Introducing Blogging in EFL Classrooms

In my previous post I discussed the phenomenon of making the world “flatter” by using the Internet.  In my view, blogging can be considered to be a great “flattener”  as it helps people  not only to reflect on various topics but also to connect with other people and share ideas. Some of the educators all over the world have already started using blogging  in their classrooms and have had quite successful results in terms of raising their learners’ motivation and involvement. I think, I would like to use this educational tool in my future teaching practice as it certainly has lots of positive features.

According to the video with Will Richardson, a famous blogger, blogging is a specific writing genre that helps to develop learners’ creative, critical and metacognitive thinking. There is a siginoficant difference between writing on paper and blogging; unlike writing on paper, blogging helps you to connect to other people having the same interests. Also, it is a rich source of new ideas and resources. Besides, you can learn a lot from the comments made by the readers of your blogs.  For instance, there are a lot of hot discussions going on about specific areas of interest.  Educators, as well as learners all over the world can share their experience and suggest new ideas for various things. Thus, blogging can develop not only the learners writing skills but also reading skills and critical thinking .

According to Will Richardson, blogging really helps your learners to get involved in the learning process. Here people have the chance of creating content for real audience and the fact makes a big difference for them. They become more motivated and interested in learning as a result.

`In conclusion, I think I would really love to use the tool of blogging in my classes. One of the possible challenges that I might face is that the Armenian learners are more used to the traditional way of leaning. So I will have to indroduce the idea of using English outside the classroom. They should realize all the potential this tool can offer them and make the best use of it.