Reflexion, analysis and language practice: From individual critical thinking to collaborative learning using blogs in a literature class

In modern times, blended learners may easily access a high variety of media to express and share their thoughts and opinions with others. These may include typical blog websites such as WordPress.com or blogger.com or indeed Social Networking Sites (SNS) such as SnapChat, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, all of which continue to encourage self-expression on the part of the users, which is known as User Generated Content (Levina N, Arriaga M Information Systems Research 25:468-488, 2014). Furthermore, the employment of such tools for practising writing and analysis skills in a literature class requires further investigation by the CALL community, most notably for investigating the potential for raising critical thinking from an individual to a collaborative basis. This chapter aims to add to this ongoing debate and will describe the pedagogical impact, effectiveness and viability of using blogs to enhance both student learning and peer collaboration in a literature class with final year learners of French.