Übungsportale und mobile Apps im Fremdsprachunterricht

Abstract

There are three types of teaching and learning programs in foreign language teaching today. First, there are tutorial programs that can be understood as a collection of various exercises or working materials that represent an alternative to printed materials. These are primarily exercise portals where the teacher can find exercises with which he can reflect the teaching needs of his students. These programs are very suitable for the fixation phase or the repetition phase of the lesson, but also for home preparation for the lesson. The student can freely choose the forms of exercise, the content of the course and the time required to work through the exercises. After each activity, the student receives feedback and so he knows whether he has sufficiently mastered the structures that have been practiced or whether he should repeat them again. Well-known exercise portals include, for example, the portal from Hueber Verlag – hueber.de, Islcollecollective.com or Mein-deutschbuch.de. The second group of programs for foreign language teaching are complex programs. These are complex language courses that were created for self-learners but can also be used in classic lessons. They do not represent a collection of independent exercises, but a coherent unit of exercises, the aim of which is to bring users to a higher level of language skills. These programs can be used in the fixation phase, the repetition phase of the lesson or as preparation for the lesson. Even complex programs enable the student to choose the form of exercise or the time necessary for working on it. In this way, individual learning needs of the student can be respected, and the lessons become more autonomous. Well-known complex programs include Duolingo, Babbel, Lingvist, and others. Constructive programs represent the third group of teaching and learning programs. They are more like language assistants that help students improve their writing skills. The students use this assistant when they produce a presentation, essay, dictation, or other written work. With constructive programs, they can control the grammatical, orthographic, stylistic structure of their linguistic expression. They also learn how a specific document should look graphically (e.g., a letter of motivation, curriculum vitae, complaint etc.). The Grammarly or Languagelab programs are among the best-known constructive programs. Technologies are developing very quickly today – many new programs or mobile apps for foreign language teaching are also emerging. It is to be believed that in the future the learning and teaching programs will form a standard in the teaching process. For this, however, the educational institutions have to prepare the future teachers very well today and offer them workshops or courses to acquire media competence.