Constructing personal learning environments through ICT-mediated foreign language instruction

Abstract

The article deals with the concept of student-centred Personal Learning Environment (PLE) in the context of higher education, which is used as a means of transforming foreign language learning and teaching practices. It aims to reveal the opportunities for creating PLEs through incorporating Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the process of foreign language education. The study focuses on the roles of teachers and students of non-language University majors in designing efficient learning environments highly adapted to changing objectives and student personal needs. The authors reveal the unlimited potential of ICT in constructing PLEs for both in-class activities and informal learning, providing a scope of practical student activities, which imply their active engagement both in and outside the classroom, as well as constructing a flexible, personalized, time and space independent learning environment. Students, teachers, ICT, which is a set of resources based on the use of educational technology tools thoroughly selected and organised in order to manage the content, applying relevant methods of teaching and learning strategies, as well as a learning process, are all regarded as constituents of PLEs aimed at mastering four foreign language skills when taking the course "Foreign Language for Specific Purposes": reading, listening, writing and speaking within personal, academic, and field-related contexts.