Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation

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Students’ CALLing: Blended
language learning for students
Hatice Bilgin
Introduction
The expansion of online environments into language classrooms is now welcomed, in
order to provide a potentially better teaching and learning experience. Osguthorpe and
Graham (2003) indicate that as the face-to-face and online learning environments have
been combined, the inherent strengths and weaknesses associated with both have
been recognised. This combination of online environments with face-to-face learning
is called blended learning. The aim in blended learning is to combine the benefits
of these two environments in a harmonious way. The combination of a face-to-face
instruction environment with an online environment within the same course allows
not only capitalising on the advantages of each but also catering for diverse learning
styles and the needs of different students. Allan (2007: 8) suggests that blended
learning ‘appears to offer the opportunity to combine the best of a number of worlds
in constructing a program that fits the particular needs in terms of time, space and
technologies of a particular group of students or end-users’.
Considering the great potential of blended learning, a study aiming at exploring the
effects of a blended language learning (BLL) environment on the achievement and
opinions of Turkish university preparatory students studying English as a Foreign
Language (EFL) was conducted in Istanbul Technical University School of Foreign
Languages. In this study, the ‘blend’ consisted of the completion of required materials
and students’ independent self-study phases at a computer with an online learning
management system (LMS) called Macmillan English Campus (MEC), and conventional
face-to-face classroom learning. Two upper-intermediate level preparatory classes
were assigned as experimental and control groups. The students in the experimental
class used MEC as part of their courses and self-study, as well as following the
required materials of the preparatory programme. The control class followed only the
required materials in a face-to-face environment. The students in both classes were
given a pre-test, progress-test and post-test. The students in the experimental class
were given a student questionnaire followed by a focus group interview in order to
investigate their opinions on the blend.
This study was carried out in the autumn term of the 2009 –10 academic year
at Istanbul Technical University (ITU), where the one-year preparatory English
programme is compulsory for all undergraduate students who do not meet the
English language proficiency requirements. The participants of this study were from
two of the upper-intermediate level classes in ITU School of Foreign Languages.
In each class, there were 36 English as a Foreign Language Turkish preparatory
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