Language teaching in blended contexts
Margaret Southgate
Senior Lecturer and Staff Tutor in Languages
Faculty of Education and Language Studies
The Open University in Wales m.southgate@open.ac.uk

Pioneers in blended language teaching

Sharing expertise

Four key principles
• creativity
• responsiveness
• openness
• pragmatism

The nature of the blend

An integrated blend

Blending, not layering

Combining tools and resources
• Understanding of strengths, weaknesses, appropriateness
• Strong integration of environments
(Stacey and Gerbic, 2008)

Aiming for strong integration
The four-stage model (after Garrison & Vaughan, 2008):
• Individual work before a synchronous session
• Group work during a synchronous session
• Activities after a synchronous session
• Preparation (individual and/or group) for the next synchronous session

Implications for assessment
• Using a range of media, such as
– Online quizzes
– Audio recordings
– Blogs
– Forum contributions
• Assessment as a teaching tool
– Written or audio-recorded feedback
– Sensitive to individual needs
?

The teacher’s role assessor?
author?
moderator?
learning adviser?
presenter?
facilitator?
designer?

Learner diversity
One size fits all?

Consider some key areas:
• Task choice and design
• Use of personal information
• Activity and group management
• Language use
The languages classroom:
Place of comfort or obstacle course?
Nicolson & Adams (2010)

[Autonomous learners] “understand the purpose of their learning programme, explicitly accept responsibility for their learning, share in the setting of goals, take initiatives in planning and executing learning and evaluate its effectiveness.”
Little, 2003

• closely linked
• crucial for successful language learning
• fostered through supportive feedback
Learners need opportunities to communicate in the language
Teachers can encourage learners to make their own choices

built-in flexibility guiding rather than controlling minimal teacher intervention learners explore and experiment take decisions, including opting out give positive feedback to others learn from feedback

“Blended learning inherently is about rethinking and redesigning the teaching and learning relationship”
Garrison and Kanuka 2004 teacher teacher staff developer learner

Microteaching
Tandem teaching
Observing
Face-to-face
Workshops
& meetings
Peer support
Teacher
Telephone
Synchronous online
Asynchronous online
Mentoring
Shared resource banks notice board
Action research
Chat forums
Intranet
Wikis
Virtual staff rooms
Selfaccess materials

Four key principles:
• creativity
• responsiveness
• openness
• pragmatism

Garrison, D.R. and Kanuka, H (2004), 'Blended learning: uncovering its transformative potential in higher education', The Internet and Higher
Education, 7 (2), 95-105.
Garrison, D.R. and Vaughan, N.D. (2008), Blended Learning in Higher
Education (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass).
Little, D (2003), 'Learner autonomy and second language learning', The
Guide to Good Practice for Learning and Teaching in Languages,
Linguistics and Area Studies. < www.llas.ac.uk/resources/gpg/1409> , accessed 21 January 2010.
Nicolson, M and Adams, H (2010), 'The languages classroom: place of comfort or obstacle course?', The Language Learning Journal, 38 (1), 37-
49.
Nicolson, M, Murphy, L, and Southgate, M (eds.) (2011), Language Teaching
in Blended Contexts (Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press).
Stacey, E and Gerbic, P (2008), 'Success factors for blended learning',
ascilite (Melbourne, Australia).

Margaret Southgate
Senior Lecturer and Staff Tutor in Languages
Faculty of Education and Language Studies
The Open University in Wales m.southgate@open.ac.uk