using ball to develop writing skills: students’ interest and perception

8/3/2019 Using BALL to Develop Writing Skills: Students Interest and Perception

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The 5th International Seminar 2011 SWCU

November 21, 2011

Parlindungan Pardede

Universitas Kristen Indonesia


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Outline

Introduction

Literary Review Methodology

Results and Discussion

Conclusions &

Reccommendations


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Copyright Wondershare Software

Weblogs (or blogs) are a recent but rapidly popularinternet application.

Emerged in 1998, blogs grew to more than 200 millionin 2009.

An easy to use online space for writing, blogs can bevery advantageous to language teaching and learning,because they

a. provide learners with genuine writing practice

b. offer a venue in which they can reflect, comment,question, review, and communicate outside theclassroom in an authentic environment

c. provide an alternative way of communicating withteachers and peers

d. provide an opportunity to create a virtualcollaborative classroom environment


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Despite blogs great potential, the useblogs in writing classes is new. To beeffective, it requires us to know:

the what and the how of blogs, how blogs can fit with our

understanding of writingdevelopment and how it can best

support our pedagogical practice,

what our students think and feelabout the use of the new technology.


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To explore students interest andperception on the use of BALL (Blog

Assisted Language Learning) as anadditional component in writing skillsdevelopment

To asses whether the respondentsinterest and perception in the use ofBALL are correlated or not.


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Literary Review

Five influences of using blogs for students in English writing (Zang,2009):

a. facilitate the students critical thinking skills.

b. provide examples for students to model and to learn

c. encourage students to enhance their writing quality.

d. facilitate meaningful learning for students

e. give students a purpose for writing.

Students preferred to write on the weblog than the traditional ways,

and weblogs can improve English in the context of ESP (Arani,2005)

Blogs as web publishing tools can be used to improve the students

writing skills and improve other skills such as information searchingand literature review skills (Tekinarslan, 2008)


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1. Participants

Each group actively participated in both real and virtual

classes (blog). Assessment: 20% for regular attendanceand participation in real classroom; 20% for regularassignment posting in blog; 30% went for mid-term testposted in the blog; 30% went for the final test in realclassroom.

Groups Attended Class n %

Freshmen Writing II (Paragraph Writing) 31 30.39

Sophomores Writing IV (Essay Writing) 26 25.49

Juniors Academic Writing 23 22.55

Seniors Cross Cultural Understanding 22 21.57

T o t a l 102 100


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2. Time: even semester of the 2010/2011Academic Year

3. Place: English Teaching Study Program of FKIP-UKI, Jakarta

4. Design: explanatory mixed method (gatheringqualitative input to explain and extendquantitative results for gaining a comprehensiveinsight of the research

5. Data collection techniques: Survey and Focused

Semi Structured Open-ended Interview

6. Data analysis technique: descriptive and thelinear correlation coefficient statistics


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Results and Discussion

GroupNever 1 year 2 years 3 years 4 years 5 years > 5 years

% % % % % % %

Freshmen 6.45 70.97 16.13 6.45 0 0 0

Sophomores 3.85 3.85 57.69 30.77 3.85 0 0

Juniors 0 0 4.35 82.61 8.70 4.35 0

Seniors 0 0 9.09 31.82 50.00 4.55 4.55

Total 2.94 22.55 22.55 35.29 13.73 1.96 0.98

Length of time using the internet before joining BALL

Most respondents has began to access internet as soon as they attended the university


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Place for getting internet connection to work in BALL

home

38%

campus

34%

mobile

phone16%

internetkiosks

8%

others4%

The participants could access the internet connection easily.


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Perception on the Use of BALL for Writing Skills Development

SD

4%

D

9%

N

25%A

62%

1. Blogging is effective to

develop writing skills

Yes, blogging is very useful and effective

to use to develop writing skills. Based on

my experiences, blog made it possible to

discuss with lecturers, friends and other

people. (Sophomore 1)

I like blogging very much. Not onlybecause it's something new but it also

provides me many useful gadgets and

resources which are helpful in writing.

(Junior 2)

Yes, blogging is very effective to develop

writing. This program, in which blogging

is combined with the conventional real

class is very wonderful. If I'm allowed, I'd

like to join it though I have graduated.

(Senior 1)


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SD

9%

D

13%

N

22%

A

56%

2. accessibility of other

students writing ishelpful

Yes, reading my friends works was

cool because I was able to see

what they thought about things

we did not used to talk about in

class. (Junior 2)

I often found grammatical errors

in my friends postings, and I used

them to reflect my own works.

Thus, reading my friends writing isa good way to improve my writing

skills. (Freshman 3).


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SD

9%

D

13%

N

22%

A

56%

3. Commenting and

giving feed-backs one toanother is helpful

I always found my friends feedback useful.

They made me realize weaknesses I was

not previously aware of. But receiving and

giving feedbacks are two different things. I

cant risk of hurting my friends feeling by

commenting to their errors in writing.

(Senior 3)

Feedbacks really helped me to produce

better writing. But for me it was usually

uncomfortable to show a friends errors.

(Sophomore 3)

Yes, its cool to get some feedback on what

Ive written However, Id rather not to

criticize my friends work. It might hurt their

feelings. (Junior 1).


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SD

0%

D

4%

N

23%

A

73%

4. possibility to post

from anywhere andanytime helps to submit

assignments on time

Yes, this is the reason why I prefer

to submit my assignment throughthe blog than using a print-out.

(Junior 1).

It really helped me to submit my

assignment on time. (Freshman 2)


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SD

4%D

5%

N

21%

A70%

5. Articles in the web

provide good models

Reading the huge number of blogs with

various types of article provide me with a

variety of styles and ideas to write.

(Senior 3)

To write like native speaker necessitates

you to read a lot of their works, and the

internet provides you with tons of such

articles. Before writing to discuss a topic,

reading some related articles will be

helpful. (Sophomore 2)


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6. Online writing manuals helps in using punctuations,

citation, and referencing

GroupSD D N A SA X

f % f % f % f % f %

Freshmen 6 19.4 10 32.3 5 16.1 6 19.4 4 12.9 2.74

Sophomores 2 7.69 5 19.2 6 23.1 10 38.4 3 11.5 3.26Juniors 1 4.35 1 4.35 5 21.7 11 47.8 5 21.7 3.78

Seniors 0 0 0 0 4 18.2 9 40.9 9 40.9 4.22

Those who responded strongly disagree and disagree to this statement

mainly belonged to the freshmen and sophomores who did not yet need

citation and references to finish their (paragraph and essay) writing

assignments. In contrast, the seniors who were assigned to write academic

articles always needed citation and references.


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Respondents Interest in the Use of BALL for Writing

Skills Development

StatementSD D N A SA X

f % f % f % f % f %

Write more productively

after joining BALL10 9.8 12 11.8 24 23.5 27 26.5 29 28.4 3.51

motivated to produce better

works because they areaccessible to everyone

4 3.92 6 5.88 16 15.7 40 39.2 36 35.3 3.67

Like blogging for the

availability of dictionaries,

thesaurus, and references

2 1.96 4 3.92 20 19.6 30 29.4 46 45.1 3.65

Prefer to discuss a topic via

blog than 'face-to-face 2 1.96 2 1.96 14 13.7 42 41.2 42 41.2 3.82

Blogging drives to check

diction and spelling more

carefully.

2 1.96 3 2.94 11 10.8 37 36.3 49 48 4.02

Blogging is rewarding due

to having large audience.8 7.84 16 15.7 20 19.6 36 35.3 22 21.6 3.35


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Clarification on respondents interest obtained from the interview

1. Preference to discuss a topic via blog than 'face-to-face

While speaking, you dont have much time to organize your ideas. On the

other hand, writing provides you much time to do it. (Sophomore 1) To be convincing, you need to explore and systematize your idea. You can do

it while writing but not while speaking. Thats why I feel more confident todiscuss a serious topic through writing than through speaking. (Junior 2).

2. Motivation to check word choice and spelling more carefully

Knowing that many people can read and possibly comment on my postingurged me to write more carefully. (Junior 3)

You know, in CCU class we were often assigned to write about Americanculture. Can you imagine what Americans will say if they found my postingsabout their culture are inaccurate and reckless? Such consideration alwaysdrive me to write more carefully in the blog. (Senior 1)

3. fondness to write in the blog due to having a large audience

Realizing that my works are read by many people is one of reasons why I likewriting on the blog. Its natural, isnt it?(Junior 1)

It was really cool when someone read not to mention cited what I wrote in hisblog. Thats why I always revised my works before posting them. (Senior 2)


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Correlation of Interest and Perception

The linear correlation coefficient analysis oninterest and perception correlation resulted thecoefficient (r) = 0.98. This indicates thecorrelation coefficient between respondents

interest and perceptions is very strong. By using = 0.05 and degree of freedom (df)= n-2,

the t-table= 1.986, whereas the tcount = 49.25

Since the tcount (49.25) > t tabel (1.986), it was

concluded that respondents interest andperceptions were positively and significantlycorrelated. This indicated that both variablessignificantly affected each other.


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Conclusions and Recommendations

The majority of the respondents viewed the use of BALL to developwriting interesting and effective.

The majority admitted they wrote more productively after joiningBALL.

The internet facilities (authentic articles and writing manuals) were

very helpful to produce good writing. Fellow students works were used as a mirror to prevent errors.

The greatest motivating factor for the respondents in writing in theblog is their realization that their works were visible to many peoplein the world. This awareness also motivated them to check wordchoice and spelling more carefully.

The students familiarity with internet browsing skills and their levelof writing mastery affected their interest and perception on theblogging activities.

Further researches to determine how to most effectively use blogs inorder to make better use of this interesting and authentic computer-

based resource are recommended.


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using ball to develop writing skills: students’ interest and perception

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