Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation

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9 Creating a blended DELTA Module One Sally Hirst and Tom Godfrey The context This chapter explores the evolution of a blended teacher training programme at a teacher training centre in Istanbul: the International Training Institute (ITI). ITI has been delivering the Cambridge ESOL training courses to teachers in Istanbul for more than 20 years. These courses have evolved over the past five years from a traditional face-to-face format to one which incorporates and utilises online resources to the extent that some elements and some participants rely on them exclusively. The need for the addition of online elements came initially from administrative demands for more systematic purposes such as communication between tutors and participants, and as a method of submitting and storing participants’ work. As trainees are located throughout the vast metropolis of Istanbul (15 million inhabitants) face-to-face contact has become less practical, but what was initially a reactive solution to practical problems has become the realisation that through blending we can provide an educational experience that is better tailored to individual need and offers greater ‘intimacy and access’ (Stager 2005: 1), with regard to contact between teachers and tutors. The course, DELTA Module One, which we describe in this chapter, has evolved into an extremely flexible programme that can best be described as a flexibly blended ‘omniblended’ programme as it caters for and integrates the experiences of participants following the course purely online with those attending (more or less) a traditional face-to-face format course that has online support, to the other extreme of participants following the course purely online. Participants negotiate the course depending on their location, access to resources and learning preferences. What they do is paramount, how they do things is sometimes important, but which technology they use to do them (and even at times whether they use technology at all) is often a matter of choice. There can be (and have been) anything from five to 50 people on any given course in varying proportions of blended and fully online. This combination and interaction of ‘real’ and ‘virtual world’ participants is, we believe, a unique element of the course making it blended in several senses (omniblended). The course evolution The DELTA modules are designed and produced by Cambridge ESOL and form part of a framework of teaching awards for teachers of English. The DELTA is divided into three modules, and is aimed at experienced, practising teachers of English in a Creating a blended DELTA Module One | 101
variety of teaching contexts (e.g. adult, primary) and for an international audience of both non-first language and first language teachers of English. Module One of the DELTA is gained through an exam which aims to assess participants’ knowledge base with regard to (as it says in the syllabus document) the background to teaching and learning English in terms of an understanding of language, methodology and resources. Module One is assessed by an examination in which participants are required to analyse information they are given and draw on what they know to name concepts, make informed suggestions, select priorities and identify underlying structuring and beliefs. Our Module One preparation course aims to introduce key aspects of language and English Language Teaching (ELT) they need to be familiar with, and point participants to areas suggested for their own research in order to develop the knowledge base they will need to be successful in the exam. There is also a thread on how they can most effectively approach the various task types. There were a number of influencing factors in the establishment of the blended learning training programme. When the DELTA went modular in 2008, this transformed our potential client base in two significant ways. Firstly it opened up the possibility for a greater number of practising teachers to participate, as a shorter Module became more manageable in terms of balancing work and study. Secondly it became possible to deliver the course entirely online and meet a potential global demand as Module One (and Three) no longer necessitate face-to-face elements. There existed a practical (and financial) need to digitise our face-to-face course to make it accessible to these global participants. However, widening accessibility means that while we interview to establish minimums and avoid too much frustration or disillusionment on anyone’s part, the teaching environment, length of experience, depth of knowledge and level of awareness of current issues in ELT vary enormously between course participants, even more than had previously been the case. In addition, a large proportion of participants are not native speakers of English and language competencies can vary as can digital computer literacy. Pedagogically, the course attempts to reflect this diversity and offers support which can be tapped according to a greater range of individual learning needs. The omniblended nature of this course dictates that it is both flexible in terms of meeting participants’ learning needs as well as providing appropriate individual support. This makes it extremely flexible and has proved very valuable to participants. As with every innovation (White, 1991), the blended programme involved time, cost, changes in attitude and practices as well as an increase in workloads. As Jones (1986) states: ‘It’s not so much the program, more what you do with it’. In 2007, the year prior to the DELTA going modular (and our first year of online presence), it became clear that making our existing paper-based resources available to participants and having upload facilities for assignments might be convenient, but left all but the most curious and self-directed still in need of face-toface contact. 102 | Creating a blended DELTA Module One
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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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Page 47 and 48: Turgut, Y (2009) ‘EFL learners’
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Page 51 and 52: Figure 1: Stages of the incorporati
Page 53 and 54: Table 3: Schedule for Unit 1 Week U
Page 55 and 56: Internet - links and WebQuests: Som
Page 57 and 58: References Allan, M (1985) Teaching
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Page 73 and 74: Clearly there are advantages to hav
Page 75 and 76: Lessons learned When deciding what
Page 77 and 78: References Osguthorpe, RT and Graha
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Page 83 and 84: where possible, to bring them toget
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Page 91 and 92: their own style of learning. At the
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Page 103 and 104: Appendix 1 Extract showing first th
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Page 109 and 110: The rationale behind the blend The
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Page 117 and 118: Comments on Part 2 Brian Tomlinson
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Page 121 and 122: 11 Blended learning: Podcasts for t
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Page 125 and 126: Making recommendations My friend An
Page 127 and 128: Sustainability Blended learning oft
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Page 131 and 132: The face-to-face aspect of the cour
Page 133 and 134: The course covers listening, speaki
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Page 143 and 144: 14 A longitudinal case study of the
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In the next version (v3) of the cou
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of a blend in Collis and Moonen’s
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of telecoms engineers, but it was w
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15 Using a wiki to enhance the lear
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The ‘history feature’ which can
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Figure 4: Student created listening
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Teaching methodology The blended de
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Figure 8: Student reaction to probl
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Lund, A (2008) Wikis: a collective
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hazard a guess that it was over con
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the management of the centres would
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There was a steady increase in the
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3. User experience - feedback on th
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Comments on Part 3 Brian Tomlinson
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17 A thinking-based blended learnin
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In each of the above parts, the lea
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Figure 1: Cycle of working with gra
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Model by JP, Form 10 Structure Mode
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Recommendation 2 Ensure that the on
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Sokol, A (2008) Development of Inve
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Moreover, as a result of increased
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In general, the students remarked t
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19 Students’ CALLing: Blended lan
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The students were taken to the comp
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When considering blended learning,
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Introducing Macmillan English Campu
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In both scenarios, the ratio of con
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attending scenario 1 courses. The o
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Comments on Part 4 Brian Tomlinson
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Conclusion Claire Whittaker
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Table 1: Neumeier’s (2005) framew
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Reasons given in the literature for
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Software Author and Chapter New Lea
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Keedwell’s (Chapter 13) blend on
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Table 7: Learning theories, languag
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What will the interactional pattern
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Whittaker (Chapter 16) believed tha
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Summary This chapter draws on the l
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Appendix 1 - Questions for blended
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Contributors Peter Aborisade lectur
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Jody Gilbert taught in post-seconda
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Juanita Pardo-González (BA Hons in
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The British Council is pleased to o
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Blended Learning in English Language Teaching: Course Design and Implementation

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