Abstract:

Online learning and teaching are not new phenomena; they have become one of the most prevailing trends in studying and are becoming even more common in Europe. They are especially well-developed in Scandinavian countries. In trying to create their teaching content, language teachers apply new online teaching methods, and overall, online class design plays a significant role. The latest generation of learners flipped the teaching approaches from teacher to student-centred. Naturally, the study content had to be converted to student autonomy in learning.

The paper aims to share the excellent practice of an international Nordplus Nordic languages project funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers, “Swedish for beginners - Multilingualism to Enhance Employability”, and its online language teaching aids to contribute to an inclusive content and motivation enhancement of online language learning. The project aimed to create a virtual Swedish A1 level beginner course that can be studied autonomously, or the course can be used as supplementary material for Swedish language teaching. In addition, autonomous learning methods might motivate students by giving them more responsibility and autonomy for their learning, i.e., student empowerment. The bias for the need for the Swedish language is that more and more Scandinavian businesses are establishing businesses in the Baltic States. Naturally, they look for staff with skills in the Scandinavian languages. Possessing the basic skills of the Swedish language enhances students’ career chances, especially in the Scandinavian capital businesses.

Keywords:

Autonomous learning, blended learning, language learning, multilingualism, online language learning, university cooperation, work-life competence.