Book reviewed: Sharma, P. & Barrett, B. (2018). Best practices for blended learning. English Teaching professional: Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd: United Kingdom.

Abstract or Summary

Sharma and Barrett, in their introduction, clearly mention that their book is designed to “provide a comprehensive, practical handbook of use to language teachers, academic managers, teacher trainers and institution heads around the world” (p. 8), thereby emphasising their target readership. The authors appear to adopt an objective and realistic approach to the notion of a BL environment. This is particularly visible in a few of the chapters such as in Chapter 1 (‘What is Blended Learning?’) which addresses various terms that have been used to discuss BL such as, disruptive, redundant, sustainable, mobile, culture and flux (p. 20), in Chapter 3 (‘Research’) where, with all the positive aspects of BL, they state clearly that “Any claims about the superiority of BL need to be taken cautiously’’ (p. 39) and in Chapter 6 this objectivity is once again addressed with the chapter titled ‘Challenges’.