An Analysis of Blogs in Communicative Classrooms: Exploring its Potential

Abstract

The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in language learning and teaching has greatly increased in the last decade. Among the different technological tools used in the learning process, blogs have gained popularity among educators and students (Trajtemberg & Yiakoumetti, 2011; Lai & Chen, 2010). This article focuses on how blogs can be incorporated into a communicative classroom through a Task-based Language Teaching approach (TBLT) (Ellis & Shintani, 2014; Willis 1996). This paper offers a theoretical study about the potential of blogs in TBLT instruction. Firstly, it explores the use of blogs in an English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom, explaining its benefits. Secondly, it focuses on the advantages of using a communicate approach in the EFL classroom, paying special attention to the elaboration and implementation of tasks. This paper will conclude with a section of pedagogical implications in which a teaching proposal will be presented taking into account the educational context of the participants in order to show the different implications of blogs in a foreign language classroom.