The Effectiveness of Using Online Blogging for Students’ Individual and Group Writing

Abstract

The current research study investigates the effectiveness of online blogging for students’ individual and group writing skills. The participants were divided into individual learners and group learners. They produced pre-writing and post-writing samples through blogging practices. The study conducted lasted for 14 weeks so that blogging could be optimized. The results of the study reveal that unlike traditional ways of improving writing skills, blogging has revolutionized EFL pedagogy and methodology (learning and teaching). Blogging-based writing practice is more participatory and interactive in that learners can dramatically improve their writing skills in terms of content, word choice, style, language mechanics and the like. The learner-blogger becomes aware that the arbiter is no longer the classroom teacher, the audience or readership. This study recommends that blogging be part of writing classes and be incorporated into school curricula. This essentially requires pedagogical consideration of the design of blogging-based writing materials.