The readings so far have elucidated that computer-assisted classroom discussion (CACD) promotes the integrated development of different skills (i.e., writing, reading, listening, speaking) and in terms of second language acquisition (SLA) theory, as well as the use of Internet has provided new opportunities for the teaching of said skills.
For the final project, I am interested in working with weblogs, as a type of content management system, in order to explore the gains in writing skills. Introducing blogging into a Spanish writing class (2008 summer semester, CCCS, Seville, Spain) would be primarily aimed at examining the significance of its use for the process writing approach. This study would consist of three specific aspects of the writing process approach: feedback, editing, and publishing their writings.
I believe that the use of blogs in the writing classroom would create a collaborative learning environment. This would provide a positive framework for developing reading and writing skills. Besides, reading and writing skills are closely associated with motivation. While many students function absolutely well, others, however, struggle. Therefore, the concept of motivation would be worth bearing in mind. In the line of William & Burden (1997), motivation is "a state of cognitive and emotional arousal, which leads to a conscious decision to act, and which causes a period of sustained effort (intellectual, physical, etc.) to attain a previously set goal or goals". Thus, in this case it would be mainly task motivation, since I would do a lot to develop some kind of extrinsic interest in the performance of this specific task. Needless to say, I would take into account those activities that are appropriate to their age and interest. To my impression, students normally consider writing as a chore, which is based on displaying what one knows, so that the teacher can mark the mistakes and give a grade. This motivation could be awaken by CACD.
Writing journals would be an accurate way to improve their skills. These writings would encompass non-fictional (e.g., personal thoughts, real life experiences abroad, cultural shocks, etc.) and fictional (e.g., script writings, short stories, song lyrics, etc.) journals. Since I was a child, I have always heard that “writers learn to write by reading and writing”. This effective power of reading and writing, typically found in the literature “life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books” (bell hooks) or “Esperanza, keep writing. It will keep you free” (Sandra Cisneros), do I believe in. For me writing is an art. This talent can de developed by using different skills, as well as which can be helped by feedback.
In sum, I truly believe that blogs would offer a particular promise for these students, who would play the role of writers, thinkers, and reviewers. Therefore, this research would be conducted in order to determine the effects of the implementation of blogging as a "creative writing activity". In so doing, would blogs increase enjoyment throughout the process? Would blogs enhance creative writing skills?
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? I would really appreciate them!
5 comments:
I think your idea for looking at blogging is a great one! A few semesters back I trialed a blog site for my students (you can see it here, look at archived posts) with a similar idea, hoping it would lower the affective filter for the students, give them more non-pressured practice with writing, and also help them with expressing themselves in writing in general. I was very surprised at the reception I had from the students, and I think it would be very nice to see a research study conducted on it..you can read the comments on the most recent post to see some of their reactions. I think it can be very helpful to the students if they are really interested in the material, but the problem here (as you well know) is that the students are not always that concerned with the SPN1130 and 1131 classes. Your group of students in Spain may be much more receptive to the blogging idea, which also makes me think that it would be interesting to see a comparison between the groups of students. I think it's a great idea with many intriguing possibilities...good luck!!
I noticed that your topic is very similar to Trecy S's topic in our class...maybe you two could share articles on using blogs to aid in writing and in increasing student's motivation to write. Also, I like your idea of blogging as a part of the creative writing process. I think that students might benefit from posting images and videos on their sites as well as written words for portions of the process. For example, in the brainstorming phase, students could make word, image, and video collages to get their creativity flowing!
I think your ideas for the final project are really interesting, especially the fact that you are taking in account creative writing. While reading your post I was asking myself what style of writing was going to be elicited. I guess since it's creative writing it can be formal or informal. I'm wondering how that can affect any your results.
I like the idea of blogging - like we read in the articles, it is somewhat interactionist as it allows us to 'think about writing'.
Very interesting idea, but I agree with moniqua in that 1130 and 1131 students might not be that receptive.
Hey Francisco it's Brian your chat buddy! Your post for this week is quite interesting. I'm thinking of working with blogs as well, so reading your ideas was really interesting. It seems that you have already put a lot of thought into it. I'm going to try to use a lot of links on my blogroll and google docs and stuff like that, so maybe we can work together a little bit. Good luck with getting started and on our first project due next week!
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