 |
| Image taken from: http://primarytech.global2.vic.edu.au/ |
The use of blogs in EFL teaching is very common today because of
the multiple choices that it offers to teachers and students to develop
language skills as it integrates external resources like videos, images, other
web sites, podcasts and other elements that can foster students’ creativity
and autonomy to design their own spaces.
Besides, blogs can facilitate the development of collaborative
skills as it is very interactive, students can interact among themselves and
with others who do not belong to the same school environment by exchanging
ideas and impressions about different topics. In this line, Stanley
(2006) (cited en Blackstone, Spiri y Naganuma, 2007) states that “(Blogs are) a
way of opening up the classroom walls and showing the wider world what is
happening... thus creating a small language learning community”, which means
that several language skills such as reading, listening and writing can be
developed when students access to the blog.
Also, it can be said that this tool has the five main characteristics
that makes language learning through the Internet ALIVE: (Warschauer, et al.
2000) because:
- It is authentic because the topics published in the blog are based on real topics and the opinions expressed by the readers are sincere. It is not a mechanical answer that has been previously studied to answer an exam, for instance.
- It is literate, as students have to research to support their opinions and also computer skills are required to publish something correctly in a blog.
- It is interactive as a lot of people can communicate in the same discussion, even if they do not belong to the class.
- It has vitality because it can be designed according to the author likes. It is not a simple and common layout for everybody.
- It empowers students by developing writing skills and digital literacy.
The previously described features make the blog one of the easy to
use tool in foreign language teaching because of their designs and the
different uses we can give them, moreover it can be used at any level and it
can be adapted to any activity you want to do.
From the educational and communicative point of view, blogs are
interactive electronic media, in which teachers may integrate a wide range of
resources that encourage students to express their opinions freely in a second
language, without being intimidated by constraints of time or immediate
fluidity. Thanks to this kind of tools, learners have the opportunity of
organizing their ideas before publish them and edit them when necessary.
However, it is also important to teach students that the blog is
not only a tool to develop class activities but also a one of the different
types of communication media that exists nowadays, so when someone publish
something in a blog is becoming an author and therefore it is important to
express thoughts and opinions in a clear an responsible way
Here you have a video that explain the use of the blog in
education:
References:
Blackstone, B., Spiri, J. y Naganuma, N. (2007) Blogs in English Language Teaching and Learning: Pedagogical
uses and Student Responses. [Online document]. Retrieved
from:
Washchauer,
M., Shetzer, H. y Meloni, C. (2000) Internet for English Teaching. Virginia. USA.
Ed. TESOL. (Teachers of English to
Speakers of Other Languages)
No comments:
Post a Comment