Journal of Language and Learning

Volume 4 Number 2 2006

ISSN 1475 - 8989

Application of Blogging for Learner

Development
Galina Kavaliauskienė,
Lilija Anusienė, and Viktorija Mažeikienė
Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius

Abstract
Learner development depends to a great extent on language awareness which is not
only a focus on language itself, but also a cognitive reflection upon language
functions. Language awareness can be fostered by giving learners various choices in
learning activities. The variety of choices stimulates learner interest and has a
potential for learner development.

This research addresses the application of the latest innovation of Information

Communication Technology, which has been coined blogging, for fostering language
awareness. A weblog, or blog for short, is a personal site that allows instant
publishing online. An increasing interest to using blogs in education suggests their
application in teaching / learning English. In this study, students created their own
blogs and used them for accomplishing various activities. The implications of blog
application in learner development have been discussed.

Introduction

Recent innovations of e-learning include weblogs which can serve as a valuable tool
for teaching writing in a foreign language. The advantages of blogging in language
classes comprise instant publishing online, awareness of having a readership, extra
reading practice, and creating an online portfolio of student written work.

In this study we describe research into application of weblogs for raising language
awareness in learners at tertiary level. This research documents the effects of learner
self-assessment of language proficiency, experience of online listening and writing an
opinion essay on professional theme. Language awareness is raised by learner
reflections on written work and experience in remedial work. The implications of
blogging on learner development are discussed.

Review of blogging in language learning

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Application of ICT in language learning has become very popular. However, teachers
“must look at technology as integral to providing learning experiences that focus on
authentic and applicable language and content, that are differentiated according to
learner needs, and that support learners in developing literacy across situations”
(Egbert, 2006).

Recent innovation such as weblogs may be less familiar but it offers learning
opportunities online (Godwin-Jones, 2003). Blogging does not require any knowledge
of HTML. Blog entries are usually followed by a comment button, allowing readers to
write a response, which is then logged and linked, along with all other comments, into
the original text. Blogs are easily linked and cross-linked, to create larger on-line
communities. Language learners can use a personal blog as an electronic portfolio that
shows development over time. By publishing the blog online, the student has the
possibility of writing for readers beyond classmates. Readers in turn can comment on
what they have read. Weblog entries are made by typing directly into the browser and
with the click of a button are instantly published on the Internet. Bloggers can extend
their ability to customize the layout of their blog, e.g. add pictures to enhance its
attractiveness.

Three types of blogs are described (Campbell, 2003): the tutor blog, the learner blog,
and the class blog. The tutor blog is run by the tutor for the learner, and its purpose is
to give reading practice to the learners, promote exploration of English websites,
encourage online exchange by use of comment buttons, provide class or syllabus
information, and serve as a resource of links for self-study. The learner blogs can be
run by individual learners themselves or by small collaborative groups of learners.
Learner blogs are best suited for reading and 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).

Perception of blogs differs: some students loathe blogs for their poor or non-standard
English, others love their authenticity and liveliness (Eastment, 2005:358). Blogs can
help students reflect on their learning and be a rich source of ideas and authentic
contemporary language, but strangely, there do not seem as yet to be many EFL blogs
(Eastment, 2005:359).

Reasons for using blogs are numerous (Stanley, online): 1) – to provide a real
audience for student writing, 2) – to provide extra reading practice for students, 3) –
to increase the sense of community in a class, 4) – to encourage students to
participate, 5) – to stimulate out-of-class discussion, 6) – to create an online portfolio
of student written work (Stanley, online). Novelty factor creates student interest in
starting to use blogs. It is claimed that blogs work best when learners get into the
habit of using them. If learners are not encouraged, blogs can quickly be abandoned.

Although not originally intended for use in EFL classes, blogs have great potential as
an extremely valuable tool for the teaching skills of writing. By using free blogging
services on the Internet, teachers can create and store online supplemental materials
for students and give feedback individually or to the class. Blogs are a versatile tool
with abundant applications.

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The features of successful blog-based class (Johnson, 2004): must be a blog for class
notes and a blog for posting group feedback; blogs must be viewed by all students;
students must have their own individual blogs for posting assignments; only the
teacher and the student can view the individual blog; the teacher can add comments to
student’s submissions, but not vice versa; the blogging service must be free. Weblogs
provide a chance to prepare students for a networked world where communication is
essential. Blogging is a good way of expressing one’s opinions and having an
audience.

According to J. Walker (2005), most of students by the end of the semester said they
had enjoyed blogging and found it valuable. Some of students wrote with great
enthusiasm and adapted the templates daily to reflect new skills and new aspirations.
Some students absolutely hated being forced to blog. Most of the students stopped
blogging when the semester was over, but about 20% continued (Walker, 2005).

Learner attitudes to weblogs were also researched by A. P. Campbell (online) by

administering the anonymous survey to 57 learners (31 females, 26 males) in four
classes. The summary of his data is as follows. The large majority (86%) feel that the
blog is ‘OK’ or ‘good’, most of them only rarely or sometimes read the entries,
preferring instead to go straight to the class websites for homework or presentation
information. Learners’ preference seems to do what is required of them. This
assumption is reinforced by decreasing numbers of learners following links in the
entries and making comments. Majority (95%) are rarely or never utilizing the EFL
learning resources available for self-study via permanent links in the margins of a
weblog. Although most learners recognized the value of a blog, they claimed that they
didn’t have the time to take advantage of it. Almost every learner recognized the
value of the blog as a learning opportunity, but many stated that lack of time was the
main inhibiting factor.

Good and bad points of blogs application have been reviewed by J. M. Hall (online).
Good points can be summarized as follows: students' reactions to the blogs were
generally positive; the majority of students were very dilligent in posting to their
blogs; students were able to read each other's opinions and observations; the instructor
received invaluable feedback from the students about class activities; class members
were able to share differing opinions freely. There were a lot of very tastefully
designed blogs. A third of the students, although new to blogging, really picked it up
fast. Bad points about blogs: entries were often written for the sake of completing an
assignment; students commented less and less on each other's blogs as the semester
progressed; some of the student's blogs were virtually ignored by their classmates;
many students did not have computers at home; other problems include forgotten
passwords, usernames, and e-mail addresses;
a few students never took to blogging and rarely posted; it was difficult to keep track
of all the blogs; blogs soon become outdated and discontinue after the class ends.

Teaching writing and reading ESP through weblogs was studied in (Arani, 2005), who
maintains that approximately three quarters of the class of forty students preferred
writing the weblog to the more traditional written journal; most students believed that
the weblog can improve English; seven disagreed; 15 students said that they would

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definitely continue using the weblog; 15 said they definitely would not, and 10 were
unsure.

Learner development is directly related with the language awareness. In particular,

language awareness is essential in writing because it refers to the development in
learners of an enhanced consciousness of and sensitivity to the forms and functions of
language (Carter, 2003:64). Language awareness does not simply involve a focus on
language, it also implies cognitive reflection upon language. In order to raise language
awareness learners must be constantly given choices.

Choices should include a diversity of activities and cater for learner multiple
intelligencies. Self-awareness can be successful if learners keep reflecting on their
learning. For this purpose reflections on various activities including portfolios and
self-assessment questionnaires can bring satisfying results. Questionnaires draw
attention to new factors that can facilitate and enhance learning and make learners
reflect upon the learning process.

In this study, we encouraged learners to think about their performance in class

activities through the application of blogging for accomplishing various assignments.

Participants and research methods

The participants have been the university students who study English for Specific
Purposes. There have been three groups that participated in this project, and the total
number of respondents has been 33.

Research employed a questionnaire designed in accordance with scientific standards

(Z. Dornyei, 2003:16). The questionnaire aimed at establishing students’ judgments
on their experience at blogging. It is presented in the Appendix.

Results and discussion

Creation of weblogs

The first step was a creation of individual blogs. We have employed a free service
available online http://www.blogger.com. Fortunately, our English language
classroom is equipped with computers, and there was no difficulty in creating
personal blog for each participant.

Students’ blogs have been downloaded to the teachers’ weblogs

http://anusienelilija.blogspot.com and http://mazeikiene.blogspot.com, respectively.
All blogs are also available through the project initiator’s & coordinator’s weblog
http://gkavaliauskiene.blogspot.com. Therefore any learner’s blog can be entered by
clicking on his / her surname, and all entries can be viewed or commented on.

Majority of participants declined the idea of personalizing their weblogs, i.e.

providing her / his profile, although some students did: they contributed nice pictures
of themselves, their pets or flowers. Thus, profile of bloggers in most cases remains
uncovered. We avoided pressing learners into going too personal in order to give them

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time and space and to get accustomed to the novel online activities. The various
assignments were carried out during consecutive classes.

Self-assessment of language skills and performance

The first assignment was self-assessment of language skills and performance in class
activities. Learners were requested to evaluate their proficiency by writing the first
entry in individual blogs. They were also asked to give themselves a mark on 5 to 10
grade scale: 10 – excellent, 9 – very good, 8 – good, 7 – adequate, 6 – satisfactory, 5 –
weak. Self-assessment grades were not recorded in blogs, though. Students were
requested to write the grades on paper slips. This has been done in order to preserve
one’s self-esteem.

The self-assessment data are shown in Table 1. The numbers in columns show the
percentage of respondents that judged their skills by awarding themselves an
appropriate grade. Skills of reading are assessed favorably probably because it is easy
to conceal flaws in reading comprehension. It can be seen that listening, writing, and
speaking skills are judged differently: nobody feels they excel at them, and students
give themselves lower grades for these activities. This learners’ feedback is very
valuable for teachers who wish to plan classroom work that benefits students best.

Table 1. Learners’ judgments of language skills. 33 respondents.

Language Excellent Very good Good Average Satisfactory

skills
Reading 12% 65% 23% - -
Listening - 24% 29% 35% 12%
Writing - 18% 41% 41% -
Speaking - 29% 35% 18% 18%

Learners’ self-assessment of performance in vocabulary tests, presentations and class

discussions is displayed in Table 2.

Table 2. Learners’ judgments of their performance in class activities. 33 respondents.

Language Excellent Very good Good Average Satisfactory

skills
Vocabulary - 29% 29% 42% -
Presentations 29% 29% 42% - -
Discussions 6% 29% 18% 29% 18%

As it can be seen in Table 2, no students have given themselves excellent grades for
knowledge of ESP vocabulary. However performance in presentations is evaluated
higher. It stands to reason: presentations are prepared in advance, and students are
more successful in making ‘ready-made’ speeches. Evaluation of performance in
discussions is more modest: speaking impromptu in front of the audience is never an
easy task, particularly for shy students. This is the reason for scattered evaluation of
ability to take part in class discussions.

Task of listening online

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The second assignment included individual online listening to recordings by a famous
British linguist, Professor David Crystal. These recordings go under the title ‘Keep
Your English Up To Date’, and now are available at the BBC language learning
website
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1728_uptodate/
There are 26 recordings on this website altogether. Each student was requested to
choose two recordings to her / his liking, listen to them as many times as necessary
for complete comprehension, then simultaneously read the tape-script, which is
available for each theme, and listen again. Finally, students had to describe their
listening experience in individual weblogs. The unusual feature of this exercise was
the lack of ear-phones at each computer in the classroom. Therefore, as learners chose
to listen to different recordings at the same time, the ‘noise’ in the classroom hindered
the audibility. In teachers’ opinion, such interference resembles to some extent real-
life listening environment and provides conditions for learners to relax, concentrate on
their own task, and not to worry for not being able to follow everything immediately.
Each learner’s description of this experience can be viewed in her / his individual
blogs. Some of learners are aware of usefulness of such listening practice, although
others prefer ideal listening conditions, i.e. complete silence in the classroom. Such an
experiment of individualized listening allows learners to work at their own pace,
make choices for themselves, improve their listening skills as well as heighten their
awareness of cultural issues through listening. Knowing that a skill of listening is
much to be desired for many learners, individualized listening practice is a must in
class settings.

Writing opinion essays and comments

The third assignment comprised writing an opinion essay on one of the suggested ESP
themes such as Human Rights, Freedom of Speech and Expression, The Law and the
Family. Written essays can be viewed and judged on in students’ blogs. It is worth
noting that some students have written extensively and expressed interesting ideas,
but some have just mentioned trivial things without giving deeper insights into the
topic. This just shows a particular learner’s attitude to accomplishing assignments.

The fourth assignment included reading peers’ blogs and writing comments.
Surpriisijngly, some learners turned to their native language in this task. Overall
everybody was positive about peers’ entries. There have not been any critical remarks
or negative comments. Students are obviously aware of the public nature of their
publication and avoid being critical or categorical in their judgments.

It should also be noted that not every participant of the project accomplished all
assignments. The major reason was students’ truancy. We did not expect learners to
do the assignments in their spare time, although some students, who failed to
complete tasks in class, volunteered to do it as homework tasks. Another common
drawback was forgotten usernames and passwords that only owners of weblogs were
supposed to know. Without retrieving this information the blogger is unable to enter
the editing pages of his / her weblog, and therefore to update it, i.e. to change or add
extra information. This drawback was observed by J. M. Hall (online) and described
in the literature review.

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Analysis of written work

The analysis of students’ writing has been performed at the end of the weblog project.
Here we will have a quick look at the systematic nature of errors and examine some
sources of learner errors.

Generally speaking, errors can be divided into ‘interlingual errors’, i.e. errors that
occur between English and the mother tongue, and ‘intralingual errors’, i.e. those that
occur within the language being learned (Bolitho & Tomlinson, 2005). Amongst the
causes of the errors are the mother tongue interference, overgeneralization,
interference from items within English - cross association and false analogy. Errors
might not only have one of the causes, there could be two or more causes operating at
the same time.

Errors made by the students do not demonstrate any difficulties in understanding the
course material. It makes an impression that many errors are made because of
students' carelessness or thoughtlessness. A number of spelling errors have been
observed: a) personal pronoun "I" and words – “English”, “British”, “American” are
not written in capital letters; b) some plural nouns ending in "y" – e.g. sumarys. Other
common errors are missing articles, confusing the usage of the possessive case,
missing –s in the 3rd person singular in present Simple, misused double negatives,
misplaced apostrophes, subject-verb disagreement, usage of wrong prepositions and
tenses; confused vocabulary, misuse of infinitive and “to be”. Quite often, one thing
was written, but another thing was meant. These errors have been due to the mother
tongue interference. Word order mistakes are also frequent, and they are caused by
the fact that word order in students’ mother tongue is rather flexible. It should be
noted that both intralingual and interlingual errors have been encountered in the
analyzed writing, and moreover, they are typical of Lithuanian learners of English.

Knowledge of the causes can help teachers to help the learner. When teachers are
aware of the problem that the learner faces they are in a better position to decide what
to do about it. The action teachers take can depend on a lot of different variables:
whether the error is frequent or not, if it is important for communication or not,
whether it takes place in a controlled or uncontrolled activity, if it is an individual
problem or widespread amongst the group (Bolitho & Tomlinson, 2005).

Having analyzed the students’ writing assignments, we have written our comments in
each learner’s blog and asked students to correct their errors. The remedial work was
supposed to have been done by learners in the same section of comments, so that
everybody can see how diligently learners have done it. It is well known that
generally students dislike doing remedial work on paper assignments. The reason is
quite simple: students are only interested in grades and many do not even bother to
read teacher’s remarks. In this experiment, grades have not been awarded yet so
learners have been motivated to do their best in correcting their writing. Grades for
taking part in this project and accomplishing assignments will be awarded before the
end of the semester. Naturally, each student will be graded depending on her / his
actual performance.

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Final phase of research

Final phase of research comprised two parts: first, the analysis of students’ responses
to the Questionnaire and, second, the teachers’ online feedback, which was given in
the form of comments on each learner’s written assignments.

Learners’ responses to Likert scale questions on scale 1 to 5 (1 - strongly disagree, 2 –

disagree, 3 – not sure, 4 – agree, 5 – strongly agree) allow to calculate the Means,
Standard Deviations, and frequencies of optional choice. The obtained data are shown
in Table 3

Table 3. Means, Standard Deviations and Frequencies of Responses on Likert Scale.

Item on the Like Likert Frequen Frequen Frequen Frequen Frequen

questionnai rt Standar cy cy cy cy cy
re Mea d strongly disagree not sure agree strongly
n Deviati disagree agree
on
1) writing 3.93 0.88 - 3.5% 11% 61% 21%
&
publishing
online is
useful
2) online 3.96 1.18 7% 3.5% 18% 28.5% 43%
listening is
helpful
3) reading 3.96 0.82 3.5% - 21% 64% 14%
blogs &
writing
comments
is
beneficial
4) writing 3.89 0.72 - 7% 11% 68% 14%
online
essays is
useful
5) I’ll use 3.39 0.74 - 7% 57% 25% 11%
my blog in
the future

On average, respondents rated items 2 (listening online) and 3 (reading other people’s
blogs and writing comments) favorably: Means for both items are the highest in
comparison to other items. However, Standard Deviations differ: 1.18 and 0.82. The
former indicates a higher scatter than the latter. Online listening is supported by
71.5% of respondents (28.5% agree and 43% strongly agree). Online reading and
commenting is favored by 78% of students (64% agree and 14% strongly agree). The
Means for writing and publishing online (item 1 in Table 3) and for writing online
essays (item 4) are close: 3.93 and 3.89, although Standard Deviation (SD) for the
item 1 is higher (0.88) than for the item 4 (0.72). The higher value of SD signifies
larger spread. Positive attitude to these questions is shared by the same number of

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students - 82% (61% agree, 21% strongly agree with the item 1, and 68% agree, 14%
strongly agree with the item 4, respectively).

The most interesting responses have been obtained on the future use of blogs (item 5
in Table 3). The Mean is just 3.39, i.e. the smallest value in this Table, but the SD is
not large, just 0.74. Over half of respondents (57%) are not sure they will use blogs in
the future, although the frequency of positive responses is 36% (25% agree, and 11%
strongly agree). This result is better than reported by A. P. Campbell or J. M. Hall
probably due to the fact that we diversified the blogs activities, and learners have not
been bored with them yet. As it has been mentioned at the beginning of this article,
adding variety to class activities and giving learners choices in learning stimulates
motivation and interest.

Second part in final analysis is feedback. Teachers’ feedback has been provided
individually by writing comments in each learner’s weblog. Teachers’ attitude to
writing comments was straightforward: be as positive as possible, concise, up to the
point and avoid harsh remarks. It is well known that students are usually interested in
their grade and quite often do not read teachers’ remarks on paper written
assignments. In blogging, there were no grades awarded, but learners were aware that
their blogs can be viewed by any Internet browser or member of public. Therefore
students did their best to make their blogs presentable. Regrettably, remedial work
(error correction in the comments section of a blog) has not been done by all project
participants. The usual excuse that students make is that it has to be done outside
classroom hours at the end of the semester, when students are very busy preparing for
exams and credits.

Conclusions and implications of research

The extent to which learners consciously focus on aspects of language and the degree
of noticing its particular features are debated by linguists and practitioners. This study
documents the ways of raising language awareness that is important for language
processing and learner development.

In the presentation of our results, we outline the opportunities for raising language
awareness by employing an ICT technique which allows learners to carry out
assignments at their own pace and under non-threatening conditions. The online
methodology involves creating an individual weblog by each student and using it for
describing her / his own experience of learning English and accomplishing written
assignments.

The assignments of self-assessment, online listening, and writing an opinion essay

and comments on peers’ weblogs have been employed in this study. Learners’ self-
assessment of productive and receptive language skills has indicated weaknesses in
acquisition of writing and listening. Students’ descriptions of assignments in their
blogs allowed us to analyze their written work, provide feedback in the form of
comments and encourage learners to do remedial work in the comment areas.
Individual online listening at one’s own pace prompts and motivates learners to
improve skills of listening without being intimidated by possible failure.

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The implications of this research are numerous. First, application of weblogs in
English for Specific Purposes classes has proved useful for raising language
awareness and learner development. Second, learners enjoy being given choices of
various learning activities. Third, due to the novelty and diversity of class activities,
students’ motivation is enhanced. Finally, online writing and publishing for the
audience make students reflect on their performance.

References

Arani,. J. A. (2005). Teaching Writing and Reading English in ESP through a Web-
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Bolitho, R. & Tomlinson, B. (2005). Discover English. Macmillan ELT. 128 p.
Campbell, A.P. Learner Attitudes Towards a Tutor-Run Weblog in the EFL
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Campbell, A.P. (2003). Weblogs for Use with ESL Classes. The Internet TESL
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Appendix. Questionnaire. Application of weblogs for learning English.
1 Writing and publishing online is useful for improving writing skills. a) strongly
disagree, b) disagree, c) not sure, d) agree, e) strongly agree.
2 Individual listening to authentic English recordings online is helpful for
developing listening skills. a) strongly disagree, b) disagree, c) not sure, d) agree, e)
strongly agree.
3 Reading other people’s blogs and writing comments is beneficial to raising
language awareness. a) strongly disagree, b) disagree, c) not sure, d) agree, e)
strongly agree.
4 Writing an opinion essay on the ESP theme online is beneficial for consolidating
professional knowledge. a) strongly disagree, b) disagree, c) not sure, d) agree, e)
strongly agree.
5 I will continue to use my blog in the future: a) strongly disagree, b) disagree, c)
not sure, d) agree, e) strongly agree.

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