Have Fun with English A beginner EFL blog An experiment in blogging with young EFL learners

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Have Fun with English!A beginner EFL blog(An
experiment in blogging with young EFL learners)

• A presentation for the EVOnline 2005
• Weblogging Workshop

Teresa Almeida dEça http//www.malhatlantica.pt/t
eresadeca/ Parede, Portugal 8 February 2005
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What is Have Fun with English? 1

• for me, it's a teacher-student blog
• however, some may consider it a mix between a Web
  page and a blog (read an interesting comment)
• then... why not call it "a plog"?! -)
• as opposed to a "slog" (a 'slogging' blog) or a
  "thog" (a blog with thoughts in it)!

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What is Have Fun with English? 2

• Buth When Tere created her T-S blog, blog
  providers were not as advanced as now, in the
  sense that the comment feature was not developed!
  Therefore, a blog is not the same as a webpage,
  at present,  as it used to be, earlier it 
  has become a useful, pedagogical tool that helps
  students and teachers to communicate and interact
  with one another outside the classroom in an
  easy, fast, and simple way. This is why they are
  great tools to integrate in EFL courses, based on
  blended teaching and learning.
• Bee3 I agree with you totally Buth...and think
  that it was difficult at the time to make the
  small kids open a blog by themselves and keep
  it...so Tere's idea was fantastic. It was a
  transition between the webpage and the blog as we
  know it now.  They sent her mails which were
  pasted on a webpage she opened for this purpose
  and formatted as a blog. She even included sound.
  Blogger did not have a comment area or sound at
  the beginning either. So Tere is a precursor of
  the blog in EFL -) A true webhead.
• (Comments taken from Webcollaborator project
  114, in preparation for the co-presentation Bee,
  Buth and I did on Blogs and Blogging for the
  Belnate Conference in Minsk, Belarus, 4Nov2004)

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How did it start?

• Aaron Campbell's Weblogs for Use with ESL Classes
• first experiment in blogging with 3rd-year
  EFLers Let's Blog!
• real challenge Have Fun with English!
• would I able to spark motivation in absolute EFL
  beginners?
• would I be able to keep the flame lit?

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Why a blog for absolute beginners?

• generate a two-way communication tool in the
  target language outside of class T ? St
• stimulate practice of the language learned in
  class 'anytime, anywhere' BUT class
• have a place to give students a voice of their
  own, to speak about their own interests, etc
• create an open door to an authentic and broad
  audience that can comment and suggest

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Blog provider or custom-made?

• a custom-made blog meant
• more layout flexibility (we are talking about Mar
  2003 things have changed quite a bit)
• more control over content (young learners)
• less hassle for me (I controlled homepage
  building, but not blogs!)
• I chose 'custom-made' in spite of the additional
  workload!

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What sort of layout?

• simple
• colorful
• user-friendly (a 3-column layout)
• attractive (to young kids) icons and images

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What type of content?

• anything!
• things of interest to the students
• always in English
• the only 'obvious' imposition on my part

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The first page

• the first page (28Nov03)
• announcement
• invitation to send messages
• interactive exercises (Hot Potatoes)
• the first message (6Dec03)
• online exercises now and then

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Unexpected but welcome add-ons!
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A European exchange

• a Portuguese-Polish exchange (10Feb04)
• bringing young people together online
• linking them to the global village
• started during the EVO BaW2004
• the Polish side replies in voice emails
  (accompanied by the corresponding text)

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Voice mail 1

• how it all began
• HandyBits very easy-to-use voice mail program
• 'download play'!
• two versions
• standard kids
• lately, Horizon-Wimba (EduVoice demo) has been
  used by me (25Dec04 7Feb05)

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Voice mail 2

• the first messages from Poland
• from Tommy (10Feb04)
• Hello, friends!
• My name is Tommy
• Warcholak.
• I am 7 years old. I like
• computer games.  
• I am from Przemysl, Poland.
• Bye!
• Tommy

• the first messages from Poland
• from Wojtek (11Feb04)
• Hello!
• How are you? Thanks for
• your email!
• I'm Wojtek. I live in Przemysl,
• Poland. I'm 9.
• I like computer games and
• sports. I like football
• and basketball.
• Bye, friends!
• Wojtek

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Voice mail 3

• the first messages from Portugal
• from 5F (1Mar04)
• Hello friends!
• Thank you for your
• messages.
• How are you? We (half
• of 5F) are fine.
• Please send more photos!
• What are your favorite
• computer games?
• Good bye friends! Have a
• nice week.

• the first messages from Portugal
• from 5G (1Mar04)
• Hi, friends!
• How are you? This little
• group of
• 5G is very well.
• Is there Carnival in Poland? In
• Portugal it's very fun people
• with costumes in the streets.
• We like rabbits, but we are
• afraid of snakes.
• See you!!!  -)

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Voice mail 4

• the latest events in voice messaging (Feb05)
• Student ? Teacher ? Student
• from Rodrigo to me
• from me to Rodrigo
• from João Vasco to me
• Colleague ? Students
• from Leanne to my students

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Photos

• a favorite fruit arrangement (Dec03)
• Tommy in the snow (Feb04)
• Wojtek and sister in the snow (Mar04)
• a Portuguese class (Mar04)

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Drawings

• from João Vasco (9Mar04)

• the Homework page

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e-Cards ( singing)

• Happy birthday!
• to Wojtek (9Mar04)
• to Tommy (6Jan05)
• singing 'happy birthday' to go with the cards
• to Wojtek (9Mar04)
• to Tommy (6Jan05)
• Christmas
• from Susana (Dec04)

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Photo stories the latest trend ?!

• a family holiday Piodão, North of Portugal
  (6Feb05)
• (it may take a little while to download due to
  the high resolution)
• created with Photo Story 3

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A final curiosity the need for flexibility

• a compromise between high and low tech (to allow
  all students the chance to send messages and see
  them answered online)
• handouts of an email template (low tech)
• the next best thing to the real email (high tech)
• the students loved the idea
• it really caught on!

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Conclusion

• a simple experiment in writing to practice the
  target language has taken on different dimensions
  in a year's time
• all of them have contributed to added motivation
  and learning, and new horizons
• the unexpected has become reality and has gone
  beyond my 'wildest dreams'!!!
• Thank you!

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Resources

• My Website
• http//www.malhatlantica.pt/teresadeca/
• Have Fun with English! (the current blog)
• http//www.malhatlantica.pt/teresadeca/school/fun-
  with-english5.htm
• Let's Blog! (the precursor)
• http//www.malhatlantica.pt/teresadeca/school/blog
  7.htm