Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation

One should not expect these problems to be solved in a few days. They normally take
an extended period of time. Helping learners achieve something and getting them
to reflect on what has happened, and how, can be an important step in changing
learners’ responses. The technology will not always be successful in dealing with
‘personal’ issues, however, the teacher can always dedicate more time to addressing
these issues in the classroom. The resource of face-to-face communication provided
by blended courses is an important asset and both teachers and learners should
definitely benefit from it.
Conclusions
Some researchers point out that there is a lack of sophisticated tools for online
learning (Bonk, 2004: 2–3). The online modules used for the blended course
described in this study definitely offer a rich learning experience addressing both
the challenge of complexity and effective support for the learner (Kirkley and Kirkley,
2006). Our experience shows that offering the modules as part of the blended
course significantly increased the motivation of learners in comparison to the distant
use adopted earlier. We also succeeded in increasing the total time spent on learning
and in helping the learners to take a step towards more autonomy when learning
a language. In addition, the blended course created learning contexts for both the
teacher and the learners that did not exist either during the online or classroom
learning, thus creating useful systemic effects that became possible only as a
result of integration of the two components. At the same time, the blended course
brought about new challenges both to the teacher and the learners. Being ready
to face these challenges and develop effective solutions appears to be one of the
key requirements for a successful blended learning experience. The learner who is
enjoying the process of constructing knowledge as a result of a rich problem-solving
experience and the teacher who shares this kind of learning philosophy will be the
ones benefiting most from the course described in this study.
References
Bonk, C (2004) The perfect e-storm: emerging technology, enormous learner demand,
enhanced pedagogy, and erased budgets. Part 2: Storms #3 and #4. The Observatory
on Higher Education, 2004. Available online at www.publicationshare.com/part2.pdf
Kirkley, SE and Kirkley, JR (2006) ‘Expanding the boundaries of blended learning:
transforming learning with mixed and virtual reality technologies’, in Bonk, C and
Graham, C (eds) Handbook of Blended Learning: Global Perspectives, Local Designs.
San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer Publishing.
Learner reflections (2004 –10). Available online at www.thinking-approach.org/forum/
index.php?c=11
New Learners in the New Europe (2008) Online modules for the integrated
development of language and thinking skills. Available online at www.thinkingapproach.eu
198 | A thinking-based blended learning course