Innovation in Language Learning

The unprecedented use of ICT, that has taken  place in last few years by the learners in India have had great impact not only on the teaching and learning process but also in educational planning, management and administration. It has been continually stressed that researchers and educators must put their minds at work to create interesting and interactive content that can complement classroom education using ICT. This need has aptly been recognized by the Ministry of Human Resources and Development of the Government of India which states that the emphasis on ICT in education is a requirement because of the “shortcomings” of the present education model. It argues that in this knowledge era, the traditional modes of teaching have created a wide gap between what is required and the way it is actually taught and for bridging this great divide, emphasizes that, “new models of content creation, content delivery, learning, management and planning mechanisms for creating cooperative and self-learning environment have to be developed”.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in March 2014 between the Ministry and various universities for the development of e-content under the name e-PG Pathshala for various subjects that are to be available free of cost to every Indian student. Its aim is to make education accessible to everyone and e-learning is used as a means of developing a learning society. The e-content of Spanish is being developed by Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where we are research scholars. It is an ambitious project and can be seen as an initiative that could help in a great way to promote foreign language content development in India for Indians using ICT that has never happened before. 

This paper is a contribution to the current debate of a paradigm shift which can be seen whereby the traditional practices of learning are being complemented by using various ICT tools. Various aspects of the e-learning project are discussed in detail, namely, the entire process of development of Communicative Spanish content and the whole course design and pedagogical tools employed. The challenges, complexities and doubts of technological as well as pedagogical nature faced by us with regards to it being a unique project of its kind in India and the absence of any point of reference to guide us through the process are also considered. At the end the paper also analyses how this move can pave way for future research regarding e-learning of foreign languages in India which is still at a very nascent stage in terms of pedagogical initiatives and breakthroughs.