Innovation in Language Learning

Learning and teaching a second language is nowadays a priority as well as one of the most relevant educational objectives for most international institutions. “Linguistic and cultural diversity is one of the European Union’s major assets,” states Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth. Moreover, the predominance of English in this paradigm is undisputed, as it is the lingua franca for international business, cultural and academic exchange, and for the dissemination of science. The effective and efficient learning of a second language constitutes a foundation of inestimable value to help peoples to live together in peace: “Throughout the last decade, European multilingualism policy has been guided by the objective set by the Barcelona Council of March 2002, which called for the improvement of mastery of basic skills, in particular, by teaching at least two foreign languages from a very early age”, which aligns with the objectives of Horizon 2020. Furthermore, the Preface to the Key Data on Teaching Languages at School in Europe (2012), “The improvement of quality and efficiency of language learning has become one of the key objectives of the Strategic Framework for Education and Training (‘ET 2020’). The framework underlines the necessity to enable citizens to communicate in two languages in addition to their mother tongue, as well as the need to promote language teaching and provide migrants with opportunities to learn the language of the host country”. Therefore, to assure the universal access to second language learning is a priority for most international institutions, but such access is biased by economic and social differences (in terms of possibilities and resources). This phenomenon has been named by Johnson & Zentella (2017) as the ‘language gap’, which “… has spawned multiple scholarly trajectories that aim to point out linguistic inferiorities in characteristics like communicative quality, language processing, and overall health” (p. 1). The main objective of our study is to introduce the foundations of a competitive research project, LinguApp (PRY 208/17), funded by the Centro de Estudios Andaluces (PRY208/17), whose main goal is to contribute to avoid the language gap. LinguApp, designed and thought as a universal and free app, will contribute to offer the autonomous learner the necessary orientation and counselling for the successful learning of English or Spanish as a second language, contributing thus to minimize the impact of the language gap.

Keywords: Language gap, second language learning, orientation, counselling, app;