Successful World Language Acquisition in Online and Blended Learning?

World Language Acquisition

In the US, world language has been mostly reserved for high school and college students.  For those students who follow the traditional route in the US, is it possible to be successful at learning a world language through online and blended learning?

Student Enrollments in Kirkwood HSDL Online French and Spanish Courses

During the 2014-15 school year, Kirkwood HSDL enrolled 32 students in French I and French II.  Of these 33 students, 3 were dropped from the course for various reasons.  Kirkwood HSDL also enrolled a total of 7 Spanish students in levels I, II, and III; 3 of which were dropped from their courses for various reasons.

From a total of 40 enrollments between French and Spanish across all levels, 85% of the students finished their semester-length courses.  Of those students that finished (34), 47% (16 students) finished with scores between 90 and 100%, 50% (17 students) finished with scores between 80 and 89%, and 3% (1 student) finished with scores between 70 and 79%. 

What This Data Says about Successful Language Acquisition in Online and Blended Learning

Kirkwood HSDL enrolled approximately 960 students for the 2014-2015 school year.  Of those 960 students, only 40 students enrolled in world language courses.  This is only about 4% of the total enrollments in online courses, so the sample size is quite small; however, the outcome shows that the majority of students enrolled in the Kirkwood HSDL world language courses complete the course with a mastery level of 80% or higher.

Successful World Language Acquisition?

The minute amount of data given here, suggests that students are able to be successful in an online and blended learning environment; however, further research is needed to determine what factors contribute to student success in world language acquisition in an online and blended learning environment.