Innovation in Language Learning

Minority languages and new technologies

We present  research about minority languages and  new technologies carried out within the project. INCLUDE :european project of language Policy for active social inclusion.

 First we will focus on the balance of power between languages on the internet and how it can be  a threat or an opportnity for  minority languages.

We describe  for different kinds of minority languages the diferent kinds of benefits and limits of the new technologies for developing minority language learning. We develop these topics about an endangered european language : occitan and refer as well to a migrants language spoken by minority living abroad, and a diaspora language spoken over the world.

We explain how new technologies can help these languages through dissemination, creating banks of resources, archives, using a specific environment for videogames, etc.

As well we assess the limits of the use of new technologies in language learning and so in language teacher training.

 Mainly we  highlight the real importance of  the human factor, essential for motivation, diferentiated pedagogy, and student development.

This paper shows the good practices of using new technologies in minority language learning.