Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation

Figure 1: Cycle of working with grammar in online modules
Examples beyond the
scope of the model
Problem
Model of solution
Production happens all the time from the initial testing of the hypothesis/model. In
addition to specific grammar-related skills, this approach is intended to help learners
develop the following skills:
■■ Self-assessment (when taking the initial decision on the need for dealing with this
or that system of tasks and in the process of work being involved in the evaluation
of own models and their application).
■■ Noticing (when discovering the structures used to express this or that
communicative function).
■■ Goal setting (when deciding which aspects of the problem to focus on).
■■ Building models (when developing the model of solution through constructing
their own grammar rule).
■■ Description via parameters and values (when presenting their own model/rule
in the form understandable to the computer).
■■ Finding applicability limits of models (when testing their own model/rule and
finding where it does not work).
■■ Generalisation (when formulating their own model/rule in such a way as
to apply it in various contexts).
■■ Specification (when deciding on the application of a model/rule in a
particular context).
It should also be noted that despite seeming to work on grammar only, learners were
developing all the language skills:
■
■ Reading (when collecting banks of examples at the stage of discovering structures,
for example learners were asked to read a text of their choice and find examples
of the author expressing this or that communicative function, such as referring to
the future).
A thinking-based blended learning course | 193