Blended Learning in English Reading Lessons: Vietnamese High-school Students\' Voices

Blended learning is a popular term for a method that combines the benefits of both face-to-face and online learning. This mode of learning has noticeable benefits, but it has also raised concerns. The purpose of this paper is to elicit the benefits and challenges of blended learning in English reading lessons through students' perceptions at a Mekong Delta high school in Vietnam. The study was conducted as a descriptive study and the data were collected through two focus-group interviews with ten high-school students. The findings showed that the students perceived they gained nine benefits of blended learning in English reading lessons in terms of vocabulary, technological competence, accessibility, self-regulation, reading strategies, reading comprehension, interaction, and interest. They perceived more benefits than challenges when learning reading in blended mode. Therefore, blended learning will be their first choice for English reading lessons in the future. Finally, implications and recommendations are drawn to help EFL high school teachers and students have better implementation of blended learning, especially in reading lessons. Key words: EFL high school students, perceptions, blended learning, reading lessons, benefits, challenges, Mekong Delta