Can microblogging be used for teaching ESL/EFL learners?

While in the midst of trying out my new Twitter and Plurk account, I can't seem to stop thinking about the different ways of utilizing microblogging in a ESL/EFL classroom. Since I am still new to this, I've decided to look for more information online.

While browsing around, I came across a very informational blog post by Mr. Nik Peachey. In his post, Mr. Peachey mentioned that he conducted a Twitter vs. Plurk competition. After 6 weeks of trying out the two microblogging tools, Mr. Peachey went on to crown Plurk as the winner between the two. He also provided a video clip to further explain the reason behind his decision. Additionally, Mr. Peachey suggested ways for ESL/EFL teachers to help their students by using Plurk. Some of the suggestions that I found useful were creating sentences for students to correct, sending out words and asking students for responds, sending images to students for description and also creating a collaborative story with students. I also like the fact that Mr. Peachey included suggestions for students to use Plurk as part of their learning process.

After reading Mr. Peachey's post, I have no doubt in my mind that using microblogging tool such as Plurk can definitely enhanced the language learning process for my ESL/EFL students. However, I think it's important to keep in mind some of the privacy/spam issues that Mr. Peachey's mentioned in his post when using microblogging tool. Nonetheless, I am glad to have read up on some interesting ways on using microblogging with my future ESL students.

Until next time...