Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation

The learner and the context
Although China has in recent years adopted online learning approaches for
students and teachers, it has not been seen as particularly successful. ‘Many
universities and colleges in China have carried out numerous experiments with
e-learning but have not achieved the expected results’ (Huang and Zhou, 2007).
One of the expected results was to use online learning to train teachers and students
across vast distances. These expected results though, were not really met due to a
variety of reasons including weak independent learning strategies of students and
teachers, and teachers not being used to taking courses online. What is more, the
quality of online courses is often seen as being inferior to face-to-face instruction.
In addition, there is still an overwhelming preference by education authorities and
teachers to have a foreign trainer (a native-speaker), in person, deliver the training.
There is an assumption that the foreign trainer will have access to the most recent
knowledge the participants need, and a high value is placed on the cultural and
linguistic interaction the participants will have with that foreign trainer.
In addition, the UK is seen by Chinese education authorities as being a leader in
education, especially in the field of assessment.
Why a blended approach?
Before designing the training programme we assessed the needs of the participants,
taking into account the local context and expectations of all stakeholders, in
particular the local education authorities we would be working with. This needs
analysis led us to identify a series of lower level objectives, underneath the wider
objective to improve the test writing skills of the participants.
When we addressed course design, it seemed clear to us that there were three
objectives that would be best achieved via face-to-face interaction, and these
needed to happen at the beginning of the course. They were:
1. Participants would need to make a shift in their mind-set (that they needed
communicative tests and the impact of such tests would be positive).
2. Participants would need to build trust with the trainer and each other.
3. It was important to satisfy the cultural demand for the ‘foreign trainer’.
We therefore designed a four-day, face-to-face course that would give participants
the learning opportunities to meet those objectives.
However, there were more objectives that we felt would be best met by some form
of online interaction and study. These were:
1. To provide information and the latest up-to-date knowledge on assessment
from the UK.
2. To appeal to a variety of learning styles.
3. To connect the learning to the participants’ workplace and local context.
4. To allow participants to develop their own tests and to learn at their own pace.
84 | Reversing the blend: From online to blended