Blog is a virtual diary on the Internet. The student registers his or her own blog on a blog website, all students from the group should use the same website. The blog is used by the students to express his or her opinion and share his or her experience on a certain issue or topic. Blog provides a possibility for other students and the teacher to read the entries, to comment on them and offer some advice.

Communicative language teaching, in this case interactive learning is an approach which implies that process of learning is carried out by interacting with other people and not concentrating on the learning itself, since the emphases is made on the content (the topic instead of the language itself). While using this method, a lot of pair-work and group work has to be carried out.

Area this example can be used:

English

Short and concise description what I did and how I did it:

The method was used in an English class with 12 adult learners after a certain topic was  covered. The students wrote an email letter to their classmate stating their opinion on the topic covered, thus developing their vocabulary and improving their writing skills.

Useful in age group:

19 to 25, 26 to 30, 31 to 50

Aim to be achieved:

To develop the learners' writing skills, to enhance their vocabulary, to practise the use of grammatical constructions, to teach the rules of writing informal letters. Contemporary learners are not very keen on sharing their opinion in a written form, particularly in a foreign language; this method was used in order to enable the students to share their opinion without emphasizing the fact that it is being done in a written form.

How did I achieve it:

During the class of English the topic on healthy lifestyle and increasing weight problems among people was being covered. To develop the students' vocabulary and improve their understanding of the issue, as well as offering a nearly authentic situation to use these skills, the learners were divided into pairs and exchanged their email addresses. By the end of the week the learners were asked to send their classmate a letter stating their opinion on fastfood companies and obesity among people, as well as telling about their own lifestyle. The learners were asked to forward the sent letter to the teacher, so that the teacher could see when the letter was sent and later on to analyze the mistakes.

I encountered these problems and my following approaches helped to solve these:

The learners are usually reluctant to share their opinion on serious issues, especially in a foreign language. The format of an email, and the fact that the letter was sent to the classmate, reduced the anxiety and they used the opportunity to share their opinion on the given topic freely, forgetting the fact, that they were actually learning the language in the process.

Why do I consider this approach to be effective and useful:

This approach is extremely effective especially when developing learners' writing skills, because they are very keen on communicating with each other, but they would typically do it orally. The format of the informal letter and use of Internet encourages the learners to share their opinion and not to be afraid of the foreign language.

Tools:

Email is an electronic letter sent via electronic mail box.
The student registers his or her own email box on any free mail box portal.