KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOR BUSINESS ORIENTED FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Abstract

A research team from two universities and two IT companies took the challenge of developing a business foreign languages program implemented in a web environment, aiming the effectiveness of the communication in a working multicultural environment, using foreign languages. The online educational portal for applied foreign languages teaching and learning addressing the cross-cultural dimension represents the core of the Romanian academic research project (eMulticult), financed under the national Romanian research scheme (National Council for Project Management - Partnership Program). The present contribution summarizes the concepts and the methodology of the project, aiming at increasing professionals’ adaptability to a specific corporate cultural environment in order to create conditions for openness, tolerance, harmony and cooperation in the working and social environment. The studies will end up in creating a knowledge portal for the development of adequate cultural attitudes and skills specific to a foreign language professional environment. The project develops a holistic approach for the design of a conceptual framework based on a web educational model for foreign language acquisition and the internalization of its cultural values and the implementation of the model in a virtual environment using an adequate pedagogical approach and complex training tools. The foreign language educational model makes reference to the Anderson’s and Krathwohl’s taxonomy, articulating it with the dimensions of the specific corporate culture. The web based paradigm and tools of the educational model will facilitate for the beneficiaries the online learning process. The originality of this approach consists in the synergy among various views and models such as person oriented education, multicultural approach, use of the virtual environment for providing educational services. The portal integrates educational packages for individual beneficiaries, virtual classes, formal or informal educational networks, and the tools for e-content developing. The educational platform offers the premise for building the empathic attitude, through a deep understanding of the own cultural matrix and a greater permeability to the behavior and values of another cultural & organizational environment, increasing the degree of communication and integration at European level.Foreign language teaching, cross-cultural approach, educational model, training engineering