Blended Learning as an Effective Approach to English Language Teaching at the Institutions of Higher Learning—A Case Study

Abstract

Research shows that the blended learning (BL) is now a common teaching approach at the institutions of higher education thanks to a combination of different teaching approaches, which can satisfy the needs of both full-time and part-time students. The purpose of this article is to describe the effectiveness of the BL approach in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) to part-time students in their third year of study at the Faculty of Informatics and Management of the University of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic. The methods used include a literature review of available studies found on the research topic in two acknowledged databases (Web of Science and Scopus) and an evaluation of students’ final credit test results and their answers to two open-ended questions. The results of this study confirm that the BL approach is effective since students were satisfied with both the face-to-face sessions and online classes. In fact, the success of teaching and learning depends on a variety of methods used, which are targeted at meeting students’ needs. In this study, the BL approach was aimed at students’ language, working and family needs in order to enhance their language skills, as well as enable them to fulfil their job and family commitments.