Abstract:

Weblogs are seen as the perfect exercise in literacy (Goodwin-Jones, 2007; Carney, 2009; Raith, 2009; Van Compernolle and Abraham, 2009). This paper reports a project in which blogs were used in an English language classroom in the final year of secondary education in Flanders, Belgium. After having presented the project itself, the following two issues will be explored:
(1) To what extent have learners improved their writing skills in English?.
Do learners produce better and longer texts over the course of writing? Can evidence of audience awareness be found? Do students learn new language through interacting with others? What writing styles do students adopt?
(2) To what extent have the students created collective intelligence and/or constructed new knowledge?
Can evidence be found of collaborative content learning? Do students bring in new relevant information or perspectives?
The paper concludes with a discussion of the value of using blogs in the English classroom to improve student writing skills in English. We analyze critically some of the promises put forward in the literature and some of the pedagogical hurdles that have to be taken before weblogs can actually support the development of English writing skills.

References:
Carney, N. (2009) Blogging in Foreign Language Education. In Michael Thomas (ed.) Handbook of Research on Web 2.0 and Second Language. London: IGI Global, pp. 291- 312.
Goodwin-Jones, R. (2007). Emerging technologies: E- texts, mobile browsing, and rich Internet applications. Language Learning & Technology, 11(3), 3-11.
Raith, T. (2009) The Use of Weblogs in Language Education. In Michael Thomas (ed.) Handbook of Research on Web 2.0 and Second Language. London: IGI Global, pp .274 - 290.
van Compernolle, R. A., & Abraham, L. (2009). Interactional and discursive features of English-language weblogs for language learning and teaching. In L. Abraham & L. Williams (Eds.), Electronic discourse in language learning and language teaching (pp. 193-211). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Keywords:

Foreign language writing skills, social media.