A blended Mentoring Practice for Designing E-Material for English as a Foreign Language Learning

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Alev Ateş Çobanoğlu, Zehra Esin Yücel, Okşan Uzunboylar, Beril Ceylan

Abstract

Learning a new language is a rigorous process for which the language teachers strive to get learners engaged and for sure, instructional technology can help them to find interesting and creative ways. This study aims to reach suggestions for more effective blended mentoring practices by sharing the results of those practices in teacher education. In this paper, a set of e-materials for pre-intermediate English learners at Foreign Languages School of Ege University is developed. In this collaborative study which is a blended mentoring practice, two Information and Communication Technology (ICT) experts are in charge as coordinators with 46 preservice ICT teachers as mentees and five İnstructors of Englishs as mentors. Mentoring process includes planning, practice and evaluation steps. During fall semester of 2015-2016 academic year, all practices took place in Material Design and Use in Education course of Computer Education and Instructional Technology Program at Faculty of Education, Ege University. At the end of this short period, formal mentoring practice, views of English mentors and mentees on blended mentoring practices are collected electronically via questionnaires. In this case study, document analysis is performed. For data analysis, descriptive and content analysis techniques are made use of. Prominent findings includes that preservice ICT teachers perceive English mentors as team-mates who help and guide them and also as content experts in professional sense. Blended mentoring practice is welcomed warmly by both mentors and mentees in general and the results are encouraging for those who wish to conduct interdisciplinary, blended learning based studies in teacher education. Blended mentoring which is considered to have reached its goal by strengthening mentor-mentee interaction is suggested to become widespread in teacher education.

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