ICT in Language Learning – Promoting Usage and Achieving Sustainability

English is the taken-for-granted lingua franca of the commercial and academic worlds.  But what happens when you are faced with someone who speaks one of the so-called less widely used and taught languages – the LWUTLs – Czech, Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian – to name but a few?  Or what happens when people from these countries wish to communicate with each other?

One of the major challenges to learning languages for many people across the globe is the lack of accessible, affordable and sustainable language-learning tools. Whilst people seeking to learn major world languages don’t face such a great problem - the high demand for learning English and other languages for international business is, to a large extent, met by a vast and competitive provision of learning tools – communication barriers amongst and between speakers of so-called Less Widely Used and Taught Languages (LWUTLs) – are much harder to overcome.

For Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), these barriers link directly to poor export performance, and to restrictions on regional growth and internationalisation as resources for language training are limited, whilst large multi-national corporation can select from any number of language learning resources for their staff to facilitate growth and entry into foreign markets.

Also for students, there are significant communication difficulties when pursuing exchange programmes in countries where English – the taken-for-granted international lingua franca – is not widely spoken.

It is not for a lack of will that language-skills development is not pursued but rather a lack of accessible, affordable and sustainable learning tools.  Open educational resources of course exist for language learning; however, that these resources are often unavailable in users’ native languages is seen as a significant barrier to their effective utilisation.  There is a particularly clear lack of good quality, interactive, yet linguistically accessible resources for LWUTLs such as Czech, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Polish.  However, through ICT and social innovation, this is a gap that can be closed.

The project ‘Everyplace’, funded by the European Commission Lifelong Learning Programme, is developing an online, free educational resource offering learners the opportunities to learn LWUTLs in their native language of instruction.  Combined with targeted intercultural elements, this resource seeks to enhance communication competences amongst the staff of SME organisations operating in cross-cultural environments, and for students on exchange programmes in areas where English is not commonly spoken.

However, the innovative aspect is not in the multi-lingualism of the learning resource, but that in intrinsically and contextually linking the learning of LWUTLs with the authentic communication settings of small, less-widely visited towns, this accessible and contextually-driven language-learning resource becomes a self-sustainable, self-disseminating carrier; it showcases small and medium European towns, and, in an age of growing investment in the marketing of places, is itself showcased by these towns.  Local governments, civic offices and stakeholders in local leisure and tourism have an inherent interest in promoting their towns, and are more than happy to support language-learning resources which encourage regional and international awareness and recognition of these towns.

The project ‘Everyplace’ integrates language learning into the daily experiences, socio-economic interests and emerging trends of a modern information age.  With ‘Everyplace’ we are not only redefining the way people learn, but we’re redefining the stakeholders.