Edmdo micro-blogging and students are asked to give feedback to one another. In other words, the collaborative writing activity
is implemented through Edmodo micro- blogging since “one way
of encouraging drafting, reflection, and revision is to have students involved in collaborative writing.”
11
B. Relevant Studies
Several studies toward the use of blog for educational purpose had been conducted by some researchers both using
qualitative and quantitative design. Particularly, the writer found at least four major studies discussed to the use of blog in teaching
writing.
In 2010, a dissertation entitled “An Investigation into the Use of a Blog as a Tool to Improve Writing in the Second Language
Classroom had been conducted by Susan Blackmore.
12
A classroom action research was used in this study. In her study,
she tried to investigate how two level of ESOL students responded to the use of a blog as a tool to improve second
language writing. In her finding, the qualitative data shows that the students that took part in her research were in favor of using
blog to improve writing skills. On his finding, she asserted that the blog created an innovative, more engaging and more authentic
experience for students. The collaborative learning environment established allowed students to learn through modeling and
through exposure to other student‟s opinion, ideas and perspective.
The second study was conducted by Wulyani in 2010. In her research, she tried to see the progress the students can achieve
after they utilize weblog in their English class. Her study concern with the notion whether there is the significance difference
between the writing scores before and after the utilization of the weblog. Different with the study conducted by the Susan Sears,
11
Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach English Edinburgh Gate: Pearson Education Limited, 2007, p. 12.
12
Susan Blackmore, “An Investigation into the Use of Blog as a Tool to Improve Writing in the Second Language Classroom” PhD diss., The
University of Manchester, 2010, p. 2.
the second study used the statistical computation of t-test of correlated sample in making the conclusion of the research to
examine whether or not the finding support the theory about the utilization of weblog in teaching writing.
13
The third study was conducted by Ozgur Simsek in 2009. The same as the Mulyani‟s work, his study uses quantitative
approach. In his study, two groups of students were compared with their writing performances. The writing instruction of the
control groupwas limited to in the class activities; however, in the course design of the experimental group, the writing instruction
was blended with the blogging activities. In his finding, it was identified that the blogging integrated writing instruction proved
to be more effective than in class writing instruction. Blogging
affected students‟ writing performance of experimental students as a whole and it had a positive impact on the two components of
their writings: content and organization.
14
The fourth study was conducted by Ruby Vurdien in 2011. A qualitative approach was adopted and data was gathered from the
blog entries, discussion classes, interviews and the two questionnaires. The findings show that the overall attitude of the
students towards the project was positive and that blogs were viewed as a good way of communication between peers.
Blogging as a tool in the writing process can, due to its interactive nature, raise
students‟ level of motivation. It also expresses
their views on their peers‟ blog entries with a view to improve linguistic performance.
15
Having given a highlight of the relevant researches, the writer puts the focus of the present study on the use of Edmodo
micro-blogging in teaching writing recount and narrative text.
13
Anik Wulyani, ”Improving Student‟s Writing Composition Through Web-
blogging” Mpd Thes., Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, 2010, p. 96.
14
Ozgur Simsek, “The Effect of Weblog Integrated Writing Instruction on Primary School Students Writing Performance” PhD diss.,
Marmara University, 2009, p. 43.
15
Ruby Vurdien
, “
Enhancing writing skills through blogs in an EFL class
” The University of Nottingham , 2011, pp. 156-157.
Even if it is almost the same like the study conducted by Susan Blackmore entitled “An investigation into the Use of a Blog as a
Tool to Improve Writing in the Second Language Classroom”, but the present study tries to focus on the micro-blogging though.
Another difference is on the setting in which the writing activity is used to the second language classroom, meanwhile the
foreign language classroom is taken into account in the present study. More specifically, the present study focused on the writing
recount and narrative text only. The thing that makes the present study different with the two relevant studies is laid on its
approach. The two relevant studies used quantitative approach meanwhile the present study used qualitative one. Based on its
novelty, the writer used a classroom action research to investigate the utilization of Edmodo micro-blogging in teaching recount and
narrative text. There is no single study that specifically focuses on this potential micro-blogging thus, the present study is hoped
to be worthwhile.
C. Learning Strategies
