CLASSROOM CHALLENGES: BLENDED LEARNING TOOLS USED IN TEACHING ROMANIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

In the author's experience as a teacher of Romanian at the University "Politehnica" of Bucharest, there have always been challenges meant to test both the teacher's and the students' ability to adapt to the latest methods and/or technologies employed in the modern world. For those students who opt for studying Romanian as a foreign language, teachers have to consider the difficulties posed by the target language itself and, consequently, they adopt blended learning tools as the best way to address the issue. Since students' motivations to learn Romanian vary from purely academic interest to economic or social reasons, the methods and techniques employed in the process of learning as such also vary accordingly. In the case of those foreign students who come to Romania simply because they need to avoid certain difficulties they would have to deal with if they went back home, there is, generally, a strong motivation to succeed in learning the target language and blending in. Those students will find it useful to adopt the blended method of learning, and, as a result, they will use elearning tools extensively, while, at the same time, try to have as many face-to-face interactions both in class and outside it. There is (at least) another group of students who, driven solely by academic interest, will do their best to learn about the language and culture at a fast pace; I include here the students who are interested in learning new skills and techniques that will help them give their careers a boost. Still, there might be a third group, consisting of people who are in no rush to learn Romanian, but come to class anyway: the students who have relatives living here, with them. For those students, finding the best way to assist them with their Romanian studies may prove somewhat more challenging for the teacher. S/he will have to know how to push the right buttons, which will trigger the best response in those (less motivated) students. In this paper, it is my intention to touch upon some points that refer to assisting these students; I will refer to the possible methods that will have as a result an improvement of the students' performance as well as an increase of their motivation to learn.