Here - EnglishAgenda - British Council

In July 2011, teachers and participants were interviewed for a Macmillan Case Studyused for marketing purposes. The following statements of teachers and learnershave been taken from this case study. When asked about the advantages of usingMEC in the classroom, Dana, a teacher of intensive classes, says: ‘It’s definitely moreinteresting. You know, sometimes you forget about the chore of having to learn alanguage or teach a lesson because you work with something new and you focuson it. I think this is the same for the students: when they play a game they forgetabout learning structures.’Learners appreciate:■■■■■■■■■■■■Independent access (89 per cent).24/7 access to engaging L2 exercises (95 per cent).Automatic marking, encourages them to re-do exercises (78 per cent).Extra practice (95 per cent).Playing language games (32 per cent).Listening and pronunciation activities (73 per cent).When asked their opinion, an elementary level learner in an intensive class that usesMEC during the lessons said: ‘I can make the very good exercises, and after theexercises are coming all these answers and I can correct my own answers and thinkabout what I make wrong.’Another elementary level student pointed out: ‘It’s very important for me to do someEnglish exercises at home and to know if I have done it right or false. So for someonethat say me ‘You have maybe 80 or 90 per cent right’ is important for me.’Students like listening, grammar and pronunciation exercises and emphasise the factthat MEC is ‘modern and very useful’. Their opinions underline the results of recentstudies in the field of language learning review. ‘The overall finding of the metaanalysisis that classes with online learning (whether taught completely online orblended) on average produce stronger student learning outcomes than do classeswith solely face-to-face instruction’ (US Department of Education, Office of Planning,Evaluation, and Policy Development (2009: 18).The crucial factors in the successful implementation of a VLE – sufficient training forteachers and participants, administrative and pedagogical support, integration intothe syllabus – have proved advantageous for the successful implementation of MEC(see also Bax, 2003: 26).Because of the ability of students to self-pace and keep in touch with the class evenwhen away on business, the chances for learners in blended learning classrooms ofcompleting their course are higher.Although overall acceptance is high, there is a slight difference between learnersof the two scenarios. The degree of acceptance of MEC as an integral part of theirlearning process is slightly higher with learners in intensive courses than with thoseLessons in blended learning | 217