Importance of Blogging in Language Teaching

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that teachers should support student autonomy and encourage learners to develop foreign language skills outside the classroom to keep learners motivated enough to show the possibility of using languages in the immediate future outside class. Incorporation of technology in classrooms is considered one of the effective tools that brings a lot of opportunities and fun in language teaching and learning. However, applying technology in language teaching shouldn’t be only fun. Following paper introduces how blogging can be used as an instructional tool for language learning and teaching considering several important basic benefits such as effects on building intercultural competence, enhancing student interaction and communication , improving basic language skills, boosting learner motivation and language authenticity, as effective assessment technique and a great learner autonomy builder. Wrede (2003) states that if teachers want students to become autonomous, creative, and cooperative individuals, educational institutions must actually allow them to practice exactly these skills by incorporating blogging into curriculum since it fosters dynamic motivation for learning through authentic practice of language learning.