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level of agreement or disagreement using a 5-point Likert scale (1 – almost never,2 – seldom, 3 – sometimes, 4 – often and 5 – almost always). The questions askabout: (1) the course’s relevance to student’s interests and professional goals,(2) the level of critical or reflective thinking that the student applies to the materialin the course, (3) the level of interactivity the student engages in during the course,(4) the level of tutor support, (5) peer support the student is receiving in the course,and (6) the success of both student and tutor in making good sense of each other’scommunication. Three hundred and twenty six (326) returns from the writer’s groupof 11 departments totalling about 800 students registered online were received.We interpret the outcome as suggesting that our experiment is succeeding, thougha lot more needs be done in the areas of peer support and interactivity, but thisrepresents considerable movement from near zero level.Figure 1: COLLES survey resultPreferredoptionsAlmostAlwaysRelevanceReflectiveThinkingInteractivityTutorSupportPeerSupport629 577 324 540 285 483Often 365 410 329 418 362 393Sometimes 246 252 497 271 476 338Seldom 49 48 106 58 126 70AlmostNever15 18 49 17 54 20InterpretationLessons learned and the way forwardWe have learned that the bottom-up evolutionary process works for educationaldevelopment in our context. Of the seven higher education institutions in Nigerialisted in the Moodle user directory, four use the VLE for distance learning as arepository for content; one uses it for assessment only. Only in FUTA where teachingstaff own and drive the process is take-up growing in a gradual but fairly steadyrate. The tools in the VLE are a major boost for collaboration and communication,two key things we had longed for but lacked in our practice. With their tongues letloose, students were a source of inspiration; they knew more than we always creditedthem with and had skills we knew nothing about. Teachers can be learners too andstudents can help drive the process. A group of students that went through ourcourses have emerged as ICT champions, giving support to other students. We havelearned that the unexpected could happen when using technology, but we wereundaunted because we had our face-to-face comfort zone as a backup when the sitecrashed. Teacher workload increased rather than decreased as time was required forprofessional development in IT and pedagogy, for course design, VLE managementand course facilitation. Now work has more meaning and purpose and students’motivation gives us satisfaction.As often happens, shut-downs of universities by government, staff or students disruptacademic programmes. The VLE enables students to access materials and keepBlended learning in English for Academic Purposes courses | 39
discussions going during such disruptions. Teachers are also able to continue thefacilitation of learning, cover the curriculum in depth, check students’ understandingof ideas and concepts, and provide feedback. We have learned that teacher rolesare changing, as learners’ engagement is enhanced by the creation of new learningenvironments and as they take more decisions in the process.On the downside, however, poor technology infrastructure and inadequate facilitiesexert great pressure on the most willing students and staff, in terms of effort, timeand finance. Teachers are unable to respond to all questions and posts because oflarge numbers. Also worth noting are the technology downtimes and inadequatebandwidth problems, coupled with not having backup servers, which make us losedata constantly. Training requirements for academic and technical staff are issuesanyone in our context must pay attention to when going in for blended learning.ConclusionThe much talked about digital divide is a reality. In a developing country such asNigeria, the obstacles to educational change are myriad. They include the genericissues of strategy, perceptions and e-readiness; human and contextual issues, andresources of time, cost and technology. The gap can be bridged by teachers who aredaring and resourceful and students can be sources of expertise. But as has beenshown above, change is possible: we can increase students’ work hours and helpstudents speak English more and better, interact more and learn more independently.ReferencesAborisade, PA (2009) Investigating a Nigerian XXL-cohort wiki-learning experience:observation, feedback and reflection. Electronic Journal of e-Learning 7/3: 191–202.Available online at www.ejel.orgBeatty, K (2003) Teaching and Researching Computer-Assisted Language Learning.Essex: Pearson Education Ltd.Bloor, M and St John, MJ (1988) ‘Project writing: The marriage of process andproduct’ in ELT Documents: 129. Modern English Publications in association with the<strong>British</strong> <strong>Council</strong>.Boulton, H (2008) Managing e-Learning: what are the Real Implications for Schools?The Electronic Journal of e-Learning 6/1: 11–18. Available online at www.ejel.orgDudeney, G and Hockly, N (2007) How to Teach English with Technology.Essex: Pearson Education Ltd.Dudley-Evans, T (1984) ‘The team-teaching of writing skills’ in Williams, R, Swales, Jand Kirkman, J (eds) Common Ground: Shared Interests in ESP and CommunicationStudies. ELT Documents: 117, Pergamon Press.Graham, C (2006) ‘Blended learning systems: definition, current trends and futuredirections’, in Bonk, C and Graham, C (eds) Handbook of Blended Learning: GlobalPerspectives, Local Designs. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.40 | Blended learning in English for Academic Purposes courses
Page 1 and 2: Blended Learning in EnglishLanguage
Page 3: ISBN 978-0-86355-706-4© British Co
Page 6 and 7: ForewordJohn Knagg obeIn recent yea
Page 8 and 9: AcknowledgementsWe would like to th
Page 10 and 11: PrefaceClaire WhittakerWhen I took
Page 13 and 14: 10 |
Page 15 and 16: Table 1: Taxonomy of terms related
Page 17 and 18: control and choice); cost effective
Page 19 and 20: 3. components need to be appropriat
Page 21 and 22: Unfortunately the study does not sp
Page 23 and 24: Regardless of the variety of sugges
Page 25 and 26: Hocutt, R (2001) The Second e-Learn
Page 27 and 28: 24 | Introduction
Page 29 and 30: 26 |
Page 31 and 32: Advanced level students are expecte
Page 33 and 34: Preliminary student-led discussions
Page 35 and 36: labs with data projectors provide t
Page 37 and 38: Ramachandran, S (2004) Integrating
Page 39 and 40: The coursesThe two EAP courses take
Page 41: What we blendBy 1993 we were alread
Page 45 and 46: 42 | Blended learning in English fo
Page 47 and 48: Why blend?The decision to offer thi
Page 49 and 50: to complete during the before, whil
Page 51 and 52: In addition, there are a number of
Page 53 and 54: Turgut, Y (2009) ‘EFL learners’
Page 55 and 56: ■■English for Academic Purposes
Page 57 and 58: Figure 1: Stages of the incorporati
Page 59 and 60: Table 3: Schedule for Unit 1Week Un
Page 61 and 62: Internet - links and WebQuests:Some
Page 63 and 64: ReferencesAllan, M (1985) Teaching
Page 65 and 66: My advice to intending EAP course d
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Page 69 and 70: Designing the blendAs described ear
Page 71 and 72: So in this way participants move fr
Page 73 and 74: first-hand experience on which they
Page 75 and 76: Generating peer-to-peer interaction
Page 77 and 78: 74 | A blended learning teacher dev
Page 79 and 80: ■■■■packages, setting up on
Page 81 and 82: Clearly there are advantages to hav
Page 83 and 84: Lessons learnedWhen deciding what p
Page 85 and 86: ReferencesOsguthorpe, RT and Graham
Page 87 and 88: The learner and the contextAlthough
Page 89 and 90: typically involve writing or applyi
Page 91 and 92: where possible, to bring them toget
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90 | Reversing the blend: From onli
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■■A one-week online simulation
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Online phase activitiesBoth asynchr
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in the form of a word processed doc
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learning facilities is noted repeat
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100 | Blended learning: The IDLTM e
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and draw on what they know to name
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Figure 3: The homepage in a Module
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Figure 5: The projects page carries
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ConclusionA blended training course
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Appendix 1Extract showing first thr
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■■■■Cambridge ESOL was repo
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■■Including later units on, for
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The rationale behind the blendThe k
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Figure 2: An example screen from a
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environment and to meet the student
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■■■■■■■■Fine-tuning
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124 | The Cambridge CELTA course on
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teacher development courses should
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128 | Comments on Part 2
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130 |
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Facilities and available technology
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pairs and groups on collaborative t
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2006) and are good revision tools (
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mobile phones via Bluetooth from my
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140 | Blended learning: podcasts fo
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The face-to-face aspect of the cour
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The course covers listening, speaki
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latest, most secure and flexible pr
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not so much for language improvemen
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the reader/listener as customer) an
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Procter, C (2003) Blended Learning
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14A longitudinal case study ofthe
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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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15Using a wiki to enhance thelearni
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The ‘history feature’ which can
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Figure 4: Student created listening
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Teaching methodologyThe blended des
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Figure 8: Student reaction to probl
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Lund, A (2008) Wikis: a collective
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16A military blendClaire WhittakerI
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Figure 1: How the modes complement
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sequence during a day. We believed
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REWARD (Greenall, 2002) is not expl
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Greenall, S (2002) Reward CD-ROM. O
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Comments on Part 3Brian TomlinsonOn
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Part 4 - English as aForeign Langua
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17A thinking-based blendedlearning
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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 10StructureDidWas
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Recommendation 2Ensure that the onl
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Sokol, A (2008) Development of Inve
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18A blended learning approachto sof
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input and answer questions that had
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unenthusiastic. There should theref
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19Students’ CALLing: Blendedlangu
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The students were taken to the comp
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When considering blended learning,
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20Lessons in blended learning:Imple
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had to find a way around the cost o
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In July 2011, teachers and particip
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Sharma, P and Barret, B (2007) Blen
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Comments on Part 4Brian TomlinsonTh
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ConclusionClaire Whittaker
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ConclusionIn this chapter a list of
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Under each of the above headings wi
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What are the limiting factors?Altho
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Table 5: Time spent on each modeBlo
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as being optional, which allows the
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We were fortunate in Bosnia and Her
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changing, as learners’ engagement
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with a willingness to use technolog
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Dudeney, G and Hockly, N (2007) How
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Appendix 1 -Questions for blendedle
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Contributors
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ContributorsPeter Aborisade lecture
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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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