The Effectiveness of Using Blogs as an Independent Learning Tool to Develop Reading Skills for University Students

Abstract

The emergence of web 2.0 technologies has created new opportunities and challenges in the field of second and foreign language learning. Among all web 2.0 tools, blogs can be considered the most well-known one. The present study was an attempt to determine the effectiveness of using blogs as an independent learning tool to develop students' reading skills. Blogs can be divided into three main types; teacher's blog, class blog, and learner's blog. Participants were 22 first level students in the English Department at Qassim Private Colleges in Saudi Arabia. The experimental group (N =11) used teacher's blog with an independent reading program, whereas the control group (N=11) didn't have any additional exercises. This program ran for two months during the second semester, 2014/2015. The   pre-posttest comprised two reading comprehension passages.  Results of the t. test analysis revealed that using blogs yielded significant effects on students' reading skills, i.e. the experimental group outperformed the control group.

Keywords:  blog , web 1.0 , web 2..0, learner's autonomy