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Examining Emerging ELT Professional Presence across the Blogosphere

Kerstin Müller

Durham University, UK

University of Münster, Germany

Kerstin.Mueller1@uni-muenster.de Twitter: @MullerKerstin

TEFL Lounge, 23rd May 2012

Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

• MA TESOL Dissertation, English Language

Centre – Durham University

• Summer 2011

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

• Interview

• Examination Tool

Motivation, Audience, Community, Tools

• 4 Bloggers were included in the study:

Scott Thornbury, Ken Wilson, Mike Harrison, David Deubelbeiss

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Scott Thornbury‘s An A-Z of ELT

• 1st blogpost “D is for Drill” 8th Dec 2009

• Blogs on a weekly basis

• ELT-related topics: – Lesson planning, grammar, methodology, course

books, learning and language learning theories, World Englishes, “Dogme ELT movement”, etc.

http://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Ken Wilson‘s Blog:

Random Ideas for ELT people, plus guest blogs

and travel notes

• 1st blogpost: 17th July 2009

• Irregular frequency of posts

• ELT-related topics and journeys: – Teaching job, conferences, presentation skills, etc.

http://kenwilsonelt.wordpress.com/

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Ken Wilson:

• To share out-of-print publications

• Guest posts

• Travel reports

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Mike Harrison‘s Blog

• 1st blogpost: 6th Jan 2010

• Irregular frequency of posts

Dependent on ideas and time

• ELT- related topics: – Teaching-related topics, new online technologies,

PLNs, “dogme ELT movement”, etc.

http://www.mikejharrison.com

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Mike Harrison:

• To share materials and lesson plans

• To promote projects (e.g. Action for ESOL)

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

David Deubelbeiss‘ EFL 2.0 – Teacher Talk

• Blogs almost daily

• ELT-related topics: – Everything of relevance for ESOL teachers, e.g.

resources, theories, reforms etc.

http://ddeubel.edublogs.org/

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

David Deubelbeiss:

• To share other content and material

• To point to other websites and projects

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

New Ideas and Theories in Blogs

Scott: challenges existing theories and

disseminates new ones

Ken: no reference to any specific

theories

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

New Ideas and Theories in Blogs

Mike: touches upon theories, does

not disseminate new ones

David: disseminates ideas (through

sharing ideas and materials)

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Why did the bloggers start their blog?

Who inspired them?

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Scott Thornbury:

• Curiosity

• To create an online presence

Inspired by:

• Lindsay Clandfield’s blog “Six Things”

• “John Wells’s phonetic blog”

• David Crystal’s blog

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Ken Wilson:

• Repeated encouragement by others

• To share previously published material

• Not directly inspired

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Mike Harrison:

• Motivated and encouraged by Jamie Keddie

Inspired by:

• Jamie Keddie’s ELT blog

• Karenne Sylvester’s blog “Kalinago English”

• Ken Wilson’s blog

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

David Deubelbeiss:

• To preserve thoughts and ideas

Inspired by:

• Larry Ferlazzo‘s “Website of the Day”

• Ira Socol’s Blog

• Scott Thornbury’s “An A-Z of ELT”

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

What is the motivation behind their blogs?

Scott Thornbury:

• Revision of key entries of publication

• Exploration and investigation of current

ELT-issues

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

What is the motivation behind their blogs?

Ken Wilson:

• Sharing of material

• Informing and entertaining

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

What is the motivation behind their blogs?

Mike Harrison:

• Recording of and reflection on teaching

practice

• Sharing of teaching ideas and lesson

plans

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

What is the motivation behind their blogs?

David Deubelbeiss:

• Reflection on practice

• Exploration of thoughts

• Sharing of resources and experiences

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

What is the motivation behind their blogs?

Common Motivation:

• Communication with other professionals

• Exchanging thoughts and ideas about

ELT-related issues

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Relation Blogs and Academic publications

Academic publications:

• Still contemporary

• Have a higher status

• Longer publishing process more

validated

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Blogs:

• More convenient direct and mediated

• Larger audience worldwide access

• Immediacy

• Higher relevance

• Allow direct feedback

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Blogs and academic publications:

• Equally valuable

Relevance

Quality (e.g. references in posts)

• Not mutually exclusive

Article might develop from blog post

Academic content can be made accessible

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Audience and Communication

Target Audience:

• Teachers

• Teacher trainers

• Educators

• Worldwide ELT community

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Communication with the audience

• Commentary function

• Number of comments varies

• Qualitative comments:

constructive contributions

discussions

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

The importance of the audience

• Immediate and extensive responses

• Involvement in discussions

• Provision of explanations

• Appreciation of feedback

Future teaching

Reflection on views

Support for professional development

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Blog promotion

• Twitter

• Facebook

Ken

Mike

David

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

The online community of ELT professionals

• Reading and commenting on other blogs

• Other blogs as an inspiration

• Communication and discussion via blogs

• Blog rolls

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Views on ELT online community

• Equalisation in terms of prestige

• 2 contrasting views:

– Supportive and welcoming

– Willing to share and improve

vs.

– Cliquish and too supportive

– Not critical enough

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Tools

• Blogging service WordPress:

– Starndard version (Scott, Ken)

– Installed version (Mike)

– EduBlogs (David)

Easy to set up and use the blog

Simple to adjust texts and graphics

• Further tools and widgets vary

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Scott Thornbury:

• Preference to keep blog as simple as

possible

• Blog should not look crowded

• Added an index

• Vlogs

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Ken Wilson:

• Visitor Map

• Blog Chat

• Total Hits

• Twitter updates

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Mike Harrison:

• Links to other websites

• Search: Categories and archive

• Most recent blog posts

• A wordle cloud (topic based for blog entries)

• Twitter updates

• ...

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

David Deubelbeiss:

• Live traffic feed

• Links to other websites

• Visitor Map

• Search Engine

• Tag cloud

• Archive

• ...

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

• Scott Thornbury: An A-Z of ELT. http://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/

• Ken Wilson’s Blog: Random Ideas for ELT people, plus guest blogs & travel notes. http://kenwilsonelt.wordpress.com/

• Michael Harrison: Experiences, teaching ideas and lesson plans from an ESOL teacher.

http://www.mikejharrison.com/ • David Deubelbeiss: EFL 2.0: Teacher Talk.

http://ddeubel.edublogs.org/

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

• Lindsay Clanfield: Six Things: A Miscellany of English Language Teaching. http://sixthings.net/

• David Crystal: DC Blog. http://david-crystal.blogspot.com/

• Larry Ferlazzo’s Website of the Day. http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

• Ira Socol: SpeEdChange: The future of education for all the different students in democratic societies. http://speedchange.blogspot.com/

• Karenne Sylvester: Kalinago English. http://kalinago.blogspot.com/

• John Wells’s phonetic blog: Everything to do with Phonetics. http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/

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Examining Emerging

ELT Professional Presence

Across the Blogosphere

Thank you for your attention!

Any questions?

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