Research

This article highlights the experiences of a teacher who is both assessor and external verifier for the Interdisciplinary Project of the Scottish Baccalaureate in Languages.

In the context of Scotland’s strategy for language and curriculum for excellence, the rise of Mandarin Chinese as a language of study seems assured. However, the supply of teachers of Chinese who can teach effectively in primary contexts is uncertain, and the use of native speaking teachers and language assistants continues to present challenges. This paper reports on a project involving the training of primary teachers who are able to teach beginner Chinese in England. The paper focuses on the innovative partnership of a Language Expert Teacher and a Native Speaker Teacher, working together to train teachers in both language and pedagogy. The experience raised questions about pedagogy for both the native speaker and language expert teachers which may have wider implications for the teaching of Chinese in schools.

This article details the experiences of an MFL teacher from London, working on a co-teaching project to ‘internationalise’ the teaching of English in Beijing.  This was as part of the Chaoyang English Project, a five-year strategy, now in its second year.   The article gives a ‘bird’s eye view’ of the Chinese school day and an overview of the way English is currently taught in middle schools in Beijing. The article details the author’s experience of the Project, of co-planning and co-teaching with a Chinese teacher of English, and in so doing, training both teachers and students in current best practice in communicative methods of language teaching.  It details how her job as a foreign languages teacher in Beijing differed from her teaching experience and practice in the UK, and both the challenges and success she experienced in the co-teaching process.  It concludes positively with an affirmation of dynamic, student-centred, kinaesthetic teaching, and a healthy respect of Chinese rote learning, both of which the author hopes to introduce or retain upon her return to the UK.

This paper provides an account of the implementation of a Work Based Learning Abroad module designed to help university language learners to recognise and critically assess their personal and social development while working abroad as English Language Assistants. This project was launched in 2008 for BA Languages students within the School of Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of the West of Scotland. The author considers students’ reflections collected over the past three years on the impact of the work placement abroad. Qualitative content analysis has been applied in order to find recurring themes, to gain insight into students’ attitudes, behaviours, concerns, lifestyles and aspirations.  Overall, the module was recognized as an efficient way to measure personal development as manifested by greater understanding and increased confidence in use of both foreign and mother tongue languages, improved cultural awareness, the development of some generic employability skills and a growing sense of self-belief amongst the participants.

Listening is recognised as the most difficult of the four skills to be mastered when acquiring a second or foreign language.  These difficulties are particularly acute for learners of English or French, which are not phonetic languages.  Pupils making the transition from Standard Grade to Higher French also find it difficult to cope with having to listen to an extended conversation in French for the first time, to which several questions are attached.  This project investigated and attempted to address the problems encountered by pupils.  Over the short period of the project, and working with a small group of only nine pupils, there was moderate improvement in listening ability and strategy use.  Using a Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire  (MALQ) and learning logs allowed the class teacher to gain insights into how pupils approach listening and the barriers to listening faced, and facilitated formative feedback of a high quality. Although pupils generally did not report greater levels of confidence about listening, there is qualitative evidence to indicate that they do not attribute success in listening to external or arbitrary factors, believing that they can and will improve over time.  The findings of the research project are sufficient to lead to the conclusion that the work carried out had an impact.

This article reports on findings from a study carried out in 2012 in a large comprehensive secondary school in Scotland. 54 pupils took part in the event. 30 Scottish learners and 24 pupils from Germany were involved in a project within the framework of a case study. In two meetings the teenagers (aged 14-16) worked collaboratively on a bilingual task that helped learners improve linguistically and develop personally. The activity allowed pupils to discuss similarities and differences of Scottish and German popular cultures and to show curiosity, interest and enthusiasm to learn more about the youth culture in Scotland and Germany while improving their communicative competences in writing and orally.

Summary reminder of upcoming seminars and conferences

In the 'Selected abstracts from academic journals and recent publications section', you will find links to some downloadable abstracts from academic journals, some of which relate directly to our published articles.