ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES OF MULTILINGUAL LEARNING THROUGH ONLINE PLATFORMS

Abstract

Although both the role of multilingualism and methods for promoting it in foreign language education have been investigated by practitioners and researchers for many years, there are still unanswered questions in terms of best practices, curriculum development, policies and actions. Globalization and new technologies have brought renewed interest in and debating views on this educational alternative, and at the same time have led to the appearance of a new topic to focus on, namely the impact of new technologies. This area requires further exploration, especially due to the fact that online social networks, which represent the focus of this article, may play an important role in generating a multilingual context for education. The rising importance and availability of online social networks and their popularity among young people are undeniable facts. The use of the internet is becoming an ever more integral part of young people's lives and, as a result, they are involved in online communication with each other on an unprecedented scale. This may be used to improve education by using multilingualism to provide teachers and students with a tool to develop new language skills. In this vein, this paper examines the issues involved, namely the potential role, opportunities and limits of e-learning in generating multilingualism context for improving foreign language learning and education. Special attention will be paid to methods that may grant efficient assessment of the effectiveness of using online platforms. Therefore, the article brings into discussion strategies teachers and students of foreign languages can apply to evaluate the impact of online multilingual communication via social networks on improving general communication skills in the target language.