Innovation in Language Learning

Nowadays communication has become more and more familiar in the virtual space. Students frequently use technology in order to communicate with friends and they also have a lot of fun with it. Faster and better communication as well as fun and motivation are in high need in many language classes. In this perspective I have tried to find out if the use of ICT, more precisely a blog, can improve communication and motivation in an 8^th grade French class with quite poor results from a small town in Romania.

I applied tests, observation grids, interviews and a questionnaire between September 2013 and May 2014. The blog of our class started at the beginning of the school year with written assignments. At that time nobody in the class was interested in studying French and the initial A1 level test showed very low results. Nevertheless interest in the class started to build up with the blog and after three months a questionnaire showed a remarkable progress in the students’ participation. The test as well as the observation grids marked an improvement in writing. At the end of the school year the results were positive with 18 students out of 24 who significantly improved both their oral and written competences. There is also the case of a student at risk who constantly comes to the French class yet frequently skips most of the other classes. High performance is also possible since 4 out of the 24 students in the class decided to choose a French intensive class for next year in high school. In the interview they explained they love French and believe they can study it at a faster pace.

My conclusion is that the blog first determined a change in my students’ attitude towards the French class, next it helped them to be more confident in their writing and later in their oral skills as well. The blog has brought about clear improvement in a low attainment class.