LANGUAGE IN INDIA

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Volume 23:5 May 2023
ISSN 1930-2940

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Online, Face to Face (F2F), and Blended Settings in Education: Minimizing To Be or Not To Be Dilemma in EFL Education at Tertiary Level in Bangladesh (BAU, Mymensingh)

M. Shajedul Arifeen

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to explore the role of different instructional settings at a graduate level across a semester. The focus was on identifying the impact of different instructional settings and the influence of these classroom settings on learners’ EFL development. This study also aims to highlight the symmetrical relationship between different instructional settings exposed to the students. In addition, a reflection of the students was also investigated. To measure differences in foreign language classes through online, face-to-face, and blended studies, 60 EFL learners were randomly selected to participate in the current study. Data were collected from 60 students assigned under three instructional groups of three different classroom settings. Data sources included online discussion transcripts, post-discussion surveys of students' engagement in different class environments, and final self-reflective essays in which students described their experiences of the different class environments. Data analysis was inductive, interpretive, and qualitative, aimed at identifying the impact and to minimize the suitability of online, F to F and blended settings exposed by three instructors in each class session. Descriptive statistics were used to calculate the mean number of comments posted by students and mean ratings of student engagement immediately following class sessions. Results showed that the blended and F to F sessions influenced the learning was more subtle than has online been assumed. The students who participated in face-to-face and blended classes stated a high level of EFL proficiency compared to their online group, which was significant compared to their online counterparts. However, through face-to-face and blended learning, the students achieved considerable EFL competency and proficiency. In many ways, F2F and blended settings have almost similar impact on students’ development and the teachers’ feedbacks were similar to their students.

Keywords: Online, Face to Face (F2F), Blended, Settings, EFL Education, Tertiary Level and Minimizing

Introduction

Widespread development and advancement of information technology provide a technical platform for education reform and opportunities for innovation in instructional education. The global disaster, COVID-19 pandemic, created a new normal that further springboards such opportunities to a large-scale implementation of online education around the globe. For its ready acceptance as a viable component in teaching and learning, artificial intelligence and online education will co-exist with traditional education to provide more education options, promote education equity, and enhance education innovation.

Several studies (e.g., Bernard et al., 2014; Chigeza and Halbert, 2014; González-Gómez et al., 2016; Israel,2015; Northey et al., 2015; Ryan et al., 2016; Southard, Meddaug and Harris, 2015) have compared F2F teaching to online learning and/or blended learning in order to try to define which of the formats provides, e.g., the highest learning outcome, creates the most satisfied students or has the highest rate of course completion. The three different teaching and learning settings will be clarifying how each of them is definable according to studies of the different formats. Although there has not been complete agreement among researchers about the precise definition or meaning of the term ‘blended learning’ in particular (Bernard et al., 2014; Chigeza and Halbert, 2014), consensus has still built up around a sense of fairly clear distinctions between the three formats. Definitional questions do not, however, seem to haunt the terms ‘face-to-face learning’ and ‘online learning’ in the same way as they do ‘blended learning’ as their meaning appears to be more or less agreed upon.

The F2F learning format is characterized as “traditional” by many of the authors, referring to the fact that this is the format with the longest history of the three formats and in relation to which online and blended learning represent a modern or innovative intervention (e.g., Chigeza and Halbert, 2014; Adams, Randall and Traustadóttir, 2015; Pellas and Kazandis, 2015; González-Gómez et al., 2016). Generally, its meaning derives from an understanding of an instructional format that involves a physical classroom and the synchronous physical presence of all participants (i.e., teachers and students). One study emphasizes that even in-class use of computers and educational technology does not affect the definition of the F2F format so as to change it into blended learning (Bernard et al., 2014).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

M. Shajedul Arifeen
Department of Languages, BAU, Mymensingh
Bangladesh
ms.arifeenbau@gmail.com
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