Language Teachers as facilitators in preparing for study abroad

Fourth International Conference on the Development and Assessment of Intercultural CompetenceCERCLL – The University of Arizona

Tucson – January 2014

Hélène ZumbihlPEARL

CRAPEL - ATILF/CNRS Université de Lorraine (France) UMR 7118

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Overview Context of teaching Preparing for study abroad Organization of the curriculum Evaluation Learners’ autonomization process Teachers’ and students’ representations about their roles A new role for teachers in ICC learning

New skills for teachers New relationships with students New way of considering evaluation Language teachers as facilitators

Integration of this new role in the curriculum Evolutions in the curriculum Conclusion

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Context of teaching Specific group of students, a limited number of students,

specific type of motivation for language and ICC (intercultural communicative competence) learning

University learning context in France with a cognitive learning style (Utley, 2004)

Theoretical influence in research [University of Lorraine in Nancy, the cradle of theoretical research on learners’ autonomy in language learning (Holec, 1981)]

This curriculum is recent: a necessity to combine research about autonomy and the acquisition of ICC (Jimenez Raya & Sercu, 2007)

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Preparing for studies abroad"FL learners need to acquire both linguistic and cultural competence and FL teachers need to help them reach these aims" (Elsen & St. John, 2007: p. 27)

Objective: a combination of the linguistic and the intercultural with a specific organization and form of evaluation including an autonomization process for students

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Organisation of the curriculum

• Communicative competence with a native English-speaking teacher

• Acquisition of intercultural competence

• Writing a logbook

A twenty-hour course during the semester with a class

divided into two groups

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Evaluation

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Learners’ autonomization process

• Autonomy: "the abilty to take charge of one’s own learning" (Holec, 1981)

• Aim of the curriculum: to give the keys for analyzing the year of study abroad

• Autonomy: a key element for acquiring ICC as a factor of personal development (Kenny, 1993) in the life-long learning process

• Our objective as teachers concerned with ICC: to enhance learners’ autonomy (LA)

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Teachers’ and students’ representations about their rolesTeachers’ attitudes and values are crucial in shaping the process of

teaching and learning LA in institutional settings inevitably requires both teachers and learners

to modify their representations of these respective roles (Riley, 1989) New terms: "Helper ", "Knower ", "Facilitator" and "Counsellor"

(Riley,1986; Little,2003) It implies a necessary evolution in the pedagogical relationship between

teachers and learners (Rogers, 1969) Advisers are not ‘surrogate teachers’ (Mozzon-Mc Pherson, 2007: p.75),

on the contrary, they have a “significant highly skilled role as mediators” Developing LA does not imply "teacherless learning" , but rather different

teacher roles (Sercu, 2007)

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A new role for teachers in ICC learning

• New skills for teachers

• New relationships with students

• Language teachers as facilitators

• New way of considering evaluation

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New skills for teachers

• The objective: to enhance learners’ awareness of their personal development through critical thinking, collaborative learning, self-initiated knowledge acquisition (Jimenez Raya & Sercu, 2007)

• To accompany students in their experiential learning: dialogue with teachers about their emotions (Rogers, 1969)

• To guide learners through the use of logbooks to enhance reflexivity

• Language teachers: concerned with more than the knowledge and skills to learn the language, they often want to transmit the values and norms they believe in (Jimenez Raya & Sercu, 2007) but transmission is not sufficient, these values and norms should be communicated, mediated and developed

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New relationships with studentsTeachers should manage to engage the learners and succeeds in

boosting and building their confidence (Jimenez Raya & Sercu, 2007)Following humanistic and socio-constructivist theories (Williams &

Burden, 1997), learners as individuals cannot be seen as separate from their environment (Jimenez Raya & Sercu, 2007) which must be taken into consideration in the interactions between teachers and learners

According to sociocultural theories (Vygotsky, 1978, 1986), via interactive mediation, teachers or other more capable peers help learners to reach levels of development they were not able to realize independently

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For constructivists (Bandura, 1986; Bruner, 1985) learning can be seen as an ongoing process of construction and reconstruction and for learners to become more autonomous, teachers have to facilitate these processes

A concern shared by many educators: teachers expect their learners to gradually acquire the knowledge, the skills and attitudes needed for life-long development (Jimenez Raya & Sercu, 2007)

The essential question is how teachers can help learners make sense of the world they are part of :

Therefore the development of LA and ICC are major pedagogical goals of foreign language education

Through introducing and facilitating intercultural learning, teachers can affect a learner’s motivation to learn a foreign language significantly (Jimenez Raya & Sercu, 2007)

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Language teachers as facilitators

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How to develop self-assessment?A questionnaire at the beginning of the semester for the

students to help them determine their own objectives for the semester

Questions about what they think ICC is and different considerations about intercultural relationships

They will have to fill in the document regularly with reflexive thinking about their learning either after a course in class or after a session of autonomous working

Students‘ self-evaluation will be part of the final oral exam. It should involve a personal reflection about their learning

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A new way of considering evaluation

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Integration of this new role in the curriculum• Promoting dialogue and exchanges between

students and teachers (anecdotes with teachers’ and learners’ experiential learning)

• Promoting reflexivity with the logbook, connecting and relating patterns of thinking and behaviour across cultural boundaries

• Promoting, personal research through cultural briefing

• Accepting evolutions in the curriculum Hélène Zumbihl

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Evolution of the curriculum

New organisation with large groups of students which involves a necessity to reinforce students’ autonomy through different means:

more research work carried out by studentsincreased use of information technology but also essential to keep teachers’ presence for

exchanging personal experiences and facilitating students’ personal reflection

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ConclusionEssential to link Intercultural communicative competence learning

and learner autonomy in preparing for study abroad (Jimenez Raya & Sercu; Zumbihl, 2012)

Therefore we need to reconsider teachers’ roles in this preparationTheir skillsTheir relationships with studentsThe evaluation of the work done by studentsTheir new roles of mediators or facilitators

It is more a question of communication, mediation and development rather than transmission

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Thank you for your attention!

helene.zumbihl@univ-lorraine.fr