Title: VOICE BLOG: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF LANGUAGE LEARNING
Journal: Language Learning & Technology, June 2009, Volume 13, Number 2.
Author: Yu-Chih Sun, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan.
This research article was based on the usage of voice blog in English language learning especially in terms of speaking skills. The researcher was Yu-Chih Sun, an associate professor at the Institute of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. Voice blog is used as a platform for extensive study of English as foreign language to enhance the speaking skills of language learners. This study aims to provide a theoretical and a pedagogical foundation for the premise that extensive practice on blogs can constitute an integral part of instruction, and that blogs enable students to structure their thoughts and to make them publicly available in a way that is rarely possible in other media. The first research question that guides the study was what are the learners’ learning processes and strategies in voice blog activities. The second research question was what emerging themes characterized perceptions of participants’ blogging experiences. On the methodology used, the researcher two data collection procedures which the first one was a survey of the students’ attitudes towards the use of voice blog and the second one was retrospective interviews with the participants. The subjects were 46 college students in Taiwan in two oral communication classes taught by the teacher-researcher. Both classes were relatively large: 24 and 22 students respectively. Of the 46 students, 15 were female and 31 were male. The students’ average age was 20.67 years. These students tended to have relatively little exposure to English in their content-based classes. The results of this study reveal that students went through a series of blogging stages and a wide selection of strategies to cope with blogging-related complications had been used. In addition, students perceived blogging not only as a means of learning, but also as a means of self-presentation, information exchange, and social networking. Moreover, the findings suggest that blogs constitute a dynamic forum that fosters extensive practice, learning motivation, authorship, and development of learning strategies.
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In my opinion, this research was superbly written in a way that people can easily understand. Furthermore, the title was even more interesting, because I never came across voice blogging in my mind. I already knew about blog yet voice blog is kind of new thing for me. It did require me to do some research on the internet on what voice blogging is. But after I read the article, I became clearer of what voice blogs are. Besides, the research also shows how voice blogging can help the language learners to improve their listening and speaking skills. The research was well conducted where the subjects were students who had learnt English for 9 years but rarely had chances outside of the classroom to practice the target language. The researcher used two types of methods in the research which I think were valid enough for the findings. What interests me most was how well the students had improved in terms of speaking and listening skills when they did this voice blogging. Although it can be argued that it might not be the same if the students had the conversation face-to-face outside the blogging world, it is a good idea to help those people who are not confident enough with their language. Other interesting thing was how the students went through different stages of learning in voice blogging including conceptualizing, brainstorming, articulation, monitoring and evaluating. Under each stage there are strategies that very helpful in improving the student’s ability in speaking. It’s kind of amazing how the students had respond to the activity of voice blogs and how they managed to do a lot of stuff before recording their voice and post it. There are also no specific topics that the teacher gave to the students to discuss on, which contribute to the critical thinking for the students to think what topic should be discussed on, in which made the learning process more authentic and not rigid. The students have to be creative to find a topic themselves so these kind of tactics gave freedom for the students to talk about what they feel interesting enough for other students in the class to take note. The positive response from the students had shown how it really helpful in boosting their confidence and fluency in speaking English, although most of the students prefer to listen to others’ voice blog rather than doing it themselves. Hence, in my point of view, this method could also be useful in Malaysia. A lot of Malaysian students especially Malay are not very confident in speaking English even though their writing skills was proven good. This may resulted by several factor such as the environment did not help, peer discouragement and lack of chances outside the classroom to practice speaking more frequently. I think it can be done in Malaysia since awareness of IT is improving among the citizens. By giving the students freedom to express themselves in voice blogs, it is believed that the students can improve their skills. However, the teacher should have a check on the students’ blog each week to ensure that they are doing the right thing. Yet, it can be said that voice blogging can be a good platform for the students to experience more authentic and fun learning.
7/10
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