The document discusses using blogs in teaching English as a foreign language writing skills. It outlines several advantages of blogs for both teachers and students, including having all class materials and student writing in one organized place online, promoting student exploration of English websites, and empowering students to become more analytical writers through peer feedback on blog posts. Blogs provide an easy-to-use platform for non-technical teachers to create websites for their classes.

1. TSL 641 WEBLOG & WRITING

2. INTRODUCTION Weblogs (or blogs) are electronic journals that allow the user to keep records of their writing on a website Have existed in the cyberspace community since 1998. In August of 1999 the release of Blogger, a free blog hosting service, fostered the rapid growth of blog sites (Blood, 2000). Later, blog genre extended into various professional realms especially journalism and business

3. INTRODUCTION In recent years, the use of these electronic journals in education is on the rise, especially in the United States. A good example is the Bay Area Writing Project which has organized the Educational Blogger Network (edBlogNet ) with the purpose of helping kindergarten through university teachers “use weblog technology for the teaching of writing and reading across the disciplines”

4. INTRODUCTION The use of blogs in teaching EFL appears to still be in its infancy but has much potential, especially in teaching written communication skills. Campbell (2003) goes into various ways blogs can be used by teachers and students to communicate in an EFL environment. He suggests using class blogs as a forum for students to express opinions, ideas, and interesting information.

5. ADVANTAGES OF BLOGS TO TEACHERS The use of blogs is a supplemental aid to the teacher. The amount of time students use their weblogs is at the discretion of the teacher. Students can use it once a semester to submit a paper, weekly for class assignments and notes, or anything in between. Computers in the classroom are not a prerequisite for the use of blogs. Thanks to the affordability of today's computers and high speed Internet access, most students have Internet access at home. Many universities have computer classrooms and computer areas for students to access now. All of the teacher's notes will be viewable together in chronological order. This is very convenient when preparing lessons that build upon previous material taught in the class. It is simple to edit class material if the text can be improved or if something new needs to be added.

6. ADVANTAGES OF BLOGS TO TEACHERS – cont. All student writing samples are kept in one place and can be read from any computer connected to the Internet at anytime. Teachers can give collective feedback to the class when a recurring mistake is found by adding entries to a “Writing Feedback” class blog. Additionally, individual feedback can be given to individual student blogs. In order to save time when giving feedback, save a copy of the messages at an additional teacher-only blog. If a class is taught for several years with different students, teachers might be able to recycle these messages. From this blog, the teacher can select the appropriate message to send to a student regarding their feedback to their homework and writing samples.

7. ADVANTAGES OF BLOGS TO STUDENTS Students have access to your complete notes on the Internet. Students have the option of previewing the class material before class and reviewing the material after class. Because students are connected to the Internet, they have access to online English dictionaries. Students can easily look up words they do not understand by cutting the unknown word and pasting it into an online dictionary . Because the class material is organized into sections, students can easily find information. Students can read comments for the class as a whole and comments directed at them individually. This maximizes feedback and contact with the teacher. Students can observe how their writing has changed over time.

8. ADVANTAGES OF BLOGS IN EFL WRITING CLASS Because blog design and maintenance is so easy compared to using other traditional web creation software (e.g. Frontpage , Dreamweaver , etc.), it is an ideal tool for non-techie faculty to construct and manage their own website.

9. ADVANTAGES OF BLOGS IN EFL WRITING CLASS – cont. In addition to easy use, blogs in an EFL writing class has the following advantages. Johnson (2004) points out that the application of blogs is a useful supplemental aid to teachers. From any computer connected to the Internet, teachers can create, edit, or delete their teaching handouts such as notes, homework assignment, and review materials. All these teacher’s messages will be organized in a reversed chronological order with the latest postings on the top. Blogs can promote exploration of English websites (Campbell, 2004). Since it is quite simple for teachers to put English materials on line with links to their source websites, students have more chances to read related articles.

10. ADVANTAGES OF BLOGS IN EFL WRITING CLASS – cont. The feature of automatic date-stamping for each post is quite useful. Students’ emails may, for some technical glitches, not reach their teachers or be carelessly deleted by their teachers. With the automatic date-stamping function, both teachers and students know clearly when students turned in their assignments. On the other hand, the automatic archive of past posts by date or theme can help teachers and students easily locate the message they are searching

11. ADVANTAGES OF BLOGS IN EFL WRITING CLASS – cont. If students do not have their own personal websites, an easy-to-use blog is a good start for them to interact with users of the cyberspace community. As Campbell (2004) emphasizes that simple customization of templates can help students build “a sense of ownership and unique online identity”. Most students will write more carefully if they know that they are going to publish their articles online for authentic readers who may comment on their postings.

12. ADVANTAGES OF BLOGS IN EFL WRITING CLASS – cont. Teachers can easily use the blog to organize a collaborative learning environment in which students can peer edit others’ postings (Dieu, 2004; Mitchell, 2003). Students should be encouraged to comment their partner’s postings, which can also be shared by other classmates.

13. ADVANTAGES OF BLOGS IN EFL WRITING CLASS – cont. Oravec (2002) claimed that blog development can “empower students to become more analytical and critical” (p.618). Although no statistical data to prove that students using blogs would become more analytical and critical, it is believed that students who are aware that their postings and comments will be read by their classmates will be more careful before they post them

14. UTILIZING BLOGS IN THE WRITING CLASS Look for the easiest weblog to use (weblog service provider Set up a class blog – course information, syllabus, instructions Set up a tutor blog – for tutorials, examples Set up students individual blog or a group blog Set rules on content and comment in terms of word use and etiquette Allocate lab time for weblog session (if possible)

15. ACTIVITIES Individual Process writing approach Paragraph to essay Writing journal Group Theme based weblog Make sure students will visit all weblogs