Four ESOL Graduate Students’ Hybrid Learning Through a Reflective Project: A Qualitative Case Study

Abstract

This is a qualitative case study to investigate English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) graduate students’ learning experiences when completing a reflective project. Four graduate students in the United States participated in this study and completed the project to share their linguistic and cultural stories in a traditional paper-based essay format and in a multimedia format. The data consisted of a reflection paper, digital storytelling (DST), a project report, an oral presentation, and an interview, which were analysed through content analysis. The findings included participants’ learning of (a) language and culture, (b) language teaching, (c) language teachers’ responsibilities, and (d) technology. These showed that ESOL graduate students’ dialogues with preceding, current, and future utterances indicated their hybrid learning experiences through traditional and technology-mediated reflective tasks. The author discussed the influences of dialogues within their hybrid learning. In addition, pedagogical implications of a combined project between a reflection paper and DST and the instructional elements of DST that teachers need to consider were suggested.