scholarly journals Facilitating a Face-To-Face Tandem Language Exchange on a University Campus

2015 ◽  
pp. 288-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Thérèse Batardière ◽  
Catherine Jeanneau

As the 21st century progresses and the internationalisation of higher education is gaining momentum, encouraging students’ intercultural communication has become of paramount significance. A Tandem Language Exchange (TLE) is among a number of initiatives taken by the Language Learning Hub (LLH) at the University of Limerick (UL) to bring together foreign and home students. The TLE takes place in both semesters of the academic year, attracting over two hundred students including UL undergraduates and some postgraduates as well as international students of many nationalities. It is offered across faculties (Humanities, Business, Education, and Engineering) to students with levels of second language competence ranging from elementary to advanced. Drawing on the empirical data collected at various stages of the TLE, this study first looks at some of the organisational and pedagogical challenges encountered during 15-years of experience of pairing foreign and home students. It then presents the various means of support that the LLH has put into place to raise cultural awareness and encourage linguistic diversity among students. Finally, it puts forward some recommendations for implementing this type of peer-to-peer language exchange in university settings.

Author(s):  
Somaye Piri ◽  
Sahar Riahi

Cultural awareness and intercultural understanding are crucial parts of learning a new language. However, not everyone has the chance to have face-to-face interaction with the people from diverse cultures. Computer-mediated technologies are favorable tools that can help learners to engage in intercultural communications. This chapter aims at intercultural learning through technology-enhanced language learning. Five main themes have emerged as the result of literature review alongside a report on major research descriptive. The literature revealed that there are 1) positive attitudes toward using digital tools in intercultural language learning, 2) the development of critical cultural awareness and intercultural communicative competence, 3) opportunities for improving all aspects of language learning. However, 4) textbooks are still the predominant learning resource, and 5) a necessity is felt for special technical skills and competencies. This study is helpful to consider the existing challenges and find new directions for future investigations.


10.47908/9/15 ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. 165-280
Author(s):  
Maria De Santo ◽  
Luisa Boardman

The Self-Access Language Centre of the University of Naples “L’Orientale” (CILA) promotes the development of autonomy in language learning, offering a wide range of technology-based resources and a language counselling service. In the last few years, to satisfy the growing need for independent language learning in our university, we have integrated autonomous learning in the SAC with online pathways and multimedia materials. We started by offering online Self-Access activities in blended courses, integrating face-to-face classroom teaching with online modules. This experiment enabled us to develop a kind of blended autonomous learning, combining a real-life SAC with online Self-Access Centres. Virtual SACs suggest a variety of language learning activities and allow learners to study a language while reflecting on their learning process. In the online SAC, language counsellors implement the language learner’s autonomy promoted in presence in the SAC, interacting with them through computer-mediated communication. In this paper we shall look at how the promotion of autonomy in language learning can be enhanced through the integration of technology-based materials and activities made available in self-access modality. Our aim is to present online resources designed to help students learn a foreign language autonomously.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-182
Author(s):  
María Perramon ◽  
Xus Ugarte

Abstract At a time when the advances in information and communication technologies meant that new approaches to virtual teaching and learning could be proposed, the teaching staff on the degree in Translation and Interpreting at UVic decided to offer part of the degree in distance learning mode. This learning mode was launched in the 2001–2002 academic year, with optional face-to-face teaching sessions some Saturdays and coexisted with the traditional face-to-face courses. During the first years, the fourth-year interpreting specialisation subjects were not taught online for technical and pedagogical reasons. Since the 2014-2015 academic year, we also teach these subjects online. The challenge that we face starting the 2017-2018 academic year is twofold: 1. To adapt the online teaching of interpreting subjects to groups with a high number of students in the new Inter-university Degree in Translation, Interpreting and Applied Languages jointly offered by the University of Vic and the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). 2. To adapt the contents and methodology of interpreting subjects to changes in professional practice: telephone and videoconference interpreting, especially in liaison interpreting. In our paper, we will show some online teaching resources, as well as several online tools which we use in our courses.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Pavon ◽  
Miguel Aldas ◽  
Maria Dolores Samper ◽  
Juan López-Martínez

During the 2020/21 academic year, the active and collaborative learning methodology was implemented in the development of a laboratory practice of the Eco-efficient Materials course of the second year of the University Master's Degree in Engineering, Processing and Characterization of Materials, in virtual modality. The use of this methodology aims to promote student participation and increase their level of responsibility in the laboratory practice, making use of the advantages of a virtual modality. Before carrying out the practice, students were given a script and then an explanatory session and resolution of doubts was held. The practices were carried out in a virtual and synchronous way. The students were responsible for setting the parameters and the teacher was in charge of reproducing them in the laboratory. The objective of this work was to observe the behavior of the students in decision-making, to appreciate if they acquired the necessary knowledge for the development of the practice and to solve the problems that may arise during it. Subsequently, the learning methodology between a virtual and a face-to-face modality was compared, and an active and collaborative learning methodology was developed that can be applied in either of the two scenarios.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 2325-2329
Author(s):  
Lulzime Kamberi ◽  
Majlinda Nuhiu

Autonomous second language learning (SLL) is a topic of focus in every educational setting and almost universally supported by institutions and scholars in the whole world. One aspect of autonomous learning is peer evaluation (Harmer, 2001; Benson, 2001; Cottrall, 1999; Everhard&Murphy) Seeking to make students more autonomous leaners and take more responsibility for their learning, as well as assess the effect of peer assessment, on language acquisition, peer assessment has been introduced to student of the final semester of their studies. This paper reports initial results from a study into the effectiveness of peer assessment in an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classroom instruction, in a methodology course, conducted in the second semester of the academic year 2017/2018, at the Department of English Language and Literature, at the University of Tetovo, Macedonia. Applying frequency statistics, Fraenkel&Wallen, (2003), the study has analyzed peer assessment; in contrast to teacher assessment of student presentations. Content analysis (Leedy & Ormord, 2005) to identify themes biases and meaning, the study investigated the validity and reliability of peer assessment. Convenience sampling among students enrolled in the seventh semester identified a non-random sample of 20 students representing 41% of the possible cohort. The findings of the study revealed that students were not prepared to assess each other and rather acted on their personal feelings towards their peers. In conclusion, it is argued that research designs involving an extended period of time and with a larger sample will be needed to confirm these results.


2020 ◽  
pp. 636-657
Author(s):  
Marion Sadoux

The focus of this case study is to report and reflect on the design, implementation and fine tuning of the Peer Supported Online Language Learning Exchange module, known more simply as OLLE (Online Language Learning Exchange) which was developed in 2013 and is delivered in collaboration with students at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. This module seeks to give students in all three University Campuses (United Kingdom, China, and Malaysia) the opportunity to continue to learn a foreign language together, blending, where this is geographically possible, face to face learning opportunities with online learning. It strongly emphasizes language learning as a lifelong learning skill and seeks in particular to develop students' skills in learning to learn a language in digital realms and to develop a strong set of digital literacies for language learning.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Nogales-Delgado ◽  
Silvia Román Suero ◽  
José María Encinar Martín

Apart from the evident tragedy that the COVID-19 outbreak has meant regarding both personal and economic costs, the normal functioning of the academic year has been drastically altered at all educational levels. Regarding Spain, the state of alert implemented by the government from mid-March to June has affected traditional face-to-face sessions at universities, as they were forbidden and replaced by online lessons. The aim of this work was to explain our own experience during the COVID-19 outbreak in a chemical engineering laboratory at the University of Extremadura, concerning the university teaching and the final degree project follow-up, whose method of teaching was active and participatory, based on constructivism and focused on the student as the center of the learning process. Thus, the confinement affected both the teachers and students differently, depending on the degree of completion of their main tasks and their previous skills with computing and virtual tools, among other factors. The existence of an operating virtual campus and an online library has made the transition to total e-learning and telework easier for teachers and students.


ReCALL ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 9-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane McKee

The Text Analysis Program (TAP) was designed by a team from the Department of European Studies and Modern Languages and the Computer Services Department of the University of Ulster with a view to enhancing language learning techniques for third level language students. Work on the program was funded jointly by the CTI and the University of Ulster. A Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) program was also developed as part of the same project. The program came into service in the academic year 1989-90 when it was tested on three groups of students. Some minor modifications were made before it was reused in 1990-91 and 1991-92 with the group of students who seemed to us most likely to benefit from its use. It is now undergoing further adjustment in the light of the second and third year's experience and is set to become a permanent feature of second year teaching on the BA (Hons) International Business Communication course (IBC). The present paper seeks to evaluate the program under two headings: ease of use and effectiveness as a means of enhancing linguistic awareness and language learning techniques.


Author(s):  
Andrew F. Ross ◽  
Sarah Luehrman Axelrod

When Harvard University moved all instruction into an online modality in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Language Center positioned itself as a critical source of guidance on best practices in this new environment. For Harvard, an institution that has always prioritized face-to-face instruction above all other formats, 2020 has been a watershed moment that has forced faculty to reconsider nearly everything about the way they organize and deliver their courses. Owing to the pandemic crisis, we find ourselves in a moment in which the efficacy of these modalities in language learning is, despite initial concerns, being proven day after day. In the context of this crisis, The Language Center has developed training and support mechanisms for this transition, focusing on desired learning outcomes, centering instructor and student experience, and positioning the language faculty to be able to successfully employ hybrid and online approaches to instruction that will continue to serve them well after the crisis abates. This contribution describes the strategies and actions that The Language Center took to ensure the success of the remote teaching and learning of languages at Harvard University in the first term of the 2020-2021 academic year, after the emergency evacuation of campus in March of 2020, and offers a model for other centers engaged in academic support. While extensive insights on the success of these efforts are still pending, given the timing of this crisis and the interventions undertaken, early feedback suggests that faculty have found provided resources to be useful, and their intention is to adopt aspects of technologically-mediated instruction in their face-to-face teaching going forward.


2020 ◽  
pp. 148-163
Author(s):  
Danica Anna D. Guban-Caisido

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has dramatically transformed the education system all over the globe. The Philippines is one of the countries in Southeast Asia that continues the battle with over 50,000 cases as of writing. The country’s education system which remained exclusively traditional and classroom-based has since been forced to adopt more modern approaches, either synchronous or asynchronous. The sudden shift in learning mode on top of the rising apprehension of the situation prompted the need for an intervention. Ten student volunteers of A1 level Italian classes in the University of the Philippines, who have transitioned from face-to-face instruction to self-access language learning, participated in the advising sessions. The implementation of Advising in Language Learning (ALL) as an intervention has a three-point objective: to foster psychosocial support, to identify learner needs, and to track the students’ learning progress. Two advising sessions were conducted within the duration of the semester in which the students reported mainly personal, technical, and economic problems, the difficulty of learning a language remotely as compared to other subjects, and a combination of positive and negative feedback from the previous session that will greatly aid in the succeeding implementation of language advising in the Philippines.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document