Blogging for a targeted purpose: a poetry exchange designed for cross-cultural interaction

Abstract

In everyday life students are exposed to various online media as a means for communication. For language learning this implies possibilities of finding online meeting spaces across cultural and national borders. Writing platforms allowing for exchanges across the world are increasingly being used in language education. One such emerging platform is the blog, which was originally used as an online diary. When used in education it is designed in a different way than it was originally intended to be.

This presentation discusses a cross-cultural blog exchange between native speakers of English and non-native speakers of English analyzing the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer. The blog was part of the students’ respective literature courses in their home countries. The two groups of students belong to different disciplines in their respective country as well as to different nationalities with different language backgrounds. In the postings, their cultural voices are seen, offering a meeting between very contrasting groups. When investigating the student postings, the threaded discussions illustrate how students negotiate joint understanding when analyzing the poems. The results show that collaborative efforts in such a diverse environment are important when negotiating meaning.

Presentation

Bradley, L. & Thouësny, S. (2011). “Blogging for a targeted purpose: a poetry exchange designed for cross-cultural interaction”. Paper presentation. AFMLTA 2011 National Conference, 06-JUL-11 – 09-JUL-11, Darwin, Australia.