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2016 » Papers » Volume 3 » A Blended-Learning Approach to ESP Teaching: Designing a Virtual Platform 1. A BLENDED-LEARNING APPROACH TO ESP TEACHING: DESIGNING A VIRTUAL PLATFORM Authors: Mihaes Lorena Clara, Dimitriu Anda, Bocianu Irina Volume 3 | DOI: 10.12753/2066-026X-16-202 | Pages: 175-182 | Download PDF | Abstract
The demand for English courses particularly tailored to specific needs is ever growing in today's higher education system. We teach a generation of undergraduate students who will most likely use English as a medium of instruction for their master's degree, whether they decide to apply for one in Romania (the University of Bucharest offers 20 such programmes) or abroad. A greater emphasis, therefore, should be laid on meeting the competence standards required by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, so that, upon graduation, the student will be an independent user of general English and have a good mastery of the terminology of his field of study. Since the undergraduate English course spans anywhere from two to five or six semesters, during which time the instructors have the task of bringing students with various language levels up to the same proficiency par - when they would ideally be able to apply for the abovementioned postgraduate programmes, a solution to the problem is offered by digital technologies, which can complement the traditional teaching methods already in use. Based on students' answers to a questionnaire which led us to conclude that not only are they conversant with the new technologies, but they also consider that their language skills would improve, should the virtual medium be used during the in-class activities, we have devised a rough draft of an online platform specifically designed to facilitate the students' access to and assimilation of information through online applications.
Therefore, the present article will firstly take into account both the prospective advantages and specific obstacles the implementation of this project would presuppose and will then overview the structure of the online platform we have envisioned, arguing with clear examples of assignments done in class for the prototypical B1 student, as compared with the variety of exercises a student can find online, that the integration of an e-learning platform could greatly simplify and accelerate the teaching/learning process. | Keywords
ESP, e-learning platform, blended learning, competences. |
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