ABSTRACT
Over the past several years, the personal websites/online journals known as blogs have become practically ubiquitous. According to Technorati (2008), a website that tracks and indexes blogs, in 2008 there were at least 133 million blogs worldwide, with nearly a million new blog entries being posted every 24 hours. As noted by numerous others (e.g. Armstrong & Retterer, 2008; Ducate & Lomicka, 2008), a small part of this boom has been fueled by educators, including second and foreign language educators, as more and more of them are introducing a blogging component in their classrooms. The potential benefits of using blogs in language classes are numerous (see Carney, 2009 for a detailed overview). First, initial research into the use of blogs in the classroom seems to indicate that learners view blogs as a “real” form of communication, and that this is motivating for them (Lowe & Williams, 2004; Pinkman, 2005; Ward, 2004). Second, the commenting features present in most blogs can encourage interaction with other learners, leading, hopefully, to a sharing of knowledge (Armstrong & Retterer, 2008; Ducate & Lomicka, 2008; Lowe & Williams, 2004). Third, the fact that initial blog posts, updates, and comments can be published immediately is a further attraction; learning can take place quickly and efficiently, without the time lags that can lead to loss of interest (Kadjer & Bull, 2003). Fourth, the individualized nature of blogs allows them to be used easily as means of self-expression (Ducate & Lomicka, 2008; Farmer, 2004; Thorne & Payne, 2005). Perhaps as a result, blogs may also lead to greater autonomy and self-reflection on the part of individual learners (Mynard, 2007). Sixth, blogs (and other types of online writing) are typically informal and relatively unstructured, which may make them particularly suitable for classroom use with less proficient writers; blogwriting, in other words, may be able to serve as a bridge to academic or more sophisticated forms of writing 196(Bloch, 2007; see also Al-Jarf, 2004; Armstrong & Retterer, 2008; Lam, 2000). Finally, blogs may help learners improve their command of vocabulary and grammar (Armstrong & Retterer, 2008; Ducate & Lomicka, 2008).
