scholarly journals Enhancing Learners’ Writing Performance through Blog-Assisted Language Learning

Author(s):  
Teguh Sulistyo ◽  
Nur Mukminatien ◽  
Bambang Yudi Cahyono ◽  
Ali Saukah

ABSTRACT-The present study aims at investigating how Blog-Assisted Language Learning (BALL) can enhance EFL tertiary learners’ writing performance covering complexity, accuracy, and fluency through collaborative action research while at the same time it seeks to discover new knowledge that can inform the implementation of BALL in a writing class. This study employed Collaborative Classroom Action Research conducted in one cycle in one consecutive semester intended to make improvement in the teaching and learning of writing using BALL. There were 30 students of a university level majoring in English Education Department who joined Advanced Essay Writing Class in this study. The data were collected through interview, open-ended questionnaire followed by in-depth interview, and writing test. The findings showed that EFL learners improve their writing performance and they become more active in online class condition with two atmospheres: collaboration and competition among the learners. Keywords: BALL, EFL Learners, writing performance, action research.

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 71-78
Author(s):  
Nor Ashikin Ab Manan ◽  
Ambigapathy Pandian

This study was conducted to explore the benefits of formula instruction in an academic writing class. Its main objective is to determine whether the students’ knowledge of the target formulas can be enhanced through direct instruction of the target academic formulas (DIAF) chosen from the academic formula list (AFL).In this study, twenty  five formulas were selected from the Academic Formula List (Simpson-Valch & Ellis, 2010) as target formulas and were directly taught to a group of students attending an academic writing class. After five weeks of instruction, their knowledge of the target formulas was tested using an objective test and an academic essay writing test. This paper discusses the result of the study by addressing four research questions:  (1) What are the effects of formula instruction on the students’ knowledge of the target formulas? (2)  What are the effects of formula instruction on the students’ academic writing performance? (3) What are the effects of formula instruction on the use of the formulas in the academic essay? (4) What is the effect of target academic formula use on the scores of the academic essay writing test?


Author(s):  
Lestari Setyowati ◽  
Sony Sukmawa ◽  
Mohamad Anan Latief

Most Indonesian students who are learning English often consider writing as not only the most difficult skill to master, but also a demanding activity. To help them cope these problems, the application of planning in the writing process seems to be a solution. This study attempts to find out howdifferent planning formats can improve EFL students’ writing performance in argumentative essays. The subjects of the studywere the fourth semester students taking essay writing class. The research was conducted from May to June 2015, consisting of three cycles in Classroom Action Research design by using different planning types, namely rough drafting and outlining strategy in which each cycle consisted of two meetings.The students’ compositions were measured by using primary trait scoring rubric for argumentative essay. The result of the study shows that the provision of planning is effective to improve the students’ performance in writing argumentative essay. The effectiveness of different types planningdepends on the students’ preference of which to use.


Author(s):  
Chasna Tsuroyya

 Peer correction has taken an important role in language teaching and learning as in contribution to motivate the performance of L2 learners in writing classroom. Peer correction encourages the development of autonomous learning due to teachers' review that took over-dependence thus lowered the students' initiative. However, the previous studies show that many teachers are still doubting the effectiveness of peer correction because of students' lack of knowledge and unable to assist other students. The current study investigated the writing performance of English L2 learners who either provided or received written peer correction in the context of academic writing tasks. Fifteen participants enrolled in English Education Department in Universitas Sebelas Maret who are attending writing class were given a rubric to both reviews other students' writing tasks and receive peer feedback. Besides, we investigated whether students' peer correction perceptions influenced their writing performance. Results expect the use of peer correction to increase their writing motivation, self-regulated reflection, bidirectional communication, and deeper critical thinking. This study expects to provide a clear finding of the efficiency of peer correction in improving students' academic writing and can be useful to be implemented in writing class for English L2 learners.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (01) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Eulis Rahmawati

This research investigates how process of speaking instruction takes place at IAIN SMH Banten. There are three main issues in the research problems: the process of teaching speaking, obstacles found in the teaching and learning process, and what efforts do they make to solve the obstacles in speaking. The process of teaching speaking discusses materials, preparation, procedures or steps in teaching speaking while obstacles and solutions discuss the speaking barriers that the students faced in speaking class and how they minimize the barriers. By applying descriptive qualitative research design to students of fourth semester in academic year 2014/2015, the result shows that the focus of speaking instruction at the fourth semester of English education department of IAIN SMH Banten seemed to let the students speak, without any language skills discussion as the feedback. At the same time, during the process of speaking instruction there are some problems faced by students. The first is  problem of limited English Competence dealt with students poor of vocabulary and the second is problems of psychological factors.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Taufiqulloh Yuvita Imam Yuliarto

A process approach is usually employed in the classroom instruction of academic writing, particulary essay writing, in the Indonesian colleges or universities. This study investigates the role of teacher and peer feedback inserted in the steps of writing process on students’ writing achievement. It is an experimental research conducted at the English Education Department of Pancasakti University Tegal Central Java Indonesia, in the seven semester of the  academic year 2015/2016. The participants of this study are 40 students who attended essay writing class. The instrument is essay writing test which was administered before and after treatment to both experimental and control group. By using paired-sample t-test and f-test, it was found that the use of teacher and peer feedback were effective to teach essay writing. Such a technique contributed a significant improvemental to the students writing achievement in the experimental group. The result also showed that the writing achievement of the students in the experimental group was better than that of those in the control group. To conclude,  utilizing teacher and peer feedback is considered to be one of the effective ways for the students in learning essay writing. However, some drawbacks were found that need to be taken into account in the next related researches.Keywords: Teacher feedback, peer feedback, essay writing


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 139
Author(s):  
Seyyed Hatam Tamimi Sa’d ◽  
Fereshte Rajabi

Vocabulary constitutes an essential part of every language-learning endeavour and deserves scholarly attention. The objective of the present study was three-fold: 1) exploring Iranian English language learners’Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLSs), 2) examining language learners’ perceptions of vocabulary learning, and 3) exploring Iranian English language teachers’ Vocabulary Teaching Strategies (VTSs). In total, 145  intermediate learners of English as a foreign language, consisting of 114 males and 31 females aged 15 to 27, participated in the study. The triangulated data were collected using three tools: questionnaires, interviews, and class observations. Sixty-seven learners (31 females and 36 males) filled out a 56-statement questionnaire, adopted and adapted from Takač (2008) and translated into Persian. The questionnaire comprised two parts, enquiring as to the learners’ VLSs and the teachers’ VTSs. The findings indicated that females and males differed significantly in their reported VLSs and their teachers’ use of various VTSs. Additionally, 78 learners were interviewed as to their perceptions of effective and ineffective VLSs as well as VTSs. The findings revealed that the most effective VLSs were reported to be: a) reciting, repeating and listening to words, b) using words, and c) memorising words while the most effective VTSs revolved around: a) explanation, b) repetition, and c) dictation. The observations also confirmed the findings obtained via the questionnaire and interviews. In general, the findings are indicative of the limited repertoire of vocabulary acquisition techniques employed by Iranian EFL learners, hence the need for strategy training in how to acquire vocabulary. 


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
I Wy. Dirgeyasa

The obejectives of this research are to know the improvement  of the students’ achievement in poetry mastery and their perception regarding to the semiotic method in teaching and learning poetry in  English Education Department, Languages and Art Faculty of State University of Medan. The research method used is the Classroom Action Research (CAR). The subjects of the research are the fifth semester of 37 students of 2013/2014 academic year. The data are collected by test in order to know the students’ achievment in poetry mastery. The students’ perception toward the implementation of the semiotic method for teaching and learning poetry is collected by questionaire. The data are analyzed by descriptive analysis. The result of research shows that (1) the average score of the students’ achievement of poetry mastery is (71.75) or it increases (11,59) point from pre-test (60.16) and (2) in general, the students’ perception toward the semiotic method for teaching and learning poetry are good and positive.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-356
Author(s):  
Tri Riya Anggraini ◽  
Dian Permanasari

The purpose of this study was to find out whether the CTL model was effective in improving the narrative essay writing skills of grade 6 elementary school students. The research design used was a Quasi experimental study. Based on the results of research conducted, it is known that the pretest data of the experimental and control classes are normally distributed and homogeneous. The pretest t-value is smaller than the t-table price (-0.081 <1.647) and the significance (0.935> 0.05), meaning that HO is accepted. This shows that there is no difference in the average score of narrative essay writing skills between the control class and the experimental class at the time of the pretest. Posttest t-count value is greater than t-table price (2.153> 2,000) and significance (0.036 <0.05). Ha was accepted and HO was rejected. Ha accepted means that there is a difference in the average score of narrative essay writing skills between the control class and the experimental class, ie the average experimental class is higher with a mean difference of 0.1552. Large increase in the experimental class can be seen in the average normalized gain of 0.357 or included in the medium category, while the control class 0.209 included in the low category. The effectiveness of the CTL model is expected to be a consideration for grade 6 teachers to apply the CTL model to Indonesian language learning with other aspects or material. The application of the CTL model is expected to be one of the innovative models for effective Indonesian language learning


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
Pooya Drood ◽  
Hanieh Davatgari Asl

<p>The ways in which task in classrooms has developed and proceeded have receive great attention in the field of language teaching and learning in the sense that they draw attention of learners to the competing features such as accuracy, fluency, and complexity. English audiovisual and audio recorded materials have been widely used by teachers and students, and have been the important resources of teaching and self-study. Nowadays, the environment we are living in is abundant with audio visual input and we as teachers ,thus, should be aware of the fact that environment can change students’ behavior towards language and language learning .What effects do these materials have on English speaking ability? The objective of this study is to find out whether there is difference in Iranian EFL learners’ accuracy in both audiovisual recorded (videos, movies ,etc.) and audio recorded tasks. For this purpose, 40 students of intermediate level were chosen and then were randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups each of which was under different listening tasks. (Audio visual- and audio only). Data analysis showed that the group which was trained under AV listening tasks showed different effects on students’ accuracy, compared to the other group positioned using audio recorded. Based on the results of this study, it is imperative that teachers consider the types of activities and methods that can have influence over language learners’ speaking ability.</p>


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