Student and teacher perceptions on benefits and challenges of using blogs in english in foreign language reading classes

Download

index.pdf

Date

2014

Author

Aydan, Lütfiye Seda

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

305
views

186
downloads

This study investigated the benefits and challenges of using blogs in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading classes. The study also examined the possible solutions to the challenges of using blogs in reading classes. The study was conducted with 104 pre-intermediate students and five instructors of English at the English Preparatory School of a private university in Turkey in the spring semester of the 2012-2013 academic year. The data for this study were collected through a questionnaire administered to students and interviews with teachers. The questionnaire was administered to the students after they had used blogs in their reading classes in the fall and spring semesters. Then five instructors were interviewed about the benefits and challenges of using blogs in reading classes and their suggestions to overcome these challenges were investigated. The findings of the study indicated that blogs provided many advantages to the students, especially for improving various skills such as reading and writing and vocabulary and grammar knowledge. They also motivated students to attend reading classes more actively and to do more research on the topic. However, results also showed that there were important things to consider on the blogs. These include the choice of topics, access to the Internet, ineffectiveness of blogs for listening and speaking classes. Grading was also brought up as a challenge on the blog. As solutions to the challenges, adding more pictures, videos, and links and listening texts to the blog, giving clearer instructions on the blog and supporting them with examples, providing the necessary infrastructure for internet connection at school, and sharing the grading rubric with students at the beginning of the semester were recommended.

Subject Keywords

Blogs., Social media., Web-based instruction., English language, English teachers

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12616879/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/23379

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Facilitating english as a foreign language learners’ vocabulary learning, task completion and contextual vocabulary exploration processes in a mobile supported situated learning environment Uz Bilgin, Çiğdem; Tokel, Saniye Tuğba; Yalçın, Şenöm Tuğba; Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology (2016) The aim of this study was to investigate how vocabulary learning, task completion, and contextual vocabulary exploration processes of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners can be facilitated in a mobile supported situated learning environment. METU Science and Technology Museum which is a large, open space populated with interactive science exhibits was chosen as an authentic learning environment. Mobile system which includes instructions of the experiments and also provides dictionary and visual def...
Effect of a culturalist versus an interculturalist approach in ELT on Turkish EFL teacher candidates‟ proteophilic competence Tekin, Mustafa; Seferoğlu, Gölge; Department of English Language Teaching (2015) This thesis reports a quasi-experimental study on the effect of taking a native-speakerist/culturalist versus critical ELF-informed/interculturalist approach in ELT on a group of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher candidates’ proteophilic competence (PC). The quantitative data were collected through the Proteophilic Competence Survey (PCS), English Varieties Attitude Survey (EVAS), ELF Opinion Survey (ELFOS) and a Listening Comprehension Test (LCT). The qualitative data were collected by means of i...
Attitudes, motivation and study habits of english language learners: the case of Başkent University second-year students Çolak, Ahmet; Daloğlu, Ayşegül; Department of English Literature (2008) This thesis aimed to investigate Ba"kent University second-year students’ attitudes towards English, motivation to learn English and their general and vocabulary study habits with respect to their motivation levels. It also attempted to examine the relationship between students’ attitudes and their grades and departments. In addition, it explored the students’ motivation and motivation orientation levels, and looked into the correlations between the students’ motivation, motivation orientation levels and th...
Exploration of English as a foreign language students’ perceptions about online authentic readings / Yaman, Mustafa; Savaş, Perihan; Department of English Language Teaching (2014) This study was carried out in order to find out the effects of online reading of current news articles from authentic news websites and answering the comprehension questions about those texts on motivation and perceptions towards the reading of English preparatory students. The study was conducted at a state university whose medium of instruction is English. Twenty-seven pre-intermediate level students participated in the study. To collect data about the reading motivation of the students towards doing read...
Perceptions of ELT pre-service teachers toward alternative assessment via web 2.0 tools: a case study at a Turkish State University / Cirit, Nazlı Ceren; Savaş, Perihan; Department of English Language Teaching (2014) This study aimed at learning the participants’ perceptions of computer-assisted language learning, online extensive reading and vocabulary learning through online extensive reading before and after an online extensive reading program. Besides, in the study to what extent the program helped the participants develop their vocabulary incidentally was investigated. The study was performed at TÖMER, Gazi University, and 50 English as a foreign language learners took place in the study. To get data on the student...

Citation Formats

L. S. Aydan, “Student and teacher perceptions on benefits and challenges of using blogs in english in foreign language reading classes,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2014.