Nothing new under the sun?

1. Nothing new under the sun? Innovations Fair, Graz September 07

2. Innovation or change in fashions? • Is it a new dawn? • Or a swing of the pendulum?

3. Mixing the variables? Or change of paradigm? • Some changes are good ideas to change the “teaching / learning mix” • Occasionally changes revolutionise the way we think about language education

4. What are the variables? • Where the learning takes place • The channels used to transmit language • The people involved • The way time is organised • The approach to learning / teaching

5. What areas for innovation 1? • Breaking down the boundaries, between: • different languages learnt • languages and other subject areas • foreign languages and “first” languages

6. What areas for innovation 2? • Really applying the Framework of reference by extending the range of competences developed: • Strategic • Ability to learn • Pragmatic / inter-cultural

7. What areas for innovation 3 • Developing new attitudes towards diversity and plurilingualism.

8. Existing (19th century) model New model Focus on nation-state and national language as source of identity Emphasis on European citizenship and linguistic diversity Multilingualism is a problem for society Multilingualism enriches society Assumes learners start from monolingual base Takes into account diverse language experiences outside the classroom Bilingualism and diverse cultural backgrounds ‘silenced’ Bilingualism and diverse cultural backgrounds celebrated Bilingual children’s education is seen as problematic – focus is on developing national language Bilingualism welcomed – focus on developing ability in mother tongue as well as other languages

9. Speakers of other languages are ‘foreign’. Speaking another language is the norm Learning another language is difficult Learning another language is natural Near-native speaker competence is the ultimate goal Even low levels of competence are valuable and add to communicative repertoire – to be built on throughout life  Language teaching focuses mainly on linguistic goals. Cultural element tends to be poor, or focused solely on ‘high’ culture Language teaching has strong cultural element and includes intercultural awareness Language learning focuses on one language at a time Language learning focuses on links between languages, and on language awareness in general

10. Language learning tends to be élitist and problematic for the majority Language learning can be successful for everyone

11. Some pathways to follow • Synergies among the teaching of different languages • Pluralistic approaches to language education • Whole school, whole person approaches

12. Look for ideas in Graz • The work of the 2nd medium-term programme of the European Centre for Modern Languages in Graz explores a lot of these pathways. • www.ecml.at