Resumen de Students’ perceptions of blended learning in foreign language learning: A case study
E. Bech, François Ghesquière, H. Mustafa, P. Lorenz
The integration of Blended learning to a classroom-based teaching to students learning a foreign language aims at maximizing the benefits of each mode of delivery and thus effectively facilitate student learning. Based on this assumption, the Centre for Modern Languages at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, has implemented a blended learning model in the form of twelve hours of online activities in all his level 1 and 2 languages classes. Using the BlackBoard learning management system (LMS) as a platform, French, German and Malay languages tailored their post-class revision eWorksheets to address their respective course content and learning objectives. Subsequently, a survey was carried out collecting feedback from 591 students about their perceptions of their online exercises according to the parameters Ease of Learning, Usefulness, Satisfaction, Learning, Enjoyment, and Burden. While the results shows an overall positive perception of the blended learning experience, they also highlight that many students perceive the online exercises as a burden due to unsuitable technical features, time spent for the completion of the exercises, and the level of difficulty. The qualitative data indicates that, even though a different emphasis was given in the online worksheets of the respective languages, the results show similar trends, with only small deviations, especially in the category of Burden.
