PROJECTS

Avenue.ca provides individual interactive LINC course activities associated with listening, speaking, reading and writing, while offering opportunities for collaboration and discussion. Its structure, combined with the variety in course activities and tools, encourages active learning where learners control the pace and type of learning. The LINC courseware adapts to special needs clients and different learning preferences. Blended (hybrid) and online approaches to program delivery enable service providers to reach clients who otherwise cannot participate in programming.

Developed in 2010 with initial funding from the Ontario Region of Citizenship and Immigration Canada and subsequent support from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Avenue – LearnIT2teach provides Moodle-based learner courseware to support online or blended learning, while training teachers in its use and adaptation for their own purposes. New Language Solutions plays a pivotal role in this initiative’s success by:

Always respect language educators’ needs and capabilities;
Implement better practices in TELL and the TESOL Technology Standards;
Innovate constantly in response to a rapidly evolving technical landscape;
Develop open-source learning management software solutions for free distribution to non-profit educational users;
Evaluate to constantly improve our skills, and our knowledge of the needs of both immigrant learners and their language educators.

Ultimately, New Language Solutions is a service provider to other service providers in the IRCC-funded language training sector, consisting of around 220 colleges, school boards and community organizations, as well as their instructors and managers. Service providers that embrace blended or online delivery models using this LINC courseware are better able to meet the needs of their clients.

Onyxon.ca is a partnership with the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) to create e-learning courseware for the ESL and FLS programs of the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development. This technology-enhanced language learning (TELL) project encompasses social communication that expands upon language learning to make possible communities of practice among newcomers and their construction of personalized learning networks.

Funded by:

After the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March 2020, there was a massive effort by educators and institutions across Canada to find solutions to continue to deliver adult LINC and ESL courses and programs despite all face to face education facilities being shuttered. Many programs made a hurried shift to online delivery, using tools available to them, while others were able to scale up from existing blended programs to more intensive use of technology. As we look ahead to searching out resources for the annotated bibliography, we would like to continue to stress the importance of pedagogy over tools and draw your attention to the kinds of issues that have proven to be significant in delivering successful adult language learning programs using technology.