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Incorporating blended learning
in an undergraduate English

course in Colombia

Juanita Pardo-Gonzalez

Context of the university
Universidad de los Andes is a Colombian higher education institution characterised
by the use of technology, and English language needs. In terms of technology,
los Andes has a very strong internet culture and it uses a learning management
system (LMS), which is an aid for many administrative and pedagogical matters.
This University also has a culture that uses English as part of the students’
administrative and academic life. Students who enrol at los Andes are mainly
Colombians whose native language is Spanish, and the University requires them to
have a good command of a foreign language in their academic life. This is enforced
by two requirements. One is to have a minimum level of reading in English by their
third semester of studies, and the other is to demonstrate a high proficiency level
in English or another foreign language in order to graduate. English courses are
seen as an aid to fulfil academic English requirements, but are not mandatory, do
not have any credits, are not graded numerically, and do not affect a student’s grade
point average (GPA).

Type of English courses – The English Academic
Support Programme
The English programme is an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) programme that
is part of Departamento de Lenguajes y Estudios Socioculturales, which has situated
the practices of language learning within the study of cultural and social issues,
intertwined with language. With this as a background, the English programme is a six
level in-service (starting at a false beginner level) skill-based programme based on a
threefold theoretical background that consists of:

■ ■ Content-based instruction (CBI), the teaching of a language and subject content.
The content used involves a light approach, with more emphasis on language.
It responds to the Department’s perspective on cultural and social aspects
of language.
■ ■ Learner training (LT), the training of students in learning strategies to empower
them to learn in a more autonomous way, in line with the University’s mission
statement of fostering autonomy among students.

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