NEW TECHNOLOGIES, MULTICULTURAL GROUPS, AND ROMANIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE - DEVISING A STRATEGY FOR A SUCCESSFUL LANGUAGE CLASS IN THE DIGITAL ERA

Abstract

In this new world, where not only professional marketplaces, but also education systems have turned global, with an increase in professionals' and students' mobility across the world, the role of new technologies has become paramount, leading to the success of one's endeavours in most fields. Under these circumstances, under the pressure of the ever-increasing importance of new gadgets and technologies, the very act of learning a language (among other things) has undergone profound changes. As shown in previous studies, at the tertiary level of education, in a technical university, the success of the language class is to be assessed in relation to both the teaching instruments and the material to be studied - in other words, students may be easily influenced by the devices teachers use and pay more attention to the lesson if taught with the help of modern technology. In the case of teaching Romanian as a foreign language to the multicultural groups of foreign students enrolling in the preparatory year at our technical university, teachers often find that their students, faced with the need to adapt to a new environment, a new language and a new culture, may resort to the new technologies at their disposal (smartphones, mostly, but also tablets and laptops) in the hope those would solve all their problems - linguistic, cultural, and psychological - killing the proverbial two birds with one (ultra-sophisticated, hi-tech) stone. The mission of the teachers who guide these students on the path to achieving fluency and accuracy in Romanian language, as well as to understanding as many cultural aspects as they can possibly grasp at that point in time, may prove difficult if they do not adjust to the real needs and learning habits of their students. Still, as results from previous studies have shown, the blended approach to learning Romanian as a foreign language is preferred by most students, with an emphasis on the teacher as the facilitator of the learning process. Thus, in this paper, I will discuss the three elements - new technologies, multicultural groups, and Romanian as a foreign language - focusing on the strategy to make the language class work at its fullest capacity. Still, the paper will also point out the weak points of each element in the trio I discuss, which could influence - and postpone - the desirable learning results.