Innovation in Language Learning

ICT has become an inseparable part of language teaching and learning, the courses of languages for specific and/or academic purposes are no exceptions: e-learning or blended learning is a must especially in a university environment and mobile learning with its wide range of applications is becoming more and more popular due to unlimited ways of employing them.  

This paper is focused exclusively on the use of technology in a face-to-face setting, specifically in an undergraduate course of English for Lawyers, however, the findings and suggestions could be further generalized to any university course of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) or English for Academic Purposes. The paper addresses the question of selecting an appropriate amount of technology to be implemented into the classes. Although the majority of current university students belong to the generation of digital natives, not all of them may be enthusiastic about using their laptops, tablets or smart phones in the course of the lesson.

The content of the paper stems from and reflects upon past years’ classroom practice, it analyzes teaching and learning situations from three perspectives: 1) benefits and limitations of specific tools and applications (mainly Google Docs and Socrative) for various tasks reaching ESP goals, 2) the preferences of students who are given the choice “a pen or a keyboard/touch screen” for fulfilling these tasks, 3) balancing the variety and effectivity of digital devices throughout a 4-semester undergraduate ESP course.