Instead of drawing your attention to an interesting article or study today, I would like to invite you all to a seminar devoted to CLIL in primary and secondary education. This seminar will be held on 28^th April, in the Verlooyzaal, Oudstrijderslaan 200, 1140 Brussel-Evere. Schools and other people interested in CLIL, how it really works and how to implement it, are more then welcome to come. Read More

The Language Teaching Centre (SprachLehrInstitut – SLI) in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau will hold a conference from September 28 – 30, 2011 entitled “Multilingualism in Society, the World of Work, and Politics. New Challenges for Teaching at Institutes of Higher Education/Universities”

This year, the discussion concerning multilingualism is to focus on the areas of “the economy”, “the employment market” and “integration”.

Read More

Dr Giovanna Tassinari teaches Italian at the Language Centre of the Freie Universität Berlin. She is the head of the Independant Language Learning Centre and is the author of the case study “Tandem programme at the Language centre of the FUB“. She published in 2010  Autonomes Fremdsprachlernen, Peter Lang Verlag.  As a specialist of learner autonomy, she agreed to participate to this forum and sent us this article. More are to come. Thank you, Giovanna !

Promoting learner autonomy in the classroom: a motivating experience both for teachers and learners

Learner autonomy is the buzz word of the moment. It’s considered to be one of the musts in language learning and teaching nowadays. It’s a prerequisite for life-long learning; it increases motivation; it contributes to individual development and increased social interaction, to critical thinking and much, much more. But what exactly is learner autonomy in the classroom? How do you implement it? Have you ever tried to foster it in your own classroom? Was it successful, effective? How do you feel about this?

Read More

In 2006, two Erasmus students came up with an idea: to virtually promote European study and work offers based on former study experience. The idea of WISHES was born.

Today, the WISHES-project pursues an even wider mission: co-financed by the European Commission (Erasmus Mundus) its mission is to enhance the attractiveness of the European Higher Education Area and to promote the best fit between trainees, European higher education institutions (HEIs) and enterprises.

To fulfill this mission, the partners:

• Set up and operate the WISHES mobility portal as an effective networking and intelligent recruitment tool
• Organize WISHES Networking Days to sustainably initiate further cooperation in the European higher education area supported by IC

Read More

(Part I was published on 28 July)

Managerial and intercultural skills

Doing business with Latin America has a project based approach. It fosters integration between content and language, but involves the learning of skills as well. Moreover, depending on the stress that is put on the economic context or the cultural component, these skills can be defined as managerial and intercultural.
First of all, students should apply knowledge from diverse disciplines in order to solve multidisciplinary problems. A good simulation of real practice, where managers are supposed to accept responsibilities and to combine different layers of information, going from facts and figures to a wide range of human interest topics. Read More

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) is a widely spread concept: it involves teaching a curricular subject through the medium of a language other than the one normally used by the teacher/lecturer and the students.

The University College Brussels (HUB) recently implemented ‘Doing Business with …‘, a assignment (3 credits) for Master students in Commercial Engineering (first year). Various economic contents are being offered while submerging students in a foreign language context.  Students can focus on quickly growing economies, transition economies, underdevelopment and middle-income economies. They will choose from the 4 languages offered at bachelor level: English – ‘Doing Business with Middle East-East‘ (including India), German – ‘Business with Eastern Europe‘ (mainly Russia), French – ‘Business with the French-speaking part of Africa‘ (e.g. the former Belgian colony Congo) and Spanish – ‘Business with Latin America‘.
Let’s take a look at ‘Doing Business with Latin America’. Spanish is only exceptionally taught at Belgian secondary school level. Most students have to start from scratch at the beginning of their university career. Hence, creating the best pedagogic setting for CLIL is easier said than done. The course consists of three parts: Read More

The REAL Seminar for teachers “How to  motivate students: innovation and creativity in the languages classroom” will be held in Krakow, Poland, 18-21 August 2010. It is organised as part of the European project REAL2 and in cooperation with the Uniwersytet Jagiellonski. It aims to explore innovative approaches being implemented by languages teachers across Europe in order to motivate their students and stimulate their creativity. Read More

You will find case studies on Study Trips on the MOLAN website.
Let me first introduce our own CS to you:
Cross Cultural Competences Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel (HUB – Belgium)
What is it about? Travel courses to London, Paris, Madrid or Berlin for Dutch-speaking students of the Faculty of Economics and Management.
Each travel course is composed of visits to multinational companies organized by tutors, of similar company visits organized and prepared by the students themselves, of cultural activities and of individual reports/abstracts written in a foreign language by each participating student.
The CCC course targets students who do NOT take part in the Erasmus exchange programme. It enables them to get acquainted with a foreign business culture while developing their foreign language skills. It increases their employability, boosts the tutors’ commitment, raises awareness among policymakers in the institution and within companies. And finally it’s the very fundamentals of networking between universities, students and the world of business
Languages covered: English, French, Spanish or German Read More