Innovation in Language Learning

This is a presentation of PUSTULKA (pustulka.edu.pl) – online testing software for foreign languages created by the Author of this paper. It was originally developed to cater for the needs of LSP teachers in respect of web-based testing. PUSTULKA emerged in quest of ideal software that would provide a variety of exercises including full length cloze/gapped texts and let teachers create databases from which they could select the existing content without the need to write every test they assign from scratch. PUSTULKA uses state-of-the-art technology and lets its users easily create exercises, by converting (through parsing) (1) the existing exercises from plain text documents (e.g. Word or Notepad), (2) authentic materials available on the internet or (3) scanned authentic materials from plain text files into online exercises. Teachers using PUSTULKA form a collaborative innovation network (COIN) where they learn from one another and develop their digital competence. The aim is to encourage teachers to collaborate by contributing content to the software and sharing some of their exercises with other contributors, inspire them to manage joint projects by developing materials for the same courses or coursebooks they teach and use.

Keywords: web-based testing; computer-based testing; language testing; software development; LSP.

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