Blogging with ESL Learners

Blogging with ESL Learners

            As technology in education becomes a key tool in enhancing the learning process in the 21^st century, creating blogs is one example of such an effective one. Blogging with second language learners is an efficient way to create collaborative and authentic communicative experiences online and link them to the classroom. The article Blogging in Language Learning by Rita Zeinsteger contains a variety of ways English language teachers can utilize weblogs with ESL and EFL learners.

Writing Portfolios

            In my current professional setting, I am teaching EFL (English as a foreign language) to pre-medical and health science students in a university setting. One way in which I could incorporate blogging with my learners is by creating a digital space for their writing portfolios for their Semester 1 Writing course. My EFL students are given writing assignments weekly, which I must provide feedback to. Instructing students to publish their writing pieces via a class blog would allow for them to self-reflect and see the progress of their work online over the course of the semester. Additionally, as I assign students to peer review each other’s work, it will allow them to collaborate with one another and reflect on each other’s compositions by commenting on their blog writing assignments. The idea of making one’s writing “public” also adds a level of accountability, which I believe would be a great motivation for my learners.

Photo of the Day

The use of visuals is a great way to open a lesson or elicit thoughts and ideas from our English language students. ESL and EFL teachers can get their students to write or verbally comment on a thought-provoking photo blog post daily (or weekly). With images, the sky’s the limit and there is so much room for creativity. Of course, particularly for EFL teachers, it is essential that the images are relevant and culturally appropriate for your learners in the places you are teaching. Students can create a short story based on the image posted, or write what they believe to be the theme or significance of the pictures and comment to each other’s thoughts. This forum can also be continued in the classroom as an extension to the blog assignment.

Learning Standards

The “Writing Portfolios” and “Photo of the Day” blog ideas correlate to the following standards:

Performance Indicator – ESL.C.9-12.3.1.4: Students evaluate their own and other’s work, individually and collaboratively, on the basis of a variety of criteria, and recognize how chosen criteria affect evaluation.

Performance Indicator – ESL.C.9-12.4.1.1: Students use a variety of oral, print, and electronic forms for social communication and for writing to or for self, applying the conventions of social writing.