Due to the rise of the digital era, ICT has become one of the basic teaching tools of any language teacher and the language classroom, or at least part of it, has turned into a digital environment. In this contribution, we comment on seven tendencies which have emerged recently in the domain of computer assisted language learning (CALL). Each tendency is illustrated through a selection of recent projects realized within our research group ALT, Research Center on CALL.

In French L1 syllabuses, the term connecteur is defined according to semantic criteria and covering invariable words, and even syntagms commuting with adverbial phrases. They are given in lists and thus cannot be really used to interpret L1 texts.L2 learners are not made aware of the functioning of these heterogeneous L2 units, which makes their task even more arduous. The L1 filter compounded by limited awareness of the functioning of L1 thus leads to one-to-one relations that hinder L2 skills especially when items learnt by rote are artificially inserted instead of being used to connect ideas. A unified and contrastive grammatical terminology would allow an efficient metalinguistic awareness.

In recent times, in the academic field related to the training of L2 pronunciation teachers, the already existing gap between fundamental research and the application of its results in the classroom has widened. In some degree, this has been a consequence of that training being focused on methodological aspects more than on the intrinsic knowledge of the subject to be taught. In this article, on the basis of two concrete examples, the need for keeping pronunciation teachers permanently informed about the findings of the basic research in phonetics / phonology is defended as a means to achieve a very fruitful interaction between the two sides, theoretical ad applied, of the discipline.

The development of Dutch in the North of France over the centuries and the teaching of this language are closely linked. Because of a near lack of a language policy for Dutch in the North of France, the number of learners of Dutch in that area remains very low. Moreover, the common history of the three countries involved (France, Belgium and the Netherlands) is not perceived in the same way. That is why the teacher of Dutch L2 in the North of France has to put the languages he teaches in a historical and cultural context, without giving any personal judgement. The learner of Dutch in the North of France has to prepare himself to co-operate with his neighbour across the border. Only such an approach and an adequate economic policy relative to the importance of learning Dutch will allow the teaching of Dutch to take off in the North of France.