MODERN ENGLISH BLOGS AS A HELPFUL TOOL TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ READING SKILLS

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of using modern English text blogs for educational purposes to improve language skills of high school students. Being a special communicative genre within the framework of Internet discourse, a blog attracts modern high school students who spend much time communicating online, so it seems relevant to refer to the use of text blogs in English language teaching to enhance students’ foreign language skills. The classroom research, aimed to be described in the article, has been conducted in order to identify how the use of the Internet blogs influences the development of students’ reading skills in English. The methods used include context analysis of modern authentic Internet text blogs, observation, tests, experimental studying, etc. The results prove different educational possibilities of modern English text blogs. Various blog types, their educational functions and typical linguistic features of a blog, grammatical and lexical ones, are demonstrated in detail as well. It is stated that text blogs not only develop different reading skills and strategies, but also help students to extend their vocabulary and to prepare for exams in English. Students become participants of a real foreign language communication in a virtual communicative environment created with the help of blogs.