Developing and assessing EFL students’ writing skills via a class-blog

This paper presents the implementation and the positive findings of a study that merges blog use and portfolio development for teaching and assessing writing. More specifically, it investigates whether a class blog can be integrated into the Greek EFL teaching context as an effective means to engage learners in process writing and as a form of e-portfolio, where they can keep track of their writing development. It also examines blog use for enhancing students’ motivation, interaction, participation and learning. The study followed a project-based approach and was conducted in a state Junior High School in Greece. Data was collected over a 4-month period via a questionnaire as well as from analyzing students’ writing samples and teacher’s observations of whole-class behavior during blogging. The findings reveal that the blog encouraged students to approach writing as a cognitive process of constant modification, motivated them to write more and better in various writing genres, and helped them become competent, autonomous and critical writers.