Blogs have become a BIG thing! It seems
that everyone is using them. In this article we will look at four main ways
that we can use Blogs for our ESL lessons. To maximize the effectiveness of
using English Blogs, both you and your student(s) should start one and post
regularly. Your students will benefit from Blog exercises in the following
ways:
Blogs can
be used as reading comprehension for your students.
Your
students will be exposed to a wider range of vocabulary than would
normally be used in an oral ESL lesson.
Your
students can to maintain their own blog and by doing so, will be able to constantly
use their English on a variety of topics.
Blogs will
enable you to get to know your students and helps your students know you.
Let’s take a look at these four points in more detail.
When you allow your students to read the blog entries you have
posted online, you are providing them with information you can use to quiz them
on in the next lesson. This will help your students improve their reading
comprehension, as reading your blog entries will expose your students to a
wider range of vocabulary in a colloquial manner. Text books won’t write the
way you write, so by using blogs you’ll give your students another way of
expressing written English.
By maintaining their own blog, students will be motivated to express
themselves in different ways. They’ll learn how to express their actions and
feelings using different manners of speech. In a scenario where you have a
group of students you could ask them to read each others blogs as well as leave
comments, which will encourage them to not only practice their English in yet
another way, but to also give each other advice and support!
When you and your students read each others blog you’ll learn about
each others lives outside of the classroom. Your students may see a different
version of you, seeing you as a peer, not their teacher. Using blogs adds
another dimension to English learning, which can be really fun – which is good
for almost everyone, as it takes away from the pressures that they may be
feeling.
Blogs are great fun! Remember this and your students will have even
more fun while improving their English in a non-traditional way.
