Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation

Louise Ingham has taught English to Speakers of Other Languages since 2004 in
the further education sector in the UK. Courses have included all levels of Cambridge
Skills for Life and Cambridge main suite exams. Additionally, she has designed and
delivered ESOL courses without traditional exams to meet specific local needs. Her
interest in blended learning came about through participation in a TESOL MA at the
University of Manchester. She was using existing free web-based resources in her
teaching and had some experience of Moodle. However, the Manchester TESOL MA
involved experiential learning using Blackboard, wiki and Moodle, and introduced her
to ELT literature and the possibilities of educational technologies from the perspective
of learners and teachers. The ‘Blended Learning Course Design’ and ‘Teaching and
Learning Online’ modules were particularly influential.
Andy Keedwell has been working as an English language teacher, trainer, trainertrainer
and manager since 1986, and has worked in a variety of locations including
East Africa, the South Caucasus, the Middle East and South East Asia. He has been
involved specifically with blended and online learning in Sudan, Armenia and
Ethiopia. He is currently Head of Training at the British Council in Afghanistan and
is particularly interested in facilitating skills sharing amongst teachers, enabling
teachers to train others and English for the world of work.
Nergiz Kern is a teacher with a Diploma in English Language Teaching to Adults.
She has taught academic, general, business and technical English in different
countries for 13 years. Nergiz also has considerable experience in teaching and
teacher education in online 3D virtual worlds. Currently, she is in the final stages
of an MA in Educational Technology and TESOL at the University of Manchester
and teaches academic English in Turkey and the UK. Her interests are integrating
technology meaningfully in language and teacher education, developing and
teaching English for specific purposes (ESP) courses, creating multimedia materials,
blended learning, teacher education, and learner and teacher autonomy.
Astrid Krake has been involved in aspects of English Language Teaching for 20
years. After working as an editor for a publishing company she was the Head of
English at the Munich Volkshochschule (2002 –11). In 2004 she also became Head
of Languages at the same institution. She recently accepted the position of Head
of the Language Centre at the University of Bamberg/Germany. In addition to her
contracted positions Astrid has been a teacher of English as a Foreign Language
at a number of adult education institutions. She is interested in finding opportunities
to enhance the language-learning experience by means of technology.
Keith O’Hare has a CELTA and Trinity TESOL diploma and has been working in the
world of ELT as trainer and consultant for over 15 years. He presently works in the
British Council in China as head of English Teacher Training programmes and is
responsible for setting up partnerships with provincial governments with a view
to designing and delivering teacher training projects in China. He is one of the
leaders on the quality control of the Communicative Assessment project.
250 | Contributors