Developing Soft Skills in Higher Education Foreign Language Programs. Initial Insights into Telecollaboration

2018 ◽  
pp. 151-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Victoria Guadamillas Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Language Programs ◽  
Foreign Language Programs

Collaborative Support for Students With Disabilities

2019 ◽  
Vol 2018 (1) ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Davey Young ◽  
Matthew Schaeffer
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Multidisciplinary Teams ◽  
Student Needs ◽  
Disability Discrimination ◽  
Language Programs ◽  
Program Administrators ◽  
Reasonable Accommodations ◽  
Foreign Language Programs

The Act on the Elimination of Disability Discrimination, which took effect in 2016, stipulates that institutes of higher education in Japan should provide reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities (SWDs). Foreign language programs are no exception; however, language teaching professionals commonly lack the background, knowledge, or training to best serve SWDs. As the number of SWDs enrolled in higher education in Japan continues to rise, there is an ever-growing need for collaboration between program administrators, disability specialists, and teachers in order to meet a diversity of student needs. Rikkyo University’s Center for English Discussion Class employs an 8-stage framework modified from Ortiz & Yates (2001) that emphasizes collaboration within Multidisciplinary Teams to provide a continuum of services to SWDs. The nature of this collaboration and results from a questionnaire of the framework’s efficacy from the teachers’ standpoint are shared and discussed. 障害者差別解消法は2016年に施行され、日本の高等教育機関が障害学生（SWDs）に対し合理的配慮をすることを義務づけている。語学機関も例外ではない。しかし、語学教員は、SWDsに対応するための知識や訓練等を欠くことが多い。日本の高等教育機関のSWDsの入学率が上昇し続ける中、語学教育機関の管理職、障害のスペシャリスト、そして教員が協力し、学生の多様なニーズに答える必要性は高まりつつある。立教大学英語ディスカッション教育センターは、SWDsに途切れのないサービスを提供するために、学際的チーム内のコラボレーションを強調したOrtiz & Yates（2001）の８段階のフレームワークを修正し、用いた。このコラボレーションの特徴と教員の立場からのフレームワークの有効性に関するアンケートの結果を共有し、考察する。

Practical Handbook to Elementary Foreign Language Programs

1993 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 377
Author(s):  
Diane F. Ging ◽  
Gladys C. Lipton
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Programs ◽  
Foreign Language Programs

scholarly journals The Development of the Linguistic Persona in the Context of Professionally Oriented University-Level Foreign Language Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 123-136
Author(s):  
Liudmila Konyakhina ◽  
◽  
Lora Yakovleva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Foreign Language Education ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Language Programs ◽  
University Level ◽  
Foreign Language Programs ◽  
Foreign Language Instructors

The article discusses a number of issues related to developing the linguistic persona and intercultural competency and focuses on educational ideas, strategies, technologies, and practices that embody intercultural approaches to foreign language education. To ensure the high quality of foreign language education, our priorities must include the development of competences in the area of professional communication in foreign languages. In that regard, the article identifies pedagogical conditions conducive to fostering the socio-cultural competence and the successful development of the learner’s linguistic persona. The authors present mechanisms of implementing the said pedagogical conditions in the following areas: a) developing communication skills and competencies of foreign language instructors; b) modeling situations with communication barriers in diverse ethnocultural environments; c) acquiring and selecting ethnocultural information; d) integrating in-class and out-of-class activities in a foreign language; and e) establishing a good rapport between an instructor and her students. The authors go on to describe the methodological basis for designing the content of foreign language programs, identify optimal approaches to teaching and learning foreign languages, and reflect on the context of the intercultural paradigm in university-level foreign language education.

Assessing writing ability in a foreign language at secondary school

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-60
Author(s):  
Noriko Iwashita ◽  
Robyn Spence-Brown
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Academic English ◽  
Language Programs ◽  
Writing Ability ◽  
Strong Focus ◽  
Assessment Tasks ◽  
Grammatical Accuracy ◽  
Foreign Language Programs ◽  
Communicative Abilities

Abstract Foreign language programs in schools have a strong focus on the development of communicative language ability and, increasingly, assessment tasks are designed to capture communicative abilities required for real-world situations. In communicative test tasks, sociolinguistic and discourse components, which are beyond grammatical accuracy, target the abilities required to produce integrated texts that fulfil their communicative purposes. However, the majority of the work on assessment of communicative abilities has been carried out in the context of academic English, and less is known about the abilities of secondary students in foreign language teaching situations. This study examines the outcomes of an integrated writing task designed as part of formal year 12 assessment in Japanese as a second language. It seeks to elucidate the features which differentiate students at higher and lower levels of competence, and, through a focus on content and how it is presented, it demonstrates how these aspects of competence can be observed in responses to the task. The study contributes to our understanding of the nature of communicative abilities and their assessment in a secondary education context, and it also sheds light on aspects of competence which might benefit from more targeted teaching in such settings.

Assessing young learners’ foreign language abilities

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Nikolov ◽  
Veronika Timpe-Laughlin
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Language Programs ◽  
Young Learners ◽  
Foreign Language Programs ◽  
The Impact

AbstractGiven the exponential growth in the popularity of early foreign language programs, coupled with an emphasis of evidence-based instruction, assessing young learners’ (YLs) foreign language abilities has moved to center stage. This article canvasses how the field of assessing young learners of foreign languages has evolved over the past two decades. The review offers insights into how and why the field has developed, how constructs have been defined and operationalized, what language proficiency frameworks have been used, why children were assessed, what aspects of their foreign language proficiency have been assessed, who was involved in the assessment, and how the results have been used. By surveying trends in foreign language (FL) and content-based language learning programs involving children between the ages of 3 and 14, the article highlights research into assessment of and for learning, and critically discusses areas such as large-scale assessments and proficiency examinations, comparative and experimental studies, the impact of assessment, teachers’ beliefs and assessment practices, young learners’ test-taking strategies, age-appropriate tasks, alternative and technology-mediated assessment, as well as game-based assessments. The final section of the article highlights where more research is needed, thus outlining potential future directions for the field.

Vietnamese Voices: A Project for Activating Student Autonomy

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 640
Author(s):  
Nguyễn Ngọc Lưu Ly
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Foreign Language Education ◽  
Language Programs ◽  
Student Autonomy ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Personal Qualities ◽  
Foreign Language Programs

For foreign language education in Vietnam, passive teaching and learning with limited materials is thought to be associated with low achievement. This paper discusses the design and implementation of an innovative approach to guide students to build a Fun Reading Corner in foreign language using an autonomous-based approach in a Vietnam university. Survey data were collected before and after the project and from a focus group’s writing samples. The findings indicated that students’attitudes towards reading in French changed and their personal qualities and skills improved during the course. The paper concludes by explaining the significance of the results and implications for other Vietnamese foreign language programs.

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