Language Teachers’ Perception and Practice of Adopting Blended Learning to Adapt to the New Normal

Abstract

The practice of blending online learning and face-to-face learning has become ubiquitous across many tertiary institutions both worldwide and nationwide, especially amid the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper is based on the part of a study investigating how language teachers perceive blended learning and how they adopt this model in their teaching practice to adapt to the new normal. The participants include 50 teachers who are teaching languages such as English, French, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean at Hue University, located in central Vietnam. The data was collected through a survey and then supported by follow-up interviews with 10 of the surveyees. The findings reveal teachers' perceptions of blended learning in terms of its necessity, feasibility, usefulness, and ease of use, as well as their confidence and intention of continuation. In addition, the study also reflects the reality of how blended learning is currently applied by these language teachers regarding such factors as how the online component supports the face-to-face component, how online and face-to-face classroom activities are blended, when online and face-to-face elements are arranged, etc. There is also a comparison of these teachers’ responses based on their teaching expertise to see whether they perceive and use blended learning differently.