Blogs and the development of plurilingual and intercultural competence: report of a co-actional approach in Portuguese foreign language classroom

Abstract

Focusing on the topic of the development of the plurilingual and intercultural competence through the integration of electronic communicative practices both in foreign language classrooms and non-formal contexts, this work aims at defining and characterizing, in view of a co-actional perspective, a "pedagogical blog", by considering it from three different axes: a personal and social dimension, a collaborative and coactional dimension and the management of linguistic and cultural repertoires dimension. In order to do so, this contribution presents and describes a case study which will highlight how blogs can be used in order to develop plurilingual and intercultural competences: we will present the classroom dynamics developed by the blog "Falar pelos cotovelos", a year-long project created within the scope of the teaching and learning of Portuguese as a foreign language, in a non-formal setting (non-scholar public). Throughout the discussion of this purposeful sampling, our analysis will allow us to consider pedagogical blogs as means of socialization, as instruments at the service of exolingual interaction and as time-spaces for languages and cultures.

Blogs as a Means to Enhance Writing Skills in EFL Classes

“…Researchers say that the integration of electronic communicative practices in foreign language classrooms helps learners acquire new knowledge and develops intercultural competences [2], contributes to the development of writing skills and makes information sharing more challenging, meaningful and interesting [3,4,5]. Blogging, as a teaching strategy, provides a motivating learning environment, creates additional opportunities for language learning and furthers learners' independence [6].…”

Specifying the dynamics of social technologies as social microworlds

“…Although abundant literature exists across many disciplines on the use of social technologies as useful tools for improving communication, collaboration, cultural awareness and information sharing (Aydin 2012;Li and Zhu 2013;Melo-Pfeifer 2013;Vurdien 2013), there is a need for more solid evidence on the potentials, challenges as well as the theoretical grounding of these technologies (Wang and Vasquez 2012;Lantz-Andersson, Vigmo, and Bowen 2013).…”

An Investigation of Iranian EFL University Learners’ Creative Thinking and Critical Thinking Skills in a Pedagogical Blog: A Mixed-Methods Approach

“…In the last decade, blogs and blogging in English language classroom were empirically investigated from different perspectives, including learners' writing performance (Asoodar, Atai, & Vaezi, 2016;Lee, 2010;Sun, 2010;Vurdien, 2013), learners' reading comprehension (Ducate & Lomicka, 2008;Yakut & Aydin, 2017), learners' oral proficiency (Sun, 2009), learners' autonomous and independent learning (Bhattacharya & Chauhan, 2010;Blackstone, Spiri, & Naganuma, 2007), and learners' intercultural competence (Melo-Pfeifer, 2015). Illuminating the importance of blogs in language learning and teaching, Vurdien (2013) argued that blogs and blogging are extensively explored by the researchers because they can be used for various pedagogical purposes, encourage learners to express their ideas, help teachers ask their learners questions, and provide the opportunity for collaboration.…”

“…They reported that a majority of studies were either qualitative or quantitative. Moreover, Melo-Pfeifer (2015) asserted that the main studies on the use of blogs in language classroom focused on the development of language skills and knowledge in the target language. But there seems to be no relevant literature on the effect of blogs and blogging on language learners' higherorder thinking despite the importance of higher-order thinking skills such as creative and critical thinking skills in learning English.…”