The Main Factors of Affecting Blended Learning in English Course

王航宇 陈映丹

【Abstract】Blended learning is widely used in English course. This paper analyzes the main factors which affect blended learning to play positive or negative role in English course.

【Key words】main factors; blended learning; English course

【作者簡介】王航宇（1981-），男，重庆荣昌人，重庆市农业机械化学校，硕士，讲师，研究方向：计算机技术、电子信息科学与技术研究;陈映丹（1981-），女，重庆荣昌人，重庆工商职业学院，创新教育学院，硕士，副教授，研究方向：英美文学、高职外语教学研究。

Blended learning means that all the necessary learning materials will be available online. In English course， there are still some main factors affecting blended learning to work effectively.

1. The Difference of Individual Learners

The difference of individual learners are of great relevance to blended learning and have positive and negative influence for blended learning proceeds in English teaching. On the positive side， as we know that individual learner can make great progress and do things well in his or her own way and own time out side of the face to face classroom. However， individual learners are different and diverse. So， that may lead to the negative side. Even they are in the same classroom， the different genders， different learning styles and strategic abilities， different emotional factors and a sense of personal identity may present obstacles to the teacher of the out of class elements of a blended learning in English teaching program. These factors of individual learners in that computer-medicated activity by an individual learning without a teacher cannot be supervised and responded to.

2. The leaner’s Social and Cultural Background

English learning as a humanistic discipline， that the learner and the processes of acquisition should not be detached from the social and cultural background. The importance of the learner’s sense of social and cultural identity and the role of classroom in developing that sense are not to be underestimated. It is interesting to discover that whether individual learners feel comfortable with particular group-identities or prefer to distance themselves from them， a question relevant to classroom communities， online communities. Motivation may be affected by sense of self as well. Thus， teaching activities cannot be seen as attending in a mental space divorced from the social and cultural background of the learner， from the situations in which English teaching is mediated within and without classrooms， from scaffolding provided by teachers and the peers and from the sense of self and the aspirations in which English is mediated within and without class. These values need to be remained in English teaching and probably best nurtured in the face to face class or at least in the context of online social networking among English teachers and learners， rather than to leave the student in isolated situation working alone on a language task that merely gives machine-driven feedback.

3. Teachers’ Acceptance of New Technologies

Blended Learning requires English teachers to be flexible enough to meet students’ different needs for English learning; it requires teachers to fully control students’ learning process and state， thus giving them suitable learning materials and it requires teachers to give students  feedbacks as soon as possible， particularly in the online section. However， not all teachers are effective in facilitating students’ learning in blended learning environment. Some teachers might have initial difficulties to fulfill the requirement to teach in blended learning environment， their lack of time and opportunity to train on various technological tools could block their way integrating technology into teaching process. Learners might have different computer and internet skill background. They might spent much more time in understanding such software packages as Microsoft Word， Excel or Power Point which are used to complete assignments. The time they spend in learning the software packages throughout the semester is obviously taking away time and leaving a very limited amount of time for their assignments.

4. Conclusion

Blended learning requires the presence of both teachers and students， the difference of individual learners and teachers’ acceptance of new technologies， etc. when these main factors are effectively in a positive state c blended learning can play a more effective role， especially in English course.

References：

[1]Pete Sharma， Barney Barrett.Blended Learning-Using Technology in and Beyond Language Classroom[J]. Macmillan Education，2007.