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

 Many thanks to those of you who sent me an email commenting on my previous post. Actually, it may be quite encouraging to know that other teachers are having similar experiences and problems. Moreover, sharing our experiences can have a positive impact on our practices.

Today I’d like to reflect with you on another way of promoting our learner’s autonomy: linking classroom learning with individual and cooperative learning.

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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?

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Did we ever have doubts about it?

Some of you may already know how much I am in favour of using online learning communities and Web 2.0 tools to empower language learning and learners’ motivation.  So, imagine my enthusiasm to have the opportunity to spread the Word and announce the publication of the Pedagogical Innovation in New Learning Communities report! Read More

In a month’s time the International House London, an established language school with over fifty years of experience in providing language courses and teacher training programmes, will be holding its fourth Modern Languages Teachers’ Conference. Their spacious and fully-equipped campus near Covent Garden welcomes you on Friday 12 and Saturday 13 November to discuss the teaching of languages for business purposes and the usage of technology in the classroom –£50 for the two days. Friday’s talks, delivered in English, vary from sessions on technology in the language classroom and tips on how to cope with students unwilling to cooperate in communicative learning classes, to neuro-linguistic programming techniques to boost language learners’ confidence. Saturday’s workshops, delivered in the delegates’ target language, focus on Arabic, French, Italian and Spanish language teaching. Read More

Every year when the summer term is starting to draw to a close I take stock of our German language courses (a glance at the case study written with my colleagues may show you the context of the teaching of English, French, German and English at the Faculty of Economics, Sapienza University of Rome). Again this year the number of students engaged in learning or improving their German has grown, slowly but constantly, and this despite German being considered to be a difficult language to learn. On the other hand, precisely because of this “bad” reputation, students who choose to learn German are the courageous ones, the motivated ones, without fear of a strong commitment to a language with a rich morphology and, as a student told me last year, of “words that never end”. Read More

The Centre for Excellence in Multimedia Language Learning (CEMLL) at the University of Ulster is a project funded by the Department of Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland that for the last five years has provided technical and pedagogical support to adopt new and varied uses of technology in the teaching of languages. CEMLL has mainly expanded the pedagogical effectiveness of multimedia language labs and enhanced students’ independent learning. A core team has created a number of activities, such as task-based learning exercises, and trained staff to use virtual learning environments like WebCT –for further reference you can read the relevant MOLAN case study ‘Centre for Excellence in Multimedia Language Learning’ Read More