Innovation in Language Learning

One major issue with the CLIL methodology concerns the selection of authentic materials to introduce contents of non-linguistic subjects in the target language. As it is often hard for teachers to find sources in the traditional publishing market, the Internet provides a large number of materials to be adapted to the learners’ needs. The study of History, in particular, involves the analysis of primary and secondary sources so as to promote the learners’ autonomy, critical approach to information, and their metacognitive skills. Bearing in mind that culture plays a pivotal role in the CLIL approach, analysing authentic sources proves to be crucial in understanding the cultural context and its changes over time as well as the diachronic variation of the language.

            The aim of the present study is twofold. On one hand, it sets out to illustrate the role of ICT in the formation of new linguistic codes and text genres in the English language that will be the part of the world historiographical heritage in the future. On the other hand, the work focuses on how to employ traditional sources in teaching History by adapting them to the means and languages preferred by digital natives.

            By analysing and comparing authentic sources – dealing with similar contents but produced in different historical periods and spread through different channels – the major changes occurred in the language of politics and diplomacy were examined.

            The analysis showed that the use of ICT in politics and diplomacy over the last decades – i.e. tomorrow’s history – has resulted in significant differences between old and new sources, which reveal dramatic changes in the statesmen’s ways of communicating, mirrored by the channels and language that they select. Today’s leaders tweet their opinions and political, religious or ideological groups meet and exchange their opinions online rather than in real places as in the past. Such virtual communities are ideal places for political propaganda, which, despite the increasing persuasion power of images and videos, is still significantly conveyed through language, particularly through English. However, the channel whereby information is spread in the era of Web 2.0 has generated new forms along the diamesic dimension of linguistic variation, which are characterised by new morpho-syntactic rules and new lexical tools. Twitter, for example, prescribes that each text must not exceed the length of 140 characters, introduces the hashtag (#) as a label to mark keywords or topics and as a new punctuation mark that substitutes the traditional full stop. These conventions also affect the lexical choices of web writers, who coin neologisms, catchy formulas, and abbreviations such as the new word NObama to refer to anything contrary to Barack Obama. The results of such analysis are the basis for designing learning tasks involving the new linguistic features fostered by the social media, so as to raise the motivation of today’s students.