FLEAT VI

Hybrid (or blended) teaching has become the most popular way to integrate teaching/learning technology in language instruction. After an initial interest in all-online instruction a few years ago, experience quickly showed that online teaching worked optimally for self-driven, highly motivated students. The opposite is true, however, for an overwhelmingly larger majority of learners who need more structure and supervision. College students, increasingly regarded as ‘not college prepared,’ now need to be taught what being a student entails in a college environment, and colleges need to accept the new challenge. Stringent admission requirements may not be a good option. Interestingly, and contrary to early concerns in the field, teaching/learning technology has also strengthened a need for a human instructor with whom some regular interaction could be ensured. Attention is now directed toward combining the best of the old and the new ways of doing things in an instructional setting.

At Georgia State University, a research university with a highly diverse population, 10 (about 300 students) out of 40 (1200 students) sections of Spanish 1001 and Spanish 1002 were turned into hybrid sections in Spring 2013 and Fall 2014. In a two semester-long pilot experience whose purpose was to determine whether hybrid courses were viable in a highly diverse setting, hybrid and regular courses were compared and assessed. This presentation will report on the findings by introducing quantitative results (grade and retention rate comparisons) that suggested in Spring 2013 that the experience be repeated in Fall 2014. This presentation will also report on the results of a multifactorial analysis of the experience to claim that hybrid instruction is indeed an effective option in foreign/second language instruction in the changing setting of education today. Ultimately, the use of technology in a hybrid context is a proper response to the challenges of modern education.