Abstract:

Blended learning is now being widely experimented with for the purposes of enhancing the education process, especially when it comes to leaning foreign languages. The presence and development of many an application on the market makes the prospect of digitalization of education ever more appealing. However, at the end of the day, whether this availability is likely to be enough to make students more motivated to study on their own or not is the question.

The purpose of the article is to compare the more recent experiment which took place at Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia with the use of the online platform Rosetta Stone, offered by EBSCO Company with the findings of the previously conducted experiment using Touchstone. The participants of the former three-month experiment were level A2 (CEFR) first-year STEM students, divided into three groups:
1. traditional teaching or control groups (N=35),
2. blended groups where in the classroom students had traditional interactive lessons and they did their homework on the Rosetta Stone platform (N=35), and
3. experimental groups, with Rosetta Stone online both in the classroom and at home (N=35).

The latter one included 75 students STEM students of A1-A2 levels (CEFR). Special emphasis is laid on students’ motivation, the initial hypothesis being that students will be more engaged in a course featuring modern interactive technologies. Yet, the results show that less control of the course completion from the teacher (authoritarian vs democratic approach) led to the decline in student’s productivity. Moreover, some of the shortcomings of the course are covered.

Keywords:

e-learning, blended learning, EFL.