English Language Learners’ Blog Project

English Language Learners’ Blog Project

by Matt Bury -
Number of replies: 6
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Hi Moodlers!

I've been shifting stuff around on my personal website and I realised that I had a project that I did a couple of years ago that I haven't shared with anyone...

English Language Learners’ Blog Project

This is a proposal for a pilot project for classes of English Language Learners (ELLs) of mixed nationalities on residential or home-stay summer schools learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). It includes a combination of in-class, online and possibly out of class activities where groups of ELLs collaborate to compose blog articles focusing on their respective cultures and daily lives, experiences at the summer school, and experiences in the country or region where they are studying. With this combination of classroom, online and out of class activities, the hope is to provide a framework for ELLs to develop their proficiency and competencies in English, improving their linguistic fluency and complexity while ensuring that their immediate language learning needs are met and that the subject matter and linguistic forms studied are meaningful and relevant to them.

http://blog.matbury.com/resources/english-language-learners-blog-project/

Your thoughts and comments would be most welcome. Please feel free to use any or all of these resources in future projects of your own and I'd love to hear from you about how they went.

Thanks!

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In reply to Matt Bury

Re: English Language Learners’ Blog Project

by dawn alderson -

Matt, hi

could I be cheeky and ask you about the findings? What did you find out?

thanks

Dawn  smile 

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In reply to Matt Bury

Re: English Language Learners’ Blog Project

by Beatriz Rojo -

Hi Matt,

I think this is a very meaningful use of a blog for didactic purposes. This article describes a similar use for Erasmus students.

Which tool did you use? The Moodle blog or another one?

Regards,

Beatriz.

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In reply to Beatriz Rojo

Re: English Language Learners’ Blog Project

by Matt Bury -
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Hi Beatriz,

Thanks for the reference. I managed to find the paper here: http://www.postgradolinguistica.ucv.cl/dev/documentos/90,969,7%20Blogs_murray_2008.pdf

The paper cites Atkinson a few times. I like Atkinson's paper A Sociocogitive Approach to SLA, in Alternative Approaches to SLA, Routledge 2011.

The pilot project I ran only lasted for 4 weeks and had rolling enrolments (learners came and went during the course) so it was difficult to build a productive learning environment when most of the learners are perpetually "new to the course."

I used Wordpress as a platform configured so that it acted as a blog network (Wordpress has this function built in), in the same way that Wordpress.com does, i.e. project, class, or learner can have their own blog to personalise and make their own with themes, widgets, layouts, pages, etc.

It's also easier for learners and teachers to use, navigate, and comment on each others' posts, and recent comments can be listed in the navigation for everyone to see.

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In reply to Matt Bury

Re: English Language Learners’ Blog Project

by Beatriz Rojo -

Hi Matt,

thanks for your reply. I noted the Atkinson's paper and will read it in the next weeks.

Regards,

Beatriz.

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In reply to Matt Bury

Re: English Language Learners’ Blog Project

by Belma Gaukrodger -

Hi Matt,

Thank you for sharing your research project, resources and invitation to contribute - really appreciated smile

I'm currently in the process of (re)developing an English Language programme at my institution, integrating Blended Learning approaches. The student output is delivered via blogs, using EduBlogs site, Moodle and external sites for images and videos.

Your contribution couldn't have come at a better time! I'll certainly be using your expertise and research findings in our new programme.

Thank you once again smile

Belma Gaukrodger

 

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In reply to Belma Gaukrodger

Re: English Language Learners’ Blog Project

by Matt Bury -
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Hi Belma,

Yes, EduBlogs uses Wordpress set up as a blog network in the configuration I mentioned. If you intend to expand the project beyond a pilot and need to have admin rights and "right of audit" (to effectively deal with issues, complaints, and grievances) as some education authorities and govts require, it's a fairly simple process to set up a Wordpress network of your own, on a dedicated server or a virtual private server (VPS = cloud hosting). Most hosting providers will probably do this for you if you negotiate with them, or if you have in-house IT support, it'd take them less than a hour to get it up and running.

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