The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have forced all educational institutions to deliver their teaching programs online, including English as an Additional Language (EAL) programs. While this rapid shift in 2020 was challenging, many institutions and practitioners were able to come up with innovative and effective practices, utilising digital technologies as effective resources and planning the development of online learning beyond the pandemic. Many educational providers, especially those in the adult EAL sector, are now considering a ‘hybrid’ delivery of their programs, involving face-to-face, online synchronous and online asynchronous components to serve the needs of their learners. This workshop offers a cohesive model for implementing a hybrid learning approach in EAL settings. This model was conceptualised, developed and tested through collaboration between a group of  EAL teachers and researchers from Monash University. In the workshop  we provide examples of successful practices drawing on the ideas of flipped learning, active learning and dialogic pedagogy. The workshop will also provide opportunities for the participants to discuss how this approach can be adapted to their contexts and collaboratively construct a resource to support teaching in a hybrid/flipped mode. The workshop concludes with discussion of implications for the use of a hybrid approach for learning in the EAL sector.

Presenters

Dr Edwin Creely is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University and teaches literacy in initial teacher education programs. His research interests include creativity, literacy, creative writing, digital pedagogy and technology in education. He has wide ranging experience in education from primary and secondary to tertiary and adult education. Central to Edwin’s approach to research is his interest in innovation and creative practices, multi-disciplinary research and bringing new models and perspectives to educational research and practice.

Dr Katrina Tour is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. Her current research projects investigate how people from migrant and refugee backgrounds use technologies and digital literacies for everyday life, work and learning. Her major research focus is pedagogies for digital literacies. Katrina publishes in the field of digital literacies and TESOL and she is the author of Digital Literacies: EAL Teachers’ Guide (www.digitalliteracies.info). She is a recipient of a number of professional awards. Katrina teaches in the Faculty’s teacher education undergraduate and postgraduate programs. She also designed and led a number of professional learning activities for in-service EAL teachers.

Dr Peter Waterhouse is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. He teaches in the post graduate education programme, with a particular interest in adult education and community development. His research and teaching background has been in adult literacy/ies across a wide range of contexts, from community settings to workplace environments; and in professional development of educators, action research and reflective practice.

Elizabeth Keenan is an EAL teacher and Teacher Mentor at Carringbush Adult Education. In 2015, she was awarded an International Specialised Skills Institute Fellowship to investigate best practice pronunciation teaching for beginner-level adult migrants. Her professional interests focus on effective teaching of emergent L2 literacy learners and the development of digital literacy skills. Elizabeth has a MA in TESOL from the University of Melbourne and comes from a primary teaching background.

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the contribution of Hayley Black of Carringbush Adult Education in developing this presentation and recognise her leadership in the development of a practical model for hybrid learning.

$10 – VicTESOL Members (including members of state associations associated with ACTA)

$20 – Non-members