Implementation of IT Tools as a Method of Improving Language and Communication Skills of Bi- and Trilingual Students

Abstract

This article gives some examples of students’ systematic semi-autonomous work in the multimedia master’s seminar, which enhances their language competencies as well as strictly technical skills. The theoretical background, based on the results of research carried out by the author in 2005–2019, demonstrates how knowledge of learners’ first and second languages is advantageous during the acquisition of a third language. Seeing that this process is individual (every learner has his or her different “linguistic biography”), it is difficult take this fact into account in the coursebooks. E-learning courses, which allow students to work in semi-autonomy, become helpful in this situation. Accommodating the needs of biand trilingual students, prospective foreign-language teachers and translators create their own multimedia resources that fill gaps in the didactic offerings. Moreover, the unusual forms of learning by teaching (LdL – from the German phrase Lernen durch Lehren) improve the quality of the learning process, helping students achieve the desired language and communication skills.