Abstract:

This paper deals with the role of e-learning in foreign language teaching and exemplifies this using examples from a German business course for Czech students.
In order to exploit the many options of the Internet in online teaching, it is necessary that teachers acquire certain media skills that are becoming an integral part of the teacher’s qualification. When preparing electronic teaching materials, the teacher is forced to use the computer unlike a common user. Therefore a professional qualification towards media competence has been offered to teachers of foreign languages within two projects financed by the European funds (ESF). Both projects aimed at qualifying teachers in media skills, new classroom methodologies and e-learning instruments that enable them to perform e-classes. Between 2006 and 2008, a project called “Electronic Media in Teaching” was successfully completed which was supported by ESF funding and a budget of the Czech Republic. In the period between 2009-2013, “The Joint Production of Multimedia Teaching and Study Materials” was implemented focusing on further education of foreign language teachers. This project was co-financed by the European Fund for Regional Development, the state budget of the Czech Republic and TUL. The University of Technology in Dresden supported the project by transferring their electronic teaching expertise. The teachers involved considered the use of “social networks” in their teaching and learned about the pros and cons of the following concepts: forum, blog, wiki, podcast, web quest and others. These terms are briefly defined in the second part of the paper and are exemplified by examples. The third part of the paper introduces the electronic course of Business German that students and teachers use to prepare for credit tests and mainly for international Goethe-Institute examinations in Business German.

Finally, the results of a survey among the business students are presented, which was performed in order to investigate the effectiveness of the developed e-learning material. In particular, students evaluated which e-learning instruments their teachers applied during on-site teaching, what effects these had on the learning outcome and into which directions such e-learning/ blended learning courses should be developed in the future.

Keywords:

Online teaching, foreign languages, the virtual environment, production of teaching material, new media and technologies, Forums, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, WebQuest.