EQUAL CHANCES THROUGH UNEQUAL OPPORTUNITIES: FACILITATING LANGUAGE LEARNING AMONG STUDENTS IN MEDICINE, NURSING AND NUTRITION THROUGH ELEARNING

• Published in: eLearning and Software for Education 2012, Vol.8 (1), p.471-480
• Main Authors: Creţu, Ioana, COLIBABA, Anca Cristina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Education
• ISSN: 2066-026X; 2066-8821

The paper explores the potential benefits of using Blended Learning (face-to-face and online) to teach languages to students at university level by analyzing the experience gained at “Gr. T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Iasi in partnership with EuroEd Foundation Iasi. For the past two academic years, the face-to-face language instruction of junior students in Medicine, Nursing and Nutrition according to the core curriculum has been supplemented with optional activities using the ELSTI language training package online. Thus, the limited classroom experience could be targetted more clearly towards teaching and learning English for medical purposes. The online work was student-centered in the sense that, once logged on, students could decide which units/exercises to solve in which order, the entire process being driven by the students’ own goals, interests and preferences. The statistical analysis takes into consideration attempts, times and scores for using grammar and vocabulary support independently, solving reading and dialogue-based tasks, playing games and simulations, etc. by each user, thus providing insight into how the students chose to engage with the different e-contents and instructions within and beyond the language they were studying in class.The online activity reports contain evidence of how the students have valued this opportunity of gaining skills in transversal areas such as foreign languages, enriched with cultural awareness, personal development and ICT skills.