Technology and Language - What Works and What Does Not: A Meta-analysis of Blended Learning Research

This meta-analysis examines the effectiveness of technology employed in language-related blended-learning research by summarizing the outcomes of the measured dependent variables of 59 samples. The effect sizes yielded from the samples were acquired by applying Cohen's (1988; 1992) d formula. The estimation was done using the standardized mean difference score, divided by the standard deviation pooled across the treatment and control groups. The findings denote that there is an overall effectiveness to blended-learning; however, the disparity of the effect sizes found implies that the effectiveness is contingent and reliant to the context and how technology is applied. There were also instances of negative effect sizes, suggesting hidden factors that adversely altered the outcomes of the technological intervention. The review also discovered that there is a pattern for performance to be used predominantly as the dependent variable in assessing the effectiveness of the technology. Nevertheless, this should not limit the use of performance as the only measure. Other dependent variables, such as motivation and attitudes, warrant consideration as indicators for measuring the efficacy of a blended-learning intervention.