Improving College Students' English Writing Performance via Vlog

With the development of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) writing research, an effective writing process of EFL learners should involve functions of process writing, teacher's instruction, peers' interaction and collaboration. Process-oriented writing, focusing on the writing process, emphasizes interactivity and revision with teachers' guidance. Meanwhile, SNS (Social Networking Services) tools such as Tencent Instance Messenger (TIM) and vlog have the advantage of strong interactivity and the potential of improving cooperation among learners. This study carried out an experimental research applying vlog group activities inside and outside English writing class, with the aim of investigating its effect on learners' writing performance. 99 freshmen and 101 sophomores were recruited and positive improvements had been observed in lexical complexity and total scores among experimental group members. A survey about learners' perceptions and attitudes towards vlog application in writing was also conducted among 91 learners in vlog group. Most learners viewed vlog as an enjoyable and effective way to advance their writing performance. In conclusion, the results of this study showed that improvement could be seen in both groups' writing performance from pretest to posttest, but the average total score of the experimental group was significantly higher. And progresses in lexical complexity could only be witnessed in the experimental group.