Innovation in Language Learning

CEPOL (European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training) has been running and organising courses for police officers for years already. Due to CEPOL management’s wish to cut costs, in 2015 they decided to start running fully online courses instead of residential ones. Since language training was and is very popular among the stakeholders, it was the Police English Language (PEL) course that was decided to be the first fully online course. The 5-week pilot course was conducted in 2015, and as it turned out to be very successful, the length of the course in 2016 was already 8 weeks, instead of two trainers the third one was added and the number of participants was increased from 60 to 80 (2-3 from almost every EU member state).

The PEL course covers all four skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening) and through such topics as crimes and criminals, equipment, organised crime, international cooperation, joint investigation teams etc. Since the CEPOL management desired to issue a language certificate, an extra element was added and all participants were offered to take British Council’s APTIS test especially tailored for the PEL course finishers. The results appeared to be very satisfying – all test takers had succeeded in raising their language level after passing the course.

The paper aims to cover the structure and content of the course, give examples of the tasks used, discuss some strong points and places for improvement, give a short overview of the feedback collected from both the trainers and the trainees, and offer some tips for running an online course. Additionally, since this year’s course will be finished by the time the conference is held, the presenter will have very fresh experience to share.