August 2018 Vol.6 No.8

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Antably RA

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Original Research Article

The Effect of a Class Blog on the Academic Writing Fluency and Accuracy of Eighth Graders

Reem Ahmad Antably

Lebanese University Beirut, Lebanon

E-mail: reem.antably2@gmail.com

Accepted August 14, 2018

Abstract

The study aimed at investigating the impact of using a class blog on enhancing academic writing fluency and accuracy of thirty male eighth graders at a private school in Mount Lebanon. One class served as the control class and was engaged in the traditional collaborative process writing approach. Students in the control class used the traditional writing process approach whereas students in the experimental class had to post their essays on a class blog where their classmates had to read and comment on their writings on the class blog. Before the intervention, the control and the experimental classes had to write descriptive essays which served as the pre- tests. The treatment lasted one academic year during which the two classes completed seven collaborative writing tasks. After the intervention, students also had to write descriptive essays which served as the post-tests. At the end of the study, a semi-structured interview was conducted with the participating teacher. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed statistically and thematically. It was found thatthis new digital forumseems to be more effective than traditional collaborative writing in motivating students to write longer and more accurate essays. This new digital forum allows learners to feel that learning can be fun by using these new tools.

Keywords: Academic fluency, academic accuracy, process writing, blog