18.Educational Blogs for ELT

 

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, " A blog is a regular record of your thoughts, opinions, or experiences that you put on the internet for other people to read". It is the short form of "weblog", which was coined by Jorn Barger in 1997 and later it was shortened by programmer Peter Merholz in 1999. It’s generally recognized that the first blog was Links.net, created by Justin Hall, while he was a Swarthmore College student in 1994. At that time they weren’t called blogs, and he referred to them as his personal homepage. In the early stages, a blog was a personal web log or journal in which someone could share information or their opinion on a variety of topics. The information was posted reverse chronologically, so the most recent post would appear first. Nowadays, a blog is a regularly updated website or web page, and can either be used for personal use or to fulfill a business need.

               There are a wide variety of blogs which include food blogs, travel blogs, lifestyle blogs, health and fitness blogs, fashion blogs and so on. Among this the five major types of blogs include: 

1.     Personal Blog

2.     Business Blog

3.     Affiliate Blog

4.     Niche Blog

5.     News Blog 

Personal Blog

A personal blog is a blog that is done by an individual to write about his own feelings,belief experiences and thoughts. In it they openly depict their opinions and suggestions regarding various topics. 

Business Blog

A business blog (b-blog) is a blog of published, informal online articles that are either included in a company's internal communications system (intranet) or posted on the Internet for the public to read. A business blog may also be referred to as a corporate blog or corporate Web log. 

Affiliate Blog

An affiliate blog is a blog that posts content promoting other products and services. The blog owner typically writes product reviews or tutorials and includes a link for the reader to buy the product or service.

Niche Blog

Niche is a small section of a larger group. Niche bloggers focus their content on a very specific subset of a larger topic. For example, food bloggers and travel bloggers. 

News Blog

A news blog is the most intense and expensive type of blog to create. News blogs are more formal than the other type of blogs and often require a massive team and budget to maintain. 

 Apart from all these types of blogs, one of the most relevant one, is the Educational Blog.

 An educational blog is used for educational purposes and it mainly aims at teachers and students. It provides instructions, strategies and study materials required for teaching learning purposes and a varied aspect of teaching and learning can be understood from these blogs. Along with it, it also provides a wide variety of activities, resources and different techniques that make both teaching and learning enjoyable.

 Blogs and language teaching has a deeper relationship since it is correlated to multiple opinions, thoughts and ideas put forward by the language teachers across the world. In the case of English language learning, we can access different blogs written by natives of English as well as English teachers of different Universities thereby which a holistic view of the language can be acquired through reading the blogs.

  Larger number of Blogs regarding English teaching written by English teachers of several universities can be found in many websites of blogs, and links to five among them are as below:

 Apart from all these blogs there are numerous other blogs written by many other teachers and personalities regarding English language teaching and learning Along with it, a number of universities also published there on blogs and also provide materials and online classes that facilitate English learning. Both students and teachers can make use of these materials for their language learning purpose and can enhance the quality and quantity of the teaching and learning. In most of these blogs there are multiple articles regarding the aspect of English education which is presented in their own point of view. The materials required for teachers, the curriculum, the vibrant methods and activities, notes which can be made use effectively rather than repeating the same activities. Grammar as well as the lessons of English can be taught in different ways with the help of all these blogs. Many of them provide simple and easy charts and materials along with flow charts and grammatical elements for effective language teaching and they also provide numerous language games that facilitate grammar teaching.

https://lindsayannlearning.com/

                  The first blog deals with more literary aspect of English education and it deals with the topic of debate, her thoughts, deep thinking of literary works, use of active voice and its writing and so on. She had also introduced certains apps that can be sued for the enhancement of students writing in English and help them to built in a passion towards the English language learning. Along with this the teacher had also provided tips for online classes for the teachers and also many strategies of teaching and learning vocabularies too. It is a highly effective blog for the English language teachers.

https://www.myenglishteacher.eu/

  The second blog mainly comprises a wide range of notes, study materials and lessons regarding the grammar elements of English language.  All the technical aspect of language is taught in this blog along with the video lessons. Detailed notes and exercises are also provided in it. It also gives meanings of vocabulary, note regarding abbreviations, questions of job interview and so on. It can be used in the best way for language teaching as well as learning.

https://www.englishwithjennifer.com/

  The third blog English with Jennifer is exclusively dedicated to the teaching of grammar and it represents the grammar rules and special case rules very clearly with a pdf for each topic in which the notes which are clear, specific and concise as well as interesting are added. With the help of free pdf English teachers can make use of it for their grammar class and can give the activities depicted by the blogger for further clarification. The vast concepts like tense forms, modal auxiliary, verbs and its misuse, pronunciation basics and challenges are given in the blog which is very much useful for the language teachers as well as the learners.

https://aliciateacher2.wordpress.com/

    The fourth blog My English Blog mainly focus on the four fold skills of language learning that is Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing; LSRW. The blog provides divergent methods to acquire the four skills and strategies of learning it easily. For example, to acquire the skill of listening she had provided ways of listening to BBC news, podcasts, watching short videos and so on. Teachers can make use of these methods in the classroom and ensure that students follow it and use it for its purpose. Apart from it, the teacher had also given ample notes regarding grammar rules and exercises that can be practiced for clear learning. English teachers can also listen to her video links of the chapters and collect notes and impart the knowledge to their own students.

https://viewsfromthewhiteboard.edublogs.org/

  Games, grammar, vocabulary and worksheet are the highlights of the fifth blog. Captivating language games that make grammar teaching interesting are provided in the blog and it can be instilled in the classrooms for tireless learning of boring grammar rules and equal participation of the students can be made sure since it is in a  game-like format. Pupils can easily be focused on the grammatical elements of great interest. Apart from the bookish teaching, these external activities make them love the language and learn it effectively. 

             Overall we can say that English language blogs have a prominent role in English Language teaching and learning, since it comprises all concepts of language learning, beginning from the grammar to the literary writing it acts as a great resource of language learning. English teachers can make use of all these materials and incorporate it in their classroom of effective teaching. Not only one method that blogs provide but also multiple notes and materials in the blogs. Teachers across the world illustrate their strategies and techniques that they had practiced in their owns classrooms in these blogs, which is very useful for the teachers as well as the budding student teachers. Easy tips, useful teaching aids, simple methods, language games, video lessons and authentic teaching materials are provided in it. Teachers can think beyond their textbooks and get into the creative aspects of teaching with the help of these blogs. Also they can come across the multifaceted changes that had occurred in the teaching-learning techniques and they can update themselves with the newness in the teaching field. One of the major attraction of the blogs is that we can directly connect ourselves with the native English teachers. Since it is a digital content, it is easily accessible to all and can be accessed from anywhere at any time. Many blogs provide free pdfs that can be easily made use in language teaching. Since the teacher could attain wider knowledge and creative content through the blogs, it will help them to impart good knowledge to the students and greatly impact the learners' content knowledge and language usage. English, as we all know is a skill subject, therefore accumulation of the fourfold skills have a considerable role in the language learning,  so with the help of these blogs teachers could build up LSRW among the students very effectively and thereby help them to learn and use the English language as the natives.

-Submitted by Ms.Shilpa Krishnan