Innovation in Language Learning

The Malopolska Educational Cloud (Małopolska Chmura Edukacyjna – MChE) is part of the “Modernization of Vocational Training in Malopolska” project. On-line classes taught by university faculty members from Krakow are supposed to help to develop the skills of students of various vocational schools in the region and to encourage them to take up university studies. The author of this paper is responsible for the area of English for Vocational Purposes of the project.

Upon finishing the enrolment procedure, we realised that the pilot group combines such a variety of different specialisations as the afore-mentioned logistics specialists and landscape architects, but also occupations such as accountants and people from the tourism and hospitality sector. In consequence, the offered teaching approach had to be based on transversal skills shared by many different occupations (eg. workplace rules and regulations – Do’s & Don’ts, responses to complaints, writing a CV). Those general concepts were then adapted to the specific requirements of the various vocations by the students themselves, who worked in groups using the WebQuest method. The aim of such an approach was also to prepare the students for the further independent development of their language abilities. Additionally, the use of game-design elements (gamification) and a variety of applications (Padlet, Socrative, Movie Maker, Mind Map, etc.) enhanced the positive perception of the classes by the students participating in the project.