Page 224 - BLENDED LEARNING

Comments on Part 4

Brian Tomlinson

There is no doubt that General English courses in schools and tertiary institutions
are unable to devote enough classroom time to facilitate the effective acquisition
of a second language (Barker, 2011). General English learners typically do not get
enough exposure to the language in use and they do not get enough opportunities
to communicate nor to make discoveries about the language for themselves. As a
result, only those learners with the motivation and opportunities to seek language
experience outside the classroom manage to actually acquire communicative
competence in the target language. Blended learning courses, as pointed out in the
chapters in Part 4, are one solution to this problem, especially if they follow up work
done face-to-face in order to provide online opportunities for exposure, discovery
and use.
Another benefit pointed out in the chapters in Part 4, as well as in many other
chapters in other parts of the book, is the potential which blended learning offers
for independent learning. The online components can not only provide each learner
with the possibility of recycling at their own speed and in their own time what
they have already experienced, but can also offer extra opportunities for further
learning both from course-specific materials and from materials from other web
sources. In addition, such experiences can help the General English student to
become less dependent on teachers and more self-reliant both during the course
and in subsequent language learning experiences. Many contributors to the book
stress though, that such independent experience can be enhanced by face-to-face
preparation and follow up in class guided by a teacher.

Preparation for future courses is another potential benefit for General English
students in relation to future academic or professional courses, which are becoming
increasingly likely to be delivered using a blended learning approach. Most
contributors to this book agree that unfamiliarity with blended learning can initially
hold learners back and that the more familiar with, and enthusiastic about, blended
learning the learners are at the beginning of a course the more likely they are to
maximise their benefit from it. Therefore, if students have done a blended learning
General English course, they are more likely to gain from a subsequent English for
Academic Purposes (EAP) or English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course which uses
a blended learning approach. This is a powerful argument but I would not like to
see it used as the main reason for imposing blended learning in situations where it
is inappropriate. I am thinking, for example, of poorly resourced secondary schools
from which most students are unlikely to progress to tertiary or professional courses
in English, and which are struggling to provide basic library resources. Even more
inappropriate would be to impose blended learning on primary school learners of
English because it is modern, fashionable and a preparation for future courses. Such
learners are in no hurry to acquire English and they need to have social fun whilst
learning it (Ghosn 2013; Rixon, 2013). I have seen seven-year olds enjoying playing
with English, developing social skills and gaining positive attitudes towards English

220 | Lessons in blended learning Comments on Part 4 | 221