Software/Website Title: Spanish Teaching
Website URL: http://www.spanish-teaching.com/blog
Grade/Age Level: This blog is for both Spanish students and teachers. Since most of the blog is in English, it could be used for all levels; however, there is a specific tab for beginners. Based on the content, I feel the blog is mainly for secondary/post secondary students and adult learners.
Language & Content:
This blog was created by a Spanish language school in Spain called don Quijote. The purpose of this blog is to provide Spanish language resources for both students and teachers as well as to share information about Spanish culture (Spain and Latin America in particular). The content includes language resources for students such as language learning tips, seasonal vocabulary, videos, games, recommended reading lists and other odds and ends. For teachers, there are also odds and ends that people have put on the blog such as videos, interviews, etc. Other content include student written diaries, news, polls, pictures and Spanish language resources.
This blog uses imported video and pictures and contains external links to other blogs, the “Real Academia Espanola” (RAE) and the don Quijote school which contains a lot of wonderful learning resources such as online literature, lessons, word of the day and a monthly newsletter. I think these links are very effective and up to date. For example, RAE is the authority on the Spanish language. One of the news links on this blog talks about how the new Spanish dictionary put out by RAE authorizes words such as “internet” and “chat”.
As previously mentioned, there are wonderful pictures on the blog's main page as well as links to many more. This gives the target audience a more intimate view of various places in Spain. Furthermore, the discussions, hints and resources are offered in English but provide a lot of good ideas and suggestions. Also, having links to student diaries demonstrates that the blog is very learner centered.
I think this blog allows the reader to better understand the culture through photos and the personal experiences shared (diaries, blog entries, etc.). It also provides links to allow them to explore Spanish literature, grammar exercises, etc. in a non-threatening way. You can make blog entries with a registered account and also vote in different polls. For example, the current poll asks “Where does Spanish fall on your list of languages learned?.” The links provided do go to a website that offers various practice exercises, cultural information, etc.
Overall, I think the layout is clean, simple and user-friendly. All but one link seemed to work. Furthermore, links are place under clear headings such as “Student Diaries”, “Recent Documents” and “Spanish Resources”. Navigation is easy and you can always choose “home” from the various pages. The biggest strength about this blog is that it offers wonderful pictures and a lot of personal tips from language learners. It is also very learner friendly and provides authentic language input. The information provided is of quality and useful not just full of opinions which I found in some of the other blogs. One improvement would be to add practice exercises to the blog directly. Maybe it could change ever week or so.
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3 comments:
I agree with you Stefanie, I like the layout a lot. It's very wide and clean, easy to read. I really like the left and right borders. I do think the author needs to get a clear direction of where she wants the site to go.
I think that's a really good example of what a school (or teacher) can do. This site obviously has many purposes including marketing, publishing student works, providing personalized content, and so forth.
Especially, when working with language students, stories are powerful. Creation of their own stories is even more powerful. These students have the opportunity not only to reflect on their experiences in Spain but also to provide information about the area for future students and surfers like us.
Dan
I haven't used stories much in my ESL classes but I think I need to because it not only allows them to express themselves and be creative but it also provides authentic language input for other students. The skill level and interests will probably be more in line their peers. I often have problems finding written material for adults at the beginning level; so, student generated stories would be a good source.
Stefanie
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