Week 8: integrating www in ESL classroom

Presentation made by Nasa and Haizam was really good as they explained on how to integrate the use of  WWW in ESL classroom. As we all know, the WWW should be used in the classroom because it gives us abundance of information and it can cultivate our teaching and learning environment.

Besides that, students also could enhance their motivation in learning the language. For students can use the WWW to search for information on a range of topics such as the environment, language, economic and many more.The WWW  can be seen as another research tool to be used in collaborative learning.

Teachers should integrate this kind of method in the classroom because it has many benefits for students especially to help them in learning process.

Google Docs..the benefits..

Google Docs is an online web-based word processor, spreadsheets, presentation as well as data storage which provided by Google. The usage is similar those software such as Microsoft Words, Microsoft Excel and etc. but it is used as an online application where the Internet connection is needed to run the program. The documents, spreadsheets, forms and presentations can be created within the application and imported through the web interface or sent via email. The application in Google Docs can be saved to the user's computer in a variety of formats such as in PDF, RTF, Text, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint presentation.

Google Docs helps promote group work and peer editing skills especially for the students and sometimes it helps the students to improve on their writing skills. For instance, the other users connected to one person could help him/her in contributing ideas as well as exchange views on certain topics or issues. Google Docs does promote collaborative in writing activity because students are able to interact, share and edit or view the document, spreadsheet or presentation. There is also an on-screen chat window for spreadsheets, and document revisions to show us the information of who changed the documents, and when it has been done. Thus, the use of Google Docs somehow is very beneficial especially for students because it helps them to develop ideas and views while collaborating with others from all over the world.

Task 2: Article review (The use of blogs in improving the writing skills)

INTRODUCTION

            Weblog or blog is widely use by people for many purposes such as for daily journal, reflection of the current issues, for economic purposes and also for the education needs. By blogging, we are able to share and exchange different thought and views with other people all around the world on certain matters. But we look at the education or learning purpose, blogging is crucial to help especially the learners to enhance or develop their language skills fro example their writings skills. The blog give them space to write whatever they like and people who read their writing can give comment and feedback on how ideas that they thrown in the blogs and the feedbacks received at the same time could possibly help them to improve their writing. So, there are many studies done by the researchers on the use of blog and its usefulness for learning the language and most the studies have shown the positive results towards it. From the results, I could say that there are no doubt that blogging is one of the effective ways to help students improving their language writing skills as well as acquiring new knowledge

PART 1- Review and summary of the articles

1^st article: Using Blogs to encourage ESL students to write constructively in English by Nadzrah Bakar & Kemboja Ismail

            In this study, I found that the use of weblog has contributed to lots of advantages in learning English language especially in developing students’ writing skills. According to the study, the purpose of this research is to assess the effectiveness of blogs in developing students’ writing ability to write constructively. The theory used as a basis for the research is the social constructivist approach which the researcher is aiming to understand how language learning is constructed in blogging. From the social constructivist’s perspective, knowledge is the process by which students construct meaning from past experiences in a social context. But if we see in a classroom context, students create their own meanings and develop ideas through teachers or peers. So, the whole learning process will encourage the students to use the knowledge or language in different or new situations. In this study, the researchers has conducted a survey to identify the students’ feedback on their attitudes towards the integrated blog project and how far the project has motivated the students and at the same time help them increasing their interest in writing skills. The participants involved in this study were 41 first and second-year students who were taking English for Social Sciences course. Their level of proficiency in English was intermediate with some basic knowledge of computer skills as all of them were taking a basic computer course. From the results, most of students had an encouraging attitude about blogging. Most of them agreed that blogging is a remarkable and motivating learning tool because interacting through blogs helped them to come out with the critical thinking. Besides that, social interaction or peer feedbacks helped students improve their writing skills because they used blogs to share their writing and ideas with friends.

2^nd article: The Application of Blog in English Writing by Di Zhang

            The research is basically investigated on the effectiveness of blog for students to improve their English writing skills. The purpose of this thesis is to introduce the blogging phenomenon and the study also described further of the influences of using blog for students in English writing. in some point, blogging also included the writing of reflection which is likely a form of meta-cognition or “thinking about thinking”. It is suggested that reflection enables us to evaluate experience, learn from mistakes, repeat successes, revise, and plan. This leads students to be aware of their preferred approaches to writing and to produce productive strategies towards writing. The study also indicated that the blog could engage the students to learn collaboratively thorough their interactions with others which lead them to critical thinking. Apart from that, the blog the offers the students to improve their writing skills as they are able to encounter new ideas and refreshing thought through interaction with other students. The author stated that blog is not only for journal writing but it is also can be used in variety of pedagogical methods such as to improve language skills: reading and writing skills. Besides that, blog improved the quality of writing because of the feedback received from peer or reader of the blog. The feedback received from various sources as well as different types, critical or non-critical will affect the quality of writing.

3^rd article: The Pedagogical Potentials of Weblog in Developing Students’ Writing Skills by Dilani Sampath & Arezou Zalipour

            In this study, researchers discussed the application of the latest ICT tool used worldwide by many people, which is known as weblog as an effective tool in ESL classrooms. The aim of this study is to explore the pedagogical potentials of weblog in developing the writing skills of ESL learners. Based on the reading of the study, the researchers used the constructivist approach which was developed by Lev Vygotsky. Therefore, the use of blog could be referred to the learning occurs thorough interactions within the environment and influences the learning to greater extent. Apart from that, the researchers also identified the characteristics of weblogs as an appropriate and effective tool in assisting the learners in various ways to improve their writing skills as well as the benefits of blogging activities and the impacts of these activities on students’ motivation to write in English as self-directed learners. For instance, it allows students to enhance their autonomy in making corrections and reflecting on their writing. This motivates students to reflect on the process of learning in which they are actively participated in a recurring learning cycle.

4^th article: The Effect of Blogging on Language Learners’ Improvement in Social

Interactions and Writing Proficiency by Abbas Ali Rezaee & Samaneh Oladi

            The study basically investigated on how the blogging can be a meaningful which can improve the students’ interaction towards the class community weblogs and also to promote creativity in writing. Fiedler (2003), defines weblogs as a reflective conversational tool for self-organized learning, which best portrays the constructivist essence with the tool can be used for fostering autonomous, self-directed learning approaches. There were 60 students involved in this study who took part in class community weblogs called Cyberdiscovery. The study attempted to address a few research questions which are the students’ interaction while blogging and the differences of writing proficiency between the students who took part in class community weblogs and those who took part in traditional writing classes. The results of the study show that there were positive impacts for those who took part in blogging activity. It shown that, most of them have improved their performance in writing skills and their interaction with peers contributed to their achievement in writing. This is because; most of them were exchanging ideas and feedback with others. As a conclusion to this study, it stated that the use of weblogs really has a positive impact as we deals with real audience and a collaborative environment where students interact by proving and receiving feedback and thus, enhancing their writing skills.

5^th article: Blogs in English language teaching and learning: Pedagogical uses and student responses by Brad Blackstone, John Spiri & Naeko Naganuma

            In this study, the researchers were investigated an innovative approach to the implementation of a cycle of blogging activities within different levels of courses in an English for academic purposes in an English medium university in Japan. The researchers believed that by using the blogs, the students are able to engage in comprehensive learning environment because they students could exchange their opinions and thought and expand their language study and learning beyond the classroom context. Besides that, the motivation could be engaged as the students feel aware of the feedbacks and they could improve their writing ability step by step. There were 145 students involved in this study and most of the students were first- or second-year Japanese students, while several were third-year, and at least six were international students. The study looked on the students who took surveymonkey surveys; in which 145 student writers had completed surveys regarding their attitudes toward writing, blogging, the blogging buddy system and commenting on classmates’ posts. Throughout the study, the results had shown that most of the students were highly motivated by the blogging activities. They seemed to be motivated in several ways and blogging activities have gave positive impact to their language skills. As a conclusion to the study, the blogging methods and activities do provide a motivating curricular addition for the students to have meaningful target language interactions outside the classroom and extend the language learning to be wide-ranging worldwide.

PART 2- Your reaction

            The topic of the research is very interesting because most of the research have shown the advantages of the usage of weblog improving learning the language mostly in writing skills. According to the research above, most of the researches were well conducted because the researchers have examined the subject from many different angles and to see the effectiveness of the weblogs to students’ achievement in language learning. Besides that, the weblogs is very useful because it promotes collaborative learning because students are able to exchanging ideas, giving feedback and this somehow will create a good and healthy learning process. Through the weblogs, students are able to write various types of writing and they can expand their thinking skills and impose them to be matured in promoting view in writing. The use of weblog can be improved as the teacher should encourage them not only use the blog as an electronic journal but to expand them to be an educational blog that could be shared by others and use it as part of education purposes.

The implication of the research in the teaching and learning of ESL (in the general and Malaysian contexts)

            Weblogs could contribute to the positive implication in the teaching and learning of ESL because the results from the studies have shown the positive results towards the usefulness of the weblogs and we could use it in our local education scene especially for students who want to improve their writing ability. The researches have proven that weblogs are an effective and interesting way for ESL students to practice and to publish their writing as they could demonstrate their own ideas on certain issues.

Besides that, the blogging activities give more benefits to students in terms of sharing their writing in an interactive social environment and at the same this will motivate the students to improve their writing. It also offers a useful learning environment which gives the students a chance to create a strong sense of community in which they can participate actively while learning. Besides that, the students can more conscious of their writing ability and they become more engaged mainly when the issue interests them. The blogging activities let them to use their existing knowledge to share with their friends so they can build new knowledge they gained from the discussions and the interactions with others. To conclude, the weblogging or blogging activities should be encouraged for the students to take part because it promotes a healthy learning environment and it also can enhance the development of ideas and views on certain issues.

 References

Abbas, A.R & Oladi, S. (2008). The effect of blogging of language learners’ improvement in social interactions and writing proficiency. Iranian Journal of Language Studies (IJLS), Vol. 2(1), 2008 (pp. 73-88). Retrieved on February 21, 2011 from www.ijls.net/volumes/volume2issue1/rezaii1.pdf

Blackstone, B., Spiri,J. & Naganuma, N. (2009). Blogs in English language teaching and learning: Pedagogical uses and student responses. Reflections on English Language Teaching, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 1–20. Retrieved on February 21, 2011 from  www.nus.edu.sg/celc/publications/RETL62/01to20blackstone.pdf

Nadzrah, A.B. & Kemboja, I. (2007). Studies using blog to encourage ESL students to write constructively in English. AJTLHE, Vol.1, No.1, 45-5.

Sampath, D. & Zalipour, A. (2008).The Pedagogical Potentials of Weblog in Developing Students’ Writing Skills. International Conference “ICT of language learning” 3^rd edition.

 Zhang, D. (2009). The application of blog in English writing. Journal of Cambridge.

My Hometown..

According to the old folk, the Bunga Pekan flower grows wild at the banks of Pahang River. The river at the Pekan town (near Mengkasar village) is also called Pekan River, however there is no source for the claim that Pekan got its name from this river. Other sources say the name "Pekan" came from the word "Pekan Pahang" (town of Pahang).For easier pronunciation, the locals simply called it "Pekan" and the name is still used.

Pekan town is said to have existed since the 17th century, but no exact date has been verified. Several Arab and Chinese writers mentioned Pekan.

The villagers at Kampong Mengkasar, about two kilometers from Pekan in the direction of Kuantan, are said to be direct descendants of Tok Tuan from Makassar in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Among the well-known figures, Tun Abdul Razak was recognized as having a Sulawesi heritage