Innovation in Language Learning

Throughout the year 2013 the Institute for Educational Sciences in Bucharest coordinated a blended learning training course for 450 primary and language teachers. The aim of the course was to help teachers improve the students’ reading comprehension with a focus on the misconceptions revealed by the Romanian results in the Progress in International Reading  Literacy Study (PIRLS). The participants were exposed to the PIRLS requirements and the international data base. They were then challenged to develop reading tasks and tests to motivate students get deeper into their reading.

The present paper offers some conclusions of the research on the online component of this course. Firstly we analyse the reading texts and tasks that the participants planned and implemented in their classes. Secondly we analyse the reading tests the teachers developed and applied. Thirdly we discuss the results from the point of view of meaningful reading and learning.

Our conclusion details the benefits of the online interaction. The platform facilitated the participants’ access to other colleagues’ teaching experiences, to many students’ responses to a variety of reading tasks and texts. The course and the nature of the digital device sustained the teachers in moving on from the single standard to plural reading and towards varied teaching strategies.