Blending face-to-face communication and video blogging in acquiring public speaking skills / Vimala Devi Balakrishnan and Fatimah Puteh

Blended learning is a unique approach that ‘blends’ face-to-face classroom teaching with suitable
use of technology or online resources. The online materials are part of the input or supplements
for a language classroom. This paper aims to report on a study conducted on a group of 12
Diploma students, who studied public speaking as a component of their English language course.
The purposes of the study are to identify the effectiveness of using technology, namely, video
blog, in developing public speaking skills among the participants and to determine their
perception on ‘blending’ face-to-face communication and video blog for learning public
speaking skills. Data for the study were collected using questionnaire, blog entries, online
reflection and semi structured interviews. Results of the study revealed that the participants have
positive perception towards blending face-to-face communication and video blogging in
acquiring public speaking skills. The findings also indicated that the incorporation of video blog
is effective in developing their public speaking skills. Therefore, it can be concluded that blended
learning method incorporating video blog and face-to-face instruction can be efficiently adapted
in acquiring public speaking skills among students.