Innovation in Language Learning

The article analyses online materials for teaching/ learning medicine in international contexts, created by three European projects (The Palliative Care MOOC, the Glottodrama and Take Care projects). The Palliative Care MOOC project helps doctors, nurses, students and language teachers deal with medical situations by providing medical courses on palliative care, in six languages. The Glottodrama method stimulates students to learn a foreign language by turning the common classroom into a theatre company. The Glottodrama method was implemented with international students from several countries attending the School of Medicine in Iasi, Romania and studying Romanian as a foreign language. The method relies on the use of a video-camera inside the classroom, which is not a common teaching tool. Most of the resulting films were uploaded on youtube so that students could watch them and practise outside the class. The videos offered students plenty of opportunities to engage in a variety of interactive activities meant to improve pronunciation, oral comprehension, creativity or speaking and writing skills. The Take Care project provides a variety of online exercises based on common medical situations. These exercises were devised in tune with students’ different learning styles. All these materials, which are available on the university platform, encourage students to learn languages for medical purposes.