EXPLORING THE BLOGOSPHERE:: USE OF WEB LOGS IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM.

Abstract: The words blog, blogger, blogging, and blogosphere have entered online technological dictionaries in the last decade. Recently, these personal electronic journals have received more attention and their increased popularity has led to their regular use in many different settings including the news, the political arena, and even in education. This article offers an overview of this relatively new technological tool, which serves as a form of micropublishing, and then discusses its potential uses in language classes. Two projects integrating blogs are highlighted and the steps on how to author a blog are outlined. Key words: authentic documents, blogosphere, foreign language, micropublishing, Web log Language: Relevant to all foreign languages Introduction The popularity of blogs, or Web logs, has soared in the last few years; in fact, according to the Perseus Development Corporation, a survey design company, the number of blogs reached 10 million in 2004 and continues to grow (Nussbaum, 2004). Although bloggers come in every shape and size, this virtual explosion has increased significantly among younger generations. According to Nussbaum, 90% of today’s bloggers are between 13 and 29 years of age, which coincides with the ages of a significant portion of the population of foreign language learners. But just what are blogs? How are they currently being used? How did they originate? And more:, importantly, what might be their potential uses for language learning and teaching? The goal of this article is to introduce readers to the current trend of blogging and to provide ideas and suggestions as to how blogs might be integrated into language teaching. A blog is an electronic journal kept by a blogger, who regularly updates the journal (known as blogging). Blogs function in two primary ways, serving either as personal diaries or as news journals. They typically contain three items: a title, text, and links (Winer, 2003). Commonly defined as link driven, they blend comments, thoughts, and essays on a particular subject (Blood, 2000), and display “a hierarchy of text, images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed in an HTML browser” (Winer, 2003). The text portion reflects the authors thoughts, personality, and perspectives on different issues. The language is generally informal, and even sarcastic or ironic at times. Although most blogs are kept and maintained by a sole individual, they can also be highly interactive between the writer and reader. Outsiders, for example, can post their own thoughts and opinions in order to further discussion of certain issues through a “comments” function, available on most blogging tools. A Brief History of Blogs In 1998, Jesse James Garrett, editor of Infosift, began assembling a list of Web sites containing information similar to topics on his own personal Web log. Others quickly took notice and began to send their Web log URLs to be included in his collection. As it grew, this compilation of logs, which became known as Garrett’s “page of only web logs,” expanded into a virtual community. As this community evolved, so did the Net lingo that corresponded to it. The term blog or Web log is often credited to Jorn Barger in 1997, who was one of the earliest bloggers. Originally pronounced “wee-blog,” this term was later shortened to blog with the emergence of the Web log building tool Blogger (http://www.blogger.com). Many of these sites still maintain their original intent of drawing a larger online community; however, some have taken a more intimate and personal form. With the growing number of technological tools that are available, it is important to consider for what purposes these tools can be used, especially in educational environments. For example, how do blogs differ from other popular communication tools such as e-mail, chat, and discussion boards? Blogging, unlike chat, is an asynchronous form of communication. …