Using a blended approach to teach English for academic purposes: Malaysian students’ perceptions of redesigned course materials

Abstract

English for Social Sciences is a compulsory course for all students of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Recently, the course has been redesigned and a new course book which includes an online component was introduced. The purpose of the study reported in this article is to investigate students' perceptions of the blended approach for learning English for Academic Purposes. A qualitative approach, in the form of nine focus group interviews involving 34 students from various disciplines, was used to collect data. The thrust of the interviews is to investigate students' perceptions of the course book and its online component in meeting their English language needs, different proficiency levels and diverse interests. The challenges and problems faced by them were also probed. The findings of the study reveal that the students' perceptions of the course book in meeting their language needs were generally positive although some higher proficiency students did not find the content challenging enough. The online component was also well received but two major problems and challenges were identified: slow and unreliable internet connection and too much online exercises to complete. Possible solutions to these problems were also proposed.