scholarly journals Cross-country comparison of foreign language curriculum in Germany, Spain and Turkey

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-220
Author(s):  
Neslihan Köse ◽  
Haluk Unsal
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Comparative Education ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Compulsory Education ◽  
Sampling Strategy ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Language Curriculum ◽  
Collective Case Study ◽  
Evaluation Approach ◽  
Cross Country

In an ever-increasing global world, foreign language teaching (FLT) has been in the agenda of many countries. The purpose of this study is to compare the FLT curriculum at compulsory education in Germany (Berlin) and Spain (Madrid) with the curriculum in Turkey. Qualitative in nature, the study is designed as a multiple (collective) case study. Maximum variation (heterogeneity) sampling, a purposeful sampling strategy, is used to compare the FLT curriculum in Germany and Spain with Turkey, aiming at capturing and describing common patterns accross a variety of cases. The results show that with the latest revisions in Turkey’s curriculum, the curriculum in three countries are similar to one another in terms of design, main philosophy, content, assessment and evaluation approach, as well as the language teaching approach. This paper concludes that the structural differences depending on the language family could be one of the reasons behind Turkey’s situation in FLT.   Keywords: Comparative education, curriculum, foreign language teaching, primary education, cross-country.

scholarly journals Reflexiones sobre la idea de comunicatividad para la clase de español como lengua extranjera en Noruega

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-125
Author(s):  
Xavier Llovet Vilá
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Compulsory Education ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
Language Teacher

This article is to be conceived as a reflection on communicative oriented foreign language teaching in Norwegian compulsory education. More specifically, the objective is to succinctly examine some key aspects in the implementation of a communicative approach in the Spanish as a foreign language classroom. Based on existing research on foreign language teaching in Norway, it can be affirmed that despite the communicative paradigm initiated half a century ago, the implementation of communicative oriented practices in lower secondary school is limited. This is due, among many other factors, to the strong impact that language teacher schooling beliefs exert on teaching practices over the theoretical principles upon which the curricular reform is based (Kunnskapsløftet-K06). Thus, the success of the recent curricular renovation (Fagfornyelsen-K20) lies in part on how language teacher development programs, both pre-service and in-service, convey the communicative oriented teaching principles to engage teachers in a critical reflexive process of cognition articulation. This reflection examines these principles and suggests an eventual approach for teacher development programs to facilitate the challenge that students face when establishing connections between theory and practice and the articulation of their cognitions. Keywords: teacher cognition, Spanish as a foreign language, curriculum reform, teacher development, communicative language teaching. RESUMEN Este artículo se concibe como una reflexión acerca de la idea central de comunicatividad en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras en la educación reglada noruega. Más concretamente, el objetivo es examinar sucintamente los aspectos clave en la implementación de un enfoque comunicativo en la clase de español como lengua extranjera (ELE). Desde la conjunta investigación en didáctica de lenguas extranjeras en Noruega, se constata que cinco décadas después del inicio del paradigma comunicativo, la enseñanza de lenguas en la escuela secundaria noruega muestra una limitada orientación comunicativa. Uno de los factores que explican este fenómeno es la fuerte influencia que ejercen las creencias de los profesores originadas en su periodo de escolarización por encima de los principios teóricos sobre los que se sustenta la reforma educativa vigente (Kunnskapsløftet-K06). El éxito de la nueva renovación educativa (Fagfornyelsen-K20) radica parcialmente en cómo los programas de desarrollo docente, tanto de manera inicial como continua, vehiculan los principios de la enseñanza comunicativa para que los profesores participen en procesos de reflexión crítica en la articulación de sus creencias. Esta reflexión examina estos principios y sugiere un eventual acercamiento en los programas de formación que facilite el reto al que se enfrentan los estudiantes de relacionar conceptos teóricos con su implementación práctica y la articulación de sus creencias.

Integrating Multicultural Education Into English Language Teaching

2021 ◽  
pp. 17-40
Author(s):  
Kadriye Dimici ◽  
Alper Başbay
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Multicultural Education ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Multicultural Curriculum ◽  
Integration Model ◽  
Language Curriculum ◽  
Four Levels

Multicultural education is an educational approach that focuses on accepting diversity in society, offers equal opportunities for students, and requires a transformation in the process of teaching. Foreign language teaching seems to be an appropriate field to utilize multiculturalism in the curriculum due to its relationship with culture and the flexibility of the content. Despite the existence of different approaches for the integration of multicultural content into the curriculum, there is little research explaining how to realize it in practice, especially in the field of foreign language teaching. Dealing with this problem, this chapter introduces the five dimensions of multicultural education and four levels of the content integration model, both designed by James A. Banks, to show how the English language curriculum could be restructured through the infusion of multicultural themes. This chapter appeals to the English teachers desiring to practice multicultural education in their teaching, and curriculum experts and decision-makers aiming to prepare a multicultural curriculum.

ORGANIZATION OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DISTANCE LEARNING COURSE AT HIGH SCHOOL

2021 ◽  
pp. 118-123
Author(s):  
Denysenko I.I. ◽  
Tarasiuk A.M.
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Technological Basis ◽  
Independent Work

The article is devoted to one of the advanced formats of foreign language teaching at high school, which effectively complements extramural and full-time forms of education – distance learning. The author emphasizes that the quality and effectiveness of foreign languages distance learning athigher educational establishments depends on effectively organized course; the pedagogical skills of teachers, participating in the educational process; the quality of applied methodical content.The main principles of foreign languages distance learning in higher education has been covered, the means of improving the quality and effectiveness of this educational format has been proposed, the key conceptual regulations of foreign languages distance learning has been determined. The article proposes a model for organizing foreign languages distance learning course for future specialists, describes a system to control and monitor the knowledge of all types of speech activities. It is also noted that independent work in the foreign languages distance course at high school should not be passive, but on the contrary, the student should be involved in active cognitive activities, not limited to acquiring foreign language skills, but necessarily includes their practical application; to solve certain communicative tasks in the future professional activity.The article concludes that in the process of organizing the foreign language distance learning course at high school, it is necessary to take into account not only the didactic characteristics and functions of multimedia and telecommunications as a technological basis, but also the conceptual trends of didactic distance learning as a component of modern education. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the specific nature of foreign language teaching in general.Key words: higher educational establishment, distance learning, multimedia means, independent work, information and communicative technologies, Internet, interactive engagement.

Similarities in the Syntactic Structure of the German and Croatian Language

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 107-118
Author(s):  
Manuela Svoboda
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Subordinate Clause ◽  
German Language ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Subordinate Clauses

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to analyse any potential similarities between the Croatian and German language and present them adopting a contrastive approach with the intent of simplifying the learning process in regards to the German syntactic structure for Croatian German as foreign language students. While consulting articles and books on the theories and methods of foreign language teaching, attention is usually drawn to differences between the mother tongue and the foreign language, especially concerning false friends etc. The same applies to textbooks, workbooks and how teachers behave in class. Thus, it is common practice to deal with the differences between the foreign language and the mother tongue but less with similarities. This is unfortunate considering that this would likely aid in acquiring certain grammatical and syntactic structures of the foreign language. In the author's opinion, similarities are as, if not more, important than differences. Therefore, in this article the existence of similarities between the Croatian and German language will be examined closer with a main focus on the segment of sentence types. Special attention is drawn to subordinate clauses as they play an important role when speaking and/or translating sentences from Croatian to German and vice versa. In order to present and further clarify this matter, subordinate clauses in both the German and Croatian language are defined, clarified and listed to gain an oversight and to present possible similarities between the two. In addition, the method to identify subordinate clauses in a sentence is explained as well as what they express, which conjunctions are being used for each type of subordinate clause in both languages and where the similarities and/or differences between the two languages lie.

Challenges of Foreign Language Teaching and Sustainable Development Competence Implementation in Higher Education

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Balčiūnaitienė Asta ◽  
Teresevičienė Margarita
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Competence Development ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Language Studies ◽  
Empirical Level ◽  
Language Classes

Abstract The article aims to emphasize the role of foreign language teaching in fostering sustainable development competence in higher education. Foreign language classes enable students to analyze actual topics about sustainable development, to discuss problems, to share personal emotions and experiences. English as a foreign language curriculum aims to build students’ basic language communicative skills with the focus on sustainability, communication for the enhancement of sustainable development competence. The present paper aims to analyze the correlation of sustainable development competence between English as a foreign language studies in the system of higher education. The article overviews the importance of the sustainable development competence development on the theoretical level as well as introduces the practices of the importance of sustainable development competence elements in foreign language classes on the empirical level. The research was planned and performed in 5 universities of Lithuania, in which the respondents studying English (average age of participants was 22 years old) expressed their opinions on the sustainable development topics and usefulness of sustainable development competence. The results of the research demonstrate that students are more engaged in topics and materials on sustainable development and it is challenging for pedagogues to constantly update their materials, to apply innovative English as a foreign language teaching strategies related to sustainable development in foreign language classroom. Therefore, the research findings with the embedded elements for sustainable development competence development encourage educators to search for innovative ways of English as a foreign language teaching in higher education.

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