Blogs

A blog can be described as an online journal (Duffy & Bruns, 2006).  In a world language classroom, a blog can connect students in meaningful ways in order to express ideas, opinions or other information in the target language (Johnson, 2004).

Blogging in a second language can help students to develop their writing skills and increase vocabulary usage.  A world language teacher can assign students a topic to write about in the target language or students can be allowed to free write. An example blogging assignment could be:

In Spanish, compare two local restaurants.  Tell what kind of food each place serves, which has better service and prices and something you think your readers should try from each restaurant.  End by describing your favorite and least favorite dish from each place. 

After your blog is posted, read several of your classmates’ blogs and comment about if you agree or disagree about their opinions and why.

 If students in a class must follow and react to each other’s blogs, it can help them to develop interpersonal writing skills.  Blogging also meets the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Communities Standard 5.1: Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting (ACTFL, 2013).

As safety and security of student information should be paramount when using Web 2.0 tools with students, a teacher should ensure that students use a nick name instead of a real name and that they should never give out personal information. 

There are several blogging platforms a teacher can use to blog with students.  Google’s Blogger is an excellent and free blog site that is password protected.  An account can be set up by following this link: https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=blogger&passive=1209600&continue=http://www.blogger.com/home&followup=http://www.blogger.com/home&ltmpl=start#s01

References:

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. (2013). National Standards for Foreign Language Instruction. Retrieved from http://www.actfl.org/publications/all/national-standards-foreign-language-education

Duffy, P., & Bruns, A. (2006). The use of blogs, wikis, and RSS in education: A conversation of possibilities. Online Learning and Teaching Conference, Brisbane, Australia. 31–38. Retrieved from http://eprints.qut.edu.au/5398/1/5398.pdf

Johnson, A. (2004). Creating a writing course utilizing class and student blogs. The Internet TESL Journal, 10(8). Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Johnson-Blogs/