Investigating Kurdish EFL Students’ Attitudes towards Blended Learning at University Level

Abstract

The present study aimed at investigating Kurdish EFL students' attitudes towards blended learning at university level. Blended learning is a new method of teaching and learning which combines any type of traditional learning with technology. The study has adopted face-to-face and online learning as two models of blended learning. To conduct the present study, a questionnaire of twenty-four Likert scales and ten close-ended items was designed on the challenges and benefits of face-to-face and online learning. The questionnaire was administered to a sample of 100 undergraduate students at the Dept. of English, University of Zakho during the academic year 2021-2022. Data were analyzed using SPSS software via one-sample t test for the Likert-scale part of the questionnaire, and descriptive statistics analysis in terms of frequencies and percentages for close-ended items part of the questionnaire. The results arrived at in the present study showed that most of the students found face-to-face model of blended learning as a preferable model to be used to learn English language.  It also showed that the students were satisfied with blended learning program adopted at the university. Additionally, more than half of the participants believed that attending classes on campus are more beneficial than online classes.  Hopefully, this study can help the students as well as the teachers at the university to get benefit from, and cope with the difficulties encountered by the students in the process of teaching and learning