PSZ 19 : 16 (Pind. 1/97)

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA BORANG PENGESAHAN STATUS TESIS

JUDUL : WEBLOG AS A WRITING ACTIVITY IN ESL CLASSROOM: A SURVEY ON STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION.

SESI PENGAJIAN : 2008/2009

Saya NURUL `ATIQAH BINTI MOHD NASIR

(HURUF BESAR)

mengaku membenarkan tesis (PSM/Sarjana/Doktor Falsafah)* ini disimpan di Perpustakaan Universiti Teknologi Malaysia dengan syarat-syarat kegunaan seperti berikut:

1. Tesis adalah hakmilik Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. 2. Perpustakaan Teknologi Malaysia dibenarkan membuat salinan untuk tujuan pengajian sahaja. 3. Perpustakaan dibenarkan membuat salinan tesis ini sebagai bahan pertukaran antara institusi

pengajian tinggi. 4. ** Sila tandakan ( √ )

SULIT

(Mengandungi maklumat yang berdarjah keselamatan atau kepentingan Malaysia seperti yang termaktub di dalam AKTA RAHSIA RASMI 1972)

TERHAD

(Mengandungi maklumat TERHAD yang telah ditentukan oleh organisasi/badan di mana penyelidikan dijalankan)

TIDAK TERHAD

(TANDATANGAN PENULIS) (TANDATANGAN PENYELIA)

Alamat tetap: PROF. MADYA. DR. MASDINAH LOT 3865, JALAN SEKOLAH ALAUYAH BINTI MD YUSOF KAMPUNG BANTING, 45200, NAMA PENYELIA SABAK BERNAM, SELANGOR DARUL EHSAN. Tarikh: 23 APRIL 2009 Tarikh: 29 APRIL 2009

CATATAN: * Potong yang tidak berkenaan. ** Jika tesis ini SULIT atau TERHAD, sila lampirkan surat daripada pihak

berkuasa/organisasi berkenaan dengan menyatakan sekali sebab dan tempoh tesis ini perlu dikelaskan sebagai SULIT atau TERHAD.

Tesis dimaksudkan sebagai tesis bagi Ijazah Doktor Falsafah dan Sarjana secara penyelidikan atau disertasi bagi pengajian sebagai kerja kursus dan penyelidikan atau Laporan Projek Sarjana Muda (PSM).

√

“I hereby declare that I have read this thesis and in my

opinion this thesis is sufficient in terms of scope and quality for the

award of the degree of Bachelor of Science and Education (TESL)”

Signature : _______________________________

Name of Supervisor :

Date :

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Masdinah Alauyah Binti Md Yusof

29th April 2009

WEBLOG AS A WRITING ACTIVITY IN ESL CLASSROOM:

A SURVEY ON STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION.

NURUL `ATIQAH MOHD NASIR

A report submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the award of the degree of

Bachelor of Science and Education (TESL).

Faculty of Education

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

APRIL 2009

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I declare that this thesis entitled “Weblog as a Writing Activity in ESL Classroom: A

Survey on Students’ Perception” is the result of my own research except as cited in the

references. The thesis has not been accepted for any degree and is not concurrently

submitted in candidature of any other degree.

Signature : _________________________

Name :

Date :

Nurul `Atiqah Binti Mohd Nasir

23rd April 2009

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To the apples of my eyes,

ABAH, MAK,

Atina, Aizat, Aiman, Atira, Aimi Anis

and my TESL UTM family.

MAY ALLAH BLESS YOU.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, there is only Allah whom I should be grateful and thankful

for giving me the opportunity to complete this thesis and who has put me in this level.

The next person that I would like to express my appreciation is my thesis supervisor,

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Masdinah Alauyah Binti Md Yusof for her constant guidance, advices

and motivation. Without her continued support and interest, this thesis would not have

been the same as presented here.

I am also grateful to have Tn. Hj. Mohd Nasir Abdullah and Pn. Hjh. Hasimah

Zailani as my parents who are always being there for me, giving me encouragement and

motivation. My fellow respondents should also be recognized for their help in doing the

task given voluntarily and also answering the questionnaire for this research’s data.

A big thank you also goes to my TESL classmates who have been there by my

side through out these four years of TESL programme. They shared, they taught and

they helped without any condition. Their views and tips are useful indeed. Unfortunately,

it is not possible to list all of them in this limited space. Once again, my appreciation goes to

all persons who have directly or indirectly involved in this research.

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ABSTRACT

Today, the use of weblog is becoming a very popular tool for people to express their

ideas and get them published on the internet for other people to comment or say

something on the published articles. In language classes, weblogs are also often used to

help students to improve their writing skills. However, the effectiveness of weblogs is

not apparent. Hence the purpose of this study was to find out some problems that the

respondents faced when doing writing activity, the benefits of using weblog as writing

activity in the classroom as well as the possibility of using weblog in ESL classroom. In

this study, the survey technique was employed and a set of questionnaire was given to

48 respondents after they were given opportunity to experience the activity of writing

and publish in the selected weblog. The data was collected and analysed using the

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software to obtain the frequency

count and the relationships between the variables. The findings indicated that the

respondents agreed they faced some problems when doing writing task. Besides that,

they also agreed that there are several benefits of using weblog as a tool of teaching

writing as well as the benefits towards the improvement of language skills. Last but not

least it is found that they viewed the implementation of weblog as a writing activity in

ESL classroom positively. Therefore, it is hoped that teachers could use weblog as a

means of language learning tool in teaching the ESL students.

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ABSTRAK

Dewasa ini, penggunaan weblog adalah sangat popular di kalangan pengguna internet

untuk mereka mengutarakan dan menerbitkan idea ke dalam internet supaya pembaca

dapat memberi komen dan memberi pendapat tentang entri tersebut. Di dalam kelas

bahasa, weblog juga sering digunakan untuk membantu pelajar meningkatkan kemahiran

mereka dalam menulis. Walaubagaimanapun, keberkesanan penggunaan weblog masih

belum jelas. Maka tujuan kajian ini adalah untuk mengenalpasti masalah-masalah yang

dihadapai oleh responden semasa membuat aktiviti menulis, faedah yang boleh didapati

semasa penggunaan weblog di dalam kelas bahasa Inggeris dan juga kemungkinan untuk

menggunakan weblog di dalam kelas bahasa Inggeris. Dalam kajian ini, teknik tinjauan

telah digunakan dan satu set boring kaji selidik diedarkan kepada 48 orang responden di

mana mereka telah diberi pengalaman dan peluang menulis dan menerbitkan tulisan

mereka di dalam weblog yang disediakan. Data yang telah dikumpulkan kemudiannya

dianalisa menggunakan perisian Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) untuk

mendapatkan bacaan frekuensi dan hubungan antara dua pembolehubah. Keputusan

hasil kajian mendapati responden bersetuju bahawa terdapat beberapa masalah yang

mereka hadapi semasa aktiviti menulis. Kajian juga mendapati terdapat beberapa faedah

penggunaan weblog sebagai alat pengajaran dan juga medium untuk meningkatkan

kemahiran bahasa Inggeris. Selain daripada itu, persepsi responden terhadap

kemungkinan pengaplikasian weblog di dalam kelas bahasa Inggeris adalah positif.

Diharapkan para guru dapatlah mengaplikasikan penggunaan weblog sebagai alat

pengajaran di dalam kelas bahasa Inggeris.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

DECLARATION

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

ABSTRAK

TABLE OF CONTENT

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ii

iii

iv

v

vi

vii

xi

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I INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Background of the Study

1.3 Problems Statement

1.4 Purpose of the Study

1.5 Objectives of the Study

1.6 Research Questions

1.7 Scope of the Study

1

3

4

6

6

7

7

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1.8 Definition of the Terms

1.9 Conclusion

8

9

II LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Approaches to Teaching Writing

2.3 Problems in Writing for ESL Students

2.4 Dialogue Journal

2.5 What is Weblogs?

2.6 Benefits of Using Weblog in ESL Classroom

2.7 Using Weblogs in ESL classroom

2.8 Conclusion

10

11

12

13

14

16

18

19

III METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Research Design

3.3 Respondents of the Study

3.4 Research Instrument

3.5 Research Procedure

3.5.1 Pilot Study

3.5.2 Actual Study

3.6 Data Analysis

3.7 Conclusion

20

21

22

23

24

24

25

26

26

IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Problems Faced by Students when Doing Writing

Task

27

28

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4.2.1 Organization and Elaboration in

Writing Task

4.2.2 Problems in Application of Grammar

Rules

4.3 Benefits of Using Weblogs as a Writing Activity

4.3.1 Perception towards the Blog Publishing

Tool

4.3.2 Benefits of the Weblog as the Medium

for Writing

4.3.3 Benefits of the Weblog as a Tool to

Improve Language Skills

4.4 Implementation of Weblog as a Writing Tool

4.4.1 Perceptions towards the Implementation

of the Weblog as a Writing Activity

4.4.2 Possible Classroom Application for

Weblog

4.5 Conclusion

28

30

31

31

33

35

37

37

39

40

V CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Overview of the Study

5.3 Summary and Review of the Findings

5.4 Implication of Study to English Language

Teaching

5.5 Limitation of Study

5.6 Recommendation

41

42

42

43

45

45

x

REFERENCES

46

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Appendix D

50

54

55

58

xi

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO. TITLE PAGE

3.1

4.1

4.2

4.3

4.4

4.5

4.6

4.7

4.8

Course of the respondents

Problems in organization and elaboration

Problems in grammar rules

Perception towards the blog publishing tool

Weblog as the medium for writing

Weblog as a tool to improve language skills

Response on the benefits of weblog

Implementation of weblog as a writing activity

Possible classroom application for weblog

22

28

30

31

33

35

36

37

39

xii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ABBREVIATIONS

NO.

1.0

2.0

3.0

TITLE

CTL : Communicative Language Teaching

ESL : English as a Second Language

UTM : Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

In order to write, people have to plan. In order to plan, people need the idea. The

idea that is kept in mind, including good plan of writing will lead to an excellent

production of writing. However, as second language learners, writing in their own

mother tongue is slightly easier than writing in a second language. Sometimes, they

could be more expressive when they write in their first language rather than in the

second language. These are several reasons, why some students could not express their

ideas in the essay writing precisely. They are often too brief when describing, but more

often they sometimes astray from the intended topic.

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Writing is a skill needed by the language learners to improve their

communication skill. Five decades ago, the objective set by the teachers was that the

students have to focus on the product of the writing, instead of the process. The teachers

fixed how the essay, the report or story should look like. The essay must be accurate in

terms of grammar, and its content must suit the target readers. So, these criteria have

lessened the freedom for the learners to focus on the content and the message of the

essay.

However, after the communicative language teaching (CLT) has arrived around

1980s (Brown, 2001), the idea of writing is not only about how to be accurate in the

form of the language, but also with regards to meaning and the process of writing.

Brown (2001) stated that writing in the era of CLT focuses more on fluency than the

accuracy, introduces the use of authentic context in the classroom, and inculcates

intrinsic motivation to the writers. This trend was also adapted in the second language

learning.

Moving on to the issue of how to improve writing skill, Barrass (1982, page 30)

states that,

“If they are to improve their basic writing skills they will have to practise writing

themselves, and will continue to need encouragement, constructive criticism and

advice.”

So, from this explanation, we can see how practices can improve learners’ writing skill,

as the saying goes, “practice makes perfect”.

3

There are many ways and tools for students to practise their writing. It started

with writing on paper and recently, with the increasing exposure of the technology, the

students have the opportunity to write with the latest medium that we have now, on the

internet. English as a Second Language (ESL) students are identified to have some

problems in their writing. Therefore, teachers and language experts are always working

on how to solve the problems. Many ways have been suggested and implemented. One

of the latest methods of teaching writing today is, to use weblog as a writing tool. As

weblog has been the most popular writing tool in recent decades, teachers might

recognize the importance or the advantages of implementing it to the writing class.

Weblog nowadays has become the most popular writing tool for people to

express themselves to the public. There are many advantages when someone writing on

the weblog. Therefore, this research will focus on possibility for teachers to implement

this writing tool into the language writing classroom.

1.2 Background of Study

The undergraduates in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) are required to take

six credit hours of English courses. Every English course in UTM would stress the four

main aspects of language skills which are writing, reading, speaking and listening.

4

English for Academic Communication Skills (UHB 1412) is one of the English

courses that expose students to the academic communication skills where they are

exposed to notes-making from written texts and oral texts, producing academic

assignments as well as presenting the academic assignments. One of the objectives that

are set for the students of this course is to provide students with effective writing skills

and paragraph writing practice to construct an essay. Therefore, one of the outcomes of

this course is that the students should be able to write a clear, organised and coherent

essay.

On the other hand, for the purpose of this study, they were introduced to weblog

writing. They were asked to publish their writing in the weblog to prepare them for

impromptu speech activity which was also included in their assessment of the course.

This research is to find out the perception of the UHB 1412 students towards the

possibility of implementing writing activity using weblog in their classroom.

1.3 Problem Statement

Silva, cited in Brown (2001) said that second language learners have problem in

their writing due to lack of planning because they have insufficient vocabulary and

accuracy. Accuracy here means the wrong choice of words that they use in their essay.

When the learners have these problems, teachers would assume that they cannot express

5

the ideas well, and this might lead students to get a bad grade in writing as a result of the

poor content quality.

A large number of teachers are worried when they look at their ESL students’

writing skills especially when the students need to write assignments as a requirement in

academic field. However, as said by Gupta (1998) ESL students have claimed that

writing is a very difficult skill to acquire. Students who are considered successful in

their writing are those who can express themselves well, giving a good flow of ideas,

making points that are considered as ‘thinking out of the box’, as well as having

confidence and enjoyment in the academic writing. These are the common problems

that occur to the ESL students that Basturkmen and Lewis (2002) have figured out.

The problems stated by Basturkmen and Lewis might also occur to the ESL

students in UTM. As the needs of writing in English is very important for the students

when doing their assignments and reports, they might encounter problems in their

writing. Thus, they need to improve their writing skills in order to express their idea

better and be accurate in their writings.

As stated earlier, to improve writing skills, a student needs to do a lot of writing

practice. The practices done will make the students be better in their writing. One way

to train the students to write is by giving them the opportunity to have a medium to write

and express their ideas. One of the medium for students to express the ideas is from

weblog entries. There are many benefits of writing in the weblog entries. So, the

possibilities of implementing weblog as a writing tool in the ESL classroom might be

high due to several reasons that will be discussed in this study.

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1.4 Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of implementing

weblog writing to improve students’ skills in writing. This study was also done to find

out the perceptions of UHB 1412 course students towards the use of weblog for writing

purpose in their ESL classroom.

1.5 Objectives of the Study

This research was carried out to achieve the following objectives:

i. To investigate the problems ESL students face in writing.

ii. To determine the benefits of using weblog as writing tool in the classroom.

iii. To explore the possible way for teachers to implement weblog writing in ESL

classroom.

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1.6 Research Questions

This study was specifically designed to answer these three research questions:

i. What problems do the students face when writing?

ii. What are the benefits of using weblog as a writing tool in classroom?

iii. How can teachers implement weblog writing in ESL classroom?

1.7 Scope of the Study

This study involved the students who took the UHB 1412 class at Universiti

Teknologi Malaysia in 2008/2009 academic session. The respondents who were chosen

had the experience of using weblog in their English class. The questions that were asked

are about the problems that the ESL learners face when writing, the benefits of the

weblog, the factors that encourage students to write on the weblog and the ways that

teachers can implement weblog in their classroom.