SCENARIO-BASED DIGITAL CONVERSATION SIMULATION SOFTWARE IN THE TRAINING OF FUTURE LANGUAGE TEACHERS IN HIGHER EDUCATION. AN EMPIRICAL TEACHING APPROACH

This paper presents a recently conducted empirical course that aimed to introduce the use of Conversation Simulation Software in the education of future language teachers in a higher education class.

The early digital adulthood of today’s language learners, requires, in the field of teaching a foreign language, language learning digital tools that are, not only suitable to their needs but capable to assist them to construct personal technology-enhanced language learning experiences.

From a language teacher’s perspective, the right selection and use of these ICT tools become an important issue, therefore any future professor must be familiar with these, in order to increase motivation and guide their students through an interesting process of language acquisition.

In the higher education area, the training provided to the future foreign language teachers should include familiarization with the modern ICT tools, such as Conversation Simulation Software, and should enable them to find ways to exploit the new digital technologies, to engage their students and to master and deliver professional language courses.

In the above context, the present study describes a recently conducted course to a students' class related to the use of Conversation Simulation Software and the creation of digital simulations. In this paper, we initially proposed a set of basic uses of Conversation Simulation software based on empirical approaches and techniques that we have followed in that course and then we provide scenario-based e-learning simulations suitable for the training of future language teachers.