Innovation in Language Learning

The debate as to how to improve education in the United States is ongoing, and since language teachers often find themselves on the sidelines of the debate, many are looking for ways to enhance their students’ educational experience in innovative ways that teach skills that are valuable not only in their own classrooms but in those of other subjects. In Because Writing Matters:  Improving Student Writing in Our Schools, Carl Nagin addresses the importance of writing as a tool for learning.  Nagin explores the reading/writing connection throughout the text and also examines the role of writing in language acquisition and in solidfying one’s understanding of their own language. 

While Nagin is primarily concerned with the role of writing for English Language Learners in the United States, his research and conclusions hold true for any student learning a second language. Of particular relevance is the idea that “learning a new language, in addition to being a grammatical task, also asks the student to take on a new identity” (Nagin 28).  Also relevant is the role technology can play in language acquisition.  Nagin writes that technology can enhance “student-student relationships, as students [use technology to] talk to each other.”  He also adds that technology can aid the writing process, making “response, revision and editing eminently more agreeable” (Nagin 29).

This workshop will demonstrate how two teachers from the United States, Amy Nocton and Colette Bennett, have used blogging technology as a tool for language instruction with their students.  Ms. Nocton and Mrs. Bennett will discuss their personal stories of blogging with their students, will share research on how reading and writing in a target language can be made more effective with the use of digital media, will outline what platforms they have used for blogging with their students, will demonstrate how blogging can provide students with a larger, more international audience, and will review the pitfalls and successes they have had along the way.  In short, teachers attending this workshop will develop an understanding of how to use blogging to enhance their students’ reading and writing skills in the target language.  Ms. Nocton and Mrs. Bennett will discuss how blogging has inspired their students to write creatively and academically in the process of acquiring a second language.

Mrs. Bennett, an English teacher, has been blogging with her students for­­ five years.    Ms. Nocton started blogging with her advanced Spanish students during the 2013-2014 academic year after consulting with Mrs. Bennett and learning of her success with this medium for teaching writing.  During the course of the year, Ms. Nocton and her students blogged on El Quijote, Romanticism and photography, and open response topics using one word lenses as frames for academic inquiry.  During the 2014-2015 academic year, Ms. Nocton will be blogging with her Spanish students and a colleague’s students in Spain. 

This summer, Amy Nocton will be researching the reading/writing connection and language acquisition through blogging as a participant in the Connecticut Writing Project’s Summer Institute.