It's been a very busy week aside from this course! I did the reading early, but here I am doing the assignments at the last minute--which is not my preferred way.
This week we considered the role of student-to-student and student-to-instructor interaction and how learning within certain courses might influence the types of interaction and the balance of synchronous v. asynchronous learning activities. I know that many of my colleagues do not believe that online or blended learning are appropriate for learning a language, but I really believe that they can be. Students absolutely must use the language in meaningful interactions and learn how to negotiate meaning, but there is also a lot of "individual" work that is important for developing competence and confidence. Just because it has not necessarily been done well to date does not mean that it cannot be done.
Learning another language requires plenty of time interacting with the language and manipulating it to explore how the meaning changes when different elements within the sentence are changed. Students who are gifted at learning languages or have a lot of experience learning languages may have the conceptual frameworks to do this more informally and intuitively, but many students do not. Many students want and need the detailed explanations and the mental models that help them organize the information and that can be consulted again as needed.
Furthermore, language classes in higher education have very few actual contact hours--much less than in high school. Many students need and want the explanations, effective tools to help them with memorization, and mechanical practice to help them develop their understanding and abilities. Students are much more engaged, competent, and confident in their interactions and meaning negotiation when they have done the "outside" work. A blended format enables instructors to ensure that students actually learn what they need to know and have developed mastery of essential skills (verb conjugations, sentence structure, how to navigate different pronouns, etc.). This can be done outside of class so that synchronous learning activities, either online or face-to-face, are more fruitful.
Another benefit I see to learning languages in a blended format is that it recognizes that not all students have the same goals for learning a language and not all students progress at the same pace. There is rarely if ever much homogeneity with a given course section in terms of students abilities, interests, and goals. When students with higher proficiency levels are in a class where they are not challenged, they may actually see a reduction in their own proficiency level. That is certainly the last thing we instructors want to see happen! A blended format allows for better matching and grouping of students through the creation of different pathways within the course and/or through cross-section groupings based on proficiency rather than on which specific section their schedule caused them to choose. Students who start a course at very different levels of proficiency should not be expected to end the course at the same target level of proficiency. If these differences (which in theory should not be terribly significant but in reality are extremely significant and challenging for instructors) can only be navigated in the very limited class time available in face-to-face learning, some students will likely spend the entire course bored and disengaged while others feel lost and overwhelmed.
Seasoned instructors and institutions that provide strong learning supports for students (i.e., free tutoring) can, of course, navigate these waters better than others, but there is much that can be done if we are willing to embrace new models and think outside the traditional classroom and its constraints.
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