Ear and Eye Candy In The English Language
By · CommentsAn ESL/EFL Lesson Pause with Social Media!
Today I’m not going to focus on strictly ESL or EFL lesson material. No, I think you need a break. Ok, we will be using one of the social media, but I think you’ll enjoy the wonderful way this video helps us relate to our language. So let’s take 5 and go see one of my favorite YouTube videos.
Oh, yes, I have shown it to my more advanced ESL/EFL students. I wanted them to feast on the beauty of English.
The voice actor is excellent; he seems to give life and breath to the very words. And the graphics – the graphic designer was fantastic. I love the way they took the words and played with them as if they were in a sandbox – and in a certain sense they were !
Their sandbox, as ours, is our fantastic language. It allows us to take the 26 letters, about 42 sounds and the vast heritage we have received from our past. With this wealth we then create, share and hand on to coming generations our thoughts, hopes, experiences, lives… expressed in words, sounds and images.
This is the English language that ESL/EFL/ESOL teachers strive to hand on to those they teach.
Take a break and feast your eyes and ears on English!
ESL/EFL Lesson: 3 Steps In Using A YouTube Video
By · CommentsYouTube Video
ESL/EFL Lessons with a YouTube video can make our classes much more interesting and memorable for our students.
First of all, videos provide ESL/EFL learners with real-life English. The English is spoken at normal speed and uses vocabulary and sentence structure that native English-speaking people employ.
Moreover, good YouTube videos are free to access, short in duration and therefore, much easier to plan into an ESL/EFL lesson – and planning is important if we want to make sure we incorporate the videos into the overall class objectives.
A Sample ESL Lesson Plan for a YouTube video
As I noted in a previous post, it is important to prepare our students for the material they are going to watch. We need to give them background to what they are going to watch so that they can put it in context and link it to what they already know in their own language, as well as what they have already learned in their ESL/EFL/ESOL classes. Remember we want to stretch their English – not overwhelm them with unrelated information or grammatical and lexical material.
For this reason, it is very important that we preview the video first. We know our English learners and we know which lexical expressions or grammatical structure could be too challenging for them.
The basic ESL/EFL lesson plans have 3 parts: Preparation, Presentation of new language material, Application – and that is the organization I will be following in this lesson plan for this YouTube video.
The YouTube video I’ve chosen is called “Break Up”. It has won several awards and was produced in 2007 for the Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions. It appears to be a story about a romantic relationship that is coming to an end… but is it? It brings in the some of the vocabulary and body language of dating… But it is more…. Read the shirts of the man and the woman. What is the real story here?
With a general group of ESL/EFL learners, we could use in lessons dealing with vocabulary dealing with relationships. With business ESL/EFL clients the video could be incorporated into a training with dealing with communication skills and body language. These are just some ideas; there are many other ways that this video could be tied into a lesson.
ESL Learner: upper-intermediate to advanced
Class time: about 90 minutes
Material Needed: YouTube video, video player or computer large enough for your ESL learners to see and hear.
Preparation
Questions you could ask ESL/EFL learners
In your country/culture:
- How do young people date? (you might need to explain ”date”.)
- How did you first meet your boyfriend/girlfriend or wife/husband?
- Did you go out to eat in special places? Who paid for the meal?
- Do you feel that men understand women? How or How not?
- Do you feel that men listen to women? How or how not?
- Do women understand and listen to men? How or how not?
Presentation of new language material
New vocabulary in context:
Prepare your ESL students for the English language they are going to hear by either explaining or having exercises ready for them to do. Some words or phrases they might have difficult understanding could be the following:
- “I just put down a mil on a TV commercial just to talk to you.” What does “mil” mean here?
- “We don’t even hang out in the same places anymore.” What does the phrasal verb “hang out” mean?
- “You can’t tell me you missed the billboard in Times Square?” What does the verb “miss” mean here? “Billboard”? What is that?
- “Coupons, you want coupons.” What are “coupons”?
- “Let’s just hug.” What is “hug”?
- “I’m out of here!” What does the idiomatic expression”to be out of here” mean?
- “Let’s be like the old days.” Old days? What does this expression mean here?
The Video “Break Up”:
Show the introductory part of the video. Stop, check for oral comprehension, answer any questions students might have.
Continue showing video, stopping and checking for comprehension as needed. Then show the video all the way through from start to finish.
Application and Follow-up questions
- who does the man represent?
- who does the woman represent?
- what does the woman want?
- what’s the man’s reaction?
- what’s her main compliant?
- what does he know about the woman?
- how does he think he can make her happy?
- what is her reaction to his suggestions?
- As a customer do you want to be in dialogue with your service and product producers?
- How do you let your service and product producers know what you want?
- Why do you start using a service or product?
- Why do you stop using a service or product?
There are any number of questions, role plays, etc., that you can could use here in the application part of the ESL/EFL lesson…. How would you apply this video?
Eileen
There are a number of ways you can bring your ESL, EFL, ESOL lesson into the real world of native English speakers. One way is by using social media as content.
What do I mean by content?
Content is the actual linguistic material that we present to our students. Many language institutes use language textbooks that present the target language in a systemic manner. However, it could be that these texts do not incorporate examples from the internet, i.e., new media or social media. So when possible it is a good idea to bring in social media to supplement the textbook.
(It is important for non-native ESL/EFL/ESOL teachers to be aware of the fact that a high percentage of native English speakers use the internet and social media daily in their lives – and this use also has significant influence in their use of language – therefore, the need to expose our students to this use of English by mother tongue English users.)
In choosing real content from the internet, including that of social media, in goes without saying that we need to be aware of the ESL/EFL level of linguisitic development that our students have obtained – and then s-t-r-e-t-c-h them a bit to the next level in each lesson.
10 Steps to Using Social Media or New Media in an ESL/EFL lesson
Here are 10 steps that will help us in using social media, such as blogs, podcast, websites, videos, etc. in our lessons:
- We need to go over the internet material first.
- We need to choose topics that are of interest, professionally or personally, to our students.
- We need to check the material we have chosen for level of grammar, new lexical items that our students could have difficult with, e.g., phrasal verbs, idiomatic and/or colloquial expressions, puns, etc.
- We need to look at what background information we may need to provide, such as explaining particular cultural modes of behaviour, history, etc.
- If it’s an audio or video we have selected, in addition to the above, we need to assess the speaker’s speed, clarity of pronunciation, as well as clarity in the audio reproduction. (What might seem like clear audio to native speakers can be full of distracting noise for ESL/EFL/ESOL learners.)
- We need to organize our ESL/EFL lesson plan so that we have an introduction that prepares the student for the topic and linguistic input they will receive and connect it to their own work or lives so that it is meaningful for them.
- We need to prepare them for the new lexical and/or grammatical input with pertinent exercises.
- We need to monitor input, adjusting the material depending on the students’ reaction as they read, listen and/or view.
- We need to follow up the use of social media with exercises that will help them apply the language that they have learned to to their own situation.
- We need to incorporate the new lexical and grammatical material in the following lessons to help the students remember it and use it.
Using social media or new media in the ESL/EFL classroom makes the lesson more real and interesting for students, but it will only help their progress in learning English if we take the necessary time to prepare its use in our lesson plans.
How do you use social media in your classroom or lives? Post a comment and let me know. Or if you are not an ESL/EFL/ESOL teacher but you produce material on the internet – how can you make your material more ESL/EFL/ESOL-friendly?
Reginaldus Foster-Great Inspiring Language Teacher
By · Comments
Fr. Foster, Great Latin Language Teacher
“Latin is a dead language
as dead as dead can be…..
Once it killed the Romans,
and NOW it’s killing me!
Did you ever recite this?
As high school freshmen, we would chant these words to each other as we entered and exited Latin class.
Did you study Latin at some point in your life?
Amo, amas, amat… Do you still remember the Latin verb conjugations? or what about…
Hic, Haec, Hoc… can you decline it?
And Caesar’s Wars? Ugh!
Studying Latin in high school was an obligation – but – it was irksome! “Once it killed the Romans – and NOW it’s killing me….” These words frequently echoed in my head.
Years laters, arriving in Rome from Pakistan, I was registering for theological studies at the Gregorian University; however, Latin and New Testment Greek were required subjects starting from the first year. I wanted, at all costs, to avoid doing another course in Latin. The killing effects of high school Latin were still with me.
The Dean of Theology, Fr. Jared Wicks, informed me that if I passed the required test of Latin knowledge, I would be exempt from taking the Latin class. Before the date for the exam I studied day and night for weeks, reviewing and trying to revive my memory cells of the bitter Latin language.
When the Dean informed me that I had passed the test, I was delighted. No mind-draining, demoralizing Latin course for me, I thought. However, Fr. Wicks’ concluding words stayed with me and picqued my curosity: “If you want to really teach,” he advized, “take Reginald Foster’s Latin course. If nothing else, to learn from him how to teach.”
Three years later, I finally had an opening in my schedule that would allow the twice-weekly classes. However, during those three years, I had met “Reggie” as his students called him. You couldn’t miss him at the University. Clad in a simple blue plumber-looking shirt, jacket and trousers, bald head, rowdy face and frameless eyeglasses, Fr. Foster, who worked at the Vatican’s Latin Office, would arrive before 2 pm and go up to his classroom on the second floor. I would hear his 70 plus students, excitedly talking about their Latin class. Interestingly, none of them had that “Latin is killing me” attitude…. I was intrigued. Who could make Caesar and Cicero palatable?
“No dead wood!” Foster’s voice boomed on the first day of the basic class which Foster called, The First Experience. “I don’t want you here if you don’t want to learn Latin. Got it!” There was silence in the class. He had a contract for each of us to sign that we would attend the twice-weekly classes and do the homework after each class. He would personally correct each of the legal-sized, single spaced “Ludi” that he freshly created for each class. “I will know AND you will know – if you know Latin. Got it!”
Before the whining excuses could surface and be voiced of how hard Latin was, Foster informed us: “Friends, even the prostitutes and bums in Rome knew Latin. Got it!”
The question was not “why study Latin”, but rather, “why didn’t people want to study Latin”. “If you don’t know Latin, you know nothing!” his growling voice echoed off the walls of the large classroom,
“If you don’t know Latin, you are sitting out there on the sidelines – don’t worry, most of the world is out there with you. But if you want to know what’s going on in this whole stream of two thousand years’ worth of gorgeous literature than you need Latin.”
Then we got a 10-paged, stapled, legal sized booklet of sheets. These sheets filled with samples of Latin from the writings of such greats as Horace, Ovid, Cicero, Augustine, Acquinas, Eramus, all the way down to the most recent papal document… “This is our textbook.” Foster announced. This booklet, a good Latin dictionary, along with the class explanations and Ludi were our means to learn one of the “killer” languages! (To my surprise, in the booklet there was not a quote from Caesar’s Wars! ).
The Dean was right! Reginald Foster, originally fromWisconsin, had a unique way of teaching. And not only did we study the text, but Foster organized day-long trips within Rome and to areas around Rome. The ancient voices in the texts took on new meaning as we visited places such as, the Roman Formum & Palatine, Ostia Antica; Castel Gondalfo; Arpina, Cicero’s birth place, and Formia where he had a home and is buried; Horace’s summer villa in the Sabinan hills; the ancient ruined castle of Aquino north of Naples and down on the plains the ancient mediavel town of Fossanova. Each trip had a picnic atmosphere about it; we were given a new booklet with the ancient Latin texts that dealt with the area or author, read and sang in Latin, walked and shared with other class members and then finished the day’s outing in a local pizza restaurant. Then there was the annual Ides of March tour where we followed in the footsteps of Julius Caesar on that fateful day….
Here is a video of the song sang to Caesar at the end of the Ides of March tour. (The tour was also given during the Aestiva Romae Latinatis as in this video:
Reginald Foster’s passion and love for his subject, his care and concern for each of his students, his joy of life totally changed my whole outlook on Latin, learning and teaching. His:
- command of the material
- well-planned out lessons
- clear rules and guidelines
- passionate commitment to his subject
- engaging of all the internal and external senses in learning
- selfless dedication to his students and their progress
These qualites continue to be an example and inspiration to me of a great language teacher. Reginald Foster turned Latin from a dead to a living and life-giving language.
And you, do you remember any language teacher or teacher who inspired you in your life?How did they help you to appreciate the subject you were studying better? What did you learn from them that you would like to pass on to other teachers?
Eileen
ESL, EFL, ESOL E-Notebooks: Are They Blogs?
By · CommentsI have been asked recently for greater clarification about E-Notebooks: are they a computer? software? a blog?
To answer that let me share with you the reaction of my clients/students when I first told them that I had set up a “blog” style digital notebook for each of them so that they could record their written English, audio and video recordings and we could monitor their progress in the various language skills ….
Their initial body language: horrified, scared, taken aback, distressed ….
As I read these reactions in their face, I knew that something was a miss. Had I overstepped an invisible boundary? Walked into quicksand?
I reflected on how I had explained the concept to them and started looking to see which words carried the extra baggage. I spotted one.
So, I asked them to explain what they understood when I said the word “blog”.
“obligation” “time-consuming” “does the company allow us?” “I don’t do that…” were some of the explanations.
So, the problem was with what they understood by the word “blog”. So I dropped the word blog and just call their digital notebooks, “E-Notebooks”. (I could have used D-Notebooks – but that might have had other connotations for English language teachers!)
E-notebooks are a concept. They are meant to be a virtual place where students can keep their written, audio and visual language exercises in a digital format. It is not meant to be a blog in the current sense of the meaning. The students are totally free to chose to keep their material private or to publish it. Nor do we use them in every class. They are worked into the lesson plan and accessed when needed. At this point, in fact, all the students have opted to keep their audio and video productions private. And that is fine: an e-notebook is a teaching and learning tool in this case – not a publishing platform.
I chose to use the WordPress blogging platform because I felt it was easy to use in its most basic form, allowed the students to personalize their own digital notebook to a degree, gave accesible to students and teacher wherever there was a computer internet connection and provided us with the needed controls to protect students’ work and privacy.
So is the “e-notebook” a blog? No. It’s a learning tool where what is practiced and learnt is stored digitally.
Does it use blogging software? In this case, Yes.
Can it become a blog or website? If the person wants it to be.
Now, if you are reading this post, then you are blog-savy…. But how do your family, friends, clients, students see a blog? Do they read blogs? Do they want to write a blog?
Here’s to Using Social Media in ESL, EFL, ESOL…
Eileen
Learning ESL/EFL/ESOL with an E-Notebook helps students actually work with new media. While younger students take to the social media like bees to a flower, older people in the business and professional world can seem a bit mystified by all and overwhelmed by social media.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, E-Notebooks are a a joint electronic website where students can keep and monitor their English language learning efforts: written work, as well as audio and video recordings.
So how can you go about creating these e-notebooks?
It is not that difficult a process. This is how I did it. There are various other possibilities as well which we will discuss in later posts.
- I purchased a domain name.
- I got a web hosting provider.
- I installed the free WordPress.org onto my main site.
- I created a sub-domain for each student and installed the free WordPress.org onto each sub-domain.
The e-notebook is basically a WordPress.org blogging platform. I chose WordPress.org because I am familiar with the platform, and it gives me and my students the control that we need to use it as a learning tool.
Some of the strengths in WordPress.org that I found particular useful for creating e-notebooks are:
- it has a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processor;
- it has both blog and static pages (which are website-style pages);
- it can be adapted and expanded with widgets as and if needed;
- each student can decide if they want to publish, password protect or keep private for themselves and their teacher whatever they post in their e-notebook. I found that giving students the power to keep their language learning efforts private gave many a sense of ease with this new form of communication.
In setting up their sites, I asked each student to focus on something they enjoyed talking and writing about: hobby, interest, passion. Then, I walked each student through the basic steps of setting up their site, answering any questions or concerns as we went along: username, passwords, personalizing their site with a free WP theme, giving it their own title and tag line, and writing a post.
Most chose to keep their first posts private, which was fine. I fully respect my students’ feelings and needs. This is, after all, an ESOL language course, not a website/blog creation course. However, I found that before the next class a number of students had gone home, signed into their dashboard, explored the site, played around with the name of their site, categories and tags; some even chose a different theme. I saw this as a good sign as they were becoming comfortable with this new medium on their own turf.
A few brave souls decided to publish their posts for the world to see. I asked these students if they would mind if I showed their sites and posts to the other students and if these could write comments. All happily agreed – after all, they had made their posts public because they wanted others to read what they wrote.
As students have begun commenting on these public student e-notebook/websites, as the original writers have begun replying to their fellow students’ comments – I have seen a “green light” go on. They are getting it: these English language learners are experiencing what social media is all about – sharing ideas, stating opinions, creating relationships – and they are doing it in their target language!
As I mentioned above, this is one method to create an e-notebook. Can you think of others? What would fit with your students’ needs and the equipment you have available?
If you are interested, here is another example of a student’s e-notebook.
Enjoy using social media in ESL/EFL/ESOL lessons,
Eileen
ESL/EFL/ESOL Social Media Learning Tool: E-Notebooks
By · Comments“Tweeting?”, I asked.
“Yes! Yes!” Patrizia* responded. “She showed me how she has to type in… Oh, what is it? a 100 letters? Oh, I don’t remember, … and then the other person sends back a message… just like with the sms – only now she’s chatting with a girl in England! “
Patrizia, one of my business English clients, was keen to know about Twitter. Her 15 year-old daughter, who is studying English in an Italian school, was using it to “tweet” with others - in English!
Patrizia was delighted that her daughter felt confident enough in English to try to carry on a conversation with a native English speaker. Now Patrizia wanted to learn how to use social media, too.
The personal and professional world we live in is increasingly using the social media to network with people around the world. Nevertheless, some of my students were familiar with these new media, many had only heard of them, and most did not use them.
However, their children were using them – and these parents wanted to know more: they wanted to know what their children were getting into. Using social media became a hot topic for discussion. But to fully understand social media and to use the new CMC (computer-media-communications) lingo, there is nothing like actually rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty….
So, I suggested that it might be a good exercise to use these new media as tools in learning English. For example, why not create a blog which we could use for their writing exercises? This idea went down like a cold shower on a cold morning.
My clients/students’ coolness towards these new means reflected a number of causes: some felt that their English language skills weren’t adequate enough to write comments on other people’s blog, let alone write a post themselves. Others had heard of local negative news coverage of Facebook which left them feeling very leery of getting involved. For others, Twitter was an unknown entity and its 140 character count too limiting for their vocabulary and grammar capabilities. A few had commented a few times on blogs in their own language but had been ignored by the blog writer and other readers. In general, they felt ill-at-ease with these new media and how to communicate with them.
So I came up with the idea of “E-notebooks” for each student.
An “E-notebook” is a joint electronic website where students can keep and monitor their English language learning efforts: written work, as well as audio and video recordings. It is a joint electronic website because both I, as their instructor, and they, as the learners, have full access to their individual sites. It is a site that they can access either in class or from their own computers.
Here is an “E-notebook” from one of my Giovanni students. He has given me permission to show it to you. Take a look at it. It is a tool where teacher and student can note areas to work on, as well as improvements. How do you think he handled his qualms about writing a post?
In another post, I’ll describe to you how I set up the E-notebooks for each student and how we use them in an ESL/EFL/ESOL lesson plan.
But for now: How do you feel about using social media, such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, My Space, etc.? Do you think that it is important for parents to be familiar with exactly how the new social media function in order to be aware of what their children could be getting involved with? If you use social media, which ones do you use and how has they enriched your life?
Till the next post, enjoy using social media in ESL/EFL/ESOL lessons,
Eileen
*not her real name
English Speakers – Can They Understand One Another?
By · Comments“Where’s the loo?” she whispered.
The “loo”? Images, words, … came rushing to my mind: Lou, was there a Louis or Louise around?
Not that I knew of….
Maybe the comic strip character my mother so loved, Little Lulu? Was she looking for a comic book?
Nope, couldn’t be that…
Kate had asked for “THE loo” …
I was at a loss…. I didn’t know what my fellow native-English speaker was asking me for …. And moreover, she was whispering; so it might be something, well, delicate.
It was the late 80s and we were both studying and working in northern Pakistan up (6,000 ft up) in the foothills of the Himalayas at an Urdu language school. I was the adminstrator and Kate was my assistant. Nevertheless, our primiary objective was to learn Urdu, the national language of Pakistan.
However, from day one, we found we had a bigger challenge…. We had to understand each other!
Both young, full of energy and enthusiasm for the country we were in; we found our English language dividing us.
Formal English writing was not a problem, but with conversational English – we felt that we were coming from different planets. Kate was from Britian and I from the States and we were witnessing what Bernard Shaw had so elequently expressed when he said that “America and Britian are two nations divided by a common language.”
Years later, I discovered a fantastic book which helped me to understand in a better way this “Great Philosophical and Cultural Divide which is obscured by a familiar lingo” as Jane Walmsley described it in her hilarious book, Brit-Think, Ameri-Think: A Transatlantic Survival Guide, Revised Edition
Walmsley, an American journalist married to an Englishman and living in England, went on to point out that Americans and Brits have different cultures, different values and different ways of thinking.
“We cherish widely different values and aspirations, and have developed separate habits of mind. Only the names remain the same… and there’s some doubt about those….”
I laughed till I cried as I read her description of Americans – it was so true! But could the British really be like that? To find out I loaned and bought another copy of the book and gave it to various British friends, asking them to honestly evaluate Walmsley’s description of Her Majesty’s subjects.
Their response: yes, yes, it was accurate… but were Americans really like that?
Two peoples divided by a language that unites us!
Living in Europe has given me the opportunity not only to develop my British vocabulary and grammar, but to increase my familiarity with the Irish, Scottish, south Asian and Maltese English varieties, and to get greater exposure to the South African, Nigerian and Australian ones as well. However, the two main varieties on the Continent remain the British and American. Therefore, I jokingly tell my clients/students that they are learning 2 languages for the price of one.
But all joking and teasing aside, our English language differences which are largely culturally and historically based do impact our communication.
And this is the challenge we face in teaching English, particularly English as a foreign language. All language is culturally based, so as we help English language learners master the grammatical and lexical aspects we need to always bear in mind to help them with the cultural functional aspects so that when they use their newly acquired linguistic skills they will be using them appropiately in the correct context.
Sometimes it can be just a small thing, such as when we need to remind Italians, especially young Italians, that although they can sign off an email or sms in Italian with “baci” – “kisses” aren’t normally expected in some circumstances in English.
What experiences have you had in the English linguistic divide?
Have you found one variety of English particularly challenging?
Have you faced misunderstanding when trying to speak English with another English speaker who speaks a different variety of English?
Or perhaps you have had experiences with other languages?
Please feel free to share your experience in the comment box below. I look forward to hearing from you….
Oh…, the loo – I’ll let you look that up in a good British dictionary!
Eileen
Has the Internet Given Us a New Language Skill?
By · CommentsHow is the Internet influencing our use of English?
ESL lesson plans usually include the four language skills: reading, writing, speaking, listening. The English language teacher, trainer or consultant adjusts the content for these skills according to the level of the ESL student(s) in question.
However, English language linguist are bringing to our attention a new fact: the impact of the internet on English.
David Crystal, a world-renowned authority on the English language, in his book, Language and the Internet
Netspeak or computer-mediated communications (CMC) is “a type of language displaying features that are unique to the Internet … arising out of its character as a medium which is electronic, global and interactive” (18).
This new communication medium offers elements from all the traditional 4 skills. In his book, Words and Minds: How We Use Language to Think Together
I’ll talk more about this topic in future posts, but for now let me know:
- if you have noticed the influence of the internet in your use of English, or for that matter, other languages? If so, how?
- Have you noticed yourself using computer and/or internet terminology in your written and spoken communications?
- Do you expect instant replies to your comments or queries?
-Do you notice any differences between CMC/Netspeak and face-to-face conversations?
- What about internet “body language”… are you able to pick up emotions, moods, etc. when conversing on the internet – as we are now? 
Thanks for dropping by; I look forward to your comments.
Eileen
“How can I write a post?” Giovanni* asked me. He was not the only student who had voiced his anxiety as he sat in front of the computer.
“I don’t know who I’m writing to…. I can’t write to people I don’t know!”
Giovanni’s reaction to the thought of learning to use new social media is common – for many of us. People feel frightened by the unknown, especially unknown people. And for those learning English and using that language to communicate through the social media there are additional fears with regards to culture and language….
Since we humans developed language we have become used to conversing with people we could see, hear or had met. So, while it’s true that writing, whether on scrolls, in books, newspapers or magazines meant we could communicate with people we didn’t know or see…. we didn’t see it that way. When we wrote we had an audience in mind whether it was our teacher, the boss, an editor, someone we loved, etc….
Whether we talked or wrote, whether we listened or read – we were and are, always, in some form of a relationship with someone. And so Giovanni was right: it is very hard to have a relationship with someone you don’t know, with someone you have never met….
But this is what social media seems to be asking us to do… or is it?
When we blog who are we writing to? When we use other new social media are we in a relationship with our readers, our listeners, our audience? And if we are, what impact does that have on the way we write, speak, act?
Communicating with other persons is about creating a relationship. It is people sharing with other people their ideas, hopes, fears, jokes, stories, experiences, know-how…. It is about a meeting of minds, working out solutions together, and, sometimes, even competing to have the last word….
So, to help Giovanni what advice do you think I should give him as he uses the new social media and writes a blog post in English? He is unsure of his audience. He doesn’t know who will be reading his blog nor what they will think of him or of his English.
Please feel free to write your advice or opinion in the comment box below. And thanks.
Eileen
Using Social Media To Develop English Language Skills
*Giovanni is not his real name, although this is a true story.
