Blog as Media in English Language Teaching
Internet can be used as medium of education. One of medium that is used by teacher in English language teaching in the classroom is blog. Blog is web online media that is a medium for expressing opinion, emotion, and attitude of someone or even a group. In Indonesia, Teacher uses blog to support English language teaching in the classroom. Blog can be able to help us in finding the material, enrich the knowledge, and share the idea. Students can also stand alone in learning because they can find and try something by themselves so they experience it themselves. Although the teacher has to try to motivate the students in understanding that blog is very useful for them. That is the condition in Indonesia; now, let us see how the blog is used by teacher in the classroom in the several countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Taiwan.
In Brazil, blog is used by students to express themselves. They can learn each other opinion. Beside that they tend to write more on language so they can practice their English. By using blog, the students in the classroom are more connected and closer because they know each other more and more from their actualization. In using blog, teacher uses some technique as like reading project and mystery guess with imagination and creativity. However, teacher also finds challenges as like how to keep the interaction high and promote the direction in using blog.
The condition in Argentina is quite different with Brazil. The technique in using blog is made to help the students learning how to communicate without human being if it is hard to meet people. In this situation, the students come from different places so the teacher should make across meeting by using blog. The students have to carry out a project although they are separately by distance. They still can help each other. In the other way, they can send comment or photographs; listen voices or conversation that can be uploaded from blog.
In Taiwan, teacher uses blog to provide the material, train the oral skill, and give the students voice recording assignment. They have to get the performance back by recording their evaluation from video. So they can evaluate their performance themselves.
After we have seen some situations in different country, I conclude that Blog can help in the social interaction because everyone can express what they feel so all people can read and give some comments. Blog is a good media to make the students try in expanding themselves especially for practicing English.
