November 19th, 2009
A blog, a contraction of the term “Web log“, is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary or descriptions of events in the bloggers life or that they are personally interested in. In BURKINA FASO among teens this is usually about soccer, school and sex. Blog entries are normally displayed with the newest entry at the top of the list. Many of the teachers in the capitol Ouagadougou have their own blogs and encourage students to read them for class home work. Today there are 0.5 % of the population of BURKINA FASO on the internet so most will have encountered blogs.
Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. Topical blogs are great for ESL students since they are usually open to the public for reading and writing. Also, publicly posted blogs can be commented on by others. Given the growth of use in the internet use of 700.0 % from the year 2000 to the present there are a lot of young people out there to be writing and commenting on each other’s blogs. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic.
Blogging as a way to practice English online in Africa is fairly common now but especially in the country of BURKINA FASO. With internet access so available now, literally there is an internet café on every street corner in the capitol Ouagadougou so ESL lessons online are available to the masses now. In the year 2000 there were 10,000 internet users but this year there are 80,000 internet users in BURKINA FASO. This is a prime opportunity for ESL professionals in Ouagadougou especially to get their English as a Second Language students writing in English.
The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most public blog sites have the option for the blog owner to approve comments made on their blog posts before the blog site posts them Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on video blogging ,vlog, which is part of a wider network of social media. Look at YouTube for vlogs and great English as a Second Language video lessons videos . With the advent of video blogging, the word blog has taken on an even looser meaning — that of any bit of media wherein the subject expresses his opinion or simply talks about something.
Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, one which consists of blogs with very short posts. This is a great way to get ESL students started since only a sentence or two is produced at a time. It is also a place to practice idioms and slang for English as a Foreign Language students. As of December 2007, a major blog search engine was tracking more than 112 million blogs so even if students in BURKINA FASO can’t think of anything of their own to say there are plenty of places to leave a comment!
George W. Bellas MA has his Masters in TESL with 18 years experience. He has been a Fulbright Scholar to Turkey, where he did ESL video materials development and in-service teacher training. He is the creator of English4All, a free website fro learning English as a Second Language. He is also the Managing Director of Global Span TV an ESL educational services charity.
Image taken on 2009-01-27 22:10:18 by dougbelshaw. Image Source. (Used with permission)
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