i

Using BALL to Develop Writing Skills:

Students’ Interest and Perception

Research Proposal

By:

Parlindungan Pardede

English Teaching Study Program

Faculty of Education and Teachers Training

Christian University of Indonesia

Jakarta

2011

ii

Table of Contents

Table of Contents i

Chapter I: Introduction

A. Background

B. Problem Statements

C. Objectives ot the Study

D. Significance of the study

E. Scope of the study

1

4

5

5

6

Chapter II: Literature Review, Conceptual Framework, and

Hypothesis

A. Literature Review

1. The Nature of Blog

2. Blogs in English Language learning

3. Blogs Use for Developing Writing Skills

B. Conceptual Framework

C. Hypothesis

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7

8

12

20

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Chapter III: Research Methodology

A. Research Method

B. Place and Time

C. Population and Setting

D. Data Collection Techniques, Instruments and procedures

E. Data Analysis Techniques

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22

22

23

24

References

25

i

1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background

Introduction

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has increasingly played a

major role in the second/foreign language teaching and learning. The beginning of

this trend can be traced to the 1930s when instructors used audiovisual tools to

deliver content in the classroom (Roblyer, 2002). Later, the use of audio recordings,

television, films, video, and computers in the trials to bring the target language and

culture to students in the 1960s has made ICT linked closer with foreign language

teaching. Then, the shift of language teaching pedagogy during the 1980s to 2000s to

communicative language teaching, with an emphasis on sociocultural variables,

cooperative group learning, and student engagement in authentic, meaningful, and

interactive contextualized discourse (Warschauer and Meskill, 2000; Brown, 2000),

necessitates more sophisticated educational technologies, and the internet and its

related applications seem to be a good response to meet this need.

One of the most recent but rapidly popular internet applications is the weblogs,

(also known as blogs). Although blogs began to exist in the cyberspace community in

1998, the release of Blogger, a free blog hosting service, in August of 1999 fostered

the rapid growth of blog sites (Blood, 2000). In December 2007, blog search engine

2

and measurement firm Technorati was tracking more than 112,000,000 blogs

(NumberOf.net, 2009), and 120,000 new blogs were created every day. In the

beginning of 2009 Technorati estimated the number of blogs was over 200 million.

A blog is basically a web-based space for writing. In a blog, all the writing and

editing of information is managed through a web browser and is immediately and

publicly available on the Internet (Godwin, 2003). Most blogs are now hosted by blog

providers such as wordpress.com or blogger.com and provide templates which do not

require any technical, aesthetic or planning skills from the blogger. It is this ease of

use which sets many of the current blogs apart from websites. Blogs also tend to have

features which are not available on most regular web pages, such as the comments

feature, which allows the reader to write onto the blog either directly or following

approval from the author; e-mail/SMS publishing, which allows the blogger or a

group of bloggers to post to the weblog directly using email or mobile phone

messaging; and a subscription feature, which enables the blogger to automatically

receive updates of his/her favorite weblogs whenever these are updated.

Although blogs were initially created as a tool for people to create online

journals, their ease of use and their offer of free powerful online publishing house

have immediately attracted educators to use this new internet application in language

teaching and learning. Many researchers and teachers see that when used in language

classes, blogs may show tremendous advantages both to teachers and students,

because they provide learners with genuine writing practice (Brooks, Nichols, and

3

Priebe, 2004); offer a venue in which they can reflect, comment, question, review,

and communicate outside the classroom in an authentic environment (Pinkman, 2005;

Bella, 2005) provide an alternative way of communicating with teachers and peers

(Mynard, 2007); and provide an opportunity to create a virtual collaborative

classroom environment (Zorko, 2009; Philip and Nicholls, 2009).

Other studies have also shown that blogs motivate many students to write well

in the target language (Stiler & Philleo, 2003; Liaw, Chen, and Huang, 2008).

Through blogs, one can write and also comment on what one writes in expectation of

a little discussion and a quest for common interests and individual differences. By

responding on blogs, students can get feedback from other audiences throughout

cyberspace. Students have an opportunity to read things in which they are interested

and write things they truly wish to write, thereby determining their own texts in

language education and combining text with conversations in a very personal and

stimulating way.

Many researchers, such as Downess (2004) claimed that students’ writing skills

improve when they blog. Another study conducted by Kavaliauskien and Vaičiūnienė

(2006) indicated that the experience of writing on blogs (for an audience) provides

opportunities to help students improve their knowledge of English. Nadzrah and

Ismail (2009) found that blogs let students compose writing with specific purposes

that can encourage them to enhance their writing in the language constructively.

Blogs expand the opportunities for student interaction and the horizons of that

4

―learning space‖ (Williams & Jacobs, 2004) exponentially, and provide student

writers with a far greater audience both within and outside the classroom. To

illustrate, Pinkman (2005) writes that blogging becomes communicative and

interactive when participants assume multiple roles in the writing process, as writers

who write and post, as readers/reviewers who respond to other writers’ posts, and as

writer-readers who, returning to their own posts, react to criticism of their own posts.

Dieu (2004) reaffirms this by stating that blogging gives a learner the chance to

―maximize focused exposure to language in new situations, peer collaboration, and

contact with experts‖ (p. 26).

Despite the considerable body of literature on the use of blog in ELT across a

variety of settings, few studies have been conducted in Indonesian context. This study

aims to investigate students’ interest and perception on the use of BALL (Blog

Assisted Language Learning) as an additional component in writing skills classes in

the English Study Program, Faculty of Education and Teachers Training, Christian

University of Indonesia (FKIP-UKI) Jakarta.

B. Problem Statements

In this research, the researcher verified the problem statements as follow:

1. What is students’ perception towards the use of BALL (Blog Assisted Language

Learning) as an additional component in writing skills classes?

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2. Are the students interested in the use of BALL as an additional component in

writing skills classes?

3. Is there any correlation between students’ perceptions and their interest

concerning the use of BALL as an additional component in writing skills classes?

C. Objective of the Study

This study will be conducted to achieve the followings:

1. To explore students’ perception towards the use of BALL (Blog Assisted

Language Learning) as an additional component in writing skills classes.

2. To investigate students interest in the use of BALL as an additional component in

writing skills classes.

3. To see whether students’ perceptions and their interest concerning the use of

BALL as an additional component in writing skills classes are correlated on not.

D. Significances of the Study

This study will hopefully be beneficial to the followings:

1. To the theory of ELT, especially the teaching of English to tertiary school

students in an EFL situation, the researcher expected that the results of this study

could enrich the present theory of teaching writing. At least, this study could

provide a good basis for other researchers to conduct further research.

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2. To tertiary school students majoring in English teaching program, the results of

this study will give insights in the idea of finding alternative media for

developing writing skills.

3. To the reader, this study was expected to enrich ideas for finding more

interesting media and activities to develop students’ writing skills.

E. Scope of the Study

To make the study focused, the population of the study will be limited only to

the whole students of the English Study Program of UKI. The sample will

purposively be taken by choosing the students who are involved in the activities of

using BALL as an additional component in writing skills development when the

study is conducted. In addition, the data will be collected using cross-section survey

method.

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CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW, CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND

HYPOTHESIS

A. Literature Review

1. The Nature of Blog

The term ―blog‖ is a contraction of two words: web and log. Weblog, or blog

for short, is used as both a noun and a verb. The term is defined simply as ―online

diaries; logs of thoughts, reflections; a space for individuals to write whatever they

choose with an option for readers to comment on what they have read‖ (Eastment,

2005). This is in line with Efimova and Fiedler (2003) who characterize blogs as

―personal diary-like-format websites enabled by easy to use tools and open for

everyone to read‖ (p. 490). For Herring et al. (2004) and Walker (2003), weblogs are

web pages that are frequently updated and contain dated posts which are listed in

reverse chronological order with the most recent post presented first.

One of the most recent but rapidly popular internet applications is the weblogs,

(also known as blogs). Although blogs began to exist in the cyberspace community in

1998, the release of Blogger, a free blog hosting service, in August of 1999 fostered

the rapid growth of blog sites (Blood, 2000). In December 2007, blog search engine

and measurement firm Technorati was tracking more than 112,000,000 blogs

8

(NumberOf.net, 2009), and 120,000 new blogs were created every day. In the

beginning of 2009 Technorati estimated the number of blogs was over 200 million.

A blog is basically a web-based space for writing. In a blog, all the writing and

editing of information is managed through a web browser and is immediately and

publicly available on the Internet (Godwin, 2003). Most blogs are now hosted by blog

providers such as wordpress.com or blogger.com and provide templates which do not

require any technical, aesthetic or planning skills from the blogger. It is this ease of

use which sets many of the current blogs apart from websites. Blogs also tend to have

features which are not available on most regular web pages, such as the comments

feature, which allows the reader to write onto the blog either directly or following

approval from the author; e-mail/SMS publishing, which allows the blogger or a

group of bloggers to post to the weblog directly using email or mobile phone

messaging; and a subscription feature, which enables the blogger to automatically

receive updates of his/her favorite weblogs whenever these are updated.

2. Blogs in English Language Learning

At present, blogs are known as online public writing environments in which

postings (individual writing segments, often containing hyperlinks to other online

sources) are listed in reverse chronological order (Blood, 2002). A growing number

of educators are testing its potentiality at the academic level (Paulus, Payne, & Jahns,

2009; West, 2008). In English language Teaching (ELT), blogs are a prospective

technology which can fulfill many needs identified for the effective teaching. They

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can be used to provide extra reading for learners, as online learner journals that can

be read by the other learners, to guide learners to online resources appropriate for

their level, to increase the sense of community in a class, to encourage participation

from shy learners, to stimulate out of class discussion, to encourage a process writing

approach, as an online portfolio of learners’ written work and to help build a closer

relationship between learners in a large class (Stanley, 2005b).

Blogs are well suited to serve as on-line personal journals for students,

particularly since they normally enable uploading and linking of files. Language

learners could use a personal blog, linked to a course, as an electronic portfolio,

showing development over time. By publishing the blog on the Internet, the student

has the possibility of writing for readers beyond classmates, not usually possible in

discussion forums. Readers in turn can comment on what they're read, although blogs

can be placed in secured environments as well. Self-publishing encourages ownership

and responsibility on the part of students, who may be more thoughtful (in content

and structure) if they know they are writing for a real audience. This same degree of

personal responsibility is lacking in discussion forums.

Several studies have lent support to the assertion that blogs can effectively

facilitate language teaching and learning (Bloch, 2004), especially in terms of

learners’ language complexity, grammatical correctness, and fluency. In addition,

bloggers tend to have a greater sense of freedom to express their ideas and to

establish their arguments than classroom-based participants (Baggetun & Wasson,

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2006; Bloch, 2004). Blogs enhance users’ exposure to people from different

backgrounds and circumstances (Baggetun & Watson, 2006; Richardson, 2006). The

archiving of blog entries facilitates users’ reflection on blog content and fosters

development of metacognitive strategies for monitoring the progress of learning on

the blog (Richardson, 2006).

While traditional websites usually contain a static, limited scope of content,

blogs with Really Simple Syndication (RSS) present readers with diverse ideas,

questions, and links and, thereby, help develop collective intelligence (Richardson,

2006;). RSS is a family of web feed formats which publish frequently updated works

—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video— in a standardized format.

Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They

benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites

(Wikipedia).

There are three types of weblogs used in English language classrooms which

are the tutor weblog, the learner weblog and the class weblog (Campbell, 2003). The

tutor weblog gives learners daily practice, promotes the exploration of English

websites, encourages online communication, enables teachers to provide learners

with class information, serves as a place for the teacher to provide clarification on

areas that the class may be having difficulty understanding and provides learners with

links to other websites for self-study in their own time.

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The learner weblog is created and maintained by individual learners or by a

small group of learners who work together in order to maintain their weblog

(Campbell, 2003). This kind of weblogs work best in reading and writing classes as it

encourages the students to surf the web in search of articles to read as well as write

about what they have read in their posts. An essential part of blogging is close

reading and interpretation (Smith, 2004). The act of hyperlinking to other articles in

their posts develops awareness in learners that their weblogs are written not in

isolation but instead are linked in the blogosphere and that anyone can view their post

on the topic. Weblogs can be linked and cross-linked which creates online

communities (Godwin-Jones, 2003). The comments link on weblogs further enable

the possibility of further exchange of ideas between learners as well as others who are

outside the classroom.

The class weblog is a weblog that is shared by a whole class (Campbell,

2003). It could be used as an online bulletin board for learners to post messages to

one another and also as a place for classroom discussions and the sharing of thoughts

on a common assignment. It could also be used for developing learners’ research and

writing skills. In addition, a class weblog could also serve as a space for an

international classroom language exchange between two classes of learners who are

located in different countries but sharing one class weblog space.

In language learning, blogs has been experimentally used as tools to develop

writing and reading comprehension skills; implications indicate that although

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blogging should not replace face-to-face interaction, it may provide a practice

environment where students can think, reflect, and create language slowly for a real-

life audience. In addition, blogging in EFL contexts also increases student interest

and motivation in reading and writing, and promotes learner independence and

autonomy (Pinkman, 2005).

3. Blogs Use for Developing Writing Skills

English writing competence is widely recognized as an important skill for

educational, business and personal reasons. Writing is also crucial for the instruction

of foreign and second language learners for three reasons. First, writing well is a vital

skill for academic or occupational success Second, writing can be an effective tool for

the development of academic language proficiency as learners more readily explore

advanced lexical or syntactic expression in their written work (e.g., Warschauer,

2010b). Third, writing across the curriculum can be invaluable for mastering diverse

subject matter, as written expression allows learners to raise their awareness of

knowledge gaps, abstract problem-specific knowledge into schemas that can be

applied to other relevant cases, and elaborate mental representations of knowledge

that can be more easily retrieved, while simultaneously allowing teachers to better

understand the students’ state of knowledge and thinking process and thus adjust

instruction as necessary (Yih and Nah, 2009).

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Despite its high importance in language learning and in academic and

occupational life, many students consider writing as the most difficult skill to master

(Richards & Renandya, 2002). This goes in line with Ackerman (2006) who reports

that up to 40 percent of students in high schools are not doing well in writing classes.

Ackerman adds that many students consider writing a chore that they do within the

walls of the classroom. Many studies have also shown that it can be difficult to

motivate language learners when it comes to writing (Kajder and Bull, 2003).

Moreover, the students are not motivated to write with the audience in mind because

a single teacher is the audience for most assignments. Furthermore, according to Yih

and Nah (2009), the students’ writing performance is related to anxiety as a result of

their lack of writing skills. This may be due to students being generally passive

learners who consider that their role is to absorb knowledge as it is presented to them

in the traditional classroom. As a consequence, this general agreement on the

importance of writing skill and the poor performance of students in writing has

provided the challenge for educators and researchers to look for ways to teach and

motivate students to write effectively. Educators should attempt to find ways that

don’t cause a writer’ block, and feel a responsibility towards their learners to create

and maintain environments that motivate learners to continue learning even after

class ends.

Recent studies have indicated that many features of blogs make them one of

the most powerful alternatives to use to develop students’ writing skills. Oravec’s

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(2002) argued that developing a blog can enable students to develop a unique writing

voice and to become more analytical and critical. According to her, ―through actively

responding to Internet materials, students can define their positions in the context of

others’ writings as well as outline their own perspectives on particular issues‖ (p.

618). Blogs encourage students to read, write, and converse more often. They offer

opportunities for authentic expression in the external world (Kajder & Bull, 2003).

Based on his experience with high school students, Richardson (2006) lists

four things that blogging allows students to do: (1) reflect on what they are writing

and thinking as they write and think it; (2) carry on writing about a topic over a

sustained period of time; (3) engage readers and audience in a sustained conversation

that leads to further thinking and writing; and (4) synthesize various learning

experiences and understand their collective relationship and relevance.

Zang (2009) lists and describes five influences of using blogs for students in

English writing. First, blogs facilitate the students’ critical thinking skills. While

writing in the Blogs students are encouraged to evaluate what they read and write.

The blogs enable them to easily link to resources that support their assertions, and

thereby encourage critical thinking. Second, blogs provide examples for students to

model and to learn. Publishing in the blogs enable students to share each other’s

works and reviews. When students see each other’s works, they will not only increase

their readership but also learn from one another, and these will motivate them to

produce better reviews. Third, writing in the blogs affects the students’ quality of

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writing. Once a student published their work it will be kept there permanently (unless

the administrator of the blog deleted it). This permanent nature of publishing online

will encourage students to pay more attention to the content and language of their

works, and the feedback received from the various sources as well as the different

types, critical and non-critical; also affects the quality of their writing. Fourth, blogs

facilitate meaningful learning for students. While working in the blogs, students can

explore other blogs and links to learn more about other countries, cultures, and the

people who write to them. In foreign language classes, the benefits of blogs include

language gains and furthering cultural understanding. Through the blogs, students can

even exchange different culture with some foreigners. All these activities are

meaningful learning for the students. Finally, the blogs give students a purpose for

writing. The students’ works in the blogs can be read not only by their teacher but

also by classmates and other people. This provides a great opportunity to promote a

relationship with an audience beyond just the writing class. Realizing that they do not

only write for the teacher, the students will be motivated to produce better works.

Some related studies results support the above list. Martindale & Wiley’s

(2005) study results revealed that classroom blogs can influence students’ weekly

writings. Their writings become lengthier, more thoughtful, more responsive, and

more frequent; students are more precise, more exact, and more focused with their

writing. They are aware that their writing will be read by others and not just the

teacher, which supports the idea that students’ writings should be published and

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shared. Krause (2005) successfully used blogs in students’ on-going journaling as a

common pedagogical technique in writing courses and hailed that blogs, if used

properly, can be a teaching tool for collaborative, interactive, and reflective writing.

Similarly, in a recent study (Halic et al., 2010), blogs were found to foster a ―sense of

community,‖ where collaborative relationships could naturally develop. In this study

of 67 undergraduate students, data were gathered and analyzed from an online survey.

It was determined that as higher levels of a sense of community among students in

the class were reported, student learning also increased.

In a study conducted by Ramaswami (2008) involving a group of high school

English students, findings indicated that blogs significantly helped students to

articulate ideas (prewriting), begin writing research paper (introduction), organize

thoughts (arrangement), and develop ideas and receive constructive feedback

(revising and editing). Clearly, these findings methodically address the conventional

writing process. Additionally, research revealed that blog writing ―can become a real-

life experience in the writing process: draft, edit, revise, publish- with the capabilities

of getting responses from others beyond the teacher‖ (Ramaswami, 2008, p. 25).

Blogs can motivate students to write and get them to understand that there is an

audience for them, and that their communication through words needs to be effective

because their peers and the world are reading. Blogs can remedy student

disengagement with writing. Quintero (2008)’s study about the use of blogs and peer

feedback to the development of a group of Colombian undergraduate students and a

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group of Canadian learners’ writing skills in a public university in Bogotá, which was

aimed at (a) describing the insights obtainable from a blog writing experience, and (b)

analyzing the way in which feedback (teachers’ and peers’) could shape Colombian

students’ writing in EFL revealed that blogging led students to engage in a

community of writers that generated the need for communication and interaction;

additionally, it allowed learners to portray themselves as they had the chance to

approach writing in a different, inviting environment to express what the world was

for them, based on their experiences. Robertson (2011) reports on a study about the

usefulness of blogs and self-reflection. The author points out that ―reflection is indeed

an important aspect of self-directed learning, but self-directed learning encompasses

other high level skills which can also be developed through blogging‖ (p. 1629).

Findings reveal that participants used their learning journal blogs while planning their

learning, monitoring progress and evaluating their own performance, among other

autonomy-related activities.

Arani (2005) conducted a research on using weblogs to develop writing,

reading and communication skills in English for Specific Purposes among non-native

speakers of English at Kashan University of Medical Sciences in Iran. And the results

showed that students preferred to write on the weblog than the traditional ways, and

weblogs can improve English in the context of ESP. Tekinarslan (2008) conducted a

study on the experiences of an instructor and an undergraduate class who used blogs

in their teaching and learning in Turkey. He reports that blogs as web publishing tools

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can be used to improve the students’ writing skills while improving other skills such

as information searching and literature review skills.

Based on her review of related literature, Zang (2009) listed five influences of

using blogs in English writing. First, the use of blog facilitates the students’ critical

thinking skills. The students engaged in collaborative learning through their

interactions with others which serves as a catalyst for critical thinking. Blogs foster

critical thinking by encouraging students to evaluate what they read and write.

Writing blogs offers students a way to improve their writing skills and encounter new

ideas through interaction with other students. Blogs allow students to easily link to

resources that support their assertions, and thereby encourage critical thinking.

Second, blogs provide examples for students to model and to learn. Publishing

reflective commentaries on the Internet is an effective way for students to share each

other’s reviews. Not only will readership increase, when students see each other’s

works, they can learn from one another, thereby motivating them to produce better

reviews. Furthermore, the creation of online portfolios on the web amounts to a

showcasing of their works over the development period of their learning. Such

knowledge artifacts are a display of learner’s growth and reflection on their learning.

When a sizeable number of interested visitors give comments and input to a blog, a

community of learners may be formed.

The third influence of using blogs in English writing in the list is that

blogging affects the students’ quality of writing. The quality of writing is manifested

19

in several ways. Some students who study English state that they are always aware of

their audience, and, as a result, write with their audience in mind. They don’t know

whether they are right or wrong. The permanent nature of publishing online

encourages students to pay more attention to the content and language in their blogs.

And the feedback received from the various sources as well as the different types,

critical and non-critical; also affects the quality of their writing. The students also

enhance the quality of their writing by adding visual representation to their blogs.

This helps to clarify concepts for the reader. Visual literacy, visual thinking, and

visual learning are concepts related to the purpose of Constructing Meaning.

Multimedia research shows that students with visual learning styles can benefit from

technology with a multimedia format. In other words, adding visual associations to

their blogs helps the students express their points of views.

The fourth influence is that blogging facilitate meaningful learning for

students because it enables them to explore other blogs and links to learn more about

other countries, cultures, and the people who write to them. In foreign language

classes, the benefits of blogs include language gains and furthering cultural

understanding. They can even use blogs to exchange different culture with some

foreigners. By participating as active readers of blogs, students can gain the insider’s

perspective on various cultural topics, thus leading to better understanding of other

cultures and what shapes them.

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Finally, blogging gives students purpose for writing. Blogs increase students’

interest and ownership in learning. Students direct their own learning about topics

important to them, while receiving feedback from others. Students take ownership in

blogging activities by actively searching for information. The use of blogs gives

students chances to participate in a community. They learn that posted content can be

read by people other than their teacher and classmates. The world can provide

encouragement or feedback on student writings. Students interact with an authentic

audience.

B. Conceptual Framework

Based on the discussions above, it seems that blogging can be very

advantageous in writing classes. Blogs allow learners to communicate directly,

inexpensively, and conveniently with other learners without time, place, and technical

restrictions. Therefore, the use of this internet application is very potential to motivate

students intrinsically, to enable them to exert a measure of control over their learning,

to provide them with a number of authentic materials, and to allow them to

communicate with real audiences. However, the use of blogs in writing classes is still

in its stage of infancy. To use it effectively for developing our students writing skills,

we need to have appropriate theoretical basis. We need to have a sound knowledge on

the what and the how of the new technology. We also need to grasp how it can fit

with our understanding of writing development and how it can best support our

21

pedagogical practice. Last but not least, we need to know what our students think and

feel about the use of the new technology. Therefore, the researcher hopes that the

results of this novel study on students’ interest and perception in the use of BALL

(Blog Assisted Language Learning) as an additional component in writing skills

development will enrich the insights for incorporating blogging as a tool to develop

students’ writing skills.

C. Hypothesis

The hypothesis to test in this study is formulated as follow:

H0: There is no significant correlation between the students’ interest and perceptions

in the use of BALL (Blog Assisted Language Learning) as an additional

component in writing skills development.

Ha: There is significant correlation between the students’ interest and perceptions in

the use of BALL as an additional component in writing skills development.

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CHAPTER III

Research Methodology

A. Research Method

This study is a case study using explanatory mixed method design, which,

according to Creswell et al. (2003) enables us to gather qualitative input to explain

and extend quantitative results, in order to gain a comprehensive insight of the

research. To see the students’ perceptions and interest in the use of BALL as an

additional component in writing skills development and the correlation between these

perceptions and interest, quantitative and qualitative data concerning the students’

perceptions and interest will be collected through a survey and focused semi

structured open-ended interviews.

B. Place and Time

This study will be conducted in the English Study Program of the Faculty of

Education and Teachers Training, Christian University of Indonesia (FKIP-UKI)

Jakarta in the even semester of the 2010/2011 Academic Year.

C. Population and Sample

The population of the study is the whole students of the English Study Program

who were active at the time this study was conducted. The sample is the students who

23

are involved in the activities of using BALL as an additional component in writing

skills development during the semester.

D. Data Collection Techniques, Instruments and Procedure

To collect the data in this study, the researcher will employ survey and

focused semi structured open-ended interview techniques. The survey will be

conducted using a questionnaire and interview, an interview guide.

The questionnaire, adapted from Fageeh (2011) and Wu (2005), will be

administered to obtain quantitative input. It was designed into two sections. The first

one is aimed to collect the participants’ demographic variables, namely year-group,

length of using the internet, and the most usual place to access internet for blogging.

The second section was constructed to gauge the participants’ interest and perception

on the use of blog as an additional component in writing skills development. These

data will be gauged by asking the participants to indicate their agreement or

disagreement to each statement on a 5-point Likert scale that ranged from strongly

disagree, score 1, to strongly agree, score 5. The questionnaire was constructed in

accordance to the following dimensions: perception and interest.

The focused semi structured open-ended interview will be conducted to gather

qualitative input. The themes that emerge during the interview sessions will be coded

in accordance to the quantitative dimensions from the questionnaire. Fifteen to twenty

minutes interview sessions will be conducted with 12 volunteers inviting to represent

24

the four groups (3 students from each group). They are respondents to the

questionnaire administered. The rationale for using focused semi structured open-

ended interviews is to understand the respondents’ point of view rather than make

generalizations. As in all such interviews, the researchers will set the focus of the

interview.

F. Data Analysis Techniques

The quantitative data obtained through the questionnaire will be analyzed

using descriptive statistical operation in the form of table and graphs. SPSS version

17.0 will be administered to determine the correlation between the students’ interest

and perceptions. The qualitative data obtained through the focused semi structured

open-ended interview will be analyzed using the descriptive analysis.

25

References

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Arani, J. A. (2005). Teaching writing and reading English in ESP through a web-

based communicative medium: Weblog. ESP-world 4 (3).

Baggetun, R., & Wasson, B. (2006). Self-regulated learning and open writing.

European Journal of Education, 41(3- 4), 453-472.

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