Accelerate Language Learning through Blended Learning: Does It

Work?

Djuria Suprato

Language Center, English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia 11480

Keywords: Technology, Learning, Students Technology.

Abstract: As technology develops, learning no longer relies on face to face in the classroom. Online learning provides

easier communication between learners and teachers. It facilitates a very flexible learning in terms of time

and place. However, in language learning face to face is still needed to enable learners to imply the

exercises they do through online, ask questions to the teacher related to the material, prepare next topic; etc.

The term Blended learning is learning through both of these methods, online and face to face. This article is

to observe whether Blended learning can be applied effectively and achieve the learning outcome. The

method used is a descriptive method of analysis by involving 65 students as an observation object including

class completion, average score and time on task. The final result will be compared to the previous result

whether the level changed. It is expected that students can improve the language level. Research shows the

increase in levels is not significant and tends not to increase. It indicates that students focus only to fulfil the

requirement of passing mark only, not to improve themselves in using English. The effectiveness of this

method of learning depends on how students see the importance of the materials given, not because of their

intention to do it. However, this method is a promising way to be implied with the concern of teachers to

motivate students in doing online exercises.

1 INTRODUCTION

Technology changes our way of life drastically.

These technological advances have an impact on all

aspects, including the development of education. We

are encouraged to improve the quality of education

as the progress in technological advancement.

Teachers are expected to be more innovative and

creative to encourage their students to improve their

ability. In fact, teachers cannot add face to face time

anymore for non-English department students in

learning English The schedule is only once a week

@ 100 minutes. It will not be able to pursue

technological progress that develops every second.

Learning English time for students must be

increased. To increase the learning hours in the

classroom is not possible because the time is set for

many other courses (besides English). Recently, the

educational research literature has indicated that

blended approaches to learning might provide an

optimal environment for enhancing student

engagement and success (Vaugan, N., 2014). For

that, students are given the training through online

that can be done anywhere and anytime, so the time

to learn will be more than face to face. Blended

learning is one of the alternatives offered to students

that combines classroom meetings and online

training, thus accelerating the delivery of learning

materials that have only been done face to face in

the classroom. Students are expected to accelerate

the learning of English and improve the level of

English proficiency. According to Kintu’s research

results (Kintu, M., J., Zu., C.; Kagambe, E.)

indicated that some of the student

characteristics/backgrounds and design features are

significant predictors of student learning outcomes

in blended learning, so the writer would like to do

this observation. This study involved 65

Tarumanagara University students who were

regularly given training each week 1 unit of lessons.

Lecturers observed students by simply reminding

them to do online learning, explore to learn the topic

given and do the exercises, then do the test for each

unit and expected they could improve unit by unit.

Suprato, D.

Accelerate Language Learning through Blended Learning: Does It Work?.

DOI: 10.5220/0010022900002917

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences, Laws, Arts and Humanities (BINUS-JIC 2018), pages 509-512

ISBN: 978-989-758-515-9

509

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Blended learning can be defined differently based on

the implementation of the field. Blended learning at

UWS refers to a strategic and systematic approach to

combining times and modes of learning, integrating

the best aspects of face-to-face and online

interactions for each discipline, using appropriate

ICTs (Saliba G., 2013; Rankine L., 2013; Cortez, L.,

2013). Bowyer (Bowyer, J., 2017) defined Blended

learning as a mixture of online and face-to-face

learning. In the literature, blended learning is also

known as ‘hybrid learning’ or the ‘flipped

classroom’. In this study Blended learning means

combining face to face lessons in the classroom and

online materials given based on the student’s

English proficiency level, so that students learn

more lessons and more hours lecture than usual.

According to Krause (2007) in Bath (Bath, D., 2010;

Bourke, J., 2010), Blended learning is realized in

teaching and learning environments where there is

an effective integration of different models of

delivery, models of teaching and styles of learning

as a result of adopting a strategic and systematic

approach to the use of technology combined with the

best features of face to face interaction. This means

this approach involved two ways of teaching and

learning applied to students. Face to face learning is

a traditional way of teaching and learning, whereas

online learning. The implementation of the

combination of these two ways still needs the

involvement of the teacher/instructor to guide the

students to do their learning well. There are three

components of the Blended Learning model stated in

Kaur (Kaur, M., 2013), Learning environment,

media component, and Instructional component.

Even though each learning environment has

advantages and advantages, the objective of blended

learning is to leverage the specific positive attributes

of each environment to ensure the optimum use of

resources to obtain the goal of learning. Media refers

to the tools to deliver materials, no media can be

better or worse, but the most appropriate for the

students should be selected to drive students to learn

well. Instructional components consist of

instructional strategies to support learning

objectives. Traditional classrooms allow instructors

and learners to be face-to-face in the same place.

The subjects usually consist of topics such as

complex, broad, programmatic or new content, that

require face-to-face interaction, expert observation,

culture building, team building, networking,

business problem solving or materials to be

presented by an instructor or facilitator. The term

Instructor-Led Training (ILT) is used synonymously

with on-site training and classroom training

(Woodall, D., 2010) virtual classroom allows

instructors and learners to be in different places at

the same time, and allows the instructor to archive

the event for later viewing. These events are usually

conducted through the use of virtual meeting tools.

The topics covered can be similar to those dealt with

in a live classroom unless they are too complex or

contentious (Woodall, D., 2010).

3 METHODOLOGY

This study used the observation of students in the

same major instructed to do online learning, whereas

traditional face-to-face classroom runs as usual. The

face-to-face classroom and online class run parallel.

The students were the first time doing Blended

Learning, so the beginning of class started with an

explanation of Blended Learning (what and how),

then in meeting two (week 2) they sat for the initial

test. The material of the test was TOEIC (Test of

English for International Communication) listening

and reading skills. The initial test determined the

level of material taught for online learning. The

online materials started in week 3. They are

expected to finish each lesson in one week. Each

week, the material is opened one unit and is closed

in following week when the other opened. The

material is from English Discovery

(http://ed.engdis.com) which materials consist of

exploring, practice, and test. The total units are 10

units, unit 1-5 was opened all unit in the middle of

the semester, and unit 6-10 was also opened at the

end of the semester to provide students a chance for

reviewing and revising. The completion and the test

score were a part of the assignment score. The face-

to-face learning discussed listening and reading

TOEIC materials and discussed their difficulties in

doing online materials. They can ask as many

questions to the instructor related to online

materials. Besides face-to-face meeting, students

were provided instructor individual contact, they can

contact and ask questions whenever they got

difficulties related to English online learning. Data is

retrieved from the initial score (from the level

proficiency) and the final score. The score

comparison indicates the alteration of the initial

level to the final level. In this vein, it signifies

whether it is increased, stable, or decreased. The

time used for online is also a part of the

consideration in concluding this study. In the end, it

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will conclude where the Blended Learning

implemented works or not.

4 DISCUSSION AND RESULT

The result of the initial test determined the students’

level of material given. Average students observed

level is Intermediate with 50 students over 65

observed (intermediate 1=37%, intermediate 2 =

17%, intermediate 3=15%). After 5 units online and

half semester face to face (7 meeting once a week),

the result was all in intermediate levels, it means the

increase of the basic level (15%) and decreasing of

advanced level (7%). The final Test result is

different from mid-semester test.10% was back to

basic level and 8% is advanced level. In general, the

result is almost the same as the initial test. The result

of the test is as follows (table 1)

Table 1. The Result of the Test.

Level TOEIC Score Range Initial Test % Mid Test % Final Test %

Basic 1 125-180 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%

Basic 2 185-225 2 3% 0 0% 2 3%

Basic 3 230-360 8 12% 0 0% 8 12%

Intermediate 1 365-550 24 37% 18 28% 12 18%

Intermediate 2 555-675 11 17% 37 57% 21 32%

Intermediate 3 680-785 15 23% 10 15% 14 22%

Advanced 1 790-870 1 2% 0 0% 5 8%

Advanced 2 875-945 4 6% 0 0% 3 5%

Total 65 100% 65 100% 65 100%

Individually, students’ level is almost the same (no

change) from initial to final test (62%). 18 students

(28%) get increased 1 level. 1 student (2%)

increased 2 levels and 1 students (2%) increased 3

levels, there are 5 students (8%) decreased 1 level.

Table 2. Summary of individual changes level.

Chan

es Total Percenta

o chan

e (same level) 40 62%

Increase 1 level 18 28%

Increase 2 level 1 2%

Increase 3 level 1 2%

Decrease 1 level 5 8%

Total 65 100%

Students are expected to spend 2 hours for each

unit in doing online material every week. They

are expected to spend 20 hours in total (10 units

x 2 hours). In fact, from the observation, the

average time is only 11 hours 8 minutes and 34

seconds or 55.71%. It was far from the

expectations. Online learning model has not yet

become a learning model for these observed

students. This was the first time they do it. The

focus of the students so far is passing this

course, whereas the lecturer's expectation is to

improve the quality of his own English mastery.

Related to the blended learning component, in

terms of the learning environment, students are

accustomed to using gadgets, accessing the

internet and browsing various things. No more

obstacles for them when they access English

discovery and do their assignment, It can be

seen from their test results, almost all of them

get good grades. Media component is also

familiar to students, they know how to access

materials. They can ask questions to lecturers

and friend (they have a social media group for

asking and answering questions for online

learning). Instructional component is

implemented by social media and face to face

class. They were instructed well.

5 CONCLUSION

Based on the research, 62% of students exhibit no

change in level, although there was a 1% increase

(28%), it can be concluded there is no effect of the

learning that has been done during this semester.

The causes were the material given online and face

to face was different, so it cannot help students to

increase their ability in doing the TOEIC test. The

exercises conducted online is only for them to

Accelerate Language Learning through Blended Learning: Does It Work?

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practice general English with a different topic of the

TOEIC, only face to face that can affect the student

strategy to answer questions on the final test. Online

only helps students in practicing especially the

implementation of strategy in answering TOEIC

questions especially reading and listening. In

addition, students would like to do the online

materials given to get a score (it is a part of the

assignment score to count their grades), not to

improve their ability in English. Teachers have to

match the objective and the materials given. To

know how far the effect of this blended learning, we

should do further research to see the background of

the students and design features. This method still

can be used with concern of teachers to motivate

students to continue learning English after passing

the English course without teachers’ supervision. As

Graham (2006) stated in Güver (Güver, B., 2014;

Caner, H., 2014) that blended learning would have a

great role in the future and it would be dominated by

the distributed learning environments.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This research was funded by Bina Nusantara

University and data collection was gathered in

Tarumanagara University.

REFERENCES

Bath, D., and Bourke, J., 2010 Getting Started With

Blended Learning (UK: Griffith Institute for Higher

Education)

Bowyer, J., 2017 Evaluating Blended Learning: Bringing

The Elements Together Online

http://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/research-

matters/

Güver, B., and Caner, H., 2014 The past, present and

Future of blended learning: an in depth analysis of

literature Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences

116 pp 4596 – 4603

Kaur, M., 2013 Blended Learning-its challenges and

future Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 93 pp

612-617.

Kintu, M., J., Zu., C., and Kagambe, E., Blended Learning

Effectiveness: The Relationship between Student

Characteristics, design features, and outcomes

International Journal of Educational Technology in

Higher Education 14(7)

Saliba G, Rankine L and Cortez, L., 2013 Fundamental of

Blended learning (Sydney: University of Western

Sydney)

Woodall, D., 2010 Blended learning strategies: Selecting

the best SSWP.1610.0810

Vaugan, N., 2014 Student Engagement and Blended

Learning: Making the Assessment Connection

Education Sciences 4 pp 247-264

doi:10.3390/educsci4040247

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