IMPLEMENTING CLASS BLOG AS A LEARNING TOOL IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

Abstract

In recent years we have been witnessing the benefits of the use of technological developments in educational contexts. These developments have caused undeniable changes in our attitudes, understandings, actions and ways of teaching and learning. Here, the main resource to gain favor from these improvements is the internet, because there are numerous amounts of materials available for language teaching and learning on the net. Foreign language teaching and learning seem to have a considerable place in web technology since it provides authentic materials and situations for students to practice the language and gain language awareness. Considering this fact, the potential of blogs draws the attention. In the light of these facts, the study examines the procedures involved in implementing the class blog as a teaching and learning tool in an EFL class by trying to find out the attitudes of students, towards using the class blog. The study was conducted at Fatsa Anatolian High School over an 8-week period in the second semester of the educational year of 2019. Fifteen eleventh- grade students participated in this study. The students followed the weekly programs of the Turkish National Education curriculum for the eleventh-class students studying at Anatolian High Schools by doing the activities in the book of the Turkish National Education Ministry within their class blog. After the treatment, the performances were analyzed based on pre-study interviews and semi-structured interviews, the researcher’s field notes and a writing pre-test. The analyses of the data showed that classroom blogs may have positive effects on learning English and can be supportive in foreign language learning as the process motivates students to take responsibility for their own learning process. We also observed that the blogging activities help to enhance the students’ language and communication skills. Therefore, the study suggests that the practice of blogging can be an effective learning and teaching tool.