Innovation in Language Learning

In contemporary society people, especially youngsters, wake up and fall asleep with their smartphones and tablets in their hands. This new phenomenon of having a continuous access to the outside world is something that is new in numerous aspects and especially in a classroom environment. It is therefore of great relevance to integrate this information flow into an ELT setting, because it provides the students with authentic and interactive material which provides a variant approach to lessons and motivates the students since it is more fun for them as they are used to work with technology on a daily basis.

This paper aims to present the experiences based on an online language pedagogy course run for three years. As the participants are qualified, experienced language teachers my aim was to help them in being familiar with modern technology, web 2.0 tools that can be used in foreign language teaching.

I examine the use of online applications from two perspectives: from the teachersʹ and the studentsʹ point of view.  Individual and active learning could be used in traditional language teaching, but technology supported language learning opened new perspectives. With the help of online materials and mobile applications the emphasis has moved from individual to collaborative learning in an interactive, social environment.

A successful language learner nowadays tries to get the control over his own language development, takes the responsibility of his communication skills. Learnerʹs autonomy comes into view. All these cause changes not only in studentsʹ roles but also in teachersʹ roles. The language teacher should be not only the resource of language and sociocultural knowledge, but also an advisor, controller and facilitator.

Nowadays knowledge is everywhere; learners need only time and freedom to find the knowledge they need and that is suitable to their learning style.