IT IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING - COMPARING PEDAGOGICAL OPTIONS

Most foreign language teaching, including the tertiary level non-philological profiles, is based on methodological approaches which include a variety of information technology elements. There has been debate within the teaching profession as to the rationale underlying the teachers' options in using a particular IT means. There are studies focused on the relationships between IT types used in class and the learners' profile, type of course and/or the targeted language. The study presents some comparative highlights derived from the author's experience of teaching English for Professional Communication and English for Science and Technology to upper intermediate Computer Science Faculty students of the Bucharest Polytechnic, and Russian to the Transports Engineering Faculty students, respectively. Some of the main factors influencing the choice of IT instruments used in the teaching-learning-evaluation process, as well as the rationale underpinning the pedagogical options are discussed, and instances of practice are provided.