Nurma Fitriani
(08004406)
Abstract
Some people have already known about one said that ‘people will be remembered by what they write’. This paper simply shows us how important writing is. Here, students can use weblog as a media to make it real. Started from the easiest level of writing, students can write a diary of their learning English experiences in their class. This way can make students easy to convey their problems or their abilities about learning English during the class. It also enlighten them to write something that they can’t tell to their teacher directly when the class is running. With the existence of weblog that becomes more mushrooming everyday in the networked world, students are expected to use it in order to make them aware about the technology development around them. It will be more valuable if the students have willingness to read the diary one another. Basically, writing and reading are still emphasized here. When the students learn to write English, they also learn to read it in a good way. When the students know about others’ problem in learning English, they will help them with their knowledge they have. Though the name is a Diary, it won’t force the students to write everyday. It also depends on the frequency of the English lesson they get in the class.
Keywords
weblog, experience, diary, writing, reading
1. Introduction
When we are talking about diary, our description will be full of a book people have to write about their life day by day and it is secret. We can’t say that it wasteful or useless because there is nobody knows about what they write on their diary but themselves. It is not totally right at all because people believe that someday it will become a reminding for them when their mind cannot be able to remember every moment in their life anymore.
Is it the only kind of diaries? We can say that it is wrong, because we can use diary as one way to learn how to write especially for students who learn English. Surely, this diary is become a part of the assignment that the teacher give in the class. The contents and the purposes are not same. This diary aims the students to learn English. It is also different with the common diary because it is absolutely not secret. Even students are supposed to read other students’ diary and giving comments for it without making the makers angry of them.
Then, should the students borrow others’ entire diaries in order to be able to read it well? Obviously, they don’t have to do that. The students can use weblog to write their diary instead of books. Weblog or blog is one of the internet services that can facilitate people to write something freely. Besides, it is not hard to make, it is also free. The students can see others’ diary more easily. In this networked world, it is really easy to look for hotspot areas or warnet (warung internet-place for browsing and connecting to the internet using computers available there) around them.
2. How to Create a Blog Site
Making blog is not as difficult as people think before. It is quite simple. You just need to follow every step shown by the blog available on the internet. One requirement that you need to have is you must have an e-mail address. One e-mail is enough for you to make one blog address. For your information, internet offers some blogs; even some are free to have. Some of them are Blogger (http://www.blogger.com), WordPress (http://www.wordpress.com), EzBlogWorld (http://www.ezblogworld.com), Bahraich Blogs (http://www.bahraichblogs.com), Getablog (http://www.getablog.com), etc. each blog has different instructions to guide you in creating blog. In addition, Dudeney and Hockly (2007: 92) states that,
The blog pages freely available on the Internet tend to be very user-friendly and setting up your own is usually a straightforward process, with no specialist technical knowledge or expertise needed. You simply visit the homepage of the blog and follow the instructions.
The number of blogs available on the Internet makes you easy to create more than one blog. You can be able to create another blog though you have one already in another homepage. But, it is better if you have one blog only because you can focus to use it and doing the best for it, than you are doing something in one blog but in the other side you are thinking about what are you going to do in your another blog.
In the classroom, the teacher can directly suggest to the students the blog which will use in learning English. The teacher can also guide them to create a blog step by step in front of the class. So, the students don’t need to be confused anymore because when they have questions about creating blog, they can directly ask about it to their teacher and the teacher can also answer it at the time. Like what have said before, the teacher doesn’t need to let the students know all of the blogs’ instructions. Just choose one blog commonly used by most people such as Blogger or WordPress.
The most popular blog tools have a large supporting community. You will be able to find free themes for your blog and customize it the way you like (SiteGround.com). Weblog has similarity with website in designing the theme or the appearance. It means that the students are possible to change the theme of their blog if they feel bored sometimes. If their blog has beautiful theme, it will attract people to visit it. The students can adjust their blog appearance with your writing about. For example in learning English, the students can make their blog’s appearance has English or learning atmosphere. Who knows the teacher might give more value for that. Here, the students cannot only be able to write English well, but they need to be creative too.
In the classroom, after the students have already created their blog, the teacher should prepare a computer or laptop to make a list of the blog addresses typed by the students themselves. Then, ordering the students to copy it. Each student should have that copy and keep it for themselves. The students must also ensure the validity of the address because it will be very influential when they make a mistake in typing the address in the internet. For example, people sometimes mistaken in typing (_) and (-).
3. Using Blog in Learning English
People create a blog for different purposes. Most of them use it for writing their knowledge or information about something they know. There are also people who use it to write their daily activity or memorable moment in their life. Blog also can be used as one of the Medias to learn English. Dudeney and Hockly (2007: 87) states that,
Blogs used in education are known as edublogs. Edublogs cover a wide range of topics related to education, from musing on educational policy and developments to learner composition.
There are three kinds of edublogs, they are tutor blog, student blog, and class blog. Tutor blog is used by teacher. The students are also allowed to post comments on it. Student blog is set up and maintained by the students. The students are better to give responses to the others’ blog. Class blog is used by an entire class. This is just allowed the students to post comments on certain topics, or when they have class work, or it can be on any other issues that teacher thinks interesting to the students.
Learning English by using blog is focusing in learning to write and to read well. Although there is also audio blogging that can encourage the students to have a good listening, that kind of blog is not familiar yet in the networked world especially in learning. Writing in the blog has own certainty and reading has too. Before going further, the certainty of each step can be found in the following paragraph.
- Writing Students’ Experience in Learning English
Writing is the first step to learn English using blog. Here, the students are expected to write about their experience in learning English in the classroom. It doesn’t mean that the students do learning English and writing in blog at the same time, the class is just running like always.
Then, when the students write in their blog? The students can start to write after the class or the school is over. The teacher should give the explanation first to the students that it is about freely writing, so that the students are not too burdened by this writing. Here, “freely” doesn’t mean that the students can write everything as they like. They also have to consider about language use and the structure of the text though it is not really a big deal here.
A simple blogs project that you can use with learners of all levels is to get your students to set up their own student blogs, writing about themselves, their interest, family, home, country, and so on, and including some photos. (Dudeney and Hockly, 2007:91)
This edublog aims to be seen and read by other students, so that the students must pay attention about the language used in the blog. The most important here is that the students must write in good manners. Using slang language is allowed here. For example the using of wanna, gonna, gotta, foreva’, and so on. Those might be mistakes for scientific writing or article, but this blog is like a diary. The teacher will not concern about it because he/she just want to know what have been written by his/her students. The most banned here is the using of hard words or vituperation and mocking words that can offend others. It is like the using of what the fuck…, what the hell…, mother fucker, and many more. Those are roughly words to be heard, read, said, and also to be written.
Essentially, this blog aims the students to write English in a good way. Although their writing is not much enough, at least they concern about the structure and the grammar of the text. This trains the students to write the heavier text or article because the structure and the grammar will always be emphasized in all kinds of writing.
Next, the students can write about their experience in learning English. There might be some question that can be outline before they are going to write in blog, such as:
1) Tell me about the English class running before! Is that fun or boring?
2) What knowledge or information did you get in the English class?
3) What made you confused?
4) Do you have any suggestion, critic, or advice about the recent learning?
5) What do you want to do in the next meeting?
6) Etc
Those questions help the students being not confused anymore about what are they going to write. The students might have many more outlines after they have attended in the English class. This writing must be honestly from their feeling because they don’t have to see others’ experience and others’ writing. The teacher should determine the best time for the students to finish their writing in blog in order to make them give comments for it soon. It can be 2-3 day after the English class is over.
- Reading the Other Students’ Experiences
The next step after writing is entering the other students’ blog in order to read their experience in the English class. Reading doesn’t need much time than writing. Moreover, this is just a diary which doesn’t need too much thinking. But, here the students might have a problem before they are going to enter the blog. Should they read all of the students’ writing? They can read all as long as they are not burdened. But, it’s better if the teacher divides the students in some groups. For example, one group contains of five students. It is a duty for the student to read four another’s in his/her group without forbidding them to read another groups’ writing.
Reading doesn’t need much skill than writing. After reading the text, the students are just expected to know the other students’ problems in learning English and trying to solve it. The readers can also give comment about the language use and the structure of the text with still paying attention to the politeness of their words.
Sharing your experience of reading with others can benefit you in several ways. First of all, your reading comprehension improves when you talk about what you read, (Lecky and Jeffries, 22). Talking about learning English experience in the blog by posting comments is different when they talk to others directly. It can improve the students’ speaking ability and trains their pronunciation and also the fluency.
In addition, the students are not only expected to give the responses in their friends’ blog, but also they can visit and post comments to their teachers’ blog. The students might follow the way their teacher writes in his/her blog or maybe they can talk about what the teacher writes with the other students through their blog.
4. Teacher’s Role
In the using blog for learning English here, the teacher can be controller for his/her students’ writing in their blog. He/she has to pay attention to the language use and make sure there is no vituperation on it. Although using blog for learning English can be said semi-assignment, the teacher still has to emphasize that the students have to do it regularly as the time the teacher defined. In addition, Brewster, Ellis, and Girard (2002: 41) states that,
Traditional whole-class teaching, where the teacher is like a conductor is an important part of language teaching. This technique for managing learning which we shall refer to as teaching-centered means the teacher controls the action in the classroom.
Through this blog, the teacher can do approach with the students indirectly. The teacher can observe the writing skill of the students. From there too, the teacher can also see how far the students understood in learning English. When reading the students’ writing, the teacher might find some complaints from the students about class situation, learning English itself, the method used in the class or it can be about the way the teacher teaches them. But, the teacher shouldn’t be upset because of the complaints. Conversely, it can be introspection or correction for the teacher him/her selves to be better in the next teaching.
Being the good controller is not enough. The most important skill the teacher should have is creativity. If the method used in the class is still same, the students are possible to write the same experiences in their blog. Therefore, before the teacher gives the students lessons in the class, he/she should have the new method or games never shown before. It avoids boredom in the class and the students can do something new in their experience.
The teacher also can be evaluator in the last meeting. If he/she found some questions unanswered yet or unanswered well by the students in the comments, the teacher must has the right answer and conveying it in front of the class. Surely, it is better if the students can evaluate together with the teacher.
5. Evaluation
Evaluation can be held once a month when the students have met for about 4-8 meeting (some schools have twice a week to learn English). The teacher uses one meeting to evaluate what have been done by the students in their blog. There are some concepts of evaluation that can be applied by them, depends on the teacher’s or the students’ interest.
Communicative approach is often refer to as activity-based and commonly involves the use of three types of activities: problem-solving activities, interactive activities, and creative activities. Brewster, Ellis, and Girard (2002: 44, 45)
This approach can be the re-study of what have learned in the classroom. It helps the students to keep remembering the learning and they will be prepared for the test by studying together with their friend in the class. For example, the teacher can point toward to the students to tell the information they get from reading the writing of their friends. They can also convey to the class about the most interesting method and games used in the class, or about their friends’ problems, questions, or difficulty in learning English, and so on. The most important here is the class should run relaxing to make the students enjoyable and comfortable during the class.
- The Advantages of Using Blog for Learning English
In the networked world, using blog can be an appropriate way to learn English. There are some advantages to use this method, such as:
· Knowing the existence of the blog in the networked world and telling them that they can earn much money from managing blog.
· The students can easily see the others’ writing and posting comments directly on it. They blog users can also post comments back.
· The teacher and the students are able to open it anywhere and anytime.
· It is computer-writing, making the teacher easy to read it, because sometimes we have met the students who can’t write neatly but that is the way they write. Perhaps this case can be affected in their mark and this is unfair.
· The readers might be not only from the class, but also all of people around the world can read it. So, the students can have connection with the people overseas. If they make a friend with foreigners, it will motivate the students themselves to learning and practice to speak English better.
· The blog application has much built-in functionality such as posting articles, HTML editor, commenting, archive, menus, themes management, etc (SiteGround.com). From this application, the students might not be bored to keep using it and managing it regularly.
- The Weakness of Using Blog for Learning English
Although the students can get many advantages from using blog for learning English, this method unfortunately has some weakness too, they are:
· Not all of the students have a computer. Although the most important here is not only having a computer, but if the students already have it, that can enlighten the students to type their experience without going to computer rental or going to warnet.
· This method is not appropriate to be applied in the village schools because there are lacks of hot-spot connection availability.
· For the students who are lack of the knowledge about operating internet or blog especially, they can spend a lot of time and money to make it done in the warnet.
6. Conclusion
Using weblog for learning English could be the appropriate choice in the networked world. It can encourage the students to have good skills in writing and reading English. Through this method, the students are expected to write their learning English experience in their blog. Besides, when the students have already finished writing what they have got in the English class, they can also read the other students’ writing by entering their blogs. From the students’ activity, the teacher has to pay attention to his/her students’ activity by visiting their blogs regularly and controlling what they have written. This also can be approaching from the teacher to the students by knowing the ability and the weakness of the students when getting the learning or the lesson from the teacher in the English class.
This activity is not ended still in the online work, but this activity can continue it in the class through the evaluation held by the teacher and the students themselves. The students can get many advantages by using this method. But, there are also the weaknesses too. Most of it is because of the availability of the internet around the students. Therefore, this method is appropriate to use in the city where there are warnet we can find easily. All in all, using blog or weblog for learning English is a new activity for the students who don’t know much about blogging.
References
Lecky, S. M. and Jeffries, Linda. Advanced Reading Power. Longman
Brewster, Jean. Ellis, Gail. and Girard, Denis. 2002. The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. Pearson Education Limited
Dudeney, Gavin. and Hockly, Nicky. 2007. How to Teach English with Technology. Pearson Longman.
http://SiteGround.com
