WEEK 1 - My Reflections on Blogging for ELT

I really enjoyed the article on blogging for ELT. I knew about the possibility for a blog to display photos, but it’s good to hear that nowadays a blog can also be used with audio and even video. I’d love to learn more about these features since they would allow for more integration of skills in our English classes, which would be fantastic.

Regarding writing, I have always favored using a process approach in my classes even at Basic levels. However, in the 80s and in the 90s it was not easy to motivate students to write a second or third draft even if there was some sort of ‘real audience’ other than the teacher, like their classmates or students from other groups.

Technology has made wonders in this sense. I completely agree that Blogs can give students a more real purpose for their writing and allow for more interactivity with the ”real audience”, which can go from their class, local high school or community to the whole world. Thus, students are by far much more motivated to write and more careful not only about what they say (content) but also about how they say it (form). They are more aware of the need and more willing to pay attention to certain subskills such as register, accuracy, organization, etc.

No doubt correction of the students’ blogs may be an issue. I think implementing guided peer correction at the computer lab, if there´s one available, prior to the post would work. Teachers can faciliate by monitoring, providing help and taking notes of repeated mistakes, which show the need for remedial work with the whole class afterwards.

About correction, I’d like to pose a question for you to share your ideas: how “accurate” should basic- or intermediate-level students’ posts be in terms of grammar and vocabulary? Would you accept certain mistakes to remain in the public post or not? What criteria would you use?

Finally, I loved the “mystery guest” activity suggested. It reminded me of the “20 questions game”, remember? One application could be to reinforce question formation at a Basic level. Students would be allowed to ask a maximum of 20 questions in their blogs to guess the guest’s identity. Project work would also be great to implement with our teenagers in the Access Program. There are 10 groups at the headquarters in Montevideo and 5 groups running in the interior of the country. They are 300 students in total. Aside from the linguistic purposes, we could foster their integration noticeably through this tool.

I look foward to hearing from you.

Best,

Margarita