Applying Blended Learning Method in Teaching English at the University of Da Nang, Viet Nam

Abstract

Blended  learning  addresses  the  way  e-learning  is  combined  with  traditional  teaching method and independent study approach to create a new, hybrid teaching methodology which has  been  increasingly  applied in  teaching  foreign languages  today.  However,  it requires  a  fundamental  change  in  the  way  students  approach  the  learning  methods which, in  turn,  could  bring  about  expecting  or  unexpecting results. Therefore,  this  pa-peraims  to  discuss  advantages  and  challenges  that  students,  especially  non-English major students of the University of Da Nang, often face when they take some blending English  courses.  The  researcher  has  set  up  and  studied  three  groups  of  students  with different majors, namely economics, technology, andbusiness English –from different universities  belonging  to  the  University  of  Da  Nang,  who  are  takingsome  blending English  coursessuch  as  DynEd,  Life  or  other  ones  designed  on  Moodle  platform  by teachers of  English.  Because  of  differences  in  the  major,the  objectives  of  studying English, and incoming English proficiency of these three groups of students, their atti-tudes  toward  and    English  learning  results  could  be  not  simillar,  or  even  extremelly different. However, the factors which have big influence on these students’ learning results  are  their  inappropriate  application  of  blended  learning  approach  and  their unadequatepractice  experience  on  using  IT  tools  as  taking  blended  English  courses. Besides,  thepaper attemps to  suggest  some  solutions  to  challenges  that  students  often deal with as taking English courses in blended environment under the real pedagogical conditions in Vietnam.