TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE IN ICT-BASED LEARNING SETTINGS
TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE IN ICT-BASED LEARNING SETTINGS

Summary/Abstract: The 21st century confronts its citizenship with new choices, opportunities and challenges due to the ubiquitous presence of technology into all spheres of life: business and administration, government, and education. Developments in technology and research into learning are changing the face of how, where and when people learn. Two factors come together — the understanding that learning is exploring and the ability of technology to provide wide spaces for exploration (Evans, St Johns, 1998). In these two senses the use of technology complements and extends the learner-centred methodology. Its advantage is that learners can access the material in their own time, work through the material at their own pace, choosing topics and subject areas to match their own interests, i.e. learners are in control of their language learning and have increased choice. One aspect of this increased choice is that the new technology is blurring the distinctions between self-study outside the class, distance learning and institutional self-access centres (Moore, 1996). The problem of the research is the following: the promotion of autonomous learning of foreign languages and the growing role of online information technologies are getting more and more importance in language teaching in all educational institutions. This article also aims at providing a clearer understanding of the benefits of using ICTs, thus enabling to further study of the tools and resources which could provide of help into teaching practices. The use of different web based training platforms with specific training modules, a collaborative environment and the use of different communication tools and resources exclusively dedicated to teachers aims at providing new perspectives to face the teaching of English as a foreign language from an innovating perspective. The objectives of the research are as follow: 1. To define the ways of integrating the Internet and information technologies into the curriculum that it is really motivating not only students, but teachers as well. 2.To define the ways of developing the students' language skills, and fostering a multi-cultural, international perspective for our ever-changing, interdependent world.

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