Abstract:

The purpose of undergraduate education at Ural Federal University (UFU) is to prepare highly qualified specialists who are able to use a foreign language as means of information activity and participate in international professional communication. The article focuses on the blended learning approach to EFL studies at the university. This study examines the effect of Rosetta stone software on UFU students’ reading skills.

Rosetta Stone is a language learning program that provides learners with the opportunity to improve their skills via self-learning. The underlying principle of immersion does not offer any explanation to the learners. Therefore, they have to either memorise the examples or employ other strategies and sources to develop their language skills. So, we suppose that Rosetta Stone software can be a useful addition to a blended learning course.

To compare the impact of online and blended learning as opposed to traditional learning procedures on the development of reading skills an experiment was carried out. A purposeful sample of 105 students, enrolled in a language course at UFU, was randomly divided into several groups. In the case of a traditional framework, the lessons were organised following a typical communicative method procedure (control group, n=35). The groups with blended learning had communicative classes but their homework was set using Rosetta stone tasks (experimental group №1, n=35). The third group studied only online (experimental group №2, n=35). Learners had the necessary deadlines to adhere to complete the online tasks.

The analysis revealed that, although all the groups showed gradual progress in reading tests, groups with online and blended learning outperformed the control group. Summing up the results, it can be concluded that purely online course organisation as well as blended learning can effectively promote the development of reading skills in the context of EFL studies at the university. On the other hand, traditional learning shows better results in developing learners’ writing skills.

Keywords:

EFL, higher education, blended learning, Rosetta stone software, reading.