Enhancing EFL students' language learning through blogs

The present mixed type study, conducted in the first semester of fall 2016-2017 academic year at a higher education institution, aims to provide more insights into learners' English use in their comfort zones in out of class activities, their attitudes towards the use of blogs as a source of language input outside the classrooms and the contributions of blogs to their improvements in terms of their academic and social skills, learner autonomy and motivation. The study lasted 10 weeks. In order to collect data, a five point likert scale questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were held. The results of the questionnaire were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and the interviews were transcribed and analyzed through content analysis. During the coding process, emergent coding is preferred in order to avoid researcher bias and not to limit the coding process with certain categories. The results indicated that the general attitudes of the students towards blogging were positive after the implementation process. In general, the participants talked about the limited affordances of English use both inside and outside the classroom, thus they mentioned blogs as additional language input outside the classroom. Students stated that blogs were motivating, enhancing learning, providing continuous assessment of student progress, increasing interaction with their peers and teacher, giving more detailed and practical feedback, and improving critical thinking skills. Keywords: Blogging, educational technology, computer assisted learning,communication and information technologies in ELT.