Nothing new under the sun?
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Transcript of Nothing new under the sun?
Nothing new under Nothing new under the sun?the sun?
Nothing new under Nothing new under the sun?the sun?
Innovations Fair, GrazInnovations Fair, GrazSeptember 07September 07
Innovation or change in fashions?
• Is it a new dawn?
• Or a swing of the pendulum?
Mixing the variables? Or change of paradigm?
• Some changes are good ideas to change the “teaching / learning mix”
• Occasionally changes revolutionise the way we think about language education
What are the variables?• Where the learning takes place• The channels used to transmit
language• The people involved• The way time is organised• The approach to learning / teaching
What areas for innovation 1?
• Breaking down the boundaries, between:– different languages learnt– languages and other subject areas– foreign languages and “first”
languages
What areas for innovation 2?
• Really applying the Framework of reference by extending the range of competences developed:– Strategic– Ability to learn– Pragmatic / inter-cultural
What areas for innovation 3
• Developing new attitudes towards diversity and plurilingualism.
Existing (19th century) model
New model
Focus on nation-state and national language as source of identity
Emphasis on European citizenship and linguistic diversity
Multilingualism is a problem for society
Multilingualism enriches society
Assumes learners start from monolingual base
Takes into account diverse language experiences outside the classroom
Bilingualism and diverse cultural backgrounds ‘silenced’
Bilingualism and diverse cultural backgrounds celebrated
Bilingual children’s education is seen as problematic – focus is on developing national language
Bilingualism welcomed – focus on developing ability in mother tongue as well as other languages
Speakers of other languages are ‘foreign’.
Speaking another language is the norm
Learning another language is difficult
Learning another language is natural
Near-native speaker competence is the ultimate goal
Even low levels of competence are valuable and add to communicative repertoire – to be built on throughout life
Language teaching focuses mainly on linguistic goals. Cultural element tends to be poor, or focused solely on ‘high’ culture
Language teaching has strong cultural element and includes intercultural awareness
Language learning focuses on one language at a time
Language learning focuses on links between languages, and on language awareness in general
Language learning tends to be élitist and problematic for the majority
Language learning can be successful for everyone
Some pathways to follow
• Synergies among the teaching of different languages
• Pluralistic approaches to language education
• Whole school, whole person approaches
Look for ideas in Graz• The work of the 2nd medium-term
programme of the European Centre for Modern Languages in Graz explores a lot of these pathways.
• www.ecml.at