Dear colleagues in language teaching. We would like to welcome you to the DigiLanguages portal.
As we are all acutely aware, CPD is an ongoing, professional process, and in this spirit, DigiLanguages is designed to raise awareness amongst teachers, of the potential of using digital resources in SLA.
This theme of Transitions and Contexts focuses on the student journey both into and during their Higher Education experience in a digital world. The theme addresses topics such as intercultural communication, social media, target language practice, and preparation for their mobility programme.
The DigiLanguages team have curated and developed a range of resources aimed at enabling teachers to explore the area of digital literacies for language acquisition. There is also a number of activities that teachers can use with their students, and ideas on how you can adapt existing activities to facilitate the acquisition and practice of digital literacies.
The overall objectives of this portal are to support language teachers and learners to:
- understand the use of digital literacies in the context of language acquisition;
- show how building a macro task that incorporates a topic such as the mobility programme can build the students’ digital literacy skills, using real world applications, and support language learning skills such as aural, oral, reading and writing practice;
- show how one macro activity can be tailored to support language learners of six different languages (EFL, French, German, Irish, Italian and Spanish).
This theme explains how you can adapt curriculum activities to help your students transition to language learning environments, while teaching them digital literacies, which have become essential graduate attributes for life-long learning.
Language teachers may also implement these strategies to engage students in digital learning and prepare them for transitions from secondary to post-secondary, mobility placements, and workplace settings.
Sustainability is central to the ethos of the DigiLanguages project. If you would like to become involved by offering feedback on any of the activities, or indeed by proposing additional activities you can contact any member of the team.
To learn more about transitioning to language learning environments.
The table below gives you a list of topics under the theme of Transitions and Contexts. To learn more about a specific category, and to get an overview of activities available in your target language, click on the appropriate link.
| Category | SubCategory | Brief Description/Learning outcomes |
|---|---|---|
| Year One to Mobility Programme | Social Media | Evaluation of the effective use of social media in your target language. |
| Target Language | Building confidence in target language use and contexts. | |
| ICC Part 1 | Introduction to the important concept and realities of intercultural communicative competence and cultural sensitivities. | |
| Mobility Programme | Pre-mobility Programme | Planning and preparing for your Mobility Programme |
| During your Mobility Programme | Exploiting the full potential of your limited time abroad. | |
| ICC Part 2 | Deeper exploration of and exposure to the important concept and realities of intercultural communicative competence and cultural sensitivities. | |
| CPD | Importance of CPD | The importance of maintaining professional development in language teaching. |
