Using blogs and the internet to improve writing skills in university preparatory classes in teaching english

In light of innovations in education since the 2000s, various instructional methods and techniques have been developed. Since the teaching of writing is primarily based on use of a course book, there are no authentic readers for students? writings beyond the class teacher; this has a negative effect on learners motivation, and in many cases, either there is no available technology, or it is not put to effective use in order to make the teaching of writing sufficient to develop learners? skills. Therefore, providing learners with sufficient practice to improve their writing skills is very important. Moreover, various methods and techniques have been applied to encourage learners to practice, not only in class, but also outside the classroom; these have been found to be partially successful. In this study, blog use applications for writing lessons were conducted, and learners? attitudes toward writing were investigated. Thirty students participated in the present study, which was applied at Akdeniz University Higher School of Foreign Languages. Based on both the results of the A1 completion exam, which is used to place learners into English classes according to their levels, and a pre-test, learners were divided into two groups; a control group and an experimental group. After the assessment, an Internet use questionnaire was applied to both groups to investigate any attitudes towards using the Internet which might affect the results of the study. When no significant differences were found, the study was conducted over a 6-week period. During the treatment period, the control group took a writing course in which traditional instructional techniques were applied, while, the experimental group was supported through the use of blogs. Throughout the duration of the study, participants of both groups wrote 3 essays, each consisting of a first, second and final draft. Two of the essays were of the compare-contrast type, and the third was a definition essay. At the end of the 6 weeks of treatment, success of the learners was analysed and compared through use of a post-test. In addition to the post-test, in order to determine the learners? attitudes toward the writing course and use of blogs, a blog use evaluation questionnaire was applied to the experimental group. According to the results of the study, it was concluded that using blogs for writing lessons was an effective method to improve student success; in light of the blog use evaluation questionnaire, it was concluded that learners found the writing lessons supported by blogs to be beneficial.