Honing language skills using Blogs

Vol. 4 No. 3

Year:

2009

Issue: Dec-Feb

Title: Honing language skills using Blogs 

Author Name: A. R. Bhavana 

Synopsis: 

Proficiency in English is a prerequisite for students to bag a place in the on/off campus interviews. Irrespective of the profession, vocation and background the students have to hone their LSRW skills in English. Selection procedures like group discussion and video conferencing are hurdles to students who lack language proficiency in English. All prestigious, science based disciplines at the graduate and postgraduate level such as computer science, engineering, and medicine seem to be predominantly available only in English. The English proficiency of students educated in the vernacular medium is often deemed insufficient. This has led to a paradigm shift in the teaching/learning of English at the collegiate and higher education level. Apart from experimenting new teaching methods, teachers are now applying modern technology to support cultivation of language and linguistic skills to foster better achievement at higher education levels.This paper describes blogs as a simple, relatively low-tech, and effective tool to enhance language skills. Blogs are important for technologists, teachers, parents, and researchers who are interested in computer-mediated communication. Physical constraints such as the body, biological sex, race, or age can have a profound effect on self-definition and self-presentation (Collins & Kuczaj, 1991); many of these attributes become flexible in online environments. The anonymity afforded within virtual worlds allows more flexibility in exploring their identity through their language, their role play, and the personae they assume (Calvert, 2002). The focus of this paper is on the “boon” rather than the “bane” of technology. It presents practical methods for using blogs as a teaching tool for inducing students to communicate without inhibitions.  It reports results of a general survey of students in undergraduate courses. This topic is limited to use of blogs as a teaching tool to supplement rather than supplant face-to-face classroom teaching.