Facebook Group to Learn English by Blogging

Nicholas Walker

So, you want to learn English.  That's great! Maybe, you want to improve ability to communicate in your field, or maybe you want to improve your chances of finding a job. I want to help you.

My name is Nicholas Walker. I teach college English as a Second Language in Montreal, Canada, and I develop websites related to ESL in my spare time. Not only do I have many years of experience teaching English in South Korea and Canada, I also have an M.A. in Applied Linguistics and a B.A. in English Literature. I know English, and I know how to teach it.

I want to help you improve your English, but you have to help me.

Here's how:

1. Be active. 

I want to work with people who are serious about improving their English. You can demonstrate that you are serious about learning English in the following ways.

• Join my Facebook group: Learn English by Blogging. This is where we exchange links and advice to help each other. Promote your blog to other group members here.
• Visit the group page every week, liking and responding to the activity there.
• Arrange for video and audio chat conversations with other group members. 
• Do the exercises and blog writing assignments. Don't stop.  
• Create a blog on Blogger.com related to your field of study or passion. Make sure that your blog address and title contain words related to your field of study or interest. 

2. Help the other group members. 

There are a number of ways that you can be helpful to the other members of the  Learn English by Blogging Facebook group. Some ways are easy. Some take an extra effort. 

• Easy: start by being supportive. Everyone likes to hear encouraging remarks about their efforts to learn and express themselves. Click the like button when someone shares a link to a blog post they have written. 
• More difficult: write helpful comments. If you see a problem with someone's blog post, write a three part comment. 1) Thank that person for sharing. Say, "Thanks for sharing your blog post." 2) Tell the group member how to improve his or her blogpost with specific advice. For example, you could say, "You should write shorter paragraphs." 3) End with a specific positive comment, "I really like your title. Very catchy." Comments like these help writers feel good about the help they receive from others. 

3. Help the teacher.

You want to learn English. I want to promote my websites. In return for the opportunity to improve your English, I would like your help. Copy and paste the following links into your blog posts:

References

• Check your grammar with the best ESL grammar checker VirtualWritingTutor.com
• Check your vocabulary with FieldRelated.com
• Learn CEGEP ESL with BokomaruPublications.com
• Correct more, better, and faster with CorrectiveFeedback.com, an ESL power tool for teachers

4. Write blog posts

Create a blog on Blogger, and start writing blog posts with titles, images, text, and links. Here are some blog post writing assignments I recommend:

1. Introduction: write a paragraph about yourself and a paragraph about your professional goals for your blog. Explain why you are writing a blog and how you think it will help you.
2. Listicle: write a numbered list of items related to a theme. Click here to see an example of a listicle. Make sure to include an introductory paragraph (no heading) and 3 or more paragraphs with numbered headings.
3. Walkthrough: record yourself on YouTube giving a guided tour of a website related to your field of study or passion. Show your listener how to achieve a specific goal.  Embed your video on your blog with a short introductory paragraph. 
4. Summary: write a summary of an article related to your field of study or passion. Do not copy and paste. Say why you chose the article and how it relates to your field. Add a link to the original article. 
5. Glossary: Make a list of some technical or semi-technical terms related to your field of study or passion. Go to FieldRelated.com for examples. Do not copy paste a glossary entries. Make your own. Use Google and do a search using the the search term define + the word you wish to define. 

Once you have written each of these blog posts, share your link on the  Learn English by Blogging Facebook group. We will give you the encouragement and support you need to keep learning.