Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation

performance with grammatical structures and vocabulary (overall, 56 of the 280 total
activities are check activities).
Listening, grammar and vocabulary check activities are scored directly into the
software database, and both the course user and the instructor can access progress
reports, graded as Competent, Satisfactory or Not Satisfactory. For the speaking
check activities, the learner can listen to recordings of their own performance and
can repeat activities before submitting them if they are not satisfied with their first
attempt. Once the audio files have been submitted, they are stored in the software
database ready for assessment.
The check activities form the basis of the interaction with the instructor, whose
role includes monitoring the learner’s general progress in the course, evaluating
the learner’s speaking performance and delivering the structured face-to-face
(tutorial) course components. It is recommended that tutorials take place at the
end of each unit, or at least twice during the course, in order to provide formative
feedback that enables the learner to target areas of need. The frequency of the
tutorials is determined by the resources available in the training organisation. As
Oliver et al. (2006: 506) note, ‘in most settings, there can be unlimited scope for
technology-mediated communication but far more restrictive amounts of face-to-face
communication’. The decision to restrict the face-to-face component of the course
to one-on-one tutorials was based on the difficulty of timetabling classes that all
learners could attend, given the scheduling constraints of the aviation industry.
The course is written in Flash, which is considered the most readily accessible online
tool for multimedia development, and is also ideal for the presentation of realistic
animations and plausible aviation training material, in particular flight and radar or
control tower simulations. Flash provides effective compression of large files and
enables the audio file management process through a remote database, both of
which are critical for efficient online delivery. It is also recognised as the software
language that can deliver the widest cross-platform compatibility, whereas rival
languages may not perform equally well in different operating systems or browsers.
Although some more recently developed online hardware products (e.g. iPads) do not
support Flash, software applications are now available to overcome this limitation.
Teaching methodology
The course was designed for independent, self-paced study partly because of
the time and scheduling constraints experienced by those working in the aviation
industry. However, an additional strength of the online delivery is that it simulates the
context in which pilots and air traffic controllers use English in the workplace, namely
communicating via radio telephony. The course utilises situations in which learners
must build on the standardised phraseology required for routine flight operations and
extend their use of general English to deal with non-routine and emergency events.
This replicates the real world environment, where pilots and controllers are separated
from their interlocutors and must rely on verbal communication aided by the visual
information typical of their workstation; for example, charts, radar or cockpit displays
and views from the cockpit or control tower.
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