Abstract
In our increasingly globalized world and, implicitly, job market, university graduates are expected not only to be proficient in a foreign language of international circulation, but also to possess further language learning and using strategies that should allow them to continue to study autonomously in a lifelong learning type of approach, which has become a must, particularly in our times, with multinationals no longer affording to provide training in soft skills such as communication in a foreign language. Universities are therefore widely expected to ensure that the students should receive such training at a high level and even be able to pursue their study after graduation, by making flexible adequate use, in their autonomous learning, of all types of support, among which Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays an important part. In the teaching of foreign language courses of any type, such as English for Engineering Academic Study (EEAS), the use of modern technology in a variety of creative ways and manners, adapted to the students' needs and course objectives, has become increasingly rewarding, as it ensures high success rates and quality of the trainees' learning. The variety of the types of support that ICT can provide for foreign language teaching has been substantially studied in the literature lately, with the emergence of a range of new technical possibilities to be exploited in the language class. The aim of this study is therefore to present some modes of using ICT throughout the entire EEAS course, together with the rationale underlying each option, by 'tailoring' them to the specific features and constraints of our concrete higher education situation - one peculiarity of the context is that the students whose ICT connected skills are used/developed via the described approach are themselves Computer Science students. This was done on the basis of a well-defined framework of pedagogical principles and by taking into account the versatile roles ICT can play. The new roles of the teacher and of the students involved in the teaching/learning process were accordingly re-appraised, and the effects on the instructional process quality were determined. Thus, the types and patterns of ICT uses are thoroughly analyzed, from the design and organizational stage of the course, through the materials creation phase, and up to the issues connected with the EEAS course management and evaluation. |
Keywords
ICT in foreign language teaching, language learning strategies, EAP, roles of technology, course design |