Using blogs to promote reflective language learning

Abstract

Education is meant to bring about durable behavioral changes in the learner in terms of knowledge, skills and attitude. In addition to learning specific contents and acquiring skills that are pertinent to certain fields of study, students need to be able to get, from their school experiences, the methods and techniques that help them become life-long learners. Learning how to learn is a vital skill in the current dynamic socio-economic atmosphere. In such a context, students must be aware of the 'why' and the 'how' of their learning, have a high degree of awareness of their own learning and be responsible for its execution and progress. One way of promoting such learning is engaging students in reflective learning, a process which involves mentally revisiting the learning experience or event, interpreting it and evaluating what is gained from it. This short article reviews the works of two researchers, Mynard (2007) and Yang (2009), which center on using blogs to promote reflective language learning.