Abstract:

This work analyzes implementation of TED talks as a part of ESP blended learning training for fostering students’ listening comprehension skills. We present a case study of 12 lower proficiency non-linguistic students who were asked to listen to a designated TED talk each week and perform listening comprehension tasks that were later checked in the classroom. TED lectures were offered as a part of academic and specific English course for undergraduate students of the Ecological faculty and were aimed at enhancing learner autonomy, enriching academic vocabulary, developing listening comprehension skills and promoting scholarly journal writing in a long-term perspective.

At the beginning of the course the students were asked to write a listening comprehension test based on a TED talk on environmental issues. The test was aimed at assessing students’ abilities to recognize and understand academic and professional vocabulary in fluent non-native speech. At the end of the course the students were asked to write another test with similar assessment strategies. We provide qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the results of the test.

Apart from that the students were asked to complete a survey on effectiveness, engagement, challenges and opportunities provided by implementation of TED talks into a blended learning course. We will look into the results of the survey and overview pros and cons of implementation of TED talks into ESP curriculum.

Keywords:

Blended learning, English for specific purposes, learner autonomy.