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18A blended learning approachto soft skill training at Al AzharUniversity, CairoLiz FleetIntroductionThis study focused on a group of students at Al Azhar English Training Centre(AAETC). AAETC was opened in 2008 in partnership with the British Council in Cairo.It provides English language provision to 350 students and teacher training to 25Egyptian teachers. As part of this, the Centre encourages teachers and students touse technology to participate in English communication, independent learning andflexible study access. This has involved creating a site called New Generation (NG).Through the wiki, students have interacted informally with those inside and outsidethe university by taking part in topical forums, using the chat facility and sharingresources. Besides this, AAETC is providing flexible curriculum learning opportunitiesby developing study-focused content for specific classes. As part of this, a voluntaryaccesssoft skills blend was recently established on NG and a case study conducted.Background to the studyThe project was conducted between October and December 2011 with 26 postgraduateacademic English soft skills students. They were all male, between theages of 22 and 24 and had previously studied English during Islamic Studies degreecourses. The research involved integrating face-to-face presentation and lecturelistening training with online delivery and the aim was to potentially do this withother courses later in the school year if the project was a success.The blend was designed to increase postgraduate English input by adding toclass provision. Doing so was considered beneficial because of their immediatejob and course-seeking needs and the fact they had less face-to-face provisionthan undergraduate students. With many aspiring to study overseas, wherecourses typically contain blended learning elements (Tobin, 2011), it was vital togive them exposure to this style of education to further equip them for master’sand PhD courses abroad. As they were by nature somewhat teacher-dependent,integrating classroom activities with online study aimed to foster more independentand collaborative learning by encouraging the students to review lesson content,collectively interact with follow-up material and prepare for future lessons. Itwas hoped that having the extra online exposure would help improve classroomperformance because of the revision and interaction opportunities that it presented.A blended learning approach to soft skill training | 201