IMPLEMENTATION OF BLENDED LEARNING IN ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA (ELF)-AWARE PRE-SERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION

Abstract

Blended learning which synthesizes face-to-face instruction with distance education opportunities in educationally meaningful ways aims to take advantage of the affordances of both genuine and virtual types of teaching and ubiquitously equip learners without the limitation of time and space. Blended learning has been integrated into several pre-service teacher education courses to soundly cultivate teacher candidates with the efficient use of online and class time. Yet, to date, there has been no research on the use of blended learning in English as a lingua franca (ELF)-aware pre-service teacher education. This study aims to introduce an intensive blended learning model devised to raise ELF-awareness of pre-service teachers via critical reflection and investigate its effectiveness through their views. The data were collected by a questionnaire with closed- and open-ended items and semi-structured interviews and analyzed via quantitative and qualitative analysis. The findings showed the blended learning model was rated to be effective in raising ELF-awareness of the participants. The advantages of the model were also reported along with challenges and the ways to address them. Overall, the results indicate a high level of satisfaction about the model and it is suggested blended learning be used in pre-service teacher education contexts.