A blog has the structure of an online journal or diary so it is an effective way for English
teachers to share ideas, materials and experiences between themselves and their
students which are current and relevant. It allows the use of various types of media
such as images, video, audio, text, as well as userinteractivity in all of these different
media. This means a blog can provide material, discussion and advice concerning all
four skills necessary for second language acquisition: speaking; listening; reading; and
writing. This, together with the absence intermediaries such as editors and publishers
means that English learners can experience direct contact with contemporary Englishspeaking cultures in a way appropriate to their language ability yet still enjoying access
to authentic materials. This increases the opportunities for English teachers to enhance
learning and motivate students.
The blogs analysed are also all excellent examples of a crucial aspect of teaching,
sharing good practice. This is an essential aspect of continuing professional
development. Previously the ideas and experiences of teachers could be shared only
amongst colleagues; blogs enable ideas and experience to be shared with any teacher
or student with access to the internet anywhere in the world. The blogs analysed here
harness the immense creativity of ordinary EFL teachers and make it available cheaply
and easily to the entire profession.
Several of the blogs analysed rank better on the Web and in Social Media than in the
Blogosphere. This demonstrates interest for some ofthe content of these blogs greater
than the influence of the blog itself within the blogging community and is further
evidence of the potential of blogs as one of Web 2.0 tool that can be employed for
English language teaching and learning.
Although blog ranking engines such as Technorati provide a good measure of authority
within the community of bloggers, other metrics need to be considered in order to build
a more complete image of the impact and influence of English language teaching and
learning blogs in the Web and Social Media.
The richness and variety of the authentic material used on the blogs and the degree of
innovation applied to adapting ICTs and Web 2.0 tools to teaching EFL shown by EFL
bloggers demonstrates the potential that has been unleashed with the democratization
of information production.