Blogging: Writing in English with Fun Activities
Ferry Ardana Putra, Fika Megawati, Yuli Astutik, Vidya Mandarani, Dian Novita, Wahyu Taufiq,
and Dian Rahma Santoso
Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Muhammadiyah Sidoarjo, Jl. Mojopahit 666 B,
Sidoarjo, Jawa Timur, Indonesia
Keywords: Blog, writing, interaction.
Abstract: This study aims to investigate the use of blog in English writing activities. Quantitative research with Pre-
Experimental One Group Pre-test Post-test was applied to thirty two secondary school students. The result
indicated that the blogging activity assisted the students improve their writing ability. Through blog, writing
process seemed to be uncomplicated for the students. They could write more easily with various features.
They could attach pictures and modify the words directly in addition to changing the theme into more eye-
catching look in order to attract the viewers or readers. Commenting online in blog provided the opportunity
for peer assessment practice through feedback given to the friends’composition. In a nutshell, blog is an
applicable medium for educators in creating communicative online interaction in English language learning.
1 INTRODUCTION
Blog is an online tool used to communicate with other
people through cyber world, and mostly the activities
are posting texts and comments. Although people
including teachers and students in school
environment like to share many interesting
information through internet like Kaskus, Wikipedia,
Bubblews, Tumblr and other social media like
Facebook, Twitter, Path, Snapchat, Instagram, and so
on, Blog still exists and is potentially used for
language learning. Blog offers interesting features for
its users to find information (Armstrong &
McAdams, 2011). This is in line with (Djuaraskovic
& Hines, 2016: 5) who state that blog can be defined
as a digital magazine, diary, newscast, a place for
selling your things, showcase of your art, information
warehouse, place for learning and many more.
Blog literally combines text, picture, videos and
links to pages on the Web. Blog readers can give
feedback or comments and interact with the author of
the blog. For the record, communication and
interaction is one of factors that make blog popular.
Furthermore, some research proved that teaching with
blog could improve English skill in writing (Aziz,
2015; Lutfian, 2011; Zainudin, 2013). However,
focusing the writing on how to describe something is
not discussed frequently. In fact, when composing a
text, describing something is considered a simple way
for the beginner level of language learners although
the teachers often find their class difficult to express
ideas in descriptive text. Consequently, the
researchers try hard to find solution to make it more
effective through strategies or media (Piolat &
Roussey, 1991; Spurlin, Dansereau, Larson, &
Brooks, 1984; Alvermann, 1981).
By explaining how the thing looks like from the
picture or other media with teacher’s guide, the
students are expected to write appropriately from the
concrete object. Besides, this process helps them
express their thoughts contextually. In addition, the
learning will be interesting if the activity is facilitated
by online media that can be accessed in their school
and home. Accordingly, writing in the situation they
like will build their motivation. Plenty of research
proved that technology can influence students’
interest when studying (Keller, 2008; Lim, 2004;
Price & Kadi‐Hanifi, 2011; Megawati & Sultoni,
2017). Online learning today is getting closer with
educational issues. Therefore, English teachers in 21
st
century should be creative and innovative to create
teaching scenario and accomodate students’ need
suitable in digital age.
Considering that communication in writing is a
crucial skill to introduce, and the need of interesting
Putra, F., Megawati, F., Astutik, Y., Mandarani, V., Novita, D., Taufiq, W. and Santoso, D.
Blogging: Writing in English with Fun Activities.
In Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities (ANCOSH 2018) - Revitalization of Local Wisdom in Global and Competitive Era, pages 5-9
ISBN: 978-989-758-343-8
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
5

way in giving meaningful activity through virtual
environment, the researchers believe that blog helps
students encourage learning motivation and
achievment through writing descriptive text based on
the pictures published in the students’ blog account.
2 METHOD
Quantitative research design was used in this
research. The sample was the seventh graders of state
secondary level school in East Java, Indonesia. There
were 32 students (18 female and 14 male) who were
about 12-13 years old. The students were able to
operate internet based program in both for their
learning activities and private life.
The procedure in conducting this research was
started by pre-test, then it continued with treatment,
finally it dealt with post-test. Pre-test was the first
observation for the students before they got the
treatment, and post-test was the observation data after
they got treatment by the researcher. This research
could be said success if the result of the students’
post-test were higher than the pre-test. Thus, blog as
media to improve students’ writing descriptive text is
effective.
The main instrument of this research is test. The
validity and reliability was also checked. Before the
researcher collected, the instrument needed to be
valid for making an accurate and valid data. In this
case, the researcher used construct validity. The
researcher used inter-rater reliability. In this model,
the test was scored by 2 (two) raters.
Then the data collection is obtained from pre-test
and post test scores. In pre-test step, the students
needed to write in the piece of paper. After that, they
got a treatment which is Blog as the media. The
researcher also commanded them to write their work
in the blog in order to know their progress of writing
descriptive skill.On the other hand,in the post-test
section, they should write the descriptive text directly
on their own blog, so their work can be seen on the
web blog (internet). The purpose of this test is to
measure their skill in writing descriptive text. The
researcher compared the result of their pre-test and
post-test, if there is significant improvement, then it
can be concluded that Blog is effective for them.
In scoring, the researcher used scoring rubric
adapted from (Oshima & Hogue, 2007: 196). It
consists of five aspects of writing—paragraph format;
punctuations and mechanics; content; organization;
and Grammar.
2.1 Data Analysis
Data analysis is an activity or process of processing
data to see how to interpret data, then analyzed the
data from output at hand in processing data result
stage. Quantitative data was chosen in this study.
Quantitative Analysis is analysis that using statistic
instrument. The result was given in numerical data
then it was explained and interpreted descriptively.
The data of this research were obtained from the pre-
test and post-test.
The next step was using normality test to know
the test had normal distribution or not. The test
showed normal distribution; thus, parametric statistic
was used with the independent sample t-test.T-test
formula was used to prove the hypothesis of the
research. T-test is the formula for examining the
hypotheses; null hypothesis (Ho) and alternative
hypothesis (Ha). The T-test formula that be used as in
Figure 1.
Figure 1: T-test formula.
Notes:
Md = mean from deviation (d) between post-test
and pre-test
Xd = the difference between deviation with
mean deviation
∑x
2
d = sum of deviation quadrate
N = sum of sample
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
From the statistical data, It was discovered that the the
mean of the students’ score in post-test (77.97) was
higher than the mean of pre-test (71.67). Thus, there
is significant effect before and after given treatment.
In other words, the computed data shows the result of
t
counting
is 4.53 and t
table
is 2.024. It can be said that
there is effect of using blog to the students’ ability in
writing descriptive text.
The result of students in pre-test, most of them
have relatively good writing skill. Their problem was
on the punctuation and organization. Almost all of
them could not write complete generic structure.
After finishing the pre-test, the researcher gave the
spoiler about the next activity, it is a blogging class.
ANCOSH 2018 - Annual Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities
6

The researcher had prepared them five blogs for them.
They did not need to make on their own for time
efficiency.
The treatment activity was held on March 2017.
Firstly, the researchers overviewed what blog was
and its features, how to use a blog, and how to make
the account. Then, the researcher gave the tutorial
how to write on the blog and how to post texts. All of
the students gave good attention and seemed
interested on it. After that, the researchers explained
about the descriptive text that they needed to
understand in terms of generic structure (i.e.
identification and description) and language features.
Finally, the researchers asked them to write about the
picture they posted directly on the blog in a group.
One group consisted of 6-7 students. There were 4
groups as described in Table 2.
Table 2: List of students’ Blogs.
Group's Name
Address
Group 01
Grouponesevenc.blogspot.com
Group 02
Grouptwosevenc.blogspot.com
Group 03
Groupthreesevenc.blogspot.com
Group 04
Groupfoursevenc.blogspot.com
Their job was writing directly on the blog the
researchers had prepared. The theme was pretty much
the same from the pre-test, they needed to write a
writing descriptive text about thing in the class. The
researcher found that the students were very
interested and motivated to do their job. Luckily, they
got a phone or laptop to do their job. One problem
that occurred was only the internet connection.
Finally, after they finished their job, the researcher
gave feedback in the comment section below their
writing project. Their problem; such as punctuation
and organization were slightly got fixed. Their work
was very orderly and more attractive. They added
some pictures and modify their words (change the
color, shape, etc.) The researchersassumed that they
enjoyed using it and make them feel free to modify
everything on their own project.
In the treatment process, the students were so
natural in blogging activity. Some of them attached
some pictures and modified the words as their own.
Almost all of them got a high score in the term of
punctuation. All criterions on the descriptive text
were fixed in the post-test activities. The teacher give
feedback to their writng. Here are the examples of
feedback for the students writings in their blog.
 “Great writing. My comment, you need to be careful about
have and has, and your punctuation is not that good. Learn
more about punctuation.”
 “Very good writing, but you need to watch of the language
features of descriptive text. It should use present tenses.
Your punctuation is very good, though. Keep it up!”
The final activity was post-test. This activity
meant to know ability after the students got the
treatment. The day before the post-test was held, the
researchers commanded them to bring their
smartphone or laptop to help them in blogging
activity. Post-test was conducted on 24
th
March 2017.
The researcher asked them to make a descriptive
about thing in the class directly in their blog
individually. Every student should use the blog their
group had, so technically one blog was used for 6-7
students. All students were ready whether with their
smartphone or laptop. If there were some students
who did not have an internet connection, there were
friends who turned on the Wi-Fi connection, they
were sharing connection each other.
There are some drawbacks during the
implementation of blogging class. The first one is
internet connection. This is the most important thing
for doing blogging class, if there is no internet, there
is no blog. Luckily, all the students on this class are
very cooperative. They shared the internet connection
via internet hotspot on their mobile phone. Thus, the
class activity was going smoothly. Secondly, it
needed much time to conduct the blogging class as
the introduction section. There were some points or
details that the students were exposed to focus on.
Thus, the careful time management in lesson plan
construction was considered significant.
Despite the obstacles found during the process,
the output of the learning show positive result.
(Djuaraskovic & Hines, 2016) states that Blog will
make the students to be a better writer and thinker;
with blogging activity, by making great pieces of
content and creating a good and creative writing
content, by the time goes by, their writing, thinking
and research skills will improve in the process. It can
be said that the students need to be consistent with the
blogging activity, they need to post it every day or
every week. Then, it would be the effective way to
improve their writing skill.
Furthermore, the researcher wanted the students
to give the feedback each other, correcting the
grammatical, punctuation, etc. (Morris, 2013) states
that blog will provide self-improvement through
commenting. The comment feature is important,
students can ask question, give reply related trhough
their work. Aziz (2015) also states that commenting
activity would make both the teacher and students to
revise the students’ writing and make writing more
Blogging: Writing in English with Fun Activities
7

enjoyable. In line with this, Huang, Huang, Wu,
Chen, & Chang (2016) state that blog can be modified
with problem based learning so that it can help
students’ learning, especially those with low
achievement.
Morris (2013) agrees that blog has many benefits
in teaching learning process, he mentions that blog is
a fascinating starting point for introducing technology
into the classroom. Blog provides more features that
help students to show their creativity and
imagination, then they could pour them on the blog
and post it online. Djuaraskovic & Hines (2016) also
states that blog will make the students to be a better
writer and thinker; with Blogging activity, by making
great pieces of content and creating a good and
creative writing content, by the time goes by, your
writing, thinking and research skills will improve in
the process. Blogging activity needs a lot of time, by
training and learning to write an idea, writing project
or article in blog for time to time, it would make the
students to be a better writer.
4 CONCLUSION
The researchers conclude that blog is potentitally
used as supporting media in assiting students to
develop writing skill, particularly in the topic of
describing something. This study also would like to
promote that blog has a lot of benefits for language
learners. First, blog is easy to use with intensive
teachers’ guide. Second, writing becomes easier to
access with application in the students’ portable
gadgets. There are plenty of features that make
students more creative, and they could decorate the
words directly trhough the blog and change the theme
into more eye-catching performance in order to catch
the viewers’ attention so that it has more visits and
comments for the appreciation or feedback for
improvement. Third, blog brings the students into
new kind of situation that makes them interested and
motivated in learning English writing. Finally, based
on the the result of this study, blog is one alternative
social media that can be used as the reference for
future researchers to conduct more investigation on
blog as online media in teaching and learning and its
more effective use collaborated with different writing
approaches or techniques.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to express our greatest gratitude to
Universitas Muhammadiyah Sidoarjo for a lot of
supports in accomplishing this paper.
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