published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

Blogging has been one of the most popular means of computer-mediated communication in recent years. It is generally agreed that blogging has replaced traditional diary writing and functioned as a useful tool for individuals to present themselves and construct their self-images. Its popularity has also drawn the attention of many scholars and much research has been conducted to investigate the different issues related to the presentation of identities by bloggers particularly adolescents. Despite the significant impact of blogging on adolescent identity development, few attempts have been made to explore the role of contextual elements in identity construction. Moreover, most previous studies on blogs were conducted in separation from the bloggers and their offline world. The blogging world was not well-connected to the bloggers’ other aspects of lives. The current study has adopted a constructionist approach to explore the identity construction of a group of Hong Kong adolescents. The notion of communities of practice is used to conceptualize the nonymous context of the blogging world. More importantly, more attention is paid to various contextual elements which constitute the online community of practice so as to gain a more comprehensive understanding of online identity work. The analysis examines the textual and non-textual elements of blogs to investigate how the adolescents construct different forms of identity which manifest their engagement in the online communities of practice. It shows that the nonymous context has resulted in adolescents presenting a wide range of desirable qualities which include interpersonal-related qualities, academic related qualities, personal related qualities and family-related qualities throughout their blogs. The construction which enables the adolescents to fulfill numerous developmental tasks is not done in isolation but in response to their interaction with the members of the blogging community. The importance of audience as a contextual element is seen in their role as identity co-constructors who help reinforce or supplement the blog owners’ identity presentation from time to time. Furthermore, a strong connectedness between the adolescents’ online and offline identity is observed. The offline world serves as another community of practice which interacts with the online world – the community of practice under investigation. The study suggests that the diverse forms of identity constructed online are strong evidence showing the adolescents’ competence in performing sophisticated identity work. It is also expected that there will be more interaction between various communities and their contextual elements in the future development of identity construction with the rapid penetration of social-networking tools in our everyday lives, especially adolescents. An overlap between different online communities is seen in the current study. More thorough examination of adolescent identity work through social-networking tools can provide valuable insights into the emotional health and well-being of adolescents over time. / published_or_final_version / English / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

This study explored effectiveness of blog-based writing and compares it to traditional ‘paper and pen’ English narrative in a primary school classroom. A group of 30 primary five (P5) students were selected based on results of a pre-test, and randomly assigned into one of two groups: blog group and pen group. The students had six English composition lessons with focus on narrative writing. The students from both groups were in same class, and teaching was conducted by a single English teacher. Only difference between the two groups was that the blog group students composed their writing assignments with computers in the computer laboratory through the blog interface. The pen group worked in the classroom in traditional ‘paper and pen’ way. The post-test was conducted after six lessons, and questionnaires and evaluation forms were administered to provide data. In addition, data collection included artefacts produced by students. Collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data suggest that blogging can support writing in three areas. Firstly, blogging helps to increase the volume of writing produced by students. Secondly, blogging supports improvement in quality of narrative writing, more specifically in areas of Vocabulary, Language Use and Mechanics. Finally, blogging enhances students’ positive attitude towards writing. It Using Blogs to promote English narrative writing in Hong Kong Primary School ii is hoped that the results of the study will have encouraging effect on English teachers in a primary school classroom to apply blogging for purpose of improving students’ writing. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education