Date of Award

2-2010

Thesis Type

Masters

Document Type

Dissertation

Divisions

Faculty of Languages and Linguistics

Institution

Universiti Malaya

Abstract

This study investigated the perceptions of Malaysian university students and educators regarding the use of class blogs as an assessment tool in ESL courses. The objective is to provide evidence for the feasibility of this issue. The participants’ perceptions, obtained from questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, were analyzed based on Carl Rogers’ Humanistic approach to language learning. The findings showed that there is a parallel relationship between the aspects of Humanistic approach and the perceptions of the participants in this study. The aspects analyzed were: motivation; active interactive learning; non-threatening environments; feedback; wholesome collaborative relationships; autonomous learning; assessment for life-long learning; peer-assessment; and self-assessment. The only aspect in which there were some discrepancies was ‘self-assessment’. Students who have never used class blogs indicated that they are not really confident assessing their own work. In contrast, teacher respondents who have incorporated class blogs were the ones who mostly expressed negative perceptions towards self-assessments. Both of these groups stated that comments from others are more reliable and beneficial. It can be concluded that the majority of student and teacher participants expressed their positive perceptions towards the idea of incorporating class blogs as an alternative assessment tool in ESL courses. This new-age Web tool, therefore, is worth a try in order to materialize the aim of ‘assessment for learning’ in ESL settings.

Initial

khm

Additional Information

Dissertation (M.A.) – Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya, 2010.

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