COMMUNICATION IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES

The National Education Institute - June 9, 2010Katja Pavlič Škerjanc and mag. Katica Pevec Samec

Operacijo delno financira Evropska unija iz Evropskega socialnega sklada ter Ministrstvo za šolstvo in šport. Operacija se izvaja v okviru Operativnega programa razvoja človeških virov v obdobju 2007-2013, razvojne prioritete: Razvoj človeških virov in vseživljenjsko učenje;

prednostne usmeritve: Izboljšanje kakovosti in učinkovitosti sistemov izobraževanja in usposabljanja.

COMMUNICATION IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES : Presentation of the project

Co-evolutionary approach to curriculum development and

innovationPilot projects are designed and implemented with three

complementary goals in mind:

• by aiming to improve the curricula as well as the teaching and learning process they address students,

• at the same time motivating and supporting teachers in their continuous professional development and capacity building

• and providing project managers (national education authorities and research & development agencies) with pragmatic knowledge and skills of the teachers and headteachers (ie. aligning beliefs about the potential for effective action with the lessons of past and present experience).

Purpose and aims of innovative projects

• to meet both deficiency and growth needs:– personalise the curriculum: increase school autonomy

as well as curriculum flexibility and openness, ie. scope and number of options for schools and individual students (core – elective – optional → modular structure);

– make the curriculum more authentic for the students: provide meaningful contexts – bring the real world into the classroom (and vice versa);

– integrate the curriculum: increase its flexibility to overcome fragmentation of knowledge (set up curricular connections, eg. tranversal competences as cross-curricular goals);

• to provide convincing proofs of concepts and ideas and, finally, a fully functioning prototype

Ministry of Education and Sport

STRATEGIC LEVEL

→ concepts (“white books),

development strategies (strategic papers),

legislation aand funding

National Education Institute

TACTICAL LEVEL

→ frameworks and guidelines,

monitoring implementation.in-service training

Schools

OPERATIONAL LEVEL

→ piloting (PLANNING and implementation), evaluating

and upgrading suggested solutions (REPORTS), dissemination of results

(GOOD PRACTICE)

COMMUNICATION IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES

foreign teachers’ integration into

the school curriculum as an

innovative approach to

foreign language teaching

“FOREIGN TEACHERS” PROJECTKEY CONCEPTS

• Intercultural (communicative) competence

• Authenticity of

– learning goals and objectives,

– learning situations, – assessment

• Language across the curriculum (content-based language learning, discipline literacy development)

• School curriculum (planning – implementation – monitoring – evaluation- dissemination)

• Integrative curriculum (cross-curricular connections – intra- and interdisciplinary cooperation)

• Cooperative/Collaborative teaching– Team teaching

• Project approach (to teaching and learning)

SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT – Research projects Dissemination of results (school & national level)

“FOREIGN TEACHERS” PROJECT:ADDED VALUE?

• Collaborative -team teaching in multicultural -intercultural teams

• New approaches to foreign language teaching and learning

• Project approach to innovation – action research (professional development)

SPT leaders and FL coordinators

NATIONAL PROJECT TEAM (NPT)Project manager

core NPT, extended NPT, enlarged NPT

PROJECTSTRUCTURE

Working Groups (WG)

School Project Teams (SPT)

External ◄collaborators

• Slovene and foreign teachers

• academic experts

◄Foreign teachers members of SPTs

◄Foreign teachers members of WGs

Personal choice

Work obligation

Project structure and communication

• close links and interdependence between the NEI project team and participating schools/project partners;

• communication at and between all levels is constant and intense, both direct and indirect (via e-mail), aiming to secure not only an uninterrupted information flow on the progress of the project, but also ongoing exchanges - as well as reflection on and evaluation - of project products (lesson plans, teaching materials, etc.) and examples of practice of all kinds considered illustrative and supportive: – best (tried and tested out several times by more

teachers), – good (tried at least twice by one teacher) and – promising (still in the planning phase).

PROJECT STRUCTURE

• National Project Team (NPT) – core NPT (Katja Pavlič Škerjanc, project manager – NEI, Maja

Celestina, NEI; Barbara Gregorič – financial matters, NEI; Domen Petelin – legal matters, NEI; Bronka Straus, MES)

– extended NPT (core NPT + NEI foreign language advisers)

– enlarged NPT (extended NPT + school project team leaders + school FL coordinators + selected foreign teachers/one per language)

• School Project Teams (SPT) (3 – 5 members)– Project team leader– Foreign language coordinator– Foreign teacher– Other teachers according to the school project goals

PROJECT STRUCTURE AT SCHOOL LEVEL

Subject teams

School develop-ment

team (?)

TEACHING TEAMS

“FOREIGN TEACHERS”Aims and goals of the project

• upgrading the quality of foreign language teaching in Slovenia by innovative approaches, based on– an enhanced authenticity of learning situations

(communication with a native speaker of the target language or a non-native speaker with a FL1 otherthan Slovene and using the target language as a lingua franca)

and– cooperative teaching in multicultural teams

(Slovene & foreign teachers of foreign languages, Slovene teachers of non-language subjects & foreign teachers of foreign languages);

• developing a systemic approach to foreign teachers inclusion into the Slovene educational system - piloting alternative organizational options

ADDED VALUE?

• Bringing together native and non-native (Slovene) teachers of target languages ( combining the advantages and disadvantages of the emic and the etic perspective into a complementary blend of both, with the native teacher contributing “the insider’s understanding and fluency” and the Slovene teacher sharing the cognitive structure withe the students …)

• Bringing together non-native teachers of target languages from different cultural backgrounds ( developing cultural multiperspectivism, intercultural sensitivity, intercultural awareness, intercultural competence of both teaches and students)

Collaborative -team teaching in multicultural -intercultural teams

FOREIGN TEACHER: ROLE AND TASKS

• The foreign teacher is an autonomous, independent expert, expected to contribute creatively and innovatively to the quality of foreign language teaching and the school development project.

• He/She is non only an ambassador of the culture he/she comes from but also an active promoter of multiculturality and interculturality.

• He/She (co)-teaches in all parts of the curriculum: – core and elective (80% of the direct instruction/teaching

workload), – optional (up to 10 % of the teaching workload) and

– extra-curricular activities (up to 10 % of the teaching workload).

Like Slovene teachers, foreign teachers will be required to be available for work at all times when the school is open and at other such times as the principal/headteacher or governing body may reasonably direct.

“FOREIGN” TEACHERS?

• Native speaker vs. TEACHER ?– foreign language

teacher OR– subject teacher with

a FL teaching certificate?

• Monocultural vs. intercultural teacher?

• Target language = – first (mother)

tongue? – second language

(bilingual – bicultural speakers)?

– foreign language (but with a first/second language and culture other than Slovene)?

QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS – PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCES?

• Investigating/researching and developing collaborative skills of both teachers and students 1. idea sharing (procedures, protocol

…)2. discussion groups 3. peer observation4. joint teaching & learning activities5. teacher exchanges6. team teaching

• type B team teaching (rotational)

• type A team teaching (interactive)

• Investigating/researching and developing team teaching skills

Collaborative -team teaching in multicultural -intercultural teams

ADDED VALUE?

COLLABORATIVE TEACHING

INTRA- AND INTER-DISCIPLINARY COLLABORATIVE TEACHING

Teachers cooperate and collaborate:

• to increase the authenticity of learning through interdisciplinary teaching and curriculum integration

• to fight knowledge obsolescence and share the burden of keeping up with the knowledge explosion

• to ensure/provide continuous professional development through peer learning

INTERACTIVE TEAM TEACHING

15 (16) hours + 5 (6) hoursTT

team teachingST

single teachinginteractive team teaching +

guest teaching:positive interdependence

independence on the basis of collaborative teaching

together apart

individual (small group)

work with students

compulsory elective

activities (OIV)

extra-curricular activities

whole classprinciple

division of students into two

sub-groups0 – 3 hours 0 – 2 hours 0 – 2 hours

Hour distribution and components of an average weekly FT’s teaching

workload

The DO’s and DON’Ts of teaming

• teams as permanent as possible • not more than 3 co-teachers within the same period of time (month/week)• no one-lesson partnerships(except in guest teaching)• core and additional teams

Forms of collaboration:

Core teams: Additional teams Guest teaching

• as permanent as possible• small number of partnerships• organised on a yearly principle

• less permanent• flexible depending on the current issues and needs• organised on a unit principle (anywhere from 3 lessons upwards)

• FT should not be forced to do subjects/topics she/he is not comfortable doing• could be in a form of substitute teaching but preplanned

ADDED VALUE?

• Communication in foreign languages as a key competence and cross-curricular goal ( investigating and developing ways and means of curriculum integration)

• Developing intercultural competence

• in foreign languages• as a cross-curricular goal

• Innovative Fl teaching – F)LAC = (Foreign) Language Across

the Curriculum / LANGUAGE IN OTHER SUBJECTS

– CBLL Content-Based Language Learning (cf. CLIL)

– Language sensitive content learning– Discipline / Academic literacy

development– A new role of the mother tongue in

FLL: from monolingual to bilingual appr.

New approaches to FL teaching and learning

Gimnazija Modernisation: CURRICULAR ENRICHMENTS

INTEGRATIVE CURRICULUM - CURRICULAR CONNECTIONS

• monodiscuplinary and pluridisciplinary• intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary• multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary• partial and cross-curricular• vertical and horizontal

▼

• intercultural competence as a cross-curricular goal

▼

• media literacy - film literacy as a cross-curricular goal

INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND

LEARNING• (F)LAC = (Foreign)

Language Across the Curriculum LANGUAGES IN OTHER SUBJECTS

• CBLL Content-Based Language Learning (cf. CLIL)

• Language sensitive content learning

• Discipline / Academic literacy development

• Developing intercultural competence – in foreign languages– as a cross-curricular goal

• A new role of the mother tongue: from monolingual to bilingual approach

• Collaborative/Team teaching– intradiscipliary teams– interdisciplinary teams– intercultural teams

• Schools had to apply with a research project proposal (investigating a research question relevant for the national project)

• Reflective practice, schools as learnign communities ( looking for the answer to the research questiion by investigating their own practice)

Project approach to innovation – action research(professional development)

ADDED VALUE?

With a development (ie. research) project, a school• introduces change(s) • into the usual (ie. everyday, established) teaching and learning process(es)• in a planned and systematic way• to raise - directly or indirectly - the quality of student learning and outcomes.

Change and Different Roles of Teachers

Teachers participating in development projects are expected to assume different roles:

• teachers,• change agents, • course designers, • materials providers, • researchers,• evaluators.

• Teachers as REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONERS

• Schools as LEARNING ORGANISATIONS

Initiating a research project:PRE-PLANNING STEPS

Research area/topic

• Research goal

– Research QUESTION

• Expected outputs and outcomes

– Quality indicators

SCHOOL RESEARCH PROJECTS

RESEARCH AREAS /TOPICS

GOALS (ie. sample goals)

COLLABORATIVE – TEAM TEACHING

1. Implementing interactive team teaching2. Activating inter-class and inter-school

teacher exchanges3. Developing collaborative school culture

through planned and structures implementation of collaborative teaching

INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE

1. Developing intercultural awareness and intercultural sensitivity in teachers as an instruction prerequisite

COMMUNICATION IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES

1. Reading across the curriculum: Developing reading skills in FL

2. Creative reading and creative writing in FL

3. Developing discipline/academic literacy in foreign languages

DRIVERS OF CHANGE

Le sole risposte utili sono quelle che propongono nuove

domande. Vittorio Foa

• The only useful answers are those that pose new questions.          

• Les seules réponses utiles sont celles qui posent de nouvelles questions.

• Die einzig nützlichen Antworten sind jene, die neue Fragen aufwerfen.      

• Las únicas respuestas útiles son las que plantean nuevas preguntas    

• Единственно полезными являются те ответы, что рождают новые вопросы.

• Samo tisti odgovori so koristni, ki zastavljajo nova vprašanja.