EPALE Discussion on European Day of Languages 2016
In honour of European Day of Languages, we’ll be hosting a day-long discussion which will be moderated by language teacher and polyglot Alex Rawlings and EPALE’s thematic coordinator for Quality, Andrew McCoshan. Don’t miss your chance to share your experience in teaching languages to adults, any tips or challenges you’ve faced, learn about best practices from your peers across Europe, and discuss various topics with the EPALE community! We have also gathered interesting case studies, thought-provoking blog posts and helpful resources on the topic of languages and adult education – click here to check them out.
The discussion will start on 26 September at 10:30 CET and it will be divided in two parts:
Morning session (10:30am– 1:00pm CET) – How do we make language learning the best it can be?
Afternoon session (1:00pm–4:00pm CET) – How do we best meet the needs of different groups for language learning?
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Kommentti
Corinne Gauci - Adult Educator - Video Clip
Corinne Gauci talks to EPALE - adult learners are mature and intelligent:
/en/resource-centre/content/european-day-languages-corinne-gauci
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Hello
Hi Andrew, Alex and everyone joining today’s discussion.
My name is Jonny Lear; I am the Content Coordinator for the UK National Support Service for EPALE. Really looking forward to today’s discussion; gaining insight into some of the barriers faced by adult learners from across Europe and beyond who find it difficult learning a second language and hearing case studies and experiences. I will also be sharing some of the UK case studies submitted by guest bloggers for the purpose of this discussion.
Looking forward to hearing from you all!
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Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
The CEFR is widely used but what lay behind it challenged some of the conventional norms. Read Brian North's reflections today in a vlog especially made for the EPALE discussion. Click here to learn more about Brian's thoughts on the CEFR.
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Gamification
Hi Andrew,
I think one of the ways to make language learning effective for adults can be gamification:
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Let's get things started ...
To get things started, it would be good to know what users have found to be the most effective ways of teaching languages to adults…?
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Authentic resources
Hi, I'm Wendy Newman - I'm currently working at the Association for Language Learning, but have been a language teacher in adult education for a number of years.
I have always found that using authentic materials really motivates students, so building activities around these works well. Authentic materials on the web (facilitated by technology) work even better, and there's a huge amount out there! These make the subject come alive for the student and provide skills and experiences which they can build on in their lives outside the classroom.
For example - when teaching about travel, I used various hotel websites and asked students to plan a trip to that city (for example: http://www.palazzoschiavoni.com/). I asked them to find out which hotel they would use for a business / leisure trip and why; which hotels have special deals available; what tourist attractions are close to the hotel and what they would like to visit. Then students role played booking a room for their dates and asking about facilities.
This involved some discovery learning which students enjoy, but needs a lot of preparation beforehand to make sure that the resources are suitable for the students' level of language, and monitoring throughout to make sure that the students are supported through the process.
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Authentic resources are an
Authentic resources are an excellent way to show your students that languages are relevant and real. Especially because you're showing them how they could actually end up using those languages in the real world, like when planning a family holiday or a trip with friends. It does require some creativity to locate those resources, and think up ways in which to create exercises around them, but they are so much more powerful than working just out of a textbook.
I find a great way to learn vocabulary is to search through 'hashtags' of words on Instagram or Twitter and see what comes up. Instagram is great because you get all of the visual imagery to help you learn a word, but Twitter can be a nice, concise way to concentrate on the language itself.
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Success comes from communication needs by Petra Szablewski-Cavus
In general we know that people can learn languages, not only their mother tongue but “foreign languages” as well. And people can learn languages with and without being taught them. We don’t even really know whether it is possible to “teach” languages. It seems that succeeding in “language learning” is most succesful when there is a need to communicate with people who are used to speaking in “another” language than our mother tongue. (As conventional experiences validate: Two people in love with different mother tongues learn the languages of each other the easiest.)
One of my favorite explanations (and a critical judgement as well) of this allegation is fixed in the aphorism of the Italian Poet, living in Germany:
Mit mir willst du reden, und ich soll deine Sprache sprechen.
[You want to talk with me and I shall use your language.]
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Teachers need to tuned to learner needs - Petra Szablewski-Cavus
As mentioned in my other comment, in my opinion the most effective ways of LEARNING languages is the need to communicate. So I assume that the most effective way of TEACHING languages is getting to know and accepting the “language needs” of those who want to learn. This includes the “teacher” being interested in those needs and also being interested to learn about the situation the learner lives in, and being willing to accept what kind of person he or she is (e.g. which way is he or she expressing himself or herself in their mother tongue). For example, if somebody is not interested in talking about himself or herself, a teacher should know (and consider) that he or she won’t very eagerly talk about his or her life experiences in a “foreign” language.
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Morning Session
Here's our morning session topic:
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Hello!
Hello everyone! My name is Alex Rawlings, and I am from the UK. In 2012 I was named Britain's most multilingual student after being tested for fluency in 11 languages in a competition by Harper Collins. I have also written a book called "How To Speak Any Language You Want" which will be published in June next year. I love languages, I couldn't imagine my life without speaking and learning them, and I believe passionately that we should be working towards as multilingual society as we can across Europe. I will be moderating the discussions today and am looking forward to a day full of really interesting discussions about learning languages!
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Welcome!
Hello I’m Andrew McCoshan. I’m the coordinator responsible for the theme of quality in adult learning on EPALE and I will be helping the discussion along today. We’ve structured the day into 2 parts: in the morning we will be discussing how to make language learning the best it can be; in the afternoon we will zoom in on how we can meet the needs of different groups who want to learn languages, whether that be for professional purposes, leisure or for migrant communities for example. We’re looking forward to an interesting and stimulating day!
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Good morning and welcome!
Good morning everyone and welcome to EPALE’s discussion on language teaching in adult education.
Today we'll be talking about how we can make langauge learning the best it can be and how we can best meet the needs of different learner groups. Here are some top tips for taking part in discussions on EPALE:
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Motivation
Hello Andrea, Alex and everybody,
My name's Inga Jagelaviciute and I'm the member of Lithuanian EPALE team. Also I am the English language teacher for adults. I have to agree that motivation is the key to successful language learning. In my working experience I've met different people with different reasons, which encouraged them to study English. Some of them come because they need the English language for job, others to improve their knowledge or to learn it because of the need to communicate with theii new family members from foreign countries. Usually, such people have enough motivation to study. Sometimes it is a challenge to maintain this motivation.