Abstract:
Since the undergraduates enrolling in the one month English intensive course at the
Faculty of Engineering in the University of Sri Jayewardenepura found it challenging
to achieve the outcome of improving English writing skills, we explored whether
two different delivery modes (face to face and blended) influenced their outcome
achievement. Sixty students out of the 125 students who registered in the degree
programme in 2018 consented to participate in the study. They were randomly
assigned in to two groups. Two tutors of English taught the same content to the
two groups of students using face-to-face and blended modes over one month.
With the face to face mode utilized for the control group (n=30) and the blended
mode for the experimental group (n=30), both groups received three learning
modules and two writing assignments. The blended group received fifteen hour
face to face learning sessions with six online lessons. They were also exposed to
online chatting environment on LMS (URL=http://lms.tech.cmb.ac.lk/course/index.
php?categoryid=8) to communicate with their peers and the teacher. Participants
in the blended group were issued with a username and a password to access the
LMS especially prepared for this study. The control group too received the same
learning lesson materials but they practised those only in their face to face classes
during thirty hour classroom sessions. The marks they scored at the pre and post
tests were analyzed using paired t-tests in SPSS 20.0. At the pre test, both groups
showed an equal level of performance in English writing. The same test was
administered as the post test to the participants at the end of the intervention. The
values of the post test marks at the significance level of p < .005 in the blended
group (Mean= 54.67, t=-12.25, p=.000) comparing with that of the face to face
group (Mean = 48.27, t=-7.58, p=.000) showed that the former was higher and
more significant than the latter. The study showed that the English language writing
skills of the engineering students in the blended group was significantly increased
compared to that of the face to face group. Although the current study is based on
a small sample of participants in one faculty of a university, the findings suggest
that the blended learning approach can be successfully applied for undergraduates’
English learning.
