Blogs can have a variety of uses within ESL classrooms. Students who are ESL may have difficulty expressing themselves to teachers. For many, it can be difficult to understand a foreign language unless they have had a lot of practice with it. You can learn to read and write very proficiently in a language, yet still have difficulty speaking it. Blogs can be an outlet these students. Through blogs, teachers and students can have a meaningful interaction without having verbal communication. This can allow the teacher to understand the student better, and vice versa, leading to a greater understanding of the material. This serves to support Grade 5-8 Standard 1, performance indicator 7: "Present information clearly in a variety of oral and
written forms for different audiences and purposes
related to all academic content areas."
Teachers can also use blogs as an accessory to their teaching. If students need extra practice, teachers can post materials on their blogs that students can access from anywhere. Teachers can also post notes, videos, slides, and other materials they may think are beneficial to student learning. Many students learn more effectively through multimodal lesson plans. This serves to enhance students understanding of material as well as helping prevent students from falling behind if they miss class.
For many students, speaking in front of others can be so intimidating and writing is so much less so. It is very possible to understand a language on paper and not be able to speak it or speak and not be able to read. Blogs can certainly help bridge that divide when used in conjunction with other technology. Since they can be multimedia, they are a perfect tool to hit all learners.
ReplyDeleteI agree using writing exercises (including blogs) gives students some mental space to gather their thoughts and write them down. It can be a great opportunity for students who are less comfortable speaking in class to engage in, and express, high-order thinking in their L2. I also like the idea of keeping an accessory blog that posts additional materials for students to keep up with the class if they feel they need to practice more.
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