Technology-Enhanced Language Learning: Construction of Knowledge and Template-Based Learning in the Foreign Language Classroom

When discussing the current state of the art with regard to the use of new technologies in the foreign language classroom, two issues tend to come up again and again. On the one hand, it cannot be denied that even today, in the so-called post-communicative era, the effects of traditional instructivist theories of language learning with their transmission-based modes of learning are still somewhat dominant, in particular at the grassroots level. This is all the more surprising, as a discussion of constructivism as an appropriate platform for new approaches to language learning and acquisition seems to have dominated the debate at least on a theoretical level in recent years. On the other hand, it is becoming more and more apparent that the available offline and online software tools offer exciting opportunities for the language classroom that cannot be adequately attended to without calling the paradigm of instruction into question. This paper is an attempt to contribute to the ongoing debate on this crucial issue by offering some key principles that move the discussion further in the direction of constructivist learning theories. A few of the theoretical issues discussed in Germany in the context of CALL and TELL are presented. New information and communication technologies will be touched upon, but the main focus will be an assessment of constructivism as the appropriate paradigm for language learning in the new millennium. In addition, the paper considers using Papert's term constructionism as a basis for putting theory into practice and in order to keep separate the theoretical platform of such an approach and its practical implementation in the knowledge society. On a methodological level, construction of knowledge and information processing are regarded as key activities in language learning. In conclusion, template-based learning is discussed as a possible metaphor for the design of technology-enhanced learning materials for the next millennium aimed at providing learners with constructionist learning scenarios.