Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation

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18 A blended learning approach to soft skill training at Al Azhar University, Cairo Liz Fleet Introduction This study focused on a group of students at Al Azhar English Training Centre (AAETC). AAETC was opened in 2008 in partnership with the British Council in Cairo. It provides English language provision to 350 students and teacher training to 25 Egyptian teachers. As part of this, the Centre encourages teachers and students to use technology to participate in English communication, independent learning and flexible study access. This has involved creating a site called New Generation (NG). Through the wiki, students have interacted informally with those inside and outside the university by taking part in topical forums, using the chat facility and sharing resources. Besides this, AAETC is providing flexible curriculum learning opportunities by developing study-focused content for specific classes. As part of this, a voluntaryaccess soft skills blend was recently established on NG and a case study conducted. Background to the study The project was conducted between October and December 2011 with 26 postgraduate academic English soft skills students. They were all male, between the ages of 22 and 24 and had previously studied English during Islamic Studies degree courses. The research involved integrating face-to-face presentation and lecture listening training with online delivery and the aim was to potentially do this with other courses later in the school year if the project was a success. The blend was designed to increase postgraduate English input by adding to class provision. Doing so was considered beneficial because of their immediate job and course-seeking needs and the fact they had less face-to-face provision than undergraduate students. With many aspiring to study overseas, where courses typically contain blended learning elements (Tobin, 2011), it was vital to give them exposure to this style of education to further equip them for master’s and PhD courses abroad. As they were by nature somewhat teacher-dependent, integrating classroom activities with online study aimed to foster more independent and collaborative learning by encouraging the students to review lesson content, collectively interact with follow-up material and prepare for future lessons. It was hoped that having the extra online exposure would help improve classroom performance because of the revision and interaction opportunities that it presented. A blended learning approach to soft skill training | 201
Moreover, as a result of increased political tension in Egypt, and the resultant disruption to classes and learning, there was a general advantage in enabling the students to participate in flexible online collaborative learning. This meant that if students were unable to attend classes, having material online would enable them to study independently and help maintain motivation in between face-to-face lessons. Therefore, rather than falling behind and losing momentum, they could return to classes having made progress. The course The optional blend combined 53 hours of soft skills classroom learning with online provision and was separated into two parts. The first worked in conjunction with a Presentations course of nine lessons and the second a Lecture Listening course of eight classes. After each class, students were advised to spend between 30 minutes and an hour on the web-based resources. At the start of each lesson, students were encouraged to share what they had discussed and learned online, or any learning difficulties they had experienced with the material. This was to consolidate the webbased study, encourage participation and establish a link between the two parts of the blend. Every class focused on a particular element of presentations, such as introductions, signalling and concluding. The web-based resources were structured in the same way, following a consistent format to enable the students to access and interact with them simply (Niles, 2008). After each class, a clearly-labelled page was added, containing lesson materials and supplementary resources, such as YouTube clips and links to presentations advice. This was done so that absent students could easily obtain missed material and to allow further independent study. Within each lesson page was a discussion activity that the students were encouraged to participate in. This allowed them to digest content, ask follow up-questions and collaboratively extend their knowledge. As Singer and Stoicescu (2010: 1531) say, ‘the online forum is a very important piece of the blend. It supports the students to go deeper into the understanding of a concept that was presented in face-to-face’ . At the end of the course, presentations were filmed and uploaded, enabling students to re-watch themselves, learn from each other and comment on one another’s work. According to students, being able to do this increased their confidence and blended learning motivation. The Lecture Listening course followed a similar format on NG with each themed lesson focusing on a comprehension and note-taking skill and the online materials linking to this. Nonetheless, images were added to the text to increase aesthetic appeal. This was as a result of informal feedback after the Presentations course, saying the material ‘didn’t look interesting’. Another difference was related to copyright. As the ‘Lecture Ready’ coursebook and audio were used, it was impossible to upload these. Nevertheless, supplementary resources were added, which included lesson-related talks from YouTube. For example, a TED talk on consumerism was used for the first lesson theme of spending. Participants were encouraged to watch the clips, take notes, utilise the listening strategies from the face-to-face 202 | A blended learning approach to soft skill training
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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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Clearly there are advantages to hav
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Lessons learned When deciding what
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References Osguthorpe, RT and Graha
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The learner and the context Althoug
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typically involve writing or applyi
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where possible, to bring them toget
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8 Blended learning: The IDLTM exper
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learning and characteristics, and k
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There is a fourth activity type in
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their own style of learning. At the
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Garrison, D and Vaughan, ND (2007)
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variety of teaching contexts (e.g.
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Figure 3: The homepage in a Module
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Figure 5: The projects page carries
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adding things in response to feedba
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Appendix 1 Extract showing first th
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■■ Cambridge ESOL was reporting
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■■ Including later units on, fo
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The rationale behind the blend The
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Figure 2: An example screen from a
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environment and to meet the student
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■■ Fine-tuning of online course
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Comments on Part 2 Brian Tomlinson
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Learning a new language and reflect
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11 Blended learning: Podcasts for t
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to the content (see below). Additio
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Making recommendations My friend An
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Sustainability Blended learning oft
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Kukulska-Hulme, A and Shield, A (20
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The face-to-face aspect of the cour
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Page 137 and 138: not so much for language improvemen
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Page 143 and 144: 14 A longitudinal case study of the
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Page 157 and 158: Teaching methodology The blended de
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Page 161 and 162: Lund, A (2008) Wikis: a collective
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Page 171 and 172: Comments on Part 3 Brian Tomlinson
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Page 175 and 176: In each of the above parts, the lea
Page 177 and 178: Figure 1: Cycle of working with gra
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Page 181 and 182: Recommendation 2 Ensure that the on
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Page 189 and 190: 19 Students’ CALLing: Blended lan
Page 191 and 192: The students were taken to the comp
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Page 195 and 196: Introducing Macmillan English Campu
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Page 201 and 202: Comments on Part 4 Brian Tomlinson
Page 203 and 204: Conclusion Claire Whittaker
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Page 219 and 220: Summary This chapter draws on the l
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Page 223 and 224: Contributors Peter Aborisade lectur
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Page 227 and 228: Juanita Pardo-González (BA Hons in
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