Frontiers of Language and Teaching ....

Volume 6 (2015)

Class Blogging in the EFL Classroom

Brett Milliner
Tamagawa University
Corresponding Authors Email: milliner@lit.tamagawa.ac.jp

Abstract
The Internet and computer assisted learning technologies have created new opportunities for
English as a foreign language (EFL) students to gain valuable experience interacting in
English. In order to prepare students from five, university-level EFL classes in Japan for
accessing English speaking contexts online, a teacher incorporated a class blogging
component into the class syllabus. Students were asked to write a 300 to 500-word blog post
every week during the 15-week semester. This paper presents an action research study into
this experience. Student perceptions of the blogging component; an analysis of how students
utilized technology; and, whether class blogging influenced learner motivation were
evaluated. Important findings were that in spite of major technical problems, students had a
very positive perception of the blogging component and participation in the blogging
component had a positive influence on students motivation. The author hopes that this paper
will illustrate the value in incorporating a class blog and provide some useful insights into
how a class blogs can be effectively implemented in an EFL class.

Keywords: EFL-blogging, Class-blogging, Mobile-blogging, MALL, CALL

Introduction
When students are exposed to authentic language being used in other communicative
contexts, there is the potential for students to be stimulated to learn in ways that cannot occur
in the regular classroom (Smith, 2009). However, if students are studying English as a
Foreign Language (EFL) in a homogenous setting like Japan, students have very few
opportunities to practice communicating in English and gaining exposure to authentic
language outside of the classroom (Campbell, 2005). Fortunately, the Internet and computer
assisted learning technologies present new opportunities to bridge this gap and tailor language
study to match a learners needs and interests. In addition, Internet communication enables
classroom discussions to extend outside classroom walls. One approach taken by EFL
teachers has been the establishment of a class blog; see Campbell (2003 & 2005), Mynard,
(2008), Bakar and Ismail (2009) and Murray (2009). However, until now most studies have
focused on students engaging with the blog while sitting at a personal computer. The marked
increase in Japanese students smartphone ownership (Cote, Milliner, Flowers & Ferreira,
2014; White & Mills, 2014) has meant that students are now able to engage with the class
blog on their personal mobile device anytime and anywhere. Furthermore, the computing
capabilities of smartphones, for example, video, voice recording and GPS capabilities mean
that students are able to create a much wider variety of blog content (Pegrum, 2014). This
shift in mobile device ownership, Internet access, and production capabilities represents a
potential change in the learning experience for EFL learners when they engage with a class
blog. Therefore, this study is attempting to report on student perceptions and engagement
when they have a choice to use either their personal smartphones or personal computer. An
action research approach was used to investigate the implementation of the class blog
component using the software, Posterous Spaces (<www.posterous.com>) in five
university-level EFL classes taught by the author. In particular, this study sought to answer
the following research questions.

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1. How was the class blogging component perceived by students?

2. Did participation in the blog influence students level of motivation?
3. How were students using technology to participate in the blog?

Literature Review
What is a blog?
A blog can be defined as a regularly updated website or a form of micro-publishing (Ward,
2004; Williams & Jacobs, 2004). A blogs author can write whatever they choose with
options available for readers to comment or question the published content (Eastment, 2005).
Campbell (2003) and Bakar and Ismail (2009) noted that there are three types of blogs usually
found in the language classroom context. These include:
1. The tutor blog, that acts as a resource or class information disseminator for teachers or
tutors. For example, one could: provide graded reading practice with hyperlinks or extra
reading support; post syllabus information; and, list links to websites that assist personal
study.
2. The learner blog, whereby learners can freely create and manage their personal blog page.
3. The class blog, which involves the whole class working on a shared online publication.

It needs to be noted here that this study concerns the implementation of a class blog. Class
blogs have been used in a variety of EFL programs for some time (Poblet, 2006), and there
are a number of strong arguments for their incorporation into an EFL class syllabus. The
following section will investigate some of these benefits for learners and teachers alike.

Communicative Arguments
The establishment of a classroom blogging community creates an opportunity for class
members to connect in ways that could never be achieved inside the classroom. Moreover, a
class blog creates a context whereby students can learn from one another as well as the
teacher (Williams & Jacobs, 2004). Tayton (2011) along with Blackstone, Spiri and
Naganuma (2007) observed a large increase in opportunities for interaction and opportunities
for learning after a blogging component was incorporated into their tertiary-level Japanese
EFL language classrooms. Pinkman (2005) found that the class blog created a context for her
tertiary-level Japanese EFL students to recycle language learned in class as well as an
alternative way for students to interact with their teacher and peers. A blog can also support
collaboration between students (Bakar & Ismail, 2009). A study by Bakar and Ismail (2009)
into their EFL students blogging experience revealed that when students used their existing
knowledge to communicate during blog discussions, they could also learn from other
students perspectives presented in the class blog. The authors believed that this reflected a
constructivist learning perspective because students were reconstructing their knowledge
about learning, and learning from their new knowledge. Blackstone et al. (2007) incorporated
blogging as part of a writing skills course at a Japanese university. Their study argued that by
including a blogging component: it improved accessibility outside of class; it facilitated
student-centered interactions; and, it encouraged students to work more autonomously and
cooperatively.
People tend to have fewer inhibitions when interacting online in comparison to face-to-face
(Ward, 2004). Smith (2009) was able to observe this issue while studying high-school level
ESL students in the United States. He noted that many of the quietest students had the most
detailed or contentious blog entries. A classroom blog also can enable students to participate
in the classroom discourse in ways that maybe more comfortable for them, for example,
students can use voice recordings, pictures, video or interactive links to convey their opinions
(Poblet, 2006). Williams and Jacobs (2004), Ward (2004), Carney (2007) and Mynard (2008)

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all posited that critical thinking skills are also fostered with blog writing tasks, because the
public platform encourages students to create and share their opinions more carefully.
Moreover, students have to carefully consider their audience when they create a blog post
because the whole class, the teacher and the wider Internet may be reading their posts. One
could argue that students may be hesitant to contribute to a public forum like a blog, whereby
their errors or mistakes would be presented publically. However, Bakar and Ismails (2009)
study of tertiary-level EFL students revealed that even though respondents expressed
increased feelings of caution when writing blog entries, students felt they were able to write
much more than pen and paper writing activities. It appears the application of blogging tasks
in other EFL contexts has promoted a higher quality of communicative output along with a
deeper engagement with the foreign language subject.

Enhancement of Social Environment inside the Classroom

Blackstone et al. (2007) cited a study by Nardi, Schiano, Gumbrecht, & Swartz (2004) to note
how blogs serve to strengthen ties between students and enhance a feeling of community.
Studies into EFL students reflective blogging tasks by Mynard (2008) and Bakar and Ismail
(2009) concluded that this task served to create a more collaborative environment in the
classroom. In addition, Bakar and Ismails study revealed that students felt more comfortable
participating in classroom discussions if they had previously discussed the issues on the class
blog. This point is very poignant for language students because the lack of schematic
information or fear of losing face in front of ones classmates can prevent students from
actively participating in class. Almost all students (91%) in Bakar and Ismails study also felt
that they were able to participate in the online discussions more effectively than in-class
discussions. Extra time and resources available were sighted as reasons for the easier
participation. Another issue that needs to be raised is that compared to a classroom discussion,
a class blog provides a platform for all class members to voice their opinions and ideas, and as
a result, it has been argued that a class blog is an indirect tool for democratizing a classroom
(Poblet, 2006). The finding from these studies suggest that the class blogging component has
been a catalyst for encouraging students to use their second language (English) more actively
in the classroom as well as fostering a better relationship between class members.

Writing practice
Hammersly (2003) noted that writing skills have become even more relevant in todays world
because people need to be able to write for and distinguish between formal, serious or
informal contexts. Blogs can serve as a platform for writing practice, in particular creative
writing and reflective journaling (Bakar & Ismail, 2009). Moreover, when students compose
blog entries, they are able to present visual and audio components along with the basic written
text (Lee, 2006). The interactive nature of a blog also means that a blogs audience will bring
opinions, advice and criticism, which according to Ward (2004), serves to improve students
reflective skills. The aforementioned studies into EFL blogging by Mynard (2008) and Bakar
and Ismail (2009) both highlighted that the implementation of an EFL class blog has the
potential to create a wide array of opportunities for EFL learners to practice writing regularly,
and as a tool to practice writing in different ways.

Psychological / Motivational Impacts of Blogging

A number of other investigations into EFL or ESL class blogging have observed how blog
writing and blog ownership has a positive influence on language learning students motivation
(Ward, 2004; Pinkman, 2005; Campbell, 2005; Blackstone et al., 2007; Mynard, 2008). When
students write a blog entry they are writing for a real audience who is also able to comment or
offer feedback. This is a radical shift from a typical writing task where students are writing for

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the teachers eyes only. Blackstone et al. (2007) concluded that their Japanese EFL students
displayed a heightened sense of responsibility because of their close attention to making their
blog posts right. It could be assumed that the public nature of the classroom blog is
demotivating for students with weaker writing or computer skills because their deficiencies
would be published in front of a large audience. However, Blackstones et al. (2007) study
into English class blogging in the Japanese context, failed to observe instances of
demotivation even though, culturally, Japanese students fear losing face in front of their
classmates. In addition, Bakar and Ismails (2009) study found that students felt they could
write more in comparison to regular pen and paper type writing activities. When writing a
blog, a student is writing for a much larger audience, who is allowed to comment and
question, and this construct appears to motivate students to produce a higher quality of work.
A second motivating influence is that a class blog can be a catalyst for increasing learner
autonomy in the language classroom. Students own their blog entries. They make decisions
about what goes into them and how they appear, which creates higher degrees of autonomy
for the student (Mynard, 2008; Poblet, 2006; Ward, 2004). Blog writing also allows students
to host a variety of communicative media such as audio, images and video, which creates
more freedom for individual expression (Carney, 2007). A study by Ward (2004), concluded
that students most poignant reasons for enjoying the blogging exercise was the freedom they
enjoyed in choosing the blog topic to discuss and the freedom to share their thoughts in a way
that was most comfortable for them.

Enhancement of computer skills

A number of studies have noted the value in using a class blog in the EFL classroom to boost
students technological skills and to train them for communicating in English online. After the
inclusion of a class blogging component in his high-school level English classes, Smith
(2009) observed a digital divide between his native English speaking and English as a second
language speaking high-school students. This finding led Smith (2009, p.79) to strongly
recommend that all English language teachers consider incorporating blogging or some online
component into their language classes because understanding and use of digital technology is
not a luxuryit is essential for young adults moving into higher education or careers in our
global economy. Lee (2006) stressed the importance for English language learners to think,
create, and visually demonstrate their work because the development of these skills serve
students acquisition of their second language skills, their academic literacy skills, and their
technological skills. Blackstone et al. (2007) noted that students future academic success can
be nurtured when a class blogging program aims to develop both students language and
computer skills. When Bakar and Ismail (2009) reflected on their class English blog writing,
they believed the blogging experience gave students an opportunity to develop technological
skills because blogging tasks forced students to learn new skills in order to participate. What
is more, they believed the experience set the stage for students learn new technological skills
and receive technological advice from their classmates.
Another significant technical benefit for establishing a class blog in an EFL context is the fact
that a class blog can serve as a training ground for students to interact in English speaking
web 2.0 communities (Ward, 2004; Poblet, 2006). As a result, the experience may provide
EFL students with the skills and confidence to seek out their own learning opportunities. For
an EFL learner, an online foreign language setting can be much more forgiving than face to
face communication because students do not have to travel overseas and students can do it
from the safety of their own home (Campbell, 2003). These examples illustrate how a class
blog could be a useful tool for EFL educators to: leverage students technical skills; improve
online communication skills; and, encourage students to engage in other language learning
opportunities online.

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Potential challenges for class blogging

After surveying the reports on other EFL class blogging experiences, there were two
challenges deserving special attention when planning for this project: how the teacher could
foster online interactions between students; and, how the teacher could effectively train
students to use the software if they have very little lecture time available.

Challenges in encouraging online interactions and discussions

Although a blog or forum type activity is very attractive for EFL teachers to provide students
with an opportunity to interact in their foreign language outside of class, many teachers have
struggled to foster meaningful back and forth interactions between students in the class blogs.
A study into EFL student blogging by Murray (2009) revealed students did not feel their
blogging experience created opportunities for meaningful communication to take place.
Wolffs (2011) investigation into the use of the web publishing device Content 2.0 in his
tertiary-level Japanese EFL classes revealed that while students were able to generate content
each week, the teacher found that he was only one commenting on each students blog entries.
Wolff concluded that this situation prevented the establishment of a forum or web
community. Carneys (2007) study of interactive blogging between Japanese and American
students found that comments rarely produced discussion type exchanges. Rather student
comments consisted of very short, one to five word exchanges. Even though there has been a
lack of student interaction on the class blogs, students appear to be motivated by comments
from classmates (Campbell, 2005; Blackstone et al. 2007). Comments can facilitate deeper
reflections about learning (Mynard, 2008), and most importantly, the comment function
allows for authentic two-way interaction to take place. In recognition of the potential blog
comments have on students learning and motivation, this teacher wanted to take special steps
to increase student interaction on the class blog.

Providing adequate training for the software/mobile applications

Even though university students today can be considered digital natives and most are very
familiar with social media, they are not necessarily very good digital learners (Murray, 2009;
Hourigan & Murray, 2010). Teachers cannot be too quick to assume higher degrees of
technological skills. Moreover, foreign language teachers need to exercise empathy when
asking their students to navigate a computer program which is not in written in their native
language. Stockwells (2008) investigated Japanese university students preferences for using
personal computers or mobile phones to participate in a vocabulary-training program. The
study revealed that only a third of respondents used the mobile phone applications despite two
thirds of students expressing interest in using their mobile phones to study English.
Furthermore, a little over half of respondents who experimented with using the mobile
platform quit using that platform during the semester. In response to this result, Stockwell
recommended teachers carefully train students in using the mobile technology even when
students appear to be sophisticated mobile phone users. After Murrays (2009) students had
concluded that the class blogging component failed to enable meaningful communication,
Murray (2009) recommended that the teacher provide adequate class time and support for
students in terms of technological assistance. Williams and Jacobs study (2004) of MBA
students experiences using a class blog revealed that student performance in the blog and
students perception of the blogging experience would have been considerably enhanced had
the teachers offered training on how to write a blog and explained about what the benefits of
participation were. Although it may seem somewhat counterproductive for a language teacher
to dedicate lesson time to technology training, this review of literature suggests that in order
to foster the success of the class blogging component, teachers need to be very thorough when
training students on how to use the software.

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Methods
This study was undertaken between September 2012 and January 2013 for five English as a
foreign language (EFL) classes taught by the author at three private universities in Tokyo,
Japan. All students were streamed into these classes as either intermediate or upper
intermediate level based on TOEFL IBT test scores with the average test score for the 92-
student sample being 58 (range: 50-75). In addition to Japanese students, this sample
consisted of two Koreans, two Saudi Arabians and one Chinese exchange student.
As stated earlier, the teacher decided to implement a class blog. When choosing the
appropriate blogging program for the five courses, the following criteria were prioritized:
1. The blogging platform would be easy for EFL learners to use. This would reduce the need
for technical instruction, and it would foster student interest from the earliest stages.
2. All students could access and contribute to the blog using their mobile phones. Even with
high rates of smartphone ownership (91%), it was necessary for the teacher to consider a
system where students without a smartphone could still contribute using their regular
cellphones. This echoes concern raised by Stockwell (2012, p. 27) who stressed that
teachers aim to satisfy the lowest common denominator when working with technology
owned by students.
3. The teacher should be able to control access to the class blog. Japanese universities have
very strict regulations concerning students personal information and given this would be
the first time for many students to publicly interact in their second language, the teacher
wanted to create an online space with access restricted to the class group only.
4. The blogging platform would allow students to upload video or audio content to the blog
easily from their mobile devices. This capability would serve the communicative focus of
the classes and diversify the types of blog content students could create.
5. The blogging platform would enable students to use a variety of technological skills in
order to create blog content.

In order to obtain feedback from students a number of approaches were used in this action
research approach, namely:
1. Pre-Course Survey. During the first class, the author administered an online survey using
Survey Monkey (<www.surveymonkey.com>) to identify what mobile devices students
owned as well as learn about students experiences using social media and blogging.
2. Lesson comment sheets. The author asked students to complete an individual comment
sheet after every class. Students were asked to comment on the lesson content, reflect on
their performance in that class, or ask a question concerning the class. After some lessons
during the semester, the author also asked students to comment specifically about their
experiences using the class blog.
3. Ongoing observations of class participation in the blog. As part of their required weekly
blog entries, students were asked to write a reflection on the class content and their
individual contributions. The teacher read all blog contributions and made comments or
asked questions whenever extra information was sought.
4. Final blog report. During the final class of the semester students were asked to write a
blog entry where they reflected on their experiences using the class blog. In addition,
students had to introduce the blog post that they felt most proud of and their favorite blog
entry posted by a classmate.
5. Final questionnaire. During the final class of the semester students were asked to complete
another online questionnaire. A total of 92 students from the five classes responded. In
order to avoid respondent fatigue and soften the cognitive load on the language students,
the survey instrument consisted of seventeen yes/no items and one open ended question,
which asked students to comment on how the blogging experience could be improved. A

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total of 6 items focused on the use of technology, 8 focused on the blogging experience
and three questions investigated how the classroom blog influenced students motivation
for studying English.

Findings
How did students perceive the class blogging experience?
At the end of the semester, feedback from students concerning the blogging component was
extremely positive. To summarize some of the results, 89% of respondents felt that a class
blog was useful for English study and 92% believed that a class blog was a good way to
practice writing in English. These two points were cited by students when they wrote
comments in the survey and in their final class reflections. For example, a student wrote the
Posterous activity was a novelty for me. After reading my classmate's posts, I learned new
English expressions, and another, "Most homework was done through the blog. I think the
style of blog helped me to write, because a blog is somewhat casual. Students (88%) also
appeared to believe that their participation in the blog enabled them to improve their English
language skills by the end of the course. Some students referenced this issue in their final
reflections. For example, The Posterous activity was a novelty for me. After reading my
classmate's posts, I learned new English expressions, another wrote, I realized that its
good to hand in homework using the blog. Its convenient, and more importantly, I can see
another students blog, so I learned lots of things not only from teacher, but also another
student. The most outstanding result, however, was that 93% of respondents believed that
the class blog fostered a happier relationship between class members. A student reflected, It
is certainly very interesting and fun that every classmate posts their ideas and comments to
others on one simple site. In the class we can just communicate with 1 or 2 classmates but on
blogs it definitely provides us the opportunity to interact with all the other classmates as we
look through others posts and add comments. Now I am eagerly looking forward to the future
blog we post for. The author concluded from this feedback that students believed the
blogging experience had a powerful effect on their language learning, and it played a
significant role in enhancing relationships between class members.

Did participation in the blog influence students motivation?

Results from the final questionnaire suggested that blogging experience also had a very
powerful effect on the motivational levels of students. At the end of the semester, 86% of
respondents noted that reading their classmates posts motivated them. The majority of
respondents (79%) believed they tried harder in comparison to a pen and paper writing task
because the entire class could view their work. Finally, 76% of respondents believed the
blogging experience made them want to study harder in English class. Some students cited an
increase in motivation during their final blogging task, for example: Sometimes Posterous
didn't work. But this project totally motivated me and I think I could level up English
expressions; Any comments or '' like'' from my classmates encouraged me to increase my
motivation for writing blogs; When I first heard that this class would be writing a blog, I
was really surprised. However, I came to think this type of class is more interesting than those
where students sit and only read and write. These results suggested to the author that
students felt the blogging component had a motivating effect on them as language learners.

How are students using technology in the language classroom?

A concern for all teachers trying to use smartphones or tablet devices in their classrooms is
the differences between iOS, Windows 8 and Android platforms. Evidenced by Table 1,
almost a third (30%) of the sample owned an Android and a little under two-thirds (60%) used
an iPhone. In the case of the Posterous blogging software, the iPhone application was

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different from the Androids phones Posterous application. Furthermore, during the course
complications with Posterous Android application forced the teacher to ask Android users to
use a privately operated Posterous application named, Superious. For the teacher, an iPhone
user, it was difficult to provide technological support to Android users when using this
application. As this study progressed, it became apparent that more attention must be given to
how users of different platforms are able to interact with the blogging software and the
importance for a teacher to be an experienced user of both devices if they are going to be able
to support students effectively.

Table 1: Summary of mobile device ownership

Device Number of Students Percentage
iPhone 55 60%
Android 28 30%
Tablet 3 3%
Regular cellphone 6 7%
Totals 92 100%

Although students reacted very positively to the blogging experience, they were very critical
of the Posterous software. Just prior to the commencement of these classes, Posterous was
acquired by the Twitter Company. Throughout the semester there were many moments when
students were unable to: post blog entries; use the Posterous mobile applications effectively;
and, post video content. Throughout the semester, sadly, all support questions sent to
Posterous staff remained unanswered and it became apparent that Posterous was being
allowed to degenerate as a viable blogging platform. The Posterous platform and company
officially closed on April 30, 2013. Many students were very critical of the software in their
final reflections with some examples including: The class was very interesting for me.
However, the App on the iPhone is not working. I had some problems with posting. Besides,
blog updating was a bit slow.; Fantastic class! I've been motivated by my classmates! But,
Posterous itself irritated me many times.; and, Sometimes, I had some trouble to post the
blog from my cellphone or computer. It made me annoyed :( Except this problem, the class
blog is very good idea to improve our English skills!!!). Although the closure of Posterous
was unforeseeable at the start of this pilot study, this experience notes that teachers need to
carefully research and test the blogging platform on both the iPhone and Android devices
before they make implementation decisions. Nevertheless, it is important to stress that even
though students were often frustrated using the software, overall, students displayed a very
positive perception to the class blogging component.
The blogging experience appeared to help some students understand how to interact on social
networks. A student noted that this experience taught them to be more careful with the
information they posted online. For me, this English class was a fantastic time. We could
communicate directly or on the web, I felt happy when connecting with friends. Before this
class I tended to look on social networks dangerous points; leak the personal information.
But through this class I knew some fun on social networks. Of course we always must be care
about our own words. Letters on screen are sometimes misleading. So I cared on choosing of
word when I write posts. The carefulness may be the biggest thing that I learned in this
class. Another student welcomed being able to get experience interacting in an English
social networking site (SNS).Through this class I could get the skill to use SNS and
experience various types of homework tasks. These responses suggest that this class
blogging experience may have provided some students with the tools and confidence to seek
out and interact with other English speaking social networks.

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Use of mobile devices

One of the biggest influences on deciding to use the Posterous platform was its capability to
generate content using mobile devices. Table 2 illustrates that there was almost an even split
between students who generally used their mobile device and those who used their personal
computer when interacting with the class blog. This finding conflicted with Fujimoto (2012)
who found that Australian university students preferred to use their personal computers to
write longer texts such as emails. One also has to wonder whether the amount of students who
used their phones to compose blog entries might have been higher, had there not been any
technological problems with the mobile application and blogging platform. It appeared in this
study that students are prepared to use their mobile devices for learning tasks. Moreover, a
teacher planning to stage a class blog in the future should consider selecting a platform that
enables users to participate on their personal computer or mobile device.

Table 2: How students used technology to read and write blog entries
Activity Personal Computer % Mobile Device %
Reading Blog Entries 52% (48) 48% (44)
Writing Blog Entries 52% (48) 48% (44)

Final Reflections
Apart from the failures with the blogging software, the teacher experienced a number of other
challenges while implementing this blogging component. Firstly, each class blog struggled
to attract a lot of student participation in the form of blog comments. Some students also
made this observation at the end of the semester, such as: I like the blog but I think it need
more people to be more active (student comment); Maybe by encouraging students to be
more interactive to write posts and answer to others posts; and another I think the teacher
and other students should give more comments and advice. According to Carney (2007),
EFL learners need meaningful, authentic tasks in order to provide authentic output, so perhaps
the teacher needs to consider choosing blog tasks that foster more authentic student output
and interest. A second issue could be related to the fact that most students were submitting
their blog entries last-minute, immediately before the deadline. This situation prevented any
opportunity for discussions to occur because the deadlines initially coincided with the next
class, and as a result, content was quickly passed over for the next class content. To address
this issue stricter deadlines need to be enforced for blog postings to allow time for students to
read each others posts and make comments. Another solution could be the setting of
comment limits and tying comment quotas to class grades.
From a teaching and managerial perspective, there were a number of concerns raised during
the course of the study. The teacher struggled to establish an effective system for evaluating
students contributions to the blog. Compared to using a blog specifically designed for
educational purposes, it was difficult for the teacher to keep a track of students blog postings.
This problem was further compounded by difficulties tracking blog comments and
conversations staged in the comments tab. Although the author received RSS updates every
time a student posted to the blog, the teacher felt a need to find ways to file or categorize blog
posts more effectively. For example, using specific tags for blog posts or enforcing stricter
formatting guidelines.

Conclusion
This study revealed that the implementation of a class blog writing component for five
Japanese university EFL classes was well received by students. The class blog was a catalyst
for strengthening bonds between class members and developing students confidence to
interact in online environments. What is more, students appeared to learn from and were

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motivated by the work of their peers and the role of writing for a much wider readership.
Although the software problems were regrettable, the teacher will attempt to find a blogging
platform that is more appropriate for their teaching needs. Further research needs to consider:
1) how to more effectively measure changes in student motivation and 2) whether students are
actually going out and engaging in other online English speaking contexts after the class
blogging experience.

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