Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation
Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation
Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation
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Figure 7: Student dialogue for class produced video<br />
Adaptations<br />
I am currently blend<strong>in</strong>g wiki <strong>and</strong> face-to-face with six different classes. I use an<br />
<strong>in</strong>duction strategy <strong>and</strong> participation is strongly encouraged. It is <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g to<br />
notice the different contributions made by learners. Old pages have been archived<br />
<strong>in</strong>to an accessible folder so present bus<strong>in</strong>ess <strong>English</strong> students can learn from the<br />
previous year.<br />
Reflections on this blend<br />
This blended approach allowed valuable flexibility <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>teractivity which re<strong>in</strong>forced<br />
classroom learn<strong>in</strong>g <strong>and</strong> empowered learners, for example with the ‘News page’.<br />
Wiki allowed multiple asynchronous views of class-produced videos <strong>and</strong> allowed<br />
learners to reflect on, <strong>and</strong> offer suggestions to improve, their classmates’ written<br />
work. However, the success of the onl<strong>in</strong>e aspect depended on the personalities<br />
<strong>in</strong> the class, the friendly atmosphere, scaffold<strong>in</strong>g <strong>and</strong> task design.<br />
In order to contribute, students needed IT ability or to be well supported. For example,<br />
photos with large file sizes would not easily attach to the wiki <strong>and</strong> this could have<br />
discouraged learners if it was the first task that they attempted to achieve. Learners<br />
may come up with <strong>in</strong>novative solutions to IT problems (see Figure 8). One learner<br />
expla<strong>in</strong>s that they had trouble <strong>in</strong>sert<strong>in</strong>g text so wrote it <strong>in</strong> Word first, saved it as a<br />
picture <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>serted that on the page.<br />
170 | Us<strong>in</strong>g a wiki to enhance the learn<strong>in</strong>g experience on a bus<strong>in</strong>ess <strong>English</strong> course