The Effect of Blended Learning on Omani Post-basic students’ English Listening Skills

Abstract

Aim: The researchers aimed to investigate the effect of blended learning on developing EFL listening skills for Omani post-basic education students, and to improve their EFL listening skills through a variety of methods, such as audiovisual devices, or computer-based activities that can be done at home or in English language labs via specific materials. Study Design: The research was a pre-posttest quasi-experimental research. Place and Duration of Study: An 8-week study was conducted at the Falaj Al Mashaikh School in Sharqiyah South Governorate, Jalan Bani Bu Hassan province in the Sultanate of Oman at the Basic Education level of the academic year 2020-2021. Methodology: The researcher conducted a pre-posttest quasi-experimental design through which participants were distributed into an experimental and a control group of 60 students.  To collect data, the instruments used in the study were an EFL listening skills checklist and Pre-Post Test. Results: The results revealed that the experimental group members, who were exposed to the blended learning based instructional course, were effective in developing their own listening skills that considerably changed their attitudes towards learning English listening skills and removed sensations of fear and anxiety with regard to learning. The results showed that the majority of students got above 90%, 14 students got above 80%, while 5 students got less than 70%, and 2 students only got less than 60% in the listening posttest in the experimental group. On the other hand, the results in the control group remained the same with a slight increase with some students. Conclusion: It became evident that the blended learning was effective in developing the EFL listening skills of post basic students.