Pedagogical relationship in a blended learning environment: An experienced teacher’s strategies to develop students’ autonomy

Résumé En

Understanding teachers’ rationale and strategies for implementing CALL in their practices is of critical importance in teacher education research, especially with a view to designing teacher training programs that address real-life issues faced by practitioners and that help develop both a reflective and a pragmatic approach to the integration of technology in the language learning classroom (Egbert & Petrie, 2005; Stockwell, 2009; Guichon & Hauck, 2011).The present contribution proposes to explore an in-service teacher’s own perspective on her technology-mediated practice in the specific context of a blended EFL course, which combines face-to-face group instruction in a computer lab with individualized, self-paced instruction within an LMS.It aims at assessing what motives inform the teacher’s actions in such a context, with a focus on what she perceives her mediating role may be, both in managing the relationship between the different spaces that she and the learners inhabit (in class and online), and in developing learners’ autonomy (Borg & Al-Busaidi, 2012).The blended EFL course presented in this in-depth case study is an English course for Master’s students in history at a French university which focuses on the acquisition of English speaking skills. In addition to field observation, video stimulated recall was used to provide access to the teacher’s perceptions (Lazarton, & Ishihara, 2005). Data is interpreted using a qualitative, inductive approach.The analysis of the teacher’s discourse provides insight into what successful integration of CALL in a blended learning environment entails from the practitioner’s perspective and what role she should play in a learner-centred approach, especially in ensuring the human aspect of the pedagogical relationship is preserved.As a conclusion, we propose to briefly discuss the potential of using video-stimulated recall as a self-confrontation method, both for the professional development of pre- and in-service teachers and for fostering interaction between research and practice.