Abstract—The influx of Information Communications Technology (ICT) has revolutionized instructional delivery in language courses. This quasi-experiment is an attempt to investigate the impact of ICT via Web-mediated instruction and Conventional instruction on students’ reading and writing performance. Two groups of respondents representing two learning conditions — the experimental group exposed to Web-mediated Instruction and the control group taught using the Conventional Method participated in this study for one term consisting of 13 weeks. Top findings reveal that significant improvements were found in the writing performance of both experimental and control groups but no improvements were noted in their reading performance. Furthermore, both groups posted significant improvements in their writing performance particularly on content and organization. However, there is no significant difference in the reading and writing performance of both groups. Experimental groups perceived that web-mediated instruction, the use of web blog in particular, contributed to the development of their writing skills. Thus, educators can utilize any methods of instruction in teaching ESL writing provided that fundamental concepts in academic writing are thoroughly discussed and adequate opportunities are provided to ensure optimum development of students’ academic writing skills. Index Terms—Web-mediated instruction, conventional writing instruction, weblog, blogging, ESL reading, ESL writing. I. INTRODUCTION Several studies in the past three decades were focused on the process that L2 learners went through in ESL writing. Reference [1] states that “composing is a non-linear process, exploratory, and generative process whereby writers discover and reformulate their ideas as they attempt to approximate meaning.” To understand the nature of ESL writing, it is important to know how students go through the composition writing in order to effect or improve the writing outcomes. Understanding the nature of writing requires understanding its meaning. Writing is the ability to express ideas through representations or symbols. These symbols represent meaning and content which the writer an act of weaving words together to express ideas; it is a skill that requires cognitive processes. As a cognitive process, writing involves two components such as the task environment and the individual. The former comprises of a Manuscript received September 15, 2014; revised April 17, 2015. Maria B. Cequena is with the University of Santo Tomas, Philippines (e-mail: mbcequena@gmail.com). social component and a physical component. The social component involves writer’s understanding of his target audience, environment or context of writing and other sources that he may access while writing like books and electronic materials. A physical component, on the other hand, composes of the text that the writer produces and the medium he uses in writing, e.g. word processor. The latter, the individual component, is divided into four subcomponents: motivation and affect (writing goals, predispositions, beliefs and attitudes towards writing), cognitive processes (text interpretation, reflection, and text production), short term memory (phonological memory and semantic memory), and long-term memory (knowledge of topics, texts (genres), audience [4] and tasks, e.g. writing an extended definition essay) [3]. Considering Reference 3’s model of writing, it can be deduced that writing is a social process in which the writer’s experiences through social interaction with various people in the community form part of his schemata or network of knowledge [5] from which he can draw ideas for writing. This network of knowledge can be categorized into four such as factual knowledge (specific details/information), conceptual knowledge or declarative knowledge (theories, models, structures, concepts and principles), procedural knowledge (steps on how and when to use specific methods/strategies), and meta-cognitive knowledge (self- knowledge, knowledge about cognitive tasks, strategic knowledge) [6]. Furthermore, writing as a social process, “takes place within a context, that accomplishes a particular purpose, and that is appropriately phrased for its intended audience” [4]. For example, when a learner writes on a topic, he considers not only his purpose for writing, e.g. to inform, to entertain or to persuade, but also his audience, their topic knowledge and beliefs so that he can tailor his writing style and content to his target audience. However, the ability to write “is not a naturally acquired skill” [7]. It is usually learned in school through formal classroom instruction and it requires constant practice to hone. As what Reference [8] states that writing, as a cognitive act, is developmental, meaning it develops overtime. As the learner’s cognitive faculties develop, he will learn the art and science of writing to convey his ideas and insights to larger audiences. Moreover, writing cannot just be developed in isolation; development of writing skills can be facilitated by reading various types of texts as proven by research since students get to learn different writing styles which they can adapt in their own writing [9]-[15]. Hence, teaching writing requires A Comparison of Web-Mediated and Conventional Instruction: Effects on Students’ Reading and Writing Performance Maria B. Cequena International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, Vol. 1, No. 2, June 2015 93 DOI: 10.7763/IJLLL.2015.V1.19 communicates to his readers [2], [3]. Writing is not merely