Blended Learning: Learning a language isn’t just about sitting in a classroom anymore. Today’s learners have a wide range of new educational technology at their fingertips: literally. The digital world has provided a whole new landscape for language students to learn new skills, practice them and assess their own progress.
Educational technology has certainly opened up a whole new type of learning. However, traditional teaching methods still have an awful lot to offer. Though online lessons have huge benefits for language learners, they still find it difficult to top the value of practicing speaking and listening language skills with an experienced tutor.
This is where blended learning comes in. This is the idea that the best possible scenario is for language learners to be able to benefit from both educational technology and one-on-one or group led classroom sessions.
Blended learning really works
Here’s why this teaching and learning method is growing in popularity:
#1 Blended learning is flexible
One of the factors that makes educational technology so popular with learners is that it is flexible. It doesn’t matter if they don’t have loads of spare time to devote to their studies: digital learning resources make it possible for them to learn on whatever device they have to hand and make use of the small pockets of time they do have, wherever they are.
#2 B-learning is personal
Online courses are brilliant for so many reasons… but a totally online course with no tutor involvement can seem impersonal. There’s no one to chat to about progress, no one to run ideas by, and no one to ask for support.
Blended learning changes that. Learners get all the benefits of up to date educational technology but still have a dedicated tutor to support their learning.
#3 Blended learning is student led
Educational technology allows students to go over lessons they weren’t sure about, or even skip ahead when they’ve picked something up really quickly. This is still true in a blended learning scenario as learners will be able to have much more control over the pace of their own learning.
#4 Blended learning is sociable
It’s not always just the tutor that students learn from: their fellow learners can also be inspiring. Sometimes one of the most helpful parts of a training course is meeting a community of likeminded learners. B-learning ensures that students still get the benefit of a course cohort, but without the pressure for them to all to be in the classroom learning at the same time.
Blended learning is an educational philosophy that is rapidly gaining in popularity. Read more about how it works here.