The Role of Dialogic Blogs in Learners' Writing Achievement

Abstract

The present review article discusses the significant role of technology, particularly blogging, in the development of the writing skill. Similar to the conventional classroom teaching, practitioners and researchers view blogs as tools for constructing grammar and writing skills and dispersing knowledge. In spite of the fact that learning through blogs can advance higher development of identity and bring about collaboration and social interaction, it can offer higher opportunities for learners to represent and express themselves, fostering the skills to develop and build their own community(Love, 2004; Spangenberg, 2004). Blogging is not presumed to be a substitution for conventional classroom writing pedagogy, neither just an issue of delivering classroom writing into digital space of the 21st Century, but,instead, it is writing in an innovative way that cultivates, among learner bloggers, a strong interest to write for the aim of communication and expression. Theadvantages of blogs, specifically in comparison to other technological advances such as discussion boards, are overviewed in this article. Besides, the relevant empirical investigations that have endeavored to explore the role of blogging in the cultivation of writing and learners' attitudes towards it are presented. Considering that the majority of research studies have pinpointed the potential of blogging in writing development, it is suggested that teachers use models to familiarize their learners with blogging prior to actively using it in their writing classes.