Week 8: "Sweet is the memory of distant friends!....."

 

 

By the end of this splendid online course, we must say, " Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart." - Washington Irving.

 

As mentioned before, I'm very optimistic about the benefits of blogging in the language classroom, but much depends on the teacher's efforts in establishing the basis for an active group of student-bloggers, which is certainly a challenge due to schedule constraints, overflow of information, resistance from students, and constraints on educators and their institutions. Nonetheless, when a community of bloggers is created, the learning outcomes can be far-reaching. Going beyond the classroom has never been so easy, literally just at the tip of the learners' fingers. The audience is there, content is produced, meaning is developed, reflection is encouraged, and the target language is the means to establish these elements of communication. Nothing could be more meaningful for a language learner. But language learning through blogging doesn't "simply happen"; it happens only if learners apply themselves to developing semantic webs taking all into another level of understanding of the language being studied and of the vast, fascinating world surrounding them.

"Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again.",

William Shakespeare