Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation

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pairs and groups on collaborative tasks or as a whole class and I was able to provide immediate feedback and help, which is important for learners who have been out of class for a long time and with the needs mentioned above. The online component I only used the internet once or twice to show and explain the blog and its features. Almost all of the class time was used to elicit and introduce new language, collaboratively build dialogues and practise the language to make the most of the limited time we were together. The online component was meant to extend classroom time and provide students with a record of coursework giving them the opportunity to review and practise the language on their own between the lessons and after the course had finished. The mobile component Taxi drivers have a lot of downtime. As my students could not attend face-to-face classes so often but needed a lot of practice, I wanted them to make use of this time when they were waiting for passengers. The technology – their mobile phones – was already available and they knew how to use them. So, the technology was ‘normalized’, as Bax (2003) calls it, and no additional cost or technology training was needed. Listening to the recordings in their work environment could also help them relate to, and retain, the material better (Mayes and De Freitas, 2007). b. Tools The podcasts Originally, only the face-to-face component was planned. The idea of the podcasts occurred to me after the course had started and I saw that the four hours a week would not be sufficient to provide the learners with enough practice. Also, the break between the lessons was too long and without anybody to model the language for them outside class, they would not be able to practise on their own. Moreover, almost none of the drivers could attend every lesson due to their work. This is why I started taking snapshots of the board work in class and typing them up neatly with a word processor. I saved these as PDF files. Then, I recorded myself speaking the dialogues, words and phrases and uploaded them together with the transcripts to the blog. In a typical lesson we would focus on one of the stages of a taxi ride or typical conversations between the passengers and the taxi driver. I would elicit information and language from the taxi drivers and help them with the language, and we would construct the dialogue together on the board. For example, one lesson was about making recommendations for hotels and places to visit. When writing the script for the recording, I would add a brief introduction in order to lead into the topic, provide a context, and to give students some new language to listen to besides the review of what we had done in class. I also sometimes added alternative phrases or sentences that could be used in the same situations. This way, there was always something new to learn from the podcasts, too. The transcript of the audio recording based on the ‘Making Recommendations’ lesson looked like this: Hi! This is English for Taxi Drivers recording 18. 134 | Blended learning: podcasts for taxi drivers
Making recommendations My friend Andy is visiting Bursa. He sent me a message and asked: ‘Do you know of any reasonably priced hotels in Bursa?’ Many passengers ask taxi drivers for recommendations, right? So, how do you ask and make recommendations? You can make recommendations about hotels, shops, museums, restaurants, places to see, places for entertainment, food, and many other things. Here is how you can make recommendations: Passenger: Do you know of any reasonably priced hotels? Passenger: Can you recommend a good hotel? Taxi driver: I can recommend the Boyugüzel Hotel. It’s not far from/near the city centre. Passenger: How much does it cost? Taxi driver: It costs between 60 and 90 Turkish liras for a single/double room. Passenger: That’s reasonable. Is it clean? Taxi driver: Yes, it’s clean and comfortable. Passenger: How far is it from the Congress Centre? Taxi driver: Not so far. Ten minutes by taxi. Passenger: Thanks! Taxi driver: You’re welcome. Passenger: Can you recommend any interesting places to see? Taxi driver: Yes, I can recommend the historic plane tree/Yes, the historic plane tree is very interesting/Yes, you should see the historic plane tree. Passenger: Oh, good. Thanks! Is it far from here? I have only three hours. Taxi driver: No, it’s (quite) near/No, it’s not (that) far away. It’s about 20 minutes from here. Passenger: Thanks! Let’s go there, then/That sounds good. Thanks! Taxi driver: You’re welcome. ‘A podcast (or non-streamed webcast) is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast). Using podcasts in a blended environment helped my students with all the identified needs mentioned above. Podcasts provide flexibility, portability and autonomy and promote active, mobile learning (Kukulska-Hulme and Shield, 2008), which is important in adult education and lifelong learning. Several studies report that students’ speaking and listening skills have improved through podcasting (Sze, 2006; Abdous et al., 2009). Abdous et al. (2009) also mentions vocabulary and grammar skills improvement. Furthermore, transcripts help students with speaking and pronunciation (Rosell-Aguilar, 2007). They can also allow students to organise learning into manageable chunks (Chinnery, Blended learning: podcasts for taxi drivers | 135
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Blended Learning in English Languag
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ISBN 978-0-86355-706-4 © British C
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Part 3 - English for Specific Purpo
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Acknowledgements We would like to t
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To address this deficit I proposed
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Introduction This introductory chap
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an almost identical definition in h
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■■ Learners’ expectations - l
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To achieve a ‘principled approach
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its weakness in speaking.’ Contra
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References Adair-Hauck, B Willingha
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Rossett, A, Douglis, F and Frazee,
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1 A collaborative online reading an
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engaging approach to teaching, wher
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page evaluation strategies, and col
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Conclusion Students received course
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2 Blended learning in English for A
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All in the blend Reports on the app
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level of agreement or disagreement
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Hyland, K and Hyland, F (1992) Go f
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Why blend? The decision to offer th
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to complete during the before, whil
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In addition, there are a number of
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Turgut, Y (2009) ‘EFL learners’
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■■ English for Academic Purpose
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Figure 1: Stages of the incorporati
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Table 3: Schedule for Unit 1 Week U
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Internet - links and WebQuests: Som
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References Allan, M (1985) Teaching
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My advice to intending EAP course d
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5 A blended learning teacher develo
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The face-to-face element Because of
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ookmarking because social bookmarki
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and instructional design of the onl
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Encourage learner autonomy and refl
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packages, setting up online account
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Page 117 and 118: Comments on Part 2 Brian Tomlinson
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Page 171 and 172: Comments on Part 3 Brian Tomlinson
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In each of the above parts, the lea
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Figure 1: Cycle of working with gra
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Model by JP, Form 10 Structure Mode
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Recommendation 2 Ensure that the on
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Sokol, A (2008) Development of Inve
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Moreover, as a result of increased
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In general, the students remarked t
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19 Students’ CALLing: Blended lan
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The students were taken to the comp
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When considering blended learning,
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Introducing Macmillan English Campu
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In both scenarios, the ratio of con
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attending scenario 1 courses. The o
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Comments on Part 4 Brian Tomlinson
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Conclusion Claire Whittaker
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Table 1: Neumeier’s (2005) framew
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Reasons given in the literature for
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Software Author and Chapter New Lea
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Keedwell’s (Chapter 13) blend on
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Table 7: Learning theories, languag
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What will the interactional pattern
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Whittaker (Chapter 16) believed tha
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Summary This chapter draws on the l
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Appendix 1 - Questions for blended
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Contributors Peter Aborisade lectur
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Jody Gilbert taught in post-seconda
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Juanita Pardo-González (BA Hons in
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The British Council is pleased to o
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Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation

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