Encouraging the use of a public space to develop the subtle intricacies of writing empowers our novice writers. Our job now needs to be to hone their unique voices
and inspire deep levels of reflection on our students’ terms, not just ours.
33
In another study, Castaneda article he analyzed the relationship between the blog of a Somali immigrant and the development of his academic writing. In
this analysis, Castaneda stated that the student progressed in the development of rhetorical strategies, however; there was less evidence that blogs helped with
aspects of his writing such as grammatical control. The report revealed that students perceived they had improved their cultural knowledge and reading
comprehension due to blogging.
34
Blog can offer opportunities for students to develop their communications skills through meaningful writing experiences. Blog project not only motivates
students to write, but motivate them to write well. These steps help students have successful writing experiences:
35
1.
Choose a Purpose; the teacher decided what want students to write about. The teacher should choose any focus that supports students
learning —but make it specific and stick with it. This clear focus is
crucial, especially your first time around, and especially with younger students.
2.
Decide on a format and an online platform. The teacher could opt for one class blog for all of your students work. In this case, youll be in
charge of gathering student writing and posting it for them.
3.
Prepare and practice; the teacher structure his her blogging project and prepare students to understand the fact that others classmates or, if the
blog is public, anyone on the web will read their work. This opportunity generates a great deal of excitement and motivation, but
also requires a great deal of responsibility on students parts. The
33
Ibid
34
Daniel A. Castaneda, Teaching and Learning the Spanish Aspect Using Blogs and Wikis: An Exploratory Study, Journal IAALT, 2011, pp. 1-26
35
Ben Curran,
How Blogging
can Improve
Students Writing,
2012, http:www.edweek.orgtmarticles20121128tln_curran.html
teacher also remind the students that blogs offer readers a chance to see their best work
—work that has been drafted, edited, and revised. Leaving comments and responding to them are important parts of the
blogging experience, so the teacher should be sure to practice this kind of dialogue.
4.
Take it public; Receive comments from readers outside of the classroom can be a powerful experience for students.
D. Relevant Studies
Some students of university had conducted the similar research about teaching writing using blog. Daniel A Castaneda, Terence C Ahern, Sebastian R
Diaz had conducted the research by the title “Teaching Learning the Spanish Aspect Using Blogs and Wikis: An Exploratory Study
‖.
36
This study investigated the influence of asynchronous computer text
based technologies on the students’ performance when learning the preterite and the imperfect aspects in Spanish. The
study was conducted in two classes with a total of 52 undergraduate students of intermediate Spanish 2 taught by one of the researchers at the Department of
Foreign Languages in a major Mid-Atlantic University. There were originally 27 students in the blog group and 25 in the wiki group. The pre-test and post-test
measured t he students’ learning performance with regards to the target structure.
This test had a recognition reading and production written component. The participants were provided with a text that described a famous fairy tale. The story
was entirely in Spanish and each verb was inflected in the preterite and imperfect form. These verbs were in parentheses and the participants had to recognize the
appropriate form of the verb. For the production component, the participants were asked to write a fairy tale they were familiar with using the preterite and imperfect
in narrative discourse. This test was administered to each student individually by an instructor other than the researchers before and after the intervention. The
results indicated that there were not significant differences between students who
36
Daniel A. Castaneda, Terence C. Ahern and Sebastián R. Díaz, Teaching Learning the Spanish Aspect Using Blogs and Wikis: An Exploratory Study, The IAALT Journal, 2011, pp.
1-26
used blog or wiki technologies on performance levels when controlling for pre- existing knowledge. Results also indicated that there were not significant
differences in satisfaction levels between those students using a wiki and those using a blog. These results suggest that wikis and blogs were good potential tools
that may facilitate the teaching and learning of problematic grammar structures in a narrative context.
The next previous study that the writer found i s “The Effectiveness of
Using Blog to Improve Students’ Ability in Writing Recount Text‖
37
conducted by Intan Kusumawardhani. This study aimed to know the effectiveness of using
weblog to improve students’ ability in writing recount texts. The population in this study is Grade VIII students of junior high school. The samples were two classes
of Grade VIII at SMP Negeri 5 Malang. They were classes 8.1 and 8.2. These classes were chosen by the school principal randomly. This study used quasi-
experimental method employing the pre and posttests to the experimental and control groups. The researcher manipulated the experimental group by using a
particular treatment which was the use of weblog, while the control group did not use it. Finally, the
researcher measured the dependent variables’ effect after the treatments were completely given by using statistical analysis. The data were
analyzed using ANCOVA and the result showed that the mean difference of both scores was at .004 less than the level of significance of .05 which meant that the
null hypothesis was rejected. Therefore, weblog was effective to improve students’ ability in writing recount texts.
The last previous study that the writer found is “Blogging a Journal: Chancing Students’ Writing Skills and Perception‖
38
was conducted by Ming Huei Lin, Ji-Jhen Li, Po Yi Hung, and Hui-Wen Huang. This article investigates
the effects of blogging as an approach to journal writing in the EFL writing classroom by means of a 16-week comparative experiment involving two groups
37
Intan Kusumawardhani, “The Effectiveness of Using Blog to Improve Students’ Ability in Writing Recount Text”, the Skripsi on State University of Malang, pp. 1-9, unpublished
38
Ming Huei Lin, Ji-Jhen Li, Po Yi Hung, and Hui-Wen Huang, Blogging a Journal: Chancing Students’ Writing Skills and Perception, ELT Journal Advance Access, June 24, 2014,
pp. 1-10
of EFL college students. The experimental group EG was required to blog daily while the control group CG was asked to do so using traditional pen-and-paper
methods. The writing performance and general attitudes to and perceptions of journal writing in both groups were evaluated through a writing test and a semi-
structured survey. The research results show that blogging a journal helped the students to achieve a greater improvement in their writing than did the regular pen
and- paper treatment. Additionally, although both groups developed similar learning attitudes in general, the EG experienced significantly less anxiety in
writing than the CG did. This suggests that the blogging approach is an effective approach for students in developing both writing skills and learning attitudes.
Comparing with the first study, the similarities between all relevant studies and this research are the variable about teaching writing, the method of the
research which include in quasi experimental study, and the purpose of the research is to see the effectiveness of using blog in teaching writing. In contrast,
the difference is the population, and the sample of the study. In the first study concern on using blog and using wiki and this study concern on using blog only.
Next, the similarity with the second study is the variable of using blog, the method of study that using quasi experimental study; the difference is the variable on
students’ recount text, the population and the sample of study. When the writer compares with the third study, the similarity is the media of using blog and the
method of study; the difference are the kind of writing, the population and the sample of the study.
E. Thinking Framework
When students write, they need to think hard to produce some words,
sentences, and paragraph at the same time. Not only do students need to think
hard, but they also need to spell words in right spelling and properly punctuate the sentences. Therefore, the students have to master all aspects related to writing and
its component, also do more practices if they want to be good writers. Some of the
problems faced by students are that they are still confused in using the grammar because there is less systematic rule in Indonesian Language Writing.
