ARTICLE REVIEW

Title: Using Blogs to Enhance Critical Reflection and Community of Practice
Journal: Department of Applied Foreign Languages, National Formosa University
Volume: 12 (2), 11–21.
About author: Shih-Hsien Yang, Email: shiyang@nfu.edu.tw

Summary

The aim of this research was to explore the use of blogs as a reflective platform in the training processes of English as Foreign Language (EFL) students using the theories of critical reflection and community of practice. The students used the blog as a discussion channel for them to reflect on their own learning process and also to determine the effect of blogs on their own professional growth. 43 participants were from two teacher training programs at two science and technology institutions in central Taiwan participated in this study. The participants comprise of 22 years old students who enrolled in the teacher Training programs at two different universities 2005. This research employs a qualitative study by using questionnaires on the students’ reflective experiences using blogs as their reflection tools. Most of the data were collected from the students’ posting message and comment on the blogs and group reflective dialogues recorded from by instructors. In the research, the participants were actively involved in discussing about teaching theories and the implication of the theories in the blog. They brainstormed a lot of solutions and adjustments for EFL classrooms. The finding showed that most of the participants become more critical day by day. This is because sometimes, the instructor will challenge their thinking by posting question in the blog. Besides that, the participants also challenge each other by posting question and critically comment on their friends’ ideas. The result also shown that, the participants’ grammatical awareness and writing skills increased. This is because the instructors will sometimes comments on their grammatical errors and wring skills. Therefore, it shows that blog can help to promote critical thinking and improve their English.

Reactions
This research is well conducted because the results showed that the use of the blog had given great impact on the students self esteem. Most of the students are actually shy to share or reflect about themselves in class. However, they are more comfortable to reflect themselves in blog because they can double check their post before uploaded it in the blog. Thus, it helps the students to increase self esteem. In my opinion, this research is very beneficial for teaching and learning as ESL or EFL students especially in Asian country. This is because, most of the Asian students are preserved and introvert students. They tend to be quiet in class even though they have a lot if opinions in their minds. This is may be because they are afraid of making mistakes or being laugh by friends in front of the class. However, by using blog they can share their opinions, perceptions, ideas and argue freely. Furthermore, this will enhance their grammatical awareness and writing skills, because in blog they share their ideas by writing. Therefore, in order to avoid grammatical mistakes they will double check their post. Besides that, the successful result of this research should be an eye opener for teacher training center or universities that offer courses such as TESL or TESOL to consider the use of blog in one of the subject such as teaching methodology subject. This is vital to provide platform for students to express their ideas, give and receive more positive and immediate feedback from peers to resolve personal and professional problems, reflecting and self examine themselves, critique on teaching methodologies and theories. By using blog they can also exchange ideas with other bloggers. This however, will promote critical thinking among students. In Malaysia, the use of self refection has been widely used in education. For instance the use of reflective journal for certain subjects. The aim of reflective journal is same as the use of blog which are to promote self reflection and critical thinking among students. However, this traditional method is time and money consuming. Therefore, it is better to use blog to replace this traditional method to enhance students’ critical thinking. Moreover, based on the tremendous impact on promoting students’ critical thinking and enhancing proficiency in English, government through Ministry of Education should consider the use of blog in school curriculum especially in EST (English for Science and Technology) class. (678 words)


Reference:
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