Impacts of Using Blended Learning Approach on Second Language

Blended learning instruction is emerging as one of the most promising instructional practices in educational settings. Nevertheless, the blended learning method effect and effectiveness on second language acquisition has not been thoroughly discussed. Accordingly, the aim of the paper herein is to utilize previous scholarly-based literature to examine the effectiveness of blended learning in second language acquisition. Some of the literature reviewed included articles by Boles (2011), Bashay (2011), Graham (2006), Garrison & Vaughn (2008), Akyol et al. (2009) among many other peer-reviewed literature. Along with the academic achievement that blended learning might bring to second language acquisition, the perceptions and attitude towards the blended learning system and how it has helped then in second language acquisition will be addressed. The paper hopes to contribute to blended learning and second language acquisition practice in the following ways: 1) gain insight into the effectiveness of blended learning methods in enhancing second language acquisition. 2) Examine whether the blended learning approach is more effective than the traditional method in second language acquisition. 3) Discuss conclusions made based on the review research findings and the rationale utilized for review as well as discuss the connotation of the review research findings stating clearly the implications for further research on this topic.

Introduction.
In our current global world in which technology and information have been rapidly advancing and increasing, the value of education has been on a rise accordingly.

While the advancements observed in science and technology in this century have expanded the responsibilities and duties of the education system, these changes have also carried new opportunities. Accordingly, because of the fact that the world has turned into an information-based world, the worth of information has also substantially increased; the receipt of information at the right time and the right place is of crucial importance to people and the society as a whole. Easy and rapid access to a vast selection of information has resulted in advancement in information access technologies that will ensure circulation of this much-needed information (Sahan, 2005). Technology focused on education holds a vital place for the application of theories formed from educational sciences as well as the improvement of these requests (Lim & Morris, 2009).
One of the novelties of technology is the internet. The educational system has received a lot of benefits from advantages brought about by the internet. In a nutshell, the internet offers learners easy and rapid access to opportunity and information of audio, video, and written communication. Due to the fast and speedy growth of the Internet, Internet-based education has also rapidly expanded. Accordingly, new internet-based education methods have emerged and have removed time and place obstacles and provided students all over the world with information whenever and wherever they need it. The ability of the learner being able to get information no matter the time or place they are makes the internet a very crucial part of education. Courses provided through the internet can regard as a form of enriched and enhanced education and include blended courses, web-based courses among others.
According to Sahan (2005), web-based education is a new form of an education model that can be utilized to supplement the acquisition of new skills for getting information and can improve the student’s experiences and habits. Many types of education techniques such as brainstorming, information hunt, case studies, discussions, presentations, answer-question, and cooperative learning among others can be administered in a web-based environment.
Participants in the higher education enterprise are questioning traditional approaches and whether they are achieving the high levels of learning promised (Garrison & Vaughan, 2008). Institutions of higher learning must address changing expectations associated with the quality of learning experience and the wave of technological innovations. Blended learning instruction is emerging as one of the most promising instructional practices in educational settings. Consequently, it is possible for students to gain learning experiences such as observing, listening, reading, performing tasks, and writing. Nonetheless, online learning also bears its disadvantages with the biggest being that they cannot provide students with other forms of interaction such as face-to-face and social interaction between the instructor and other learners. On the other hand, Hockly (2011) stated that internet-based learning tools can be used to a limited extent to enhance learning. Nonetheless, they also emphasized that technology and information tools cannot guarantee the unmitigated success of education.
Indeed, the area of blended research is relatively new. Blended learning is termed as the act of providing supplementary resources for any institution’s course that are principally carried out along traditional methods through a leanring environment that is institutionally supported.
Many studies show that blended learning is both an active learning model and a popular choice amongst students.
Garrison and Vaughan (2008) assert that institutions taking advantage of consistent, sustainable and efficient blended learning opportunities’ will transform the higher education learning environment they provide to students. Additionally, the evidence-based approach to the incorporation of technology into the traditional, blended and online environment is a strategy that can reduce the cognitive load of working memory as demonstrated in a variety of disciplines such as shown in psychology students. Furthermore, students using technology evidenced higher scores than traditional teaching and learning method.
Blended Learning and Second Language Acquisition (SLA).
Blended learning in school is a phenomenon that started as a higher education idea and has recently been transferred down into secondary and even to elementary school. Several experts, theorists, administrators, and educators have attested to this phenomenon. Kuo et al. (2014), stated that blended learning is a learning method that incorporates both face-to-face learning process with technology-based learning. In their article, they described the blended learning method structure as a classroom. One can also describe blended learning as a method of hybrid learning that is based on 67% of face-to-face interaction and 33% of web-based interactions. Many teachers have incorporated this model into their classroom to improve math and reading instruction. Accordingly, project-based learning is also applied to new technology resource.
Blended learning is can also be defined as the combination of traditional face-to-face learning environment with e-learning instruction by engaging students in both online and offline activities (Graham, 2006). The objective of combining the online/computer-founded learning and face to face leaning is to apply the benefit of both faces to face and online or computer-based instruction and learning (Akyol et al., 2009, Garrison & Vaughn, 2008). The underlying principle of blended learning is buttressed by e-learning theory. The theory considers learning as an active process in which the learner with guidance creates their own meaning. Blending learning in higher education is now widely adopted and growing rapidly globally and is also considered as the best model for instruction and learning (Garrison and Vaughan, 2008). The use of technology and online, blended learning environments are enabling students to acquire information and become active lifelong learners (Owston et al., 2006). Furthermore, pupils and instructors have indicated satisfaction and higher student academic performance with blending learning courses (Akyol et al., 2009). Moreover, particularly in higher education, the reasons for employing a blended approach fall into three categories: improved pedagogy, increased access/flexibility and greater cost effectiveness. Sharma and Barrett (2007) reiterate these reasons while adding convenience, and being able to work on your own time and at your own pace to the list. Also, Hockly (2011) repeats flexibility as a reason for blending and adds a further two, namely learner expectations and Ministry of Education directives.
The classroom might also be arranged in a number of different ways. While the whole idea of blended learning is to maintain the portion attributed to technology to less than 50% so that it can supplement traditional learning and not entirely replace it, teachers aim to utilize the technology-based pieces of information as a substantial way enhancing the instructions they put across. Blended learning provides educators with an opportunity to frame instructions based on each type of learner’s needs; this is particularly vital in SLA (Garrison & Vaughn, 2008). Blended learning in a classroom environment assimilates day to day instruction in whole or small group lessons, followed by a technology portion where students receive interventions, enrichment time based, or practice on their particular needs. A study was completed in 2011, and 33% of the country’s school offered some form of online based learning (Krasnova, 2014). The study started out as an approach to higher learning, secondary schools, middle schools, as well as other elementary schools, have endorsed this concept in their institution.
While many districts and teachers choose to assimilate technology through English Second Language (ESL) programs and computer-based reading, other select to carry out technology through web-based agenda that targets more on creativity. In this study, utilizing blended creative teaching, many instructors choose to investigate SLA with online quizzes and blogs to decide whether to include technology in their class (Krasnova, 2014). They resolved to use online journals, such as peer-reviewed journals, instead of pencil and paper assignments. The conclusion was that utilizing technology in the ESL classroom to enhance instructions aids to engage the learner, in turn, reinforcing ideas and concepts through the learners sharing their knowledge through different channels (Krasnova, 2014).
Blended learning isn’t only implemented in higher education institutions. Many secondary schools have taken up the challenge to introduce high school students into technology-based education programs that are aimed at enhancing reading instruction. Bashay (2011), states that school districts all over the United States of America are advocating for blended learning implementation in secondary schools. In fact, a particular school located in Los Angeles, California has introduced a one-to-one technology-based program that is based on blended learning. The high school students in Kipp Empower (High School) are each provided with a laptop that they use to help them achieve the work and goals that they have been given at their particular grade level. Several other high schools in the United States of America also use blended learning in most of their classrooms. Many of the experts and educators focused on blended learning in high school. Barshay also illustrated the benefit of exposing students to various forms of education-based technology and blended learning to ready them for the different technological advances that are ever changing in our society today.
In another article by Boles (2011), she encourages English tutors and instructors all over the world to make the best use of the technology that they are provided with and to utilize what works for them and their students in the classroom. She states that it would not be right in this technological era to hand learners with the same old, smelly photocopy pages. This idea is very similar to the ideas presented by Barshay (2011), on presenting students with technology at a young age in order to prepare them to use them in the future. Many teachers in this day and age have also commenced flipped learning in order to add to the classroom. A flipped classroom is a method of learning that blends classroom activities with home-based online components. This process is similar to the ideas by Levin and Heibsch to engage learners by use of blended learning (Mitchell & Honore, 2007). The article states that a flipped classroom’s home-based online components consist of a video lesson that the student can access while at home via the internet or through taking a copy from school. The learners are then expected to complete the task they have been given in the country and then bring it with them the next day to school for classroom discussion (Westermann, 2014).
Blended learning courses in nature are not traditional courses mixed with add-on technology. On the contrary, they are established with a transformational redesign process (Ross and Gage, 2006). Ross and Gage (2006) also point out that the learning process differentiation is not dependent on whether they blend but rather how they mix. The crucial question is therefore how to blend, and this issue has been considered by many researchers to which they exist a large number of possible solutions. Graham (2006) states that there exists no specific design solution for the blended learning ultimate design, but there exists a vast number of successful combinations in many different contexts. On the other hand, the blended learning model ought to incorporate creative utilization of architecture, people, and technology in a varying way other than the typical distance learning concept where lecturers and students are physically separated from one another.
Garrison & Kanuka (2004), state that there exists a small number of blended learning designs which can be developed by Second Language educators when. They also state that what makes this happen is the existence of virtually endless design applicability and possibilities in so many contexts particularly in SLA. The significance of this redesign, of course, is seconded by Sharpe et al. (2006) along with Littlejohn and Peggler (2007). They point out that the blended learning hybrid model is not a universal solution for SLA, rather is yet another credible option in the current learning environment which must be altered continually to meet the different lecturers and students learning needs. The design of blended learning is different based on the courses’ objectives, the percentage of the various aspects that are blended and the elements themselves in the credit course. Choosing the right elements that contend together with a blended course objective is a vital step in the process of design.
To ensure that blended learning is effective in SLA, a large percentage of online learning has to ensure the sustainability of both the two worlds; with particular emphasis on the best parts of both the worlds. The suggestion is that around 25-50% of instruction that is web-based can be imposed to maintain the benefits that come from face-to-face communication. The effect that blended elements percentage have in the English course credit on the satisfaction of students has been shown in many studies. An example is Danchak & Huguet (2004) who explored the transformation of an English course that was traditional gradually into an online course. They concluded that the learners were not able to appreciate that effort that the lecturer put in organizing the online course since they also expected some level of the lecturer’s presence. On yet another research that was carried out by Reichlmayr (2005) on ESL students and the techniques of blended learning came to the conclusion that 73% of learners liked to have part of their courses in the classroom and part of it online (16 % disagreed and 11% were neutral).
Additionally, the University of Phoenix has courses that they call FlexNet whereby the lecturers and students meet 33% of the time in the classroom (face-to-face) while for the rest 66% meet in an online environment. Because of this, the face-to-face classroom meetings were transformed into a discussion session of what the students had learned rather than the traditional lecture (Waddoups, Hatch, & Bution, 2003). Brigham Young University adopted a different design whereby freshmen English students were required to have a classroom face-to-face meeting once a week instead of the previous curriculum that required them to meet thrice a week. Accordingly, this design enables these online modules to provide teachings aids and instruction online along with face-to-face communication which provides guidance and feedback on writing. Another example of the application of blended learning in schools is in the University of Wisconson_Milwaukee. In one of their courses, namely English Literature course, their lecturer redesigned it to become and blended course (Akyol et al., 2009). The new design of the English course includes online work, off-campus face-to-face communication, face-to-face assignments in which the students are required to hold a meeting for collective creation of artwork that they were required to do in one of the municipal buildings in the region. This course proved effective in SLA.
Discussion and conclusion
Review research studies lean towards the fact that blended learning possesses added value in SLA in the condition that it is facilitated by educators who have a high level of interpersonal skills coupled up by user-friendly and reliable technology. The materials for a SLA online course can include audio, video, and text. Video and audio tools typically consist of online lectures which have proved to be a vital tool for online learning. A view by Graham (2006) is that recorded lectures videos and audios play a essential role in the process of education, and they prove to be the best step towards the personalization of the teaching process, a thing that is achievable by a small amount of additional burden on the teacher. Hladka et al. also point out a benefit of recorded lectures are that both the students and lecturers are able to quickly access, replay and review difficult parts of the professor without going back and forth and overloading the lecturer with many consultations. Furthermore, the best advantage of this system is that one recording can be done by the best teacher in the field and can be distributed to a large number of students, primarily making it more effective and efficient. However, one needs to be very careful because the design of the courses of blended learning requires a lot of intentional path to instructional design to ensure that the program is blended in both design and delivery. Often, institutions with the intention of implementing blended learning in their school offer instructional design support for the redesigning of courses.
Implications of review research
The lack of properly structured online application in the environments of blended learning can be further improved to smoothen out the integration of the system in SLA (Hockly, 2011). There are also implications on whether blended learning is context dependent and works with SLA only.

References.
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