Abstract
AbstractAs college writing has become increasingly computer-oriented, it has also been necessary to learn about screen-based literacy and the demands it places on writers and readers. Not following the print-based convention, the hybrid form of common electronic writing texts is composed of semiotic modes such as video, graphics, images and/or animation in addition to written text to make meaning. Apparently, the teaching of L2 writing is changing in this visual age, because now digital writers shift to articulate meaning by designing multimedia texts which rely on sophisticated combination of words, motion, interactivity, and visuals. Meanwhile, the weblog, which allows writers to combine images, sound, and words, seems to serve as a suitable multi-genre writing space that can provide L2 students with creative entrances into work with multimedia texts and kindle powerful personal expression. Recently, several studies have suggested the benefits of the integration of weblogs in the L2 writing curriculum. Yet, there remains a lack of specific research into the actual effect of using the weblogs on L2 students’ writing behaviors and how the writers negotiate meaning visually in the blogging setting, the multimodal genre.Therefore, the present study investigates what happens to EFL college students’ writing products and processes after they experience the weblog-based multimodal writing. Twelve English freshmen in a required English composition class participated in a thirty-six-week period of weblog-based writing instruction. A background questionnaire, students’ journal entries, their writing on two multimodal projects, and an evaluation questionnaire served as four main sources of data. To assess the effect of the weblog-based journal writing, the learners’ abilities to make use of different words and complex sentences, along with their ways of constructing their journals, were evaluated. Also, the overall quality of their multimodal projects was explored to accumulate a piece of evidence for their multimodal composing proficiency. Finally, our third concern was students' perceptions towards the weblog-based writing.The results indicate that the overall effect of the weblog-based writing experience was quite mixed. In journal writing, students made progress in the average length of journal entries, while they were found to exhibit difference in terms of the lexical richness and sentence complexity. Further, an analysis of two samples of student journals displayed that they became aware of how to use different colors, photos, and font sizes to facilitate meaning in addition to words. For the two multimodal projects, students’ scores as well as analysis of concrete examples of work of several learners revealed that their abilities to compose digital multimodal texts were inconsistent. In addition to the actual performance, learners expressed positive attitudes toward journal keeping and multimodal writing. They perceived the journal writing as instrumental in acquiring writing habits, and they agreed that multimodality did facilitate meaning communication. Yet, the unfamiliarity with the online writing mode also resulted in some negative feedback from certain students.For teaching implication, it is possible that the weblog provides students with various multimedia functions which could be helpful in facilitating meaning communication. Second, the students do have the potential to compose multimodal texts. With regard to direction for future refinements on developing a weblog-based writing syllabus, more instruction on visual design of digital writing should be included. The presentation of concrete examples which fosters students’ awareness of the important position of new media texts in the future is encouraged as well.