Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation

The rationale behind the blend
The key underlying objective when designing the course was to create a programme
that played to the strengths of the online medium (providing flexibility and creating
opportunities for reflective and collaborative online learning) whilst maintaining
the integrity and validity of a very well established qualification and the key interrelationship
between theory and practice. Possible models of the course can
be found at www.esolcentrenet.org, but in summary, there is a basis of flexibility
provided by the parameters of the course structure:
■■ it can be run over any period from ten weeks to a year
■■ the 30 modules can be offered by the individual CELTA centre at a rate of either
two, three or four per week, the only stipulation being that the Orientation Module
and Units 1– 6 are released before teaching practice begins
■■ teaching practice can be scheduled evenly through the course, or in blocks,
the latter allowing centres to ‘reach out to people in areas not near you’
(Swabey et al., 2012).
The course web page emphasises: ‘You have the freedom to choose how you work.
As long as assignments are completed on time and you contribute to discussion
forums and live room discussions, the online format allows you to work at your
own pace, when and where you choose.’ (Cambridge ESOL Teaching Qualifications,
2012a) and this is supported by the literature. As Hofmann writes: in ‘a learnercentred
program … there are opportunities for participants to learn at their own
pace’ (2011: 4) and Thorne comments: there is opportunity to ‘undertake your own
development at a time, place and pace to suit you’ (2003: ix). Glazer comments
that ‘The asynchronous nature of the blended component of the courses has the
salutary effect of expanding the time the students spend on course material’ (2012:
3). Littlejohn and Pegler (2007) refer to the use of online spaces for formation of
communities that can interact in exciting new ways. Glazer (2012: 3) extends this:
‘Discussions conducted online encourage reflection and usually reach 100 per cent
participation. As a result, the face-to-face time can be used more effectively, with
students extending the material beyond what might be achieved in a conventional
face-to-face course. The students in a blended course make more and richer
connections between what they are learning and what they already know, creating
a robust scaffold to organize the information…. Effective blended learning courses
require students to interact with each other, the content, and their own thoughts.’
Bonk and Graham (2006) comment that blending learning allows the learner to
retain more of what is learned.
These points are borne out by the feedback from trainees on the pilot course.
Emphasising the value of working independently, one says in an interview postcourse:
‘I work better in the evenings, shut myself away with my computer … for
assignments, I’ve gone back to online units, tried to include all tips…’ (Cambridge
ESOL: Teaching Qualifications, 2012b) and another: ‘it wasn’t practical to take a
month off work, this was the only way my employer would have let me do it, it’s
fantastic it exists’ (ibid.). The OCT on their course emphasises the shared nature of
the discussion and assignment forums available to trainees: ‘once all trainees see
116 | The Cambridge CELTA course online