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Blended German Courses and Learning Model in Brazil: a challenging contemporary trend?

Abstract

In this work, we present a research on student’s beliefs based on two hybrid courses of German as a foreign language conducted by an institution of German language and culture in the city of São Paulo. The research methodology, based on the studies of Barcelos (20014 BARCELOS A M F. Metodologia de pesquisa das crenças sobre aprendizagem de línguas: Estado-da-arte. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada, Belo Horizonte, v. 1, n. 1, p. 71-92, jun. 2001.); Almeida Filho (20131 ALMEIDA FILHO J C P. de. Dimensões comunicativas no ensino de línguas. 7. ed. Campinas, Pontes Editores, 2013.) among others, presents qualitative and quantitative analyzes, based on the application of a questionnaire from the perspective of Applied Linguistics, focusing on students' beliefs about distance learning registering opinions from before and after their participation in the courses. We found that the search for greater space-time flexibility and a reduction in the costs of traditional courses in the face-to-face modality are factors that motivated most of the research participants to choose the distance learning modality. In addition, we found that part of the respondents' registered dissatisfaction is due to deficiencies that they identified in the structure of the courses and the virtual learning environment, and the platform used does not always offer sufficient resources to develop the necessary student autonomy. This scenario reflects the problematization of the use of technologies in favor of the adequate development of distance learning, as well as the need for teacher training in order to be able to face the new challenges for.

Keywords:
Students’ beliefs; Blended learning courses; German as a foreign language

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