L2 Learning and Teaching in Hybrid and Online Contexts: Research & Practice

Online and hybrid/blended language learning courses have become increasingly popular in foreign language (FL) departments in the United States in recent years. Several factors have contributed to the proliferation of these unique instructional contexts in a variety of FL programs. In this talk, I first provide an overview of the research to date related to the linguistic effects/outcomes of students enrolled in hybrid and online courses in a variety of institutional settings. I then discuss some of the administrative and pedagogical concerns that should be taken into consideration when creating and maintaining a college-level FL hybrid course. Next, I highlight the various ways in which students can virtually engage with each other (i.e., outside of the physical classroom), including the use of digital annotation tools, which allow for a collaborative/social reading experience. Finally, I will share details about a multi-step project that brings together the teaching of grammar and literary-cultural content that culminates in student-generated webpages via an open source web-publishing platform called Omeka; a project that can be carried out in face-to-face, hybrid, or fully online FL courses