the misinterpretation of feedback

Previous study was carried out in different context, with the involvement of different subjects and approaching the issues in different ways; thus, it is understandable that consensus are not always reached This innovation was, therefore, conducted in the context of Thai Binh Medical University to examine the effects of online feedback on students‟ at this institution in particular and also seek the answers to how students may react to the use of blogs in learning writing skill

The innovation aimed at addressing the two research questions

• What are the effects of online peer feedback on the writing skill of students at Thai Binh Medical University?

• What are students’ perceptions of the use of blogs in writing lessons?

• Summary of the innovation

This innovation was carried out in Thaibinh Medical University, which is one of the biggest educational institutions in Thai Binh province Students studying at this university mostly come from Thai Binh province and other surrounding provinces They are trained to work in medical

services; thus, English is not their major Not every student at this university has their own computer, especially first-year students when the need of using computer in their study is not high However, students can get access to computer and Internet from the computer labs and the library of the school Free Wi-Fi is also available to students at university Each of the students is provided with an account and password, which is often related to their students ID, and they can use their account to access to free Wi-Fi at school Apart from the computer labs and library which provide students with access to computer and Internet, students can easily find Internet shops and café around the campus where they can also have access to computer and Internet at any time In fact, the researcher had calculated the possibility of students‟ getting access to the computer and Internet before deciding to apply online peer feedback in teaching writing skill

The participants of this innovation were 16 students who were studying at second year In this innovation, students were supposed to read, comprehend, and give feedback to their friends‟ writing; thus, the participants were supposed to reach a certain level of language proficiency Second-year students at this university, who were expected to be of Pre-intermediate language level, were believed to be proficient enough to meet the requirements of the study Furthermore, second-year students at Thai Binh Medical University had all experienced a short course in computer and network; hence, their computer skills were believed to meet the demand of the research

16 students were divided into four groups of four Students worked and gave comments to one another in their group The researcher divided students into groups to make sure each student could receive the equal number of comments and avoid the situation in which one students received too much attention from their classmate while the other‟s writing was not paid attention

at all The innovation took place in 8 weeks; then the groups changed their member after every

two weeks This was done to enable students to receive and give feedback to classmates of different language level Students were also reminded of the way in giving feedback to their peers They were warned that too general feedback was not accepted such as “Good” or “Well-done” or “Need improvement” as these types of feedback was of little or no benefit to their peer The feedback had to be detailed and focus on both form and content of the writing

At the beginning of the innovation, the participants were still instructed with skills in creating and using blogs This short training session was done to make sure students had no difficulty in using blogs to give feedback Students also practiced creating and using blogs under the instruction and guidance of an IT teacher When all were sure about the skills in using blogs, the first lesson in writing was delivered to them in the second week of the innovation

Writing lessons were delivered in a computer lab at university At the end of each lesson, when students were instructed with the theory on essay writing, they were asked to write a task at class

on the computer and post their writing on their created personal blogs The class work involved students‟ essay writing and posting on blogs; the activities involving reading peers‟ writing, giving feedback, and editing the writing basing on the feedback were assigned to students as homework since the researcher believed that with plenty of time at home, students could read their peer‟s writing closely to give detailed feedback For those who received feedback, they would have time to consider their peer feedback to corporate in their subsequent writing

• THE RESEARCH

The innovation took place in 8 weeks To address the two issues in the innovation, including the impacts of online peer feedback on students‟ writing skills and the ways in which peer feedback

can be conducted to achieve the best results, data was collected from three qualitative research methods namely students‟ writing analysis, observations and interviews

Data for the innovation was obtained firstly from the students‟ writing analysis As proposed by Dahlberg and McCaign (2010), “documentary analysis is the systematic scrutiny of the content

of documents to identify patterns of change or development on specific issues; content can be the language, tone or terminology used…” (p.124) The analysis of students‟ writings also focused

on exploring the content of the multiple-draft writing to identify any change or improvement that students could make during the time the innovation took place As earlier mentioned, students were required to write one essay a week, posted it on their blogs to receive feedback from their peers, basing on the feedback to revise their writing and handed in the final writing version in the following week After 8 weeks of the innovation, students had 8 writing versions of 4 different topics These writings were collected by the researcher to analyze to identify whether there was any improvement in students‟ writing skills at the end of the innovation

The second data collection instruments used in this innovation was the teacher observation Observation was conducted as an informative of collecting qualitative data (Dahlberg & McCaign, 2010) Observation is a popular method which implicates the involvement of the researcher as the one who directly involves in the activities With regard to this innovation, the researcher also functioned as the teacher of the innovation, who delivered the writing class; thus, observation could easily be conducted by the researcher The observation was performed both on-the-spot and outside the class During the period when students did their writing and posted it

on blogs, observation was made with the aim to examine their attitude, engagement, and time spent on the activities The teacher was also supposed to observe closely the activities that occurred on students‟ blogs and make note of the way students‟ gave comments, responded to

comments and incorporated the comments in the subsequent writings Data gained from the observation is supposed to answer the second research question, which was related to students‟ perceptions of the use of blogs in writing lessons

If the data gathered from students‟ writing analysis reflected the impact of online peer feedback

on students‟ writing skills in terms of the improvement in writing quality, the data obtained from the teacher observation of the process in which online feedback was given and received reflected students‟ attitude towards the activities The third data collection method was gained from interview with students The interview was expected to gather data about the impact of online peer feedback on students‟ writing performance in terms of both the improvement in writing quality and students‟ attitudes to the activities Data from the interview were triangulated with the data from writing analysis and observation to verify the reliability of data gathered from the two first sources

The researcher decided to conduct interview instead of questionnaire because using interview helped create a more impulsive interaction and elasticity for both the interviewer and interviewees in comparison with using questionnaire Normally in a questionnaire, the respondents were given a list of questions and asked to give their answer by ticking in the correct box The information gathered from questionnaire; thus; may not be comprehensive The use of open-ended questions in the interview enabled the interviewees to present their viewpoints more freely and informatively The interview also enabled the interviewers to clarify any ambiguous information from the interviewees to avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation Findings from the interview, accordingly, were considered to be more in-depth and reliable

Interview is delivered to students at the end of the innovation, with the involvement of all the participants The language used in the interview was Vietnamese as students of second-year who were non-English major, may not be able to express their viewpoint precisely using a foreign language The use of Vietnamese in the interview also provided students with a relaxing atmosphere in which they could express their opinion freely and comfortably

All the participants in the interviews were informed about the recording during the interview They were also ensured that the recordings were used for the research purposes and they would

be mentioned as anonymously This should be emphasized to students to avoid their reluctance

in giving criticism or negative comments about the innovation

In addition, throughout the interview, the researcher was supposed to pay close attention to students‟ attitude With regard to Vietnamese culture, where “face-saving” culture is highly appreciated, students were not used to giving negative comments or criticizing their teachers as they considered those actions to be disrespected to their teachers (Nguyen, 1986, cited in Ellis, 1994) Normally in an interview conducted by teachers to their own students, students may hesitate or avoid making direct criticism to their teachers as well as the teaching activities for fear that they may disappoint or offend their teachers Realizing this, the teacher who functioned

as the interviewer in this innovation had clarified the purpose of the interview to all the participants She emphasized that all constructive feedback about the innovation were welcome, regardless of it was negative or positive one Feedback on the limitation and weaknesses of the innovation was even more appreciated as it helped the researcher realize the shortcomings of the innovation and could learn from the mistakes and restriction to make necessary changes for the better implementation of the innovation next time

• RESEARCH DATA ANLYSES

The innovation aimed at exploring the effects of online peer feedback on blogs on students‟ writing skills, along with examining students‟ perceptions of the use of blogs in learning writing skills Data collected from three sources namely teachers‟ observation, students‟ writing analysis and interview with students at the end of the innovation Findings from the innovation were addressed into three categories namely effects of blogs on students‟ writing skills in terms of students‟ writing quality and students‟ engagement in the class activities and lastly the perceptions of students towards the application of blogs in teaching writing

• Students’ writing quality

Results of students‟ writing quality were obtained from two data sources namely the students‟ writing analysis and the interview

Students performed 8 writings during the 8 weeks of innovation, in which they covered the four writing topics Each writing topic was written in two drafts, including one draft students wrote right in class and posted on their blogs, and the other draft was written after they received feedback from their peers and revised the writing The writing analysis was conducted by comparing the first and second writing draft of students in each topic and by comparing the first draft of the first topic in week 1 and the fourth topic in week 7 The first comparison made between the first and second writing version was to explore whether there was any improvement from the first to the revised draft after students received feedback from their friends Furthermore, the second comparison of the writing of the first topic with that of the fourth topic aimed to figure out whether students made any improvement in their writing skill throughout the innovation

When comparing the first and second writing draft of all 16 students over the four writing task, it was found out that the writing quality of all students experienced significant change The second draft of all the writings were of better quality than the first draft, although the extent to which the writings were improved varied from students to students It was realized that those who were of lower language proficiency made more significant improvement than those who were of higher level In addition, when analyzing the students‟ writing, the researcher based on two major criteria to evaluate, namely form and content, in which form refers to grammar, vocabulary and punctuation while content refers to ideas and organization The analysis reflected that improvement was mostly found in terms of form, rather than content Fewer mistakes in form (grammar, vocabulary and punctuation) were found in the second draft of most students‟ writing; however, in terms of content, not much change was made in the second draft in comparison with the first one

It was obvious from the writing analysis that improvement in writing quality was seen in the second draft compared with the first one However, as the researcher just made comparison between the first and second writing drafts of students independently without reference to the peer feedback that they received; she also did not calculate how many mistakes was incorporated from the peer feedback; therefore, it would be hard to make instant conclusion that all the improvement in the second draft was resulted from the online peer feedback Confirmation may

be needed when analyzing results from the interviews

Apart from the comparison made between students‟ first and second draft of all writing tasks, the researcher also chose to compare the first writing task with the final one to identify the improvement that students might make throughout the innovation It was found out from the second comparison that 9 out of 16 students made improvement in their writing of the first draft