Effects of Using a Blog as a Free Online Space for Practicing English Writing Skills by Thai Students Taking English as a Foreign Language

Abstract

     The study explored the effects of using a blog as a free online space for practicing English writing skills by Thai EFL students. The participants of the study were 83 Thai undergraduate sports science students in a university in Nakhon Pathom province, Thailand. The data were collected from 100-word written pieces and interview responses. During the experiment, each participant was assigned to write three 100-word written pieces on the blog in the computer lab. Every time, they were proctored by the teacher and had 20 minutes allocated. Based on the findings, the statistical evidence showed significant differences in the mean scores of the first, second, and third written pieces (F = 190.073, p < .001 calculated from multivariate tests and F = 132.151, p < .001 calculated from tests of within-subjects effects). The participants’ average mean score was higher in their last written pieces ( X̄ = 40.19, SD = 3.76). From the first to the last written pieces, their writing errors decreased from 421 errors, to 228 errors, to 190 errors, respectively. However, even though there was a decrease in the number of writing errors as a whole, it cannot be concluded that using the blog for practicing writing was totally effective for students because there was an increase in some writing errors, such as incomplete sentences, relative pronouns, word meanings, auxiliary verbs, transitive and intransitive verbs, and past simple tense in their last written pieces. The interview results indicated that the participants had positive attitudes toward using the blog for practicing their English writing skills. They claimed that the blog offered convenience for practicing writing.