Innovation in Language Learning

The beginning of the 21^st century has seen a rise of new informational tools generally referred to as Web 2.0 technologies, such as social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, etc. These new approaches to creating web content have a lot to offer to educators, and such opportunities were quickly recognised by many members of educational community, including language teachers.

One of the tools widely used in education is wikis. As a piece of server software that allows groups of users to freely create and edit Web page content, wikis are especially suitable for content and language integrated courses which involve many reading and writing activities. The addition of wikis to a face-to-face CLIL course can prove to be a useful enhancement: it may encourage deeper engagement with the course material and with other course members, as well as encouraging more connection between class sessions.

In Tambov State Technical University an attempt has been made to incorporate the use of wikis in the teaching of English to undergraduate students within the course in British and American Culture. The course is dual-focused: it integrates the improvement of students’ English language communication skills with equiping them with the knowledge about British and American cultural landscape. The paper will discuss new educational opportunities that using a wiki has given course instructors and will analyse the results of students’ surveys about the implementation of ICT tools in language teaching.