Blogging: the enriching of our language and education fund

Hello everybody! My name is Maria Chiara and this is my first attempt to create my own blog, that is to go into the maze-like world of blogs not only as an external observer but also as an active contributor.

Since I'm unexperienced in blogging, every piece of advice, every hint on how to improve my blog will be welcome! Blogging means "writing collectively". So...Don't be shy! Feel free to express your ideas, your thoughts and make contributions! I'll be grateful to all of you!

Maria Chiara

My first impressions of blogging...

As far as my first experience in blogging is concerned, I can sum it up in one word: stimulating. My initial impressions of this kind of social software are extremely positive. The main reason lies in the possibility to explore and exploit the communicative function of language.

In general, teachers are primarily concerned with accuracy and consequently their principle of evaluation is not based on students' communicative ability, but rather on their keeping to the rules of grammar.

If it is true that in some circumstances accuracy is considered as the touchstone of good work, it is also true that whenever we write or speak we communicate something - a feeling, an impression, an idea - to someone.

Writing online is communicating: our primary goal does't consist in carrying out a perfectly correct piece of writing in academic English, but rather in "telling" something interesting and winning in order to provide a sort of "input" that can be received by other people, thus creating a community online.

The most interesting aspect is that anybody can write and comment on what another person has written, so that all the contributors get a sort of "feedback" on their work: the expression of one's thoughts is not an end in itself, as the dynamics of the blogging activity provides for a continuous exchange of ideas and opinions. In order for the process to work properly, it has to be bidirectional, or rather multidirectional, for it involves a community of people sharing interests, discussing about some topics, etc.

Thanks to this kind of activity we learn day by day to read and to write texts in a specific type of English, which is the real language used by people in everyday conversations.

The lack of accuracy is counterbalanced by the "democratic nature" of the blog: the fact that the message is not addressed to a private circle of people but is "open to the public" and that anyone can join the "bloggers club" and converse with the other members offers all the contributors the opportunity to widen their language fund - since they learn to use a specific style and a particular way of writing - but most of all to develop their critical ability.

Last but not least, in my opinion the use of blogs as "educational materials" is an innovative teaching method which has three important consequences:

• it renders English classes more dynamic and, therefore, more stimulating;
• it gives us the possibility to get used to the computer, in particular to social softwares;
• it fosters team work and collaboration among students. What really counts is not only the single work of one student, but above all the way he/she interacts with the other members of the group. The final "output" is like a jigsaw puzzle made up of the "material and human contributions" given by the group as a whole.