Here - EnglishAgenda - British Council

The face-to-face aspect of the courses is created through the interaction betweenthe learner and the instructor, a trained English language teacher, who monitorsthe learner’s progress, evaluates their speaking output and gives feedback viatutorials held at the organisation’s training centre. The tutorials, which are conductedin English, provide the opportunity for support, targeted advice, feedback onperformance and suggested strategies to help reach the desired outcomes. Wagnerrefers to interaction as ‘the so-called glue that holds together all of those variablesbeing blended’ (2006: 44), and it would seem that as a large part of the BL4 courseis undertaken independently by the learner, the interactive component is essential infacilitating learner engagement, motivation and satisfaction. However, at this point,the course has not been in use for sufficient time to evaluate the benefits of tutormediatedsupport, and we await feedback on this element from course users.The design of the courses is essentially the same for the pilot and the air trafficcontroller streams, and both are structured to provide 80 –100 hours of onlinematerial delivered in eight units, each containing three sessions. Each sessionprovides listening skills development, grammar and vocabulary input, and speakingskills in the following format:Figure 1The course is designed for the learner to work through the material at his or her ownpace, typically over three or four months. Check activities have been included tomonitor and assess the learner’s listening and speaking performance, as well as their142 | A blended learning course for the aviation industry