Impact of Blended Learning in the Teaching and Learning of English
N.Sathi, Ph.D. & Dr.D.Meenakshi,
Department of Education & Management, Tamil University, Thanjavur
Summary
Educational processes have seen a lot of tremendous changes after the advent of internet. The introduction of ‘Technology in Education has revolutionised classroom transaction. NCF (2005) mentions that children come to school with prior knowledge and they are not the empty vessels to be filled with information. Of course, students can gather knowledge by the click of the mouse thanks to the internet and digital resources. Hence, the role of teachers has got changed from the dispensers of information to facilitators of learning. The present day teachers need to be tech savvy to tap all the print and digital resources adopting the most appropriate pedagogical processes that suit their students.
English language is regarded as a skill subject. Like any other languages, it also has importance on the expression. The students need to develop their communication skill in English both in oral and written in their school days itself. The highly performing students in Engineering subjects fail to secure jobs in multinational companies in the era of globalisation and liberalisation just because of the lack of English language communication skills. The present day engineers need to converse with the global clients and sell their products, i.e softwares through their companies.
The faculty members of Engineering Colleges struggle to develop the English language communication skills of students. ‘Blended Language’ or ‘Blended e-learning’ is a method which can be adopted to develop the communication skills of students in English. In the traditional method of teaching, students are given common instruction as a whole class activity. It does not focus on individual performance of students. The research studies show that there exists individual difference among students. So, the classroom processes should not be generalised but individualistic according to the learning pace of students.
Blended Teaching is a concept that incorporates face to face teaching with ICT support. It includes instruction, indirect instruction, collaborative teaching, individualised computer assisted learning. It is the integrated combination of traditional learning with web based online approaches, the combination of media and tools deployed in e-learning environment with the combination of number of pedagogical approaches. Hence, the investigators have selected the problem and stated it as “An Impact of Blended Learning in the Teaching and Learning of English”.
Introduction
Educational processes have seen a lot of tremendous changes after the advent of internet. The introduction of ‘Technology in Education has revolutionized classroom transaction. NCF (2005) mentions that children come to school with prior knowledge and they are not the empty vessels to be filled with information. Of course, students can gather knowledge by the click of the mouse thanks to the internet and digital resources. Hence, the role of teachers has got changed from the dispensers of information to facilitators of learning. The present day teachers need to be tech savvy to tap all the print and digital resources adopting the most appropriate pedagogical processes that suit their students. English language is regarded as a skill subject. Like any other languages, it also has importance on the expression. The students need to develop their communication skill in English both in oral and written in their school days itself. The highly performing students in Engineering subjects fail to secure jobs in multinational companies in the era of globalization and liberalization just because of the lack of English language communication skills. The present day engineers need to converse with the global clients and sell their products, i.e software through their companies.
The faculty members of Engineering Colleges struggle to develop the English language communication skills of students. ‘Blended Language’ or ‘Blended e-learning’ is a method which can be adopted to develop the communication skills of students in English. In the traditional method of teaching, students are given common instruction as a whole class activity. It does not focus on individual performance of students. The research studies show that there exists individual difference among students. So, the classroom processes should not be generalised but individualistic according to the learning pace of students.
Blended Teaching is a concept that incorporates face to face teaching with ICT support. It includes instruction, indirect instruction, collaborative teaching, individualized computer assisted learning. It is the integrated combination of traditional learning with web based online approaches, the combination of media and tools deployed in e-learning environment with the combination of number of pedagogical approaches.
Hence, the investigators have selected the problem and stated it as “An Impact of Blended Learning in the Teaching and Learning of English”.
The following are the objectives formulated for the study.
To study the effectiveness of the Blended method of teaching of English for the students of Computer Science Department.
To study the significance of the difference in the achievement test in English for the pre-test and post-test between the male and female and rural and urban students of the Computer Science Department in respect of the a) Control Group, b) Experimental Group.
Hypotheses
The following hypotheses have been framed from the objectives formulated.
The effectiveness of the Blended Method of teaching English for the students from the Computer Science Department is found to be at high level,
There is no significant difference in the achievement test in English for the students from the Computer Science Department for the pre-test and post-test between the male and female and rural and urban students in respect of the a) Control Group, b) Experimental Group.
Sample and Tool
The purposive sampling technique has been used in the selection of the sample of 40 students from the Computer Science Department of the Gojan Engineering College, Chennai. The tool, Achievement Test in English (ATE), constructed and validated by the investigators was used in the present study.
Method
Experimental method was used in the present study. It consists of a) Control Group (Traditional Method of Teaching), b) Experimental Group (Teaching by ICT). Each group had 20 students.
Statistical Techniques Used
The following statistical techniques have been employed in the present investigation.
• Percentage Analysis
• Descriptive Analysis
• Differential Analysis (‘t’ test)
Delimitations of the Study
The study is delimited only to the
• students from the Computer Science Department only,
• select demographic variables only.
Review of Literature
The investigators referred to the educational research studies and journals available.
Chintan Kishorbhai Vaghela., (2019) conducted a studied study on the Blended Learning: A Transformative Potential for Higher Education. This paper identified three distinct approaches for designing a blended course that emerged as a result of the multitude of definitions of Blended learning. Kavitha.R.K., et al (2018) investigated a study on the Student Experiences in Blended Learning Environments. HananTawil., (2018) examined a study on the Blended Learning Approach and Its Application in Language Teaching. The general finding regarding blended learning in language teaching is that it delivers a number of advantages for language teaching. Peter mozelius et al., (2017), investigated a study on the critical factors for implementing blended learning in higher education. The findings support the factor for innovative didactics and instructional design to satisfy the needs in heterogeneous student groups. Narangerel Jachin., et al (2017) conducted a study on the Potential Impact of Blended Learning on Teacher Education in Mongolia. The results show that the goal of improving quality of the blended course and reducing the instructor workload has been achieved. This research result shows that blended learning implementation can improve quality of education, benefiting both students and instructors.
Methodology
Standardization of the Tool
The investigators developed an achievement test consisting of 50 questions. The questions were administered to a sample of 100 studying in private Engineering colleges in Chennai. The index of difficulty and index of discrimination of each item were calculated for finalising the tool. The achievement test tool constructed by the investigators has content validity as the scale test contains items from the content areas prescribed before and the same was ratified by a panel of experts. It has construct validity as the items were selected following item analysis procedure following ‘split half method’. The intrinsic validity was found to be 0.90. The reliability of the test-retest method was found to be 0.81. The researchers adopted internet based learning to teach communicative English to students with regard to the Blended Learning. A set of PowerPoint slides was prepared to ensure self learning by students.
Tool Administration
The tool was administrated to the sample before and after the treatment as pre-test and post-test. The data were analysed statistically.
Data Analysis
The results of the achievement test in the pre test and post test were presented in the following tables.
Table-1 Levels of Achievement of Computer Science Department Students in the Pre-test
Group | Sub group | Low | Average | High | |||
|
| N | % | N | % | N | % |
Control Group | Entire | 6 | 30.0 | 14 | 70.0 | 0 | 0 |
Male | 2 | 23.3 | 10 | 71.4 | 0 | 0 | |
Female | 4 | 66.7 | 4 | 28.6 | 0 | 0 | |
Rural | 3 | 50.0 | 10 | 71.4 | 0 | 0 | |
Urban | 3 | 50.0 | 4 | 28.6 | 0 | 0 | |
Experimental Group | Entire | 0 | 0 | 20 | 100.0 | 0 | 0 |
Male | 0 | 0 | 10 | 50.0 | 0 | 0 | |
Female | 0 | 0 | 10 | 50.0 | 0 | 0 | |
Rural | 0 | 0 | 8 | 40.0 | 0 | 0 | |
Urban | 0 | 0 | 12 | 60.0 | 0 | 0 | |
Table-2 Levels of Achievement of Computer Science Department Students in the Post-test
Group | Sub group | Low | Average | High | |||
|
| N | % | N | % | N | % |
Control Group | Entire | 0 | 0 | 20 | 100.0 | 0 | 0 |
Male | 0 | 0 | 12 | 60.0 | 0 | 0 | |
Female | 0 | 0 | 8 | 40.0 | 0 | 0 | |
Rural | 0 | 0 | 13 | 65.0 | 0 | 0 | |
Urban | 0 | 0 | 7 | 35.0 | 0 | 0 | |
Experimental Group | Entire | 0 | 0 | 7 | 35.0 | 13 | 65.0 |
Male | 0 | 0 | 3 | 42.9 | 7 | 53.8 | |
Female | 0 | 0 | 4 | 57.1 | 6 | 46.2 | |
Rural | 0 | 0 | 4 | 57.1 | 4 | 30.8 | |
Urban | 0 | 0 | 3 | 42.9 | 4 | 69.2 | |
Table-3 The Significance of Difference Between Mean Scores of Male & Female and Rural & Urban Students of the Computer Science Department in the Pre-test
| Sub Sample | N | M | SD | ‘t’ value | Significance |
Control Group | Male | 8 | 14.62 | 3.70 | 2.12 | Significant |
Female | 12 | 11.75 | 1.21 | |||
Rural | 12 | 13.50 | 3.47 | 1.39 | Not Significant | |
Urban | 8 | 12.00 | 1.06 | |||
Experimental Group | Male | 9 | 26.88 | 1.45 | 0.37 | Not Significant |
Female | 11 | 27.18 | 2.04 | |||
Rural | 13 | 27.30 | 1.79 | 0.87 | Not Significant | |
Urban | 7 | 26.57 | 1.71 |
| Sub Sample | N | M | SD | ‘t’ value | Significance |
Control Group | Male | 8 | 24.12 | 1.95 | 0.92 | Not Significant |
Female | 12 | 23.33 | 1.72 | |||
Rural | 12 | 23.50 | 1.56 | 0.41 | Not Significant | |
Urban | 8 | 23.87 | 2.23 | |||
Experimental Group | Male | 9 | 33.66 | 3.74 | 1.07 | Not Significant |
Female | 11 | 32.09 | 2.58 | |||
Rural | 13 | 32.00 | 2.85 | 1.51 | Not Significant | |
Urban | 7 | 34.28 | 3.40 |
Table-4 The Significance of Difference Between Mean Scores of Male & Female and Rural & Urban Students of the Computer Science Department in the Post-test
Discussion
The study indicates that Blended Learning has advantage over traditional method of teaching and learning. The results indicate that the performance of students in the post-test was better than the pre-test. The Experimental Group performed better than the Control Group. The levels of performance in the pre test and post test indicate that the Blended Learning has positive impact in the learning of communicative skills of students. The level of significance indicates that there is no significant difference in the Experimental Group. This is the impact of Blended Method of Teaching.
Conclusion
There have been a lot of changes in the pedagogy, assessment, curriculum and syllabus according to the changes in the field of education. The stakeholders of education should be willing to adapt to the changing scenario to discharge their roles for the benefit of students. The traditional methods of teaching and learning should be slowly replaced by technology based teaching and learning. The teachers and faculty members of schools and higher education institutions should be trained to adopt the changes in the process of pedagogical transaction. This will make the learning atmosphere in educational institutions holistic and beneficial to students for enhancing their learning. This will have a long term impact on the development of human capital with innovative attitude and skills capable of facing challenges of 21st century.
References
ChintanKishorbhaiVaghela., (2019), “Blended Learning: A Transformative Potential for Higher Education”,Global Journal for Research Analysis,v. 8, n, 8.
HananTawil., (2018), “The Blended Learning Approach and Its Application in Language Teaching”,International Journal of Language and Linguistics,v. 5, n, 4.
Kavitha.RK., and Jaisingh.W., (2018), “A Study on the Student Experiences in Blended Learning Environments” International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering, (IJRTE), v. 7, n, 4.
NarangerelJachin and Tsuyoshi Usagawa., (2017), “Potential Impact of Blended Learning on Teacher Education in Mongolia”, Creative Education, v. 8, n, 1.
National Curriculum Framework (NCF) (2005), NCERT, New Delhi
Peter Mozelius and Enosha Hettiarachchi., (2017), “Critical factors for implementing blended learning in higher education”,v. 6, n, 2.
N.Sathi, Ph.D. & Dr.D.Meenakshi,
Research Scholar & BT Assistant
Department of Education & Management, Tamil University, Thanjavur
