Preparing language teachers for blended teaching of summary writing

Abstract

Research on preparing language teachers for blended teaching of summary writing, a mix of on-site and online instruction for college students to grasp the gist of the texts, is scarce in higher education. This study examined the problems encountered and solutions proposed by six language teachers, who altogether instructed 214 college students on summary writing. The findings of this study are based on content analyses of the teachers’ interview transcripts, the teachers’ observation of college students’ progress in on-site and online instruction, and the interactions among the students recorded in the log files of the online system. The results show that the language teachers’ problems in blended teaching of summary writing fell into three categories: instructional processes, community concerns, and technical issues. The four main themes that emerged from the three categories include the following: (1) the changing roles of the teachers and students, (2) little sense of community building, (3) lack of training in blended teaching of summary writing, and (4) an unfamiliarity with the new systems or technologies. The language teachers’ perspectives on solving these problems were to (1) distinguish the significant differences between on-site and online language teaching contexts, (2) identify strategies and techniques to facilitate students’ blended learning in summary writing, and (3) develop community building skills to encourage teachers and students to actively participate in collaborative learning. These solutions shed light on the preparation of language teachers in blended teaching of summary writing.

Keywords:

• blended teaching
• collaborative learning
• improving classroom teaching
• learning communities
• summary writing

Acknowledgements

This article was supported partially by the National Science Council in the Republic of China, Taiwan (NSC100-2410-H-224-017).