Going blended: new challenges for second generation L2 tutors

This study explores how second generation tutors within blended learning courses link the face-to-face and online course modalities – in their representations as well as through their pedagogical activities – and which aspects help them to feel involved in the course. The methodology used is a qualitative analysis of interviews with seven tutors of three different blended learning courses. The results show that most tutors indeed had difficulties gaining a deeper insight into the course design: they considered the face-to-face modality to be the central one, just as in a traditional L2 course (whereas course design was centred on the online modality), and therefore rarely played their role as online tutors. Moreover, their understanding of the courses’ task-based approach appeared to be limited. Nevertheless, the majority of the tutors managed to feel involved in the course, which shows the importance of additional factors in defining their relationship to the course. We identified eight other factors, which are partly due to the intense use of ICT within the course (as shown by a comparison with two additional interviews with e-learning-tutors), and partly depend specifically on the blended learning mode. This study furthers our understanding of difficulties tutors can have and what support they require within blended language learning settings, although further research will be needed in order to permit greater generalisation.