Sborník_Conference proceedings

Univerzita obrany v Brně
Jednota čekých matematiků a fyziků
Hartmann-Rico
__________________________________________________________________________________
FOREIGN LANGUAGE COMPETENCE AS
AN INTEGRAL COMPONENT OF THE
UNIVERSITY GRADUATE PROFILE III
Sborník příspěvků z mezinárodní konference
konané 14. – 15. září 2011 v Brně
Conference Proceedings
International Conference, 14 – 15 September 2011, Brno
Editor: Mgr. Radek Nedoma
BRNO 2011
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Sborník recenzovali / Reviewers
PhDr.Mária Šikolová, Ph.D., University of Defence in Brno
PhDr. Ivana Čechová, Ph.D., University of Defence in Brno
PhDr. Eva Drahokoupilová, University of Defence in Brno
Mgr. Valentina Georgieva, National Defence Academy, Sofia, Bulgaria
Mgr. Ludmila Koláčková, University of Defence in Brno
PhDr.Nataša Mocková, University of Defence in Brno
Mgr. Alena Müllerová, University of Defence in Brno
Assoc. Prof. Marioara Patesan, PhD., Land Forces Academy, Romania
PhDr. Helena Šajgalíková, PhD., University of Economics in Bratislava
PaedDr. Irena Ševčíková, University of Defence in Brno
PhDr. Eva Hradilová, University of Defence in Brno
Doc. PhDr. Hubert Hrdlička, CSc., University of Defence in Brno
Mgr. Tereza Kučerová, University of Defence in Brno
PhDr. Marta Nevrlková, University of Defence in Brno
ISBN 978-80-7231-809-4
Za obsah a jazykovou správnost odpovídají autoři jednotlivých příspěvků.
Authors are responsible for the content and language accuracy of their papers.
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Termín a místo konání / Date, venue
14. – 15. září 2011, Univerzita obrany v Brně, Kounicova 44
14 – 15 September 2011, University of Defence in Brno, Kounicova 44
Jednací jazyky / Working languages
angličtina, čeština, slovenština / English, Czech, Slovak
Témata / Topics
Výuka akademického a profesního jazyka na VŠ / Teaching language for specific purposes
and teaching academic language at universities
Použití informačních technologií ve výuce cizích jazyků / ICT in language teaching –
possibilities and limitations
SERR a EJP v kontextu vysokoškolského jazykového vzdělávání / Role of CEFR and ELP in
university language teaching
Přístupy k hodnocení jazykové úrovně na VŠ / Language testing at universities
Zajištění a kontrola kvality jazykového vzdělávání na VŠ / Quality of university language
teaching
Organizační výbor / Organizing committee
Chair:
Mgr. Lenka Slunečková, lenka.sluneckova@unob.cz, tel. 00 420 973 44 37 25
Members:
RNDr. Jana Beránková, jana.berankova@unob.cz , tel. 00 420 973 44 28 47
PhDr. Jiří Dvorský, CSc., jiri.dvorsky@unob.cz, tel. 00 420 973 21 30
PhDr. Eva Hradilová, eva.hradilova@unob.cz, tel. 00 420 973 44 28 21
Mgr. Jaroslava Maříková, jaroslava.marikova@unob.cz, tel. 00 420 973 44 21 13
Mgr. Radek Nedoma, radek.nedoma@unob.cz, tel. 00 420 973 44 39 88
RNDr. Eva Staňková, eva.stankova2@unob.cz, tel. 00 420 973 44 23 89
PhDr. Dana Zerzánová, dana.zerzanova@unob.cz, tel. 00 420 973 31 41
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Programový výbor / Programme committee
Chair:
PhDr. Mária Šikolová, Ph.D., maria.sikolova@unob.cz
tel. 00 420 973 44 36 70. Mobile: 00 420 724 69 25 93
Members:
Prof. Dr. hab. Mieczyslaw Balowski, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznaň, Poland
Paula Charbonneau-Gowdy, Ph.D., Canada School of Public Service, Canada
PhDr. Ivana Čechová, Ph.D., University of Defence in Brno
PhDr. Eva Drahokoupilová, University of Defence in Brno
Mgr. Valentina Georgieva, National Defence Academy, Sofia, Bulgaria
Mgr. Ludmila Koláčková, University of Defence in Brno
PhDr. Nataša Mocková, University of Defence in Brno
Mgr. Alena Müllerová, University of Defence in Brno
Assoc. Prof. Marioara Patesan, PhD., Land Forces Academy, Romania
PhDr. Helena Šajgalíková, PhD., University of Economics in Bratislava
PaedDr. Irena Ševčíková, University of Defence in Brno
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OBSAH / CONTENT
Balagiu Alina, Cizer Laura
The challenges of an EAP teacher……………………………………………….8
Bérešová Jana
Holistic and analytic scoring used in assessing productive skills……………....12
Bezdíčková Zuzana, Podlásková Irena, Pospíšilová Linda, Krčmář Petr
Application of students‘ experience of social networking in learning/teaching
process………………………………………………………………………….20
Bilová Štěpánka, Doupovcová Radmila
Communication skills in legal English…………………………………………24
Bušinová Hana, Staňková Eva
Tips and tricks for web-based language testing…………………………….…..30
Cizer Laura, Balagiu Alina
Teaching and testing maritime English with Youtube…………………………36
Dvořák Jiří
Corpus of crisis management………………………………………………..….42
Harakchiyska Tsvetelina
Phonological awarness skills of university students:
chalenges and limitations……………………………………………………….46
Heinz Krystyna, Horký Emil, Orszulik Irena
Academic writing – integrating new subject into school of business
administration in Karviná curriculum………………………………………......53
Hejtmánková Jana
English language certification: SETB in comparison with the finals at the SBA,
Karviná………………………………………………………………………....60
Hradilová Darina
The native speaker’s language competency and Common European Framework
of Reference for Languages…………………………………………………….67
Jonáková Stanislava, Müllerová Alena
Additional language in higher education……………………………………….73
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Kareva Veronika
Matching language proficiency and student achievement of university language
courses………………………………………………………………………….81
Koláčková Ludmila, Zerzánová Dana
Výběr optimálních učebních textů pro výuku angličtiny na CJP UO v Brně…..87
Kučerová Tereza, Nevrlková Marta, Rektořík Zbyněk
LMS Moodle im Deutschunterricht am Zentrum für Fremdsprachenausbildung
der Verteidigungsuiversität…………………………………………….……….92
Macháčková Dita
Výuka lékařské češtiny pro cizince za podpory e-learningu
(obor stomatologie)……………………………………………………………..97
Mrověcová Ljuba
Zkušenosti s přípravou a realizací e-learningového kurzu „Ruština ve sféře
podnikání”……………………………………………………………………..105
Nedoma Radek, Čechová Ivana, Beránková Jana, Zerzánová Dana, Hrdlička Hubert
Language training as a necessary precondition for military operations……....113
Patesan Marioara, Macovei Crenguta, Bumbuc Stefania, Barsan Ghita
Confrontation of civilisations in the international operations theatres; the impact
from a linguistic perspective on the military participants…………………….122
Patesan Marioara, Macovei Crenguta, Bumbuc Stefania, Zechia Dana Carmen
Assessment of competences………………………………………………..…129
Potocký Tomislav
Východiska pro koncipování vysokoškolských kurzů profesně zaměřeného
německého jazyka………………………………………………………..……136
Rektořík Zbyněk
L´enseignement de la civilisation aux cours de français...................................144
Slunečková Lenka
New possibilities in teaching specific areas of competence in productive
skills…………………………………………………………………………..149
Spirovska Elena, Apostolovski Marijana Marjanovikj
English for specific purposes course design and implementation at South East
European University…………………………………………………………..155
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Staňková Eva
Teaching English as a foreign language to proficient users………………......162
Stodolová Jana
Transformation of the language exercises into electronic version for the use in
LMS Moodle………………………………………………………………..…170
Stradiotová Eva
Použitie webových aplikácií – audioblogu a weblogu – vo výučbe cudzích
jazykov………………………………………………………………………...177
Svobodová Jindřiška
So-called Chunks in course books for students of Czech
as a foreign language…………………………………………………….……183
Šikolová Mária, Mocková Nataša
Common mistakes in writing………………………………………………….189
Tomšů Jana, Staňková Eva
Some aspects of specialized military terminology…………………...……….196
Tual David
Global simulations and language for specific purposes…………………...….204
Vrběcká Dagmar
The viability of academic language…………………………………………..212
Wlosowicz Teresa Maria
English and other languages in English philologists’ linguistic repertoires: some
implications for foreign language teaching at the university level………..…..218
Zelenská Zlata
Translation in teaching English for specific purposes (ESP)…………………226
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THE CHALLENGES OF AN EAP TEACHER
Alina Balagiu, Laura Cizer
“Mircea cel Batran” Naval Academy, Constanta, Romania
alina6314@yahoo.com, cizerlaura@yahoo.co.uk
Abstract:
The profile and the role of the EAP teacher seem to be more complicated than many of our
colleague teachers would expect. The EAP teacher should be a good language specialist and
have an adaptable personality. They should be ready to learn continuously and get interest in
domains they would have never thought of. There have been various challenges in the last
twenty years for the EAP teachers, starting from the scarcity of materials and course-books,
fact that forced many of the teachers to become course designers and authors, and ending
with the difficulty of the domain they are trying to cope with.
Keywords: EAP teacher, flexibility, course designer
INTRODUCTION
An EAP (English for Academic Purposes) teacher is a general English teacher who works in a
university or institute that are not of a linguistic type, and who is teaching English for students
who study technical subjects, medicine, economic studies, agriculture, earth sciences etc.
Even if most of the EAP or ESP (English for Special Purpose) teachers studied language and
literature at University, once they have decided, willingly or just by chance, for that specific
field, they should know that the literature remains just a hobby and their activity should be
based on vocabulary and grammar. For some authors EAP is a branch of ESP, for others ESP
work is subordinate part of EAP (1) that is way we are going to use mainly the term EAP and
where it is necessary ESP will also be used.
1. PERSONAL QUALITIES OF AN EAP OR ESP TEACHER
We are going to mention some of the qualities of teachers in general and particularly those of
language teachers: being patient in explaining the context and content, having a good sense of
humor, having a temperament for students in all age ranges, willing to measure students’
performance based on an evaluation criteria equally applied, having common sense, setting
high expectations for the students, being organized, being a good manager of time, being
critical of his own person and activity.
Getting a little deeper into analyzing the subject we could depict the following qualities. First,
teachers’ personality should be pleasant. Secondly, it is essential for teachers to have a
genuine capacity for sympathy, in the literal meaning of that word; a capacity to tune in to the
minds and feelings of other people. Thirdly, it is of great importance for teachers to be both
intellectually and morally honest. Teachers must remain mentally alert. They must be quick to
adapt themselves to any situation, however improbable and able to improvise, if necessary in
less than a moment’s notice. On the other hand, a teacher must be capable of infinite patience.
This is largely a matter of self-discipline and self-training as long as we are not born like that.
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Finally, we think teachers should have the kind of mind which always wants to go on
learning. Teaching is a job at which one will never be perfect; there is always something more
to learn about it. There are three principal objects of study: the subject, or subjects, which the
teacher is teaching; the methods by which they can best be taught to the particular pupils in
the classes they are teaching; and, by far the most important, young people or adults who are
to be taught.
Taking into account our own experience, looking at our colleague teachers and all the ESP
teachers we have met, we can draw a portrait of what such teachers are or should be. Among
the traits depicted the most important could be flexibility. The ESP teachers should teach
terminology to different specialties such as: economics, medicine, law and polytechnics,
which involves many branches of engineering. In our case we teach Special English for
military and merchant students, including navigation, marine engineering and port
management. Each specialty implies a specific terminology that should be learnt by the
teachers first of all so that they should become familiar at least with the basic terminology.
According to how many specialties teachers are having classes at, their task is more or less
difficult. If we take into account the students we work with, there is a core vocabulary all of
us should know that includes general terms about ships, types of ships, ports, safety aboard,
fire-fighting, manning and watch keeping. The specific terminology, which makes the greatest
part of it, is different for each specialty, so teachers having two or three different groups of
students with different specialties should be very flexible in order to learn the as much as
possible from each type of terminology. Due to the fact that they teach English for technical
purposes the English teachers were called ‘industrial language trainer’ by Lavery (2), term
that was fashionable at the end of the last century.
Flexibility is also needed from the teachers to cope with different groups of students. They
range for EAP from 18 to about 45 or even more if we are talking about age, and there are
groups predominant of girls in fields such as management, and boys in fields such as marine
engineering or electrical engineers. As we all know, the methods of teaching should be chosen
according to the age group and sometimes even gender. The teachers should also adapt very
quickly to being specific purpose teachers from being general language ones.
Among many other qualities of ESP teachers who are teaching in a higher education
institution, one of the most important is to have respect for the adult or near adult student.
The young students are striving to learn to be able to cope with their future job while the adult
students are trying to broaden their knowledge in a certain field of activity they might have
worked for a lifetime. They are future specialists in fields we know so little about, as long as
our job is to facilitate them to know and understand the right term in English.
The EAP teachers should be thorough persons able to perform needs analysis getting in
contact with the representative of the shipping companies and feedback from the students after
a certain course about the strong and weak points and the benefits of it. Such teachers must be
able to develop and administer a course, sometimes at a very short notice using a diversity
of realia or adapting the existent material for special purposes.
The last but not the least important personal quality of EAP teachers is to be enthusiastic
enough to write teaching materials and not to stop doing this type of activity as long as the
materials get old and boring both for the student and the teacher if they use them for too long.
The same teachers might find necessary to develop their own course book and sometimes a
dictionary for the terminology they are teaching and at the same time learning day by day. For
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this last step the teachers should be interested in the specialty of their students. During the
course and at the end of each course the EAP teachers are likely to be involved in evaluating
and testing, producing the tests they deliver.
2. THE CHALLENGES OF AN EAP TEACHER
Among the challenges of EAP teachers, the most demanding is developing materials for
students. At the beginning the teachers are not familiarised with the speciality and they should
“dig” for materials almost every day. It is a very tiring endeavour as long as for the teachers
themselves everything is very new. As many other terminologies, the maritime one is a
special language that the outsiders should learn both in English and in their native language.
Besides the frustration of not knowing the specialty whose terminology they are supposed to
teach in English, the teachers strive to cope with the native language terminology, the
specialty colleagues are familiar with and use every day. Newcomers need time to get familiar
to the terminology and the period of time is closely connected to the number of special
terminologies teachers are involved in. At a certain point of our teaching career we were
supposed to teach English for maritime engineering, navy, management and law, fact that
seemed to be overwhelming as long as we were not familiar to those terminologies in
Romanian and we could not have become at such short notice. In time, teachers are trying to
design their own materials not only to point out the grammar chapters their students need the
most but also for the vocabulary that could be inserted in the grammar part as examples. In
our opinion the best solution is finding specialty texts in connection to the curricula and work
out vocabulary exercises starting from the real and if possible up to date information. We
could design our own course books based on adequate texts, drawings, images and a very
good example in our domain is the book designed by P.C. van Kluijven “The International
Maritime Language Programme” for the maritime students and there are some very good
course books designed by our colleagues from Military Academies for the military students,
covering all the branches of the military. Nowadays there are much more textbooks than ten
or fifteen years ago, when we adventured to design some for our students. When you have
finished writing the exercises based on specialty texts you realize that they are old fashioned
or you just have some new materials you would like to include into a better course, so the
labour starts again and demands a lot of enthusiasm from the person doing it.
An issue connected to this first challenge is how much should the EAP teachers know of the
student’s specialty? The subject is a controversial one among linguists and ESP specialists.
Some of the authors (3) suggest that there are several variables that should be taken into
consideration: if the students are experienced in the field, if the sponsor requires teachers’
knowledge, if the students accept the ignorance of the teacher in the specialty, and finally if
there is any help for the EAP teacher from the specialty teachers or from the Foreign
Language Department. Other authors are more critical towards such teachers: Selinker
demonstrates that for ESP teachers to understand a scientific text properly, they would need to
know the concepts and presuppositions involved.
From our point of view the EAP teachers should have some basic knowledge of the specialty
they are teaching and this could be achieved by a certain interest in the technical (or another)
field, a hobby or just an inquisitive personality concerning the scientific issues. The help of
the specialty teachers is always beneficial especially if they want to provide the English
teacher with the necessary information. Our experience demonstrated that designing materials
might help the English teachers to become familiar to the specialty terminology and not only,
and furthermore the teachers could learn in their own pace and assimilate a small part of a
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subject that is not familiar to them. Perhaps the best alternative would be a specialist with
solid English knowledge, but what part of the scale would incline to the specialty and what to
the terminology and grammar? Another step that can be taken by the English teachers to
surpass the handicap of not knowing the specialty, as long as they are interested mainly in
terminology, might be a bilingual dictionary of a small scale at first, comprising the basic
terminology (which can be improved in time and checked by a specialist). Such a reference
book could help the authors and at the same time offer great satisfaction when it is appreciated
by the students.
The last issue we want to take into discussion is the challenge of teaching English in a
technical university where the subject we are teaching is never as important as specialty. The
EAP teachers should be very patient and stubborn and make the students understand that in
the century of globalisation not knowing at least a foreign language is synonym to not having
a job.
CONCLUSION
The EAP teachers should have the qualities of any English teachers but besides they should
posses some other qualities to help them “survive” in the academic environment. Coping with
the terminology both in English and native language is essential and needs enthusiasm and
even stubbornness. Another challenge is the attitude towards the young and adult student that
should be an understanding one but at the same time the attitude of the students toward the
teacher, who is not a specialist in technology or engineering or any other field except from
linguistics, should be one of respect.
REFERENCES
(1) ROBINSON, Pauline. ESP Today: A Practitioner’s Guide, Prentice: Hall International,
1991. pp. 100. ISBN0-13-284084-7
(2) LAVERY, M. The Industrial Language Trainer. Language Training, 1985. vol.6, no.1
(3) SELINKER, L. Language for Specialised Purposes, IRAL, 1979, vol. XVIII, 3, pp. 189215.
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HOLISTIC AND ANALYTIC SCORING
USED IN ASSESSING PRODUCTIVE SKILLS
Jana Bérešová
Trnavská univerzita v Trnave
Hornopotočná 23, 918 43 Trnava, SR
jberes@truni.sk
Abstract: This article focuses on the comparison of both holistic and analytic scoring while
assessing productive skills using specific examples of assessment criteria. The writer’ s aim is
to present single aspects of the criteria of analytic scoring giving attention to the influence of
traditional teaching and assessment appropriate for the communicative approach in foreign
language teaching. A Common European Framework of Reference places emphasis on both
communicative teaching and communicative testing. The author presents exact students’
samples (speaking and writing) and their assessment consistent with the principles of
communicative testing in her presentation.
Keywords: holistic scoring, analytic scoring, communicative testing, adequacy, appropriacy,
fluency, cohesion.
INTRODUCTION
Teaching language as a system of communication rather than as an object of study resulted in
the fact that the ability to speak and write a target language is becoming more important,
widely recognised as important skills for educational and business reasons. As the role of both
speaking and writing in target-language education increases, there is a great demand for valid
and reliable ways to test both abilities, both for classroom use and as a predictor of future
professional or academic success.
Designing a good test of speaking and writing involves much more than simply thinking of a
topic for test takers to speak/write about and then using judgement to rank order the resulting
speaking/writing samples. Before designing assessment tasks or scoring procedures, we need
to consider a number of key questions. The traditional view about language teaching/learning
focused on whether test takers could form grammatical sentences rather than how well they
could use speaking/writing for a specific communicative function. There were not criteria or
standards that assessors applied consistently and there was not much attention given to test
validity and reliability.
1. ASSESSING PRODUCTIVE SKILLS
Hughes (1989:75) states that ‘the best way to test people’s writing ability is to get them to
write’. The same can be said about people’s speaking ability. Speaking and writing are both
productive skills. Thus, a test of speaking/writing should involve at least two basic
components: one or more speaking/writing tasks, and a means of evaluating the
speaking/writing samples that test takers produce. The usefulness of a test is defined in terms
of six qualities: reliability, construct validity, authenticity, interactiveness, impact, and
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practicality (Bachman and Palmer, 1996:17), which can serve as a choice about the kind of
rating scale to use.
Speaking/writing and critical thinking are seen closely linked thus test takers should prove
they have mastered the cognitive skills. On the other hand, oral and written texts vary in
several dimensions, such as textual features, sociocultural norms and patterns of use, and the
cognitive processes involved in text production and comprehension (Weigle, 2002:15).
Assessing both skills, it is important to view language knowledge as linguistic knowledge
(basic structural elements of the language), discourse knowledge (knowledge of the ways in
which cohesive text is constructed) and sociolinguistic knowledge (knowledge of the ways in
which language is used appropriately in a variety of social settings). Defining the construct is
one of the most fundamental concerns in developing a speaking/writing test. The focus of the
assessment should be clear and it is important to aim at both – the language used as well as the
fulfilment of the task. The purpose should be to display language proficiency as well as the
ability to e.g. persuade, apologise or complain.
There are many factors which must be included in speaking/writing assessment. The first one
is designing a task. Speaking/writing prompts are written in such a way that every test taker
understands exactly what is required and responds appropriately within his or her ability level.
The rubrics, instructions and marking criteria must be clear, which reduces the possibility that
different assessors will approach problematic oral or written performances differently and thus
introduce unwanted errors into the scoring procedure. Common problematic performances
seem to be as follows:
- oral or written answers that are complete but do not address the intended task or fail to
address parts of the task,
- oral/written performances that have clearly been said/written from memory rather than
in response to the prompt,
- and incomplete answers in which a test taker was unable to complete the task in the
allotted time.
Apart from task design, the assessors should be trained how to use the marking criteria (the
scoring rubric). Basically, two kinds of criteria are used: holistic and analytic. There are
several factors which influence to what extent the training process can be followed. For
example, if the same assessors are used frequently, a full-scale assessor training session might
not be needed. The assessors who use holistic criteria should be trained more carefully and
longer to be able to read the criteria in the same way and balance their ratings. The samples of
oral/written performances are provided to familiarise the assessors with examples to make
clear what is meant by phrases in the rubric in real conditions. The analytic criteria are used
more often in order to have more input information about the performances. The trainer
matches the descriptors with exact examples from the test takers’ samples. One thing should
be taken into account that analytic criteria might atomise the performances into small pieces
and the assessors could get more negative impression than it really is. It is recommended to
assess the performance from the overall impression viewpoint as well.
2. ASSESSING WRITING
This passage reflects illustrative tests of writing from the Slovak school-leaving examination
in English, which is part of a suite of the school-leaving examinations in other subjects
administered by the National Institute for Certified Educational Measurements. The
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examinations in English are used to certify English language proficiency in two CEFR levels
– B1 and B2. The level of proficiency is reflected in the task difficulty. The tasks are drawn
from a variety of genres, including narratives, descriptions and discursive compositions
(preferably for B2 level). ‘Genre is defined both in terms of the intended form and the
intended function of the writing. By form is usually meant such written products as letter, or
essay’ (Weigle, 2002:96). Function is thought of in terms of communicative functions such as
describing, apologising, etc. or in terms of discourse mode e.g. narration, argumentation.
Discourse mode makes a difference in performance, and narrative and description are often
seen as cognitively easier and lend themselves to less complex language than do
argumentation. Bachman and Palmer (1996) consider authenticity as a key consideration. The
task should reveal what the test taker can do in writing beyond the test. The writing
assessment tasks in the Slovak school-leaving examination are designed to simulate possible
target language writing situations for students in their age group. The procedures taken in the
task design are aimed at minimising subjectivity. The title of the composition is structuralized
by the points which are expected to be mentioned in the script, for example Next month your
penfriend is arriving in Slovakia. Write a letter to him/her about: the lesson you want him/her
to attend, the activities you will do together at school, and the activities you would like to
organise for him/her in the evening (Maturita 2009). Many international testing centres
usually provide more topics and test takers can choose. The choices should be as parallel as
possible, particularly in terms of discourse mode, therefore different discourse modes may
affect the scores given by assessors rewarding the test takers who choose seemingly more
difficult topics with higher scores. The same can happen when the rubric does not include
discourse mode, for example Write a composition entitled ‘I could not imagine living
without…’ (Maturita 2007). This rubric resulted in a complete confusion in the Slovak schoolleaving examination. The scripts were difficult to be marked objectively because some test
takers described a person/thing, narrated a story or even justified their viewpoints.
Holistic scoring is a single score based on the overall impression of the script. From a
practical standpoint, it is faster to read a script and assign a single score than to read it several
times, each time focusing on a different aspect of the writing. The former one focuses the
assessor’s attention on the strengths of the writings. White (1994) considers holistic scoring
more valid than analytic scoring methods because it reflects most closely the authentic,
personal reaction of a reader to a text. One drawback to holistic scoring is that it does not
provide useful diagnostic information about a test taker’s writing ability. A single score does
not allow assessors to distinguish between various aspects of writing, it achieves high interrater reliability at the expense of validity and assessors are expected to be trained to read a
script and judge it against a rating scale (scoring rubric) that outlines the scoring criteria.
In analytic scoring, the scripts are rated on several aspects of writing, which, depending on the
purpose of writing, might be content, organisation, cohesion, register, vocabulary, grammar,
etc. The English maturita writing paper in Slovakia is rated on content, organisation, grammar
and vocabulary with the descriptors for six bands (0-5). Some marking grids contain
mechanics. In the Slovak grids mechanics is included in the vocabulary criterion, nevertheless
it used to be included in both grammar and vocabulary descriptors. It is disputable to what
extent fulfilling the exact task set forth in the writing prompt should be part of the scoring
procedure. Awarding no points for content, the school-leaving examination assessors in
Slovakia cannot continue in scoring the scripts. Some assessors still consider grammar and
vocabulary more important than content and have problems to follow the instructions that all
the points in the structuralised rubrics are expected to relate to the topic or the title.
14
Analytic scoring is good for inexperienced assessors who can easily understand and apply the
criteria in separate scales, and it can provide a better view on the script mostly if the writers
have uneven profile across different aspects of writing. The students should be provided the
scoring rubric/rating criteria to be motivated to work on the aspects. Analytic scoring is
beneficial for students because it provides information about their strengths and weaknesses
and teachers can focus their teaching on the needs of their students.
Currently, assessing writing in the school-leaving examination in Slovakia reflects all the
recommendations mentioned above. The item writers meet all the requirements of the Council
of Europe and follow communicative testing principles. The most crucial issue in testing
writing in Slovakia is that students are not allowed to use dictionaries due to the fact that most
students do not know how to use dictionaries effectively, and research confirms that using
dictionaries detracts from the time available to write, which may make students less effective.
Assessment training used to be organized by the in-service training centres with the aim to
familiarize the assessors with the scale and to instantiate certain features of the rubric. The
trainer read through the scripts to find anchor/benchmark scripts that exemplified the different
point on the scale. The scripts that represented the borderline between two critical levels were
helpful to be included in the training session. These sessions were organised for a large
number of teachers, so it was impossible to get all of them to agree on exact scores and some
disagreement among assessors was inevitable. Scoring was expected to be independent, and
the assessors could not underline errors when scoring scripts to avoid influencing the scores
given by other assessors. The current official documents in Slovakia allow the assessors to use
the same script and underline errors to provide evidence for their scoring. Another drawback
is that the scripts are marked at schools by local teachers. Although the scripts are doublerated, marking the scripts at schools might establish reasonable doubt about the objectivity.
Appendix A shows the difference between two bands of holistic and analytic criteria designed
for testing writing. The former ones are taken from the TOEFL assessment grid and the latter
ones were written to be used in the school-leaving examination pilot project in 2000.
3. ASSESSING SPEAKING
Testing speaking usually consists of both a test of spoken interaction and a test of spoken
production. The interaction tasks should deal with real-world issues in order that a test taker
may prove that he/she is able to use a foreign language as a means of communication. The
speaking skills are reflected in the degree to which the students can express their ideas in a
foreign language, take into account and make use of their partner’s contributions to the
discussion, and collaborate in the creation of interaction. The tasks must give the opportunity
for the examinees to express their ideas and react to the partners of communication turns. A
good performance would reflect the test takers’ ability to express themselves comprehensibly
in terms of intelligible pronunciation, relevant vocabulary and sufficiently accurate grammar,
ability to react in reasonable time and in relevant, meaningful chunks (Luoma, 2004). Other
abilities are reflected in repetition and reformulation of words and sentences from previous
turns, signalling of new topics through phrasing, grammar and stress and willingness and
ability to elaborate.
If the speaking test includes both oral production and oral interaction, the criteria should be
considered very thoroughly. A Common European Framework of Reference (2001)
15
distinguishes between oral production and oral interaction. While testing oral interaction
requires the abilities of initiating discourse, taking turn, getting or keeping the floor,
referencing, etc., oral production, apart from other aspects, focuses on linking discrete
elements into a connected, linear sequence of points, smoothly flowing, or well-structured
speech using organisational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices. The oral assessment
grid: CEF Table 3 (CEFR, 2001:28) introduces five criteria for A1-C2 levels such as range,
accuracy, fluency, interaction and coherence, which are a good example of how both
interaction and production can be assessed.
Speaking is special because it is tested ‘in live interactions, where the test discourse is not
entirely predictable, just as no two conversations are ever exactly the same even if they are
about the same topic and the speakers have the same roles and aims’ (Luoma, 2004:170).
Ensuring reliability, it is necessary to train assessors introducing the test and the criteria.
Different levels on the scale should be illustrated, and assessors practice rating by viewing
taped or video-taped performances. They are expected to report their scores and discuss the
reasons for the consensus score. The criteria developers need to provide some evidence about
the validity of the criteria, for example by showing how they are related to the construct, the
task, and the skills the speakers need in real-life situations. Other procedures like standardsetting, or the setting of cut scores, validation are necessary (Manual, 2009).
The speaking part of the school-leaving examination in Slovakia is not checked externally, so
the teachers follow some recommendations provided by the National Institute for Education.
The assessors are not trained and the marking criteria are not officially recognised. The
marking criteria used at schools differ - from using the traditional system of marks to using
holistic or analytic scoring, which is converted to the official marking system in the country.
The validity and reliability of speaking tests are not proved by evidence, therefore the
washback effect on teaching and other consequences of score use cannot be studied. There are
many factors which can influence the test taker’s performance. Task design plays an
important role. The random questions of the assessors can negatively affect the performance,
so the tasks should include everything the test taker is expected to perform (Appendix B).
Appendix C contains the analytic scale for speaking and the global achievement scale. Using
the former ones, assessors might be stricter in assessing the oral performance, so it is
recommended to compare such an assessment with the global achievement scale.
CONCLUSION
It is clear that effective communication both in writing and speaking seems to be a crucial
skill for academic setting. As far as testing both productive skills is concerned, ensuring that
scoring is independent and the assessors are not influenced by scores given by other assessors
is necessary. It is easier in testing speaking skills because the assessors have their own grids
while the assessors marking the written papers should be provided equal copies of the same
paper.
Both writing and speaking assessments are time-consuming and they require a fair amount of
work. Although there are many factors which can influence oral and written performances
such as task design, the instructions/rubrics and the marking criteria should be prepared
carefully. Either holistic or analytic scoring is used, the training sessions for assessors should
be provided. From the six qualities of test usefulness viewpoint, it is important to summarize
16
that the analytic scale is more reliable than the holistic scale, and more appropriate for L2
writers as different aspects of writing ability develop at different rates (reliability and
validity). Using the holistic scale is relatively fast and easy while using the analytic scale is
time-consuming (practicality). More scales provide useful diagnostic information and is more
useful for assessor training (impact). White (1994) argues that reading holistically is a more
natural process than reading analytically (authenticity), however Bachman and Palmer (1996)
note that assessors may read holistically and adjust analytic scores to match holistic
impression. There are still many questions which can be answered through empirical research,
for example if the test takers knows how his/her writing will be evaluated, it may be that the
interaction between the test taker and the test is influenced by the rating scale. The choice of
testing procedures which involves finding and deciding which qualities of test usefulness are
most relevant in a given situation is a useful approach to choosing the kind of rating scale.
REFERENCES
BACHMAN, L. F. and PALMER, A. S. 1996.Language Testing in Practice. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. 377p. ISBN 0-190437148-4
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 260p. ISBN 0-52100531-0
HUGHES, D. E. 1989. Testing for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. 249p. ISBN 0-52148495-2
LOUMA, S. 2004 Assessing Speaking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 212p. ISBN
0-521-80487-6
Manual. Relating Language Examinations to the Common European Framework of Reference
for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. 2009. Strasbourg: Language Policy
Division. 200p.
WEIGLE, S. Cushing 2002. Assessing Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
268p. ISBN 0-521-78446-8
WHITE, E. M. 1994. Teaching and assessing writing: Recent advances in understanding,
evaluating and improving student performance. Second Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
___________________________________________________________________________
Appendix A – Comparison of holistic and analytic criteria for writing
Holistic criteria for two bands
5
Demonstrates clear competence in writing on both the rhetorical and syntactic
levels, though it may have occasional errors.
A paper in this category
- effectively addresses the writing task
- is well organised and well developed
- uses clearly appropriate details to support a thesis illustrate ideas
- displays consistent facility in the use of language
17
- demonstrates syntactic variety and appropriate word choice
4
Demonstrates competence in writing on both the rhetorical and syntactic levels,
though it will probably have occasional errors.
A paper in this category
- may address some parts of the task more effectively than others
- is generally well organised and developed
- uses details to support a thesis or illustrate an idea
- displays facility in the use of language
- demonstrates some syntactic variety and range of vocabulary
Analytic criteria for two bands
CONTENT
5 – relevant, fully developed and comprehensive
4 - relevant, well-developed, some information missing
ORGANISATION
5 - coherent text, a wide range of linking devices, proper paragraph development
4 - clear, well-structured, good use linking devices, some hesitation in paragraph development
GRAMMAR
5 - accurate use of grammatical structures appropriate to the task
4 - a few minor mistakes only, mostly complex sentences
VOCABULARY
5 - a wide range of vocabulary appropriate to the task
4 - good use of vocabulary appropriate to the task, a few minor mistakes in spelling
___________________________________________________________________________
Appendix B – Examination Paper
Task 1
Look at the pictures below and choose three of them. Comparing and contrasting them, say
why people consider these places modern wonders of the world. Talk about a place you
consider a wonder of Slovakia.
Task 2
18
Talk about the positive and negative effects of modern technology on human beings,
including:
- medicine (laser, cloning, etc.)
- industry (atomic power, dynamite, etc.)
- agriculture (fertilisers, chemistry, etc.).
Task 3
You would like to have a pet. Your parents do not want to hear about it because they consider
you irresponsible and lazy. Try to persuade them to have a dog or at least a hamster. Explain
to them which duties you really want to do and give them your plans how you want to provide
care to your pet.
___________________________________________________________________________
Appendix C – Analytic and global achievement scales – one band
Analytic scale – one band
GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY
5 - A wide range of grammatical forms and vocabulary is used effectively. Grammar is
accurate, although errors might occur when complex structures are used. Vocabulary is
used appropriately and with sufficient precision to deal fully with the tasks.
DISCOURSE MANAGEMENT
5 - Contributions are relevant and coherent, and are effective in developing the discourse.
Contributions are consistently of an appropriate length.
PRONUNCIATION
5 - The use of stress, rhythm and intonation is appropriate for meanings to be conveyed
effectively. Individual sounds are articulated sufficiently clearly for utterances to be
understood easily.
INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATION
5 - Interaction is sustained and developed fully and effectively by initiating and responding
appropriately. Hesitation is minimal and does not interfere with the interaction. Sensitivity
to turn-taking is shown throughout the test.
GLOBAL ACHIEVEMENT SCALE
5 - Interactive abilities and use of linguistic resources are sufficient to deal with the tasks
competently. The message is conveyed fully and effectively.
Global achievement scale – one band
5 – Communication almost always effective: task performed very competently.
Functions performed clearly and effectively.
Appropriate response to audience/situation.
Coherent, with effective use of cohesive devices.
Use of linguistic features almost always effective: communication not affected by minor
errors.
19
APPLICATION OF STUDENTS´ EXPERIENCE OF SOCIAL
NETWORKING IN LEARNING/TEACHING PROCESS
Zuzana Bezdíčková, Irena Podlásková, Linda Pospíšilová, Petr Krčmář
Univerzita Pardubice, Jazykové centrum, Studentská 95, 532 10 Pardubice,
zuzana.bezdickova@upce.cz, irena.podlaskova@upce.cz
Abstract:
This contribution deals with a new approach of learning/teaching using students´ experience
of social networking. The work includes a brief presentation of the Interactive Terminology
Database and reasoning why creating it seems to be an ideal tool for the application process.
The main part of the text attempts to present the creation procedure and outcome related to
the course of the first year economics students supervised by the authors. The interactive
terminology database, being developed in Moodle, offers the students an opportunity to create
a platform for ESP and comment on the terminology closely related to their field of study. The
course is followed by an evaluation online test in STAG (Internal University Information
System). Eventually, this work endeavours to outline authors’ vision of further development
and exploitation of the Interactive Terminology Database.
Key words: social networking, Interactive Terminology Database, online test, ESP, Moodle,
glossary
INTRODUCTION
The need for more ESP (English for Specific Purposes) in the English classes of the
economics students of the University of Pardubice led the authors to seek new methods of
approach to this problem. The creation of a terminology database seemed to be one of the
possible answers to this issue.
1. SOCIAL NETWORKING
The authors decided to use the currently ever present need for social networking by young
people that motivates them to share information, collaborate, connect and comment on
available content for the creation of the Interactive Terminology Database. The advantages of
social networking were considered and some of them transformed into e-learning course for
the economics students of the University of Pardubice. The greatest benefit social networking
offers is communication. Communication is one of the core necessities in the
learning/teaching process though it is not easily achievable while setting the course
terminology requirements. The other desirable feature of social networking is sharing certain
information and ability to provide an open platform for wide though limited number of
participants. The authors also tried to maintain the idea of openness and to facilitate
interactivity and students´ engagement.
20
2. CREATION OF INTERACTIVE TERMINOLOGY DATABASE
The authors decided to create a terminology database. The possibilities of Learning
Management System (LMS) Moodle; and in particular one of its standard modules, the
Glossary; matched the expectations of the authors. According to Martin Cápay and Miroslava
Mesárošová (2009, p. 155-160) the glossary function allows the course participants to create
and use entries in form of encyclopaedic definitions. The terminology database was supposed
to fulfil several learning/teaching qualities. It should provide students with suitable economics
terminology; it should be easily accessible and it should require students’ input. The entered
terms did not have to be explained any further in the classes herewith reducing the amount of
text and written materials and increasing the clarity. The aim of the database was to involve
students in the creation process and to make them participate actively. Two pilot English
courses of the first year economics students of the University of Pardubice were chosen to
generate the database. The courses were selected according to the following criteria: the
authors had to be the course lecturers; the level of students’ English knowledge was supposed
to match B1 of the CEFR scale and the students’ field of specialisation was economics. There
were about thirty three participants. This number appeared sufficient for the pilot project. The
students were supposed to enter two economic terms with their pronunciation and definition.
They were also required to comment on two other terms. Students either defined the term
themselves or they used an already existing definition. The students own definitions were
appreciated though the usage of existing definitions was also accepted. Students commented
on other terms mostly in three ways. They either developed the definition even further; they
corrected it or made personal comments.
Picture 1 Economics Glossary – Example of Students´ Comments
The whole process was obviously close to students´ experience with social networking as
there occurred no difficulties while creating the terms or commenting on them. Students
participated very enthusiastically.
21
3. EVALUATION ONLINE TEST
As the terminology database was not only supposed to provide the informational platform for
the economics students the test followed the creation process. Students entered the terms.
Based on the inserted terminology the authors created an online test. The test formed a part of
students´ credit requirements and the online form allowed an immediate evaluation of their
results. The authors wanted to adhere to the main principles of testing and assessment which
includes respect for the students, responsibility, fairness, reliability, validity and collaboration
for the parties involved. There were two types of multiple choice questions in the test. Either
the students were provided with a definition and they had to choose from four options the
right one (one correct and three distractors) or they were given a sentence with the missing
term and similarly as above they had to select the correct term from four options (one correct
and three distractors). Although LMS Moodle provides satisfactory testing background, the
authors opted for STAG (Internal University Information System); a system which is used at
the University of Pardubice. This enables the users to record and process the test results
within the Study Agenda.The students were familiar with the platform as it is widely applied.
The outcome of the online testing was more than satisfactory.
Picture 2 Economics Glossary Online Test– Success Rate Statistics
The instant oral feedback provided by students gave the tutors an impression that the
definition part was easier than the sentence part. This was later confirmed by the success rate
statistics. Students also appreciated the predictable amount of terminology they were
supposed to obtain. As they created the terminology database themselves they chose terms
they considered useful and often close to other subjects (e.g. finance, accounting). This way
the terminology database offered the most welcome overlap and cross subject connection.
4. ROLE OF TUTORS
The tutors acted as guides and explained the principle of making entries and commenting on
them at the introductory lesson. They also acted as mentors and discussed any problems
during the creation process. Although the terminology database was based on students’
individual work, it had to be constantly supervised by the authors. The supervision ensured
the terminology did not switch over to non economic terms and the entered definitions
correctly defined the terms. The tutors also supervised the formal features of the database e.g.
22
correct phonetic transcription, the same size and type of font. Nevertheless, there were only
very few cases of terms that had to be corrected. The tutors did not change many comments in
order to adhere to the basic idea of openness of social networking. Both the terms and the
comments were not inserted anonymously. This ensured that the students did not enter any
unwelcome or unacceptable comments.
5. FUTURE DEVELOPMENT AND EXPLOTATION
The Interactive Terminology Database is open to future development. The authors see its
main advantage in the supervised, unified and approved content. It could be used not only for
online testing but also as a valuable addition to future e-learning courses for economics
students of the University of Pardubice. The next step is to involve more participants
especially the distant students. The enormous field of expansion is in the cross subject usage.
In the future the Interactive Terminology Database might be available for other teachers and
students even of non language courses.
CONCLUSION
The Terminology Database fulfilled expectations of the authors. They found the following
advantages to be the most constructive: The students involved in the project participated
actively in the creation process. The entered terminology reflected students’ needs and this
way the course became more focused on ESP. The online test that was closely based on the
database gave the authors and the students the crucial feedback. The test also helped students
to see their work as a useful tool in the learning/teaching process. The students’ active
participation in the course creation is a way of future method of classroom language learning.
It is worth mentioning that this attitude is in coherence with the European Language Portfolio
strategy. Social networking among students is a phenomenon that can not be ignored these
days. The role of educators at this stage is to use their knowledge and teaching experience, to
remain new media literate and carefully select the positives of social networking that can be
applied to the teaching/learning process.
REFERENCES
CÁPAY, Martin; MESÁROŠOVÁ, Miroslava. Variabilita použití slovníka pojmov v ekurzoch implementovaných v LMS Moodle. In SCO 2009: sborník 6. ročníku konference o
elektronické podpoře výuky. Brno, 2009, pp. 155-160. ISBN 978-80-210-4878-2
VÁŇOVÁ, Tamara; VÁŇOVÁ, Anna. Moodle v síti [online] 2009 [May 2, 2011].
<http://www.pdcon.cz/elearning/moodle/moodle_v_siti_2009.pdf>.
23
COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN LEGAL ENGLISH
Štěpánka Bilová, Radmila Doupovcová
Centrum jazykového vzdělávání Masarykovy univerzity
Právnická fakulta MU, Veveří 70, 611 80 Brno
bilova@law.muni.cz
Abstract:
One part of the COMPACT Project of Masaryk University Language Centre focuses on
creating several soft-skills courses in foreign languages, which reflects the current trend to
include soft-skills training in the language preparation. The course of Communication Skills
in Legal English has been developed within the above mentioned project; however, it is not a
typical example of such a course, communication skills practice is interconnected not only
with the language training as such, but with a very specific field of legal English. In the paper
we describe the structure and the content of this course and share our experience from its
creating as well as from teaching. At the end we summarize the main points of the course
participants’ feedback and outline the possibility of integrating communication skills into the
undergraduate courses of legal English at Masaryk University.
Key words: soft skills, legal English, communication skills, client interview, legal
correspondence, negotiation
INTRODUCTION
The course of Communication Skills in Legal English was developed as one of the several
soft-skills courses in foreign languages within the COMPACT project (Competences in
Language Learning) of Masaryk University Language Centre. The implementation of softskills practice into the courses offered by the Language Centre reflects the calls for practical
preparation of students: „The issue of soft skills has been recently transferred from the sphere
of management into the field of language training“ (HANZLÍKOVÁ 2011, p. 67).
Soft-skills are usually represented in the university language courses by presentation skills,
preparing for a job interview, or writing a letter of application with a CV. The Compact
project offers 26 soft-skills courses in four languages (English, German, French, and Spanish),
e.g. Time and Stress Management, Intercultural Communication, Creativity, Critical Thinking
and Self-reflexion.1 The course of Communication Skills in Legal English is not a typical
example as it does not combine only soft skills and ESL, but it is narrowed on a very specific
area, i.e. legal English.
1
you can find more information on the COMPACT project at <http://lingua.muni.cz/cs/projekt-compact/>
24
1. THE COURSE DESCRIPTION
As the title suggests, the course focuses on developing communication skills in the legal
context. It interconnects several aspects: oral and written communication, theory and practice,
lawyer – client communication, lawyer – lawyer communication, analyzing part of a legal
case or the whole case study. The skills are practised on examples from civil, employment
and contract law.
The course has been piloted twice so far and it is going to be offered once in an academic year
from 2011/2012. Since the first teaching the content of the course has developed to the shape
described in this paper, however, we expect further modifications and improvements.
1.1 The Course Objectives
The main aim of the course is to improve the participants’ communication skills in several
professional situations. At first the students are provided with the guidance in the language
preparation and theoretical background, and then they can practise their communication skills
in a number of practical tasks from the legal environment. The participants are engaged in
many interactive activities which are designed to develop their awareness of appropriate and
effective communication skills.
1.2 Participants
The course is offered to the students (both undergraduate and postgraduate) as well as to the
academic staff of any faculty of Masaryk University. Even though it is intended mainly to
those of Faculty of Law, participants from other faculties can also attend the course. The
knowledge of legal English is described as useful for the effective work in the course;
however, it is not compulsory. We must admit that although there have appeared several
people from other faculties at an early enrolment list, the final composition of participants has
included only persons from the Faculty of Law so far.
The level of English required is at least B2 of the CEFR. Most of the participants are fluent,
with a high level of legal English; however, some of the students may be slow at expressing
themselves or not very confident at the correct use of legal terminology.
1.3 The Course Structure
The course consists of three parts: Online Part I, Workshop, Online Part II. Online Part I is an
introductory part which is to ensure the necessary level of knowledge for active participation
in the workshop which follows. The workshop is the main part and it is aimed at providing the
space for controlled and free practice of oral and written communication skills in the legal
environment. The workshop lasts approximately 10 lessons; originally it was a one-day
intensive session, however, after the first piloting it was changed to a two-day workshop (6
lessons + 4 lessons). Online Part II is a short follow-up in which the participants finish the last
step of a complex task from the workshop.
25
2. THE CONTENT OF THE COURSE
2.1 Online Part I
Online Part I consists of e-learning tasks which prepare the participants for the activities in the
workshop. There are five sets of interactive exercises, one tests the students’ knowledge and
four of them (covering useful phrases, language functions and legal English) are
recommended to those whose knowledge is not sufficient.2
2.2 Workshop
The workshop is divided into four sections according to the topic which is practised. The first
part deals with client – lawyer interviews, the second section is focused on legal
correspondence, the third one is devoted to negotiation skills and the last part includes a case
study.
2.2.1 Section 1 - interviews
The first section starts with discussions on legal communication in general: e.g. its importance
and tips for a successful communication, and then continues to analyze the issues concerning
a client – lawyer interview. The theoretical preparation involves mainly identifying the
interview stages and building up useful phrases. The largest part of the section is devoted to
practice. The participants swap the roles of lawyers and clients and they perform interviews
according to the given instructions (who they are, what the problem is, how to solve it). Each
interview presents a different case.
The interviews are performed gradually, at first divided into parts – so that the students can
concentrate on various aspects of successful interviewing: active listening, the correct use of
suitable phrases, conveying information, body language, etc. The last interviews are played as
a whole and the „lawyers“ are asked to write down details of the case during the interview.
Each interview is followed by a self-reflexion from the „lawyer’s“ part. The participants are
given handouts in which they evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their performance and
set one point they want to improve in during their next role-play.
2.2.2 Section 2 - correspondence
In this section the students consider various factors affecting the form of letters and emails,
namely the purpose, reader, content, style and tone. A special attention is paid to the features
of formal letters and to the phrases used in legal correspondence.
The participants focus on writing a letter of demand. First, they brainstorm the content and the
structure of such a letter, then they work on a sample letter, and finally they write a demand
letter based on their notes from the interview they played in Section 1.
2.2.3 Section 3 - negotiation
2
The structure and the content of e-learning activities are dealt with in the paper „E-learning jako přípravná
část kurzu Komunikačních dovedností v oblasti právnické angličtiny“ presented at the conference Informační a
komunikační technologie ve výuce cizích jazyků in Poděbrady, 21st – 22nd June 2011.
26
The third section concentrates on negotiating contractual terms. At first the participants
discuss negotiation strategies and they develop useful language. They focus on formal and
polite phrases used for disagreeing, rejecting and making counter-offers or concessions. In the
second part the students play the roles of lawyers negotiating contractual terms on behalf of
their clients.
The role-plays start with a controlled practice in which each „lawyer“ is given instructions
describing the steps of the negotiation and chooses only a suitable language. This activity is
followed by a free practice when the participants get a set of instructions and they have to
choose both the strategy and language themselves. It is interesting to compare the negotiated
terms of various pairs.
2.2.4 Section 4
The last section is devoted to an employment law case. The participants read the facts of the
case and identify the legal issues. They prepare arguments for one of the parties and then
negotiate with the representative of the other party to reach an out-of-court settlement.
The participants should employ the strategies and language discussed in Section 3 – e.g.
prepare the strengths and weaknesses, be sure about the goals, decide which concessions they
are willing to make. At the end the pairs report the result of their negotiation to the class so
that they can compare possible outcomes.
The negotiating activity of the last section leads to homework for Online Part II. The students
are asked to write a letter of advice to their client; they are to summarize the main facts of
their negotiation and to provide the client with advice concerning further actions.
2.3 Online Part II
At present the last part of the course includes the home task from Section 4: writing a letter of
advice. Each student prepares the letter individually and submits it for comments to the
teacher.
After having collected enough material from the written work of the course participants, we
plan to enlarge this part with interactive tasks for practising the areas that often cause
problems.
3. PREPARING AND TEACHING
The course reflects some specific features resulting from its content, duration and the structure
of participants. Some features had been expected when preparing the course, others appeared
during the piloting.
3.1 The course preparation
When preparing the course, we were fully aware of the main limitation: 8 hours of classroom
teaching cannot cover all situations and aspects of legal communication. Moreover, since it is
a language course, the content cannot go into details when legal questions are concerned.
27
Once the areas of practice were determined (lawyer-client interviews, negotiations, and legal
correspondence), we searched for existing materials.
The specific combination of communication skills and legal English is included in the
textbooks only partly; we used mainly FIRTH (2008), HAIGH (2009), KROIS – LINDNER
(2006), and SWEENEY (2003). Nevertheless, the majority of source material had to be
adapted for the needs of the course to a great extent.
When developing teaching materials, the natural question of setting the necessary initial
knowledge arose – both of legal English and general English useful for communication (e. g.
phrases for discussion, making proposals, or polite rejections). On the one hand, legal English
knowledge is not compulsory for attending the course; on the other hand, the majority of
participants are expected to be law students. Thus, we decided to employ e-learning as a
preparatory part assuring a certain level of knowledge, of both legal and general English. As
mentioned above, the required level of English was set up to B2 of the CEFR.
3.2 Changes during the piloting
The first teaching in the course showed in particular that we had underestimated the time
necessary for actual practising the skills. That is why we decided to shorten the theoretical
parts in order to obtain sufficient time for the practical training. Nevertheless, we could not
remove the theory as such; therefore we moved certain tasks into the e-learning of Online Part
I.
After the first piloting we also decided to implement the Power Point Slides into some parts of
the workshop, especially for stressing important information or instructions and for checking
the correct answers in some tasks. This enabled us to fasten certain activities, and thus to
create even more space for the free practice.
3.3 Experience from Teaching
Since the course participants are interested in developing the communication skills
themselves, the teaching have been enjoyable. In spite of this, there appeared several
challenges concerning mainly monitoring the whole class when performing role-plays in
pairs. Some students expect more detailed feedback from the teacher; some are not able to
provide efficient self-reflexion, however, it is not possible for the teacher to notice and
comment on the whole performance of each pair.
Another usual problem connected with the pair work arises when there is not an even number
of students. Since many activities in the workshop are based on pair work, the teacher has to
think about the way of dealing with an odd number of students in advance. As the pairs
modify throughout the course, the instructor should also notice the style of work of the
students, so that they can be later paired up into the couples that work efficiently together.
3.4 Feedback
Generally, we have received positive feedback from the course participants. All of them
appreciated a systematic training of communication skills, which they had not experienced
before. The intensiveness of practice resulted in a visible progress and increasing confidence
when performing interviews or negotiations. Thus, the communication skills training was
28
evaluated as the most beneficial from all participants including those with a high level of both
general and legal English.
The evaluation of other components of the course was mostly positive as well, although not
unanimously, which reflected participants’ individual expectations and preferences. Someone
would have liked to spend more time on theory, while someone else pointed out there was too
much theory in the course. Some students expected more work on extending the knowledge of
legal English; some persons did not particularly enjoy practising on the areas of legal English
they are not fond of much. Someone would have liked to focus more on body language and
some participants would have needed practising pronunciation and intonation which was not
included in the course at all.
CONCLUSION
The feedback from the participants confirmed the importance of practising communication
skills. Everybody agrees that communication is a vital part of legal profession, however, the
communication skills training (especially oral communication skills) was either overlooked in
the legal education or the courses typically stressed a result.3 The situation has changed since
the importance of soft-skills in the university preparation was recognized,4 and therefore we
hope to incorporate much of our course material and methods into the regular courses of legal
English at Masaryk University. Legal English is included in the courses of “English for
Lawyers” (4 semesters), “Introduction to English for International Trade Law” (2 semesters)
and “English for Public Administration” (1 semester). We feel that it is possible for students
to develop their communication skills gradually in the context of the particular specialization.
REFERENCES
FIRTH, Matt; KROIS–LINDNER, Amy. Introduction to International Legal English.
Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-521-71899-8.
HAIGH, Rupert. Legal English. Oxon : Routledge-Cavendish, 2009. ISBN 97804154871587153.
HANZLÍKOVÁ, Marie. Soft Skills a Evropské jazykové portfolio pro vysoké školy. In
Sborník příspěvků z II. konference projektu COMPACT. Brno : MU, 2011, pp. 67–72. ISBN
978-80-210-5413-4.
KORN, Jane. Teaching Talking: Oral Communication Skills in a Law Course. Journal of
Legal Education, Vol. 54, 2004, No. 4, pp. 588–596. ISSN 0022-2208.
KROIS – LINDNER, Amy. International Legal English. Cambridge : Cambridge University
Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-521-68556-6.
SWEENEY, Simon. English for Business Communication. Cambrodge : Cambridge
University Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0521754521.
3
4
see KORN (2004), p. 588
e. g. <http://www.softskills.wz.cz/html/vyznam%20soft%20skills.html> [31/5/2011]
29
TIPS AND TRICKS FOR WEB-BASED LANGUAGE TESTING
Hana Bušinová, Eva Staňková
University of Defence, Language Training Centre, Brno, Kounicova 65, 66 210
hana.businova@unob.cz, eva.stankova2@unob.cz
Abstract:
The paper focuses on using electronic tools for constructing and administrating interactive
language quizzes and progress tests. It addresses some cases of inappropriate use of
electronic tests on the part of students and suggests some tips for eliminating them. The
observations and recommendations stated in the paper stem from the authors’ experience in
creating and using English language quizzes and tests in the Moodle Course Management
System at the University of Defence in Brno.
Keywords: cheating, English language teaching, e-learning, Moodle CMS, University of
Defence, web-based testing.
INTRODUCTION: E-LEARNING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF DEFENCE
Advances in ICT and the high computer literacy of university students enable educators to
create optimal learning and teaching arrangements by using a myriad of methods. One of them
is the integration of e-learning. According to Khan (2005: 3), ‘e-learning can be viewed as an
innovative approach for delivering a well-designed, learner-centred, interactive and facilitated
learning environment to anyone, anyplace, anytime by utilizing the attributes and resources of
various digital technologies along with other forms of learning materials suited for an open,
flexible and distributed learning environment.’
One of the essential steps for e-learning implementation in educational organizations is
establishing a suitable technological platform. Currently, the most popular and widespread
options are Course Management Systems (CMSs), software applications or web-based
technologies used to plan, implement, and assess specific learning processes. They enable
educators to create and deliver content, monitor student participation, and assess student
performance. Apart from tools designed for creating and conducting courses, they also offer
communication tools for social interaction, such as forums, chat and messaging.
English language lecturers at the University of Defence (UoD) have been incorporating elearning into their instruction within specific research projects for more than five years. They
are well aware of the benefits which web-based e-learning brings to language learners, such as
the exposure to authentic language; access to wider sources of information; on-line
communication with native speakers; a learner-centred, task-based approach; working at
different levels and developing learner autonomy. These reasons were informing their search
for a technological solution and pedagogically sound practice that would enrich their
classroom instruction.
A year ago, the UoD English language lecturers finally found a complex and cost-effective elearning technological platform – the Moodle CMS, which is being aptly adapted and
developed by a committed and highly professional administrator. They have been using
30
Moodle tools for various purposes, such as retrieving teaching materials, managing courses,
setting and collecting assignments, communicating with students, and, last but not least,
practising, testing and evaluating student knowledge and skills. The concern here is to share
their experiences in using Moodle tools for creating interactive quizzes and tests, and,
predominantly, to present some tips for monitoring students in the process of taking the tests.
1. THE ROLE OF INTERACTIVE QUIZZES AND TESTS IN LANGUAGE
LEARNING AND TEACHING
Testing is an important part of language teaching. Tests are used to place students in courses
according to their knowledge, to diagnose their strengths and weaknesses, to identify their
proficiency and to assist in the evaluation of student achievement. There are numerous
research studies on various purposes of testing in language learning and teaching (Alderson,
Clapham and Wall, 1995; Douglas, 2000). Many of them elaborate on the characteristics of a
high-quality test, particularly on test validity, reliability, objectivity and practicality. Some
sources provide guidelines for language test construction and evaluation: from drafting initial
test specifications, to reporting test scores, test validation and washback (Alderson, Clapham
and Wall, 1995). In a nutshell, designing and writing a quiz or test requires that we consider
what it is we want to measure, why and how.
The focus here is on the creation of interactive web-based quizzes and tests associated with
the process of instruction. In research studies on language testing, these tests are referred to as
progress or achievement tests (Alderson, Clapham and Wall, 1995: 12). The content of both
types of tests is generally based on the course syllabus. Their aim is to support teaching by
measuring what students have learned. They might focus on the knowledge of particular areas
of grammar and vocabulary, as well as on the progress achieved in language skills. They can
also be used to enhance the motivation of students. In addition to that, they enable lecturers
and students to identify areas of weakness and difficulty. Progress tests can also be diagnostic
to some degree. They may serve the language tutors as a source of information in evaluating
the effectiveness of different approaches to language teaching.
The value added by the interactivity of web-based quizzes and tests is immense. Humancomputer interaction demands the users’ full attention, and thus engages them in their task
performance. In comparison with traditional pencil-and-paper quizzes and tests, web-based
tests require more effort in the construction stage, which is, however, amply compensated by
consequent automatic corrections, feedback, marking, record keeping and generating
statistical outcomes. Other advantages are the easy and convenient distribution and delivery of
quizzes and tests, and, in particular, their almost infinite reusability and updatability. Other
benefits and pitfalls of assessing language through computer technology are presented by
Chapelle and Douglas (2006).
Since the Moodle CMS is a popular universally recognised platform which enables educators
to create interactive quizzes and tests tailored to any target group needs, the authors aim to
share their experience and discuss various possibilities of testing student progress in Moodle.
The focus of the following chapter is on the practical: it offers some tips for creating and
using language quizzes and progress tests.
31
2. CREATING ENGLISH LANGUAGE QUIZZES AND TESTS IN MOODLE
Quizzes serve the purpose of practising a language area without truly assessing the students; it
is an educational activity rather than a testing one. For real assessment, tests are designed. The
primary role of a test is to assess the student’s progress.
The tutors of the Language Training Centre (LTC) use Moodle quizzes and tests mainly for
practising and testing English language in use, grammar, vocabulary and reading
comprehension. Conducting listening comprehension quizzes/tests is limited by technical
possibilities in the LTC classrooms and computer laboratory – they can be easily set for
homework, though. Students can take quizzes aimed at improving listening skills outside the
classroom on their own computers equipped with headphones or speakers.
For creating and administering quizzes and tests, the quiz module in Moodle is used. In the
process of setting test parameters, the test creator has to fill in several sections:
• general section gives the name of the test and provides the student with specific
guidelines for taking the test;
• timing section states the opening and closing times of the test and gives the time limit
for taking the test;
adaptive
mode section serves as a tool for setting possible penalties in case the
•
student takes one test several times;
grading
section enables the tutor to select a grading method;
•
• review section allows the student to see the feedback when reviewing the test.
The same test can be administered several times. As the individual classes differ in their level
of English language proficiency, it is useful to update the quiz/test parameters for each case of
administering the quiz/test.
The next step is choosing the types of questions to be used. From a large variety of question
types, matching and gap filling tasks are commonly used in language testing. Once a question
is generated, it can be inserted into the test. One test may contain as many questions as the
course creator wishes. The questions can be edited, deleted or moved to another test.
An example of a part of a progress test with feedback is shown in Figure 1 on the following
page. The test focuses on grammar based on a unit in a course-book. It is a multiple choice
cloze test. When the student submits the test, the feedback is displayed immediately in the
form of scoring, and, if set so, correct answers might be shown.
Setting correct answers, when creating a language web-based test, has its own specifics. Test
creators have to bear in mind that if students are asked to type down words, there might be
more than one correct answer, and all of them should be accepted by the web system. To
eliminate the use of unwanted synonyms, the first letter of the expected word can be offered
as a prompt.
In testing English language, it is necessary to instruct students as to whether they are allowed
to use contracted forms of auxiliary verbs. If they are, they might have problems typing the
correct English apostrophe. Many of these problems can be avoided either by selecting a
different question type, for example, the multiple choice cloze type, or by instructing the
students carefully.
32
Figure 1 Example of a progress test with feedback
3. USING WEB-BASED LANGUAGE QUIZZES AND TESTS
The following chapter shares the authors’ experiences with the actual use of quizzes and tests
at the LTC. It also presents some tips and tricks for monitoring the students when they take
the tests.
3.1 Setting quizzes for homework
One of the possibilities is to use quizzes for students’ preparation for the forthcoming face-toface lesson. For example, matching or multiple choice questions can be used for checking the
knowledge of target vocabulary. The quizzes must be accessible to the students prior to the
face-to-face lesson.
Another possibility is to monitor the students’ mastery of a particular language area covered
in the previous face-to-face lesson. Matching or multiple choice questions can be set for
homework to check whether and to what extent the students have mastered the content area.
The form of gap-filling is also often used for this purpose. It satisfies the need to check the
knowledge of new vocabulary and spelling. Grammar can be tested in a similar way.
3.2 Testing students outside the classroom
Setting tests for homework entails certain problems as the security of the tests may be
compromised. The reason is the obvious fact that the tutor cannot control the actual process of
student test taking outside the classroom. Students sometimes cheat, trying to trick the test.
• Students may ask a classmate or a friend to complete their test. The tutor can never be
sure about who really completed the task. A solution is to check the students’
knowledge in the classroom as well. Another strategy is to minimize the period
between the opening and closing time of the test.
33
•
Several students meet and work on a test together. Randomizing the question order
complicates students’ cheating in this case. It is advisable to divide the students into
groups and set different quizzes to each group. It is rather challenging for the tutor as
the question bank in Moodle must be very broad to enable this.
• Students do not reach the required score. They sometimes come up with an excuse that
the Internet crashed and they were not able to complete the test. The tutor can check
the submitted test, of course. In many cases the tutor finds out that the test was
actually completed, however there were too many mistakes, and thus the score was
low. The Internet crash is possible, but in that case one or more exercises are usually
blank in the submitted quiz. If a student makes this excuse, the only way is to check
the student’s test.
• The student deliberately completes the task carelessly and achieves a low score. Then
he quickly reviews the submitted test, finds out the correct answers, takes a print
screen of them, or copies them on to a piece of paper, and then attempts the quiz again,
simply copying the correct answers. To prevent students from doing so, it may be
recommended not to display correct answers in the feedback.
Tutors have to be aware of these possible problems. They should not regard the results of tests
taken outside the classroom as one of the main evaluation criteria.
3.3 Testing students in a computer laboratory
To assess student progress objectively, testing in a computer laboratory is advisable. Progress
tests reveal to what extent the students have mastered the language area tested. Progress tests
are designed as short-term tests. Their aim is, on the one hand, to assess the effectiveness of
teaching methods and, on the other hand, to determine whether the students are ready to
proceed to the next teaching unit.
In the case of real testing, it is crucial to inform the students about the rules of the test. The
first screen of the test states the time limit, punctuation and capitalization rules, and the
required pass score. The floating time window gives the student a countdown.
To secure the objectivity of the test, it is important to watch the students closely. Even in the
computer laboratory they sometimes try to cheat and trick the tests. It is highly recommended
to explicitly inform the students before taking the test that it is not allowed to open any other
software, to use the Google bar or other translating tools, to create print screens or to use their
e-mail or mobile phones while taking the test. Once the student submits the test, he should
switch off the computer screen, so that other students cannot see the correct answers. As
shown in Figure 1, the wrong and correct answers can be easily spotted even from a distance.
When setting the test options, the tutor can eliminate student cheating in two ways:
• the questions can be shuffled,
• the correct answers and feedback can be shown later – not immediately after the test
has been submitted.
4. KEEPING RECORDS OF TEST RESULTS
Moodle automatically creates the grade records of each test taker and keeps the test results.
The system allows tutors to see each test taker’s grade on the overall test as well as to review
the test taker’s performance on each question. If a student takes the test several times, all
attempts are stored and can be viewed by the tutor. This Moodle tool more than outweighs the
34
effort spent by the test creator on the construction of the test. The tutor can simply export the
grade records and download them. There are several options for storing them in the tutor’s
computer. An excel spreadsheet is a good choice. It gives the tutor the basic information
(name and surname, e-mail address, ID) about the student together with the grades. It only
depends on the tutors whether they choose the grades for one test or all tests within the course
to be downloaded, so that the course total score could be generated.
CONCLUSION
Web-based language testing has become common practice at numerous educational
institutions. Although web-based tests require quite a large amount of effort mainly in the
construction stage, the automatic corrections, feedback, marking and record keeping is
indisputably valuable. Convenient administration and almost infinite reusability and
updatability of web-based tests contribute to the list of their benefits.
Setting a test has its own specifics which might vary for different languages. All correct
answers have to be anticipated and each test should be pre-tested. Test creators and tutors
have to bear in mind that it is necessary to familiarize students with test taking rules before the
real testing.
To secure objectivity in web-based testing, the educators have to be aware of possible avenues
for inappropriate use of tests on the part of students. Student cheating can be eliminated by
incorporating explicit rules for specific test taking into each test, setting suitable test
parameters and monitoring the test users closely. Strict, appropriate and immediate responses
to student tricks are vital for establishing fair conditions for the objective assessment of
student progress.
REFERENCES
ALDERSON, J. Charles, CLAPHAM, Caroline, WALL, Dianne. Language Tests
Construction and Evaluation. Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-521-47255-5.
CHAMBERS, Angela, CONACHER Jean E., LITTLEMORE. Jeanette. ICT and Language
Learning: Integrating Pedagory and Practice. The University of Birmingham, 2004. ISBN 1902459-50-4.
CHAPELLE, Carol A., DOUGLAS, Dan. Assesing Language through Computer Technology.
Cambridge University Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-521-84021-7.
DOUGLAS, Dan. Assesing Language for Specific Purposes. Cambridge University Press,
2000. ISBN 0-521-58543-0.
KHAN, Badrul. Managing e-learning strategies. Information Science Publishing, 2005. ISBN
978-1591406358.
35
TEACHING AND TESTING MARITIME ENGLISH WITH YOUTUBE
Laura Cizer, Alina Balagiu
Mircea cel Batran Naval Academy, Constanta
1 Fulgerului St., Constanta, Romania
lauracizer@yahoo.co.uk, alina6314@yahoo.com
Abstract:
At Mircea cel Batran Naval Academy (MBNA) we provide the future merchant marine officers
with specialised English language training (Maritime English – ME) in full agreement with the
provisions and requirements of the STCW’95. Therefore, the scarcity of maritime language
learning tools or materials has been the starting point of our paper which is intended as a double
attempt to cater for their language needs (the ability to communicate in practical situations for
shipboard purposes) and to argue persuasively for the use of YouTube as a valuable resource with
classroom potential.
Keywords: English language training, Maritime English, language learning materials,
YouTube
This paper provides a range of practical and innovative ideas for teaching/learning maritime
English (ME) in the language classroom. It offers a selection of ready-made activities which
could be used as the basis for lessons or as a departure point for classroom development and
discussions, hence its “recipe” format (lesson plan). The authors are fully aware of the wealth
of online resources and also concerned with the possibility of creatively using them in the
language classroom with reference to teaching/learning maritime English. The activities have
been shaped and developed with a focus on warm-ups, listening, structures, fluency, writing,
and speaking.
This idea has developed from our involvement in running ME courses for our students in
Mircea cel Batran Naval Academy, as well as from our love-affair with the use of YouTube
and other downloadable Internet resources.
But what exactly is YouTube? YouTube is a very popular Web video sharing site that lets
anyone store short videos for private or public viewing. It provides a venue for sharing videos
among friends and family as well as a showcase for new and experienced videographers.
And why use it? First of all, because the standard classroom is one of the worst possible
places in which to learn/teach a living language. YouTube can be used to bring reality to what
could be an unnatural way of teaching /learning. Despite its intrinsic usefulness, the success of
this type of language-learning aid also depends on how it is used by the teacher. The use of
YouTube materials for the core of a lesson is something personal for each teacher to
experiment with, and what is done is limited only by the preparation time available, the
materials to watch and the imagination of the individual teacher.
Therefore, we have intended to build our lesson on onboard emergency drills around a short
videoclip downloaded from this website:
[1]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO7NtgasqvE&feature=related (counter: min. 5:30 -10).
36
Step 1: Once we have found the appropriate video to meet our needs, we have saved the urls
in our browser. (In case there is no Internet connection in class, you might want to go to
Keepvid [2], which is a site that allows you to download the video to your computer which
you can later use in class).
Step 2: After watching the video, we wrote a short introduction to the video our students will
watch. The more context is provided the better our students will understand the videos they
are about to watch. Therefore, two warm-up activities were devised:
2.1. The first activity [3] is intended to introduce the new topic « Onboard Emergency Drills.
Abandoning Ship Drill » by using a Web 2.0 application that takes your text in paragraphs or
sentences or a list and turns it into a picture that can be found at this address:
http://www.wordle.net/[4]. We have chosen it since creating word clouds is a very effective
way for brainstorming and providing students with vocabulary and background information
about the text to be presented. This will engage students with the content, raise their interest in
the topic, and appeal to their previous knowledge. For those who are interested in using it, be
advised that there is an instructional movie that teaches teachers how to use this particular
website to create their own word clouds at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjxTM0UaJ0[5].
2.2. The second activity brainstorms the types of emergencies that seafarers face onboard their
ship, and then students answer the speaking questions in pairs or small groups.
Work in groups and brainstorm the types of emergencies that can occur on board. Which
ones might lead to ship abandonment?
Types
of
emergencies
Questions for discussion:
What are some major emergencies on board?
Have you been involved in any of them? What happened?
Do you think you are well-trained to deal with possible emergencies?
What skills are important for crew members to develop?
What can be done to enhance ship’s safety?
Figure 1
37
Step 3: Then we created a vocabulary guide in the form of a matching activity to familiarize
students with the words and phrases from the video clip and the upcoming activities.
Match the words (phrases) in the first column with their definitions provided in the
second column :
1. dinghy
4. stream anchor
A. to place (an object) in the water at the end of a line
attached to a vessel
B. a book in which details of a trip made by a ship or
aircraft are recorded
C. any strict, methodical, repetitive, or mechanical
training, instruction, or exercise
D. to give an explanation
5. gear
E. to set (a boat or ship) in the water
6. account for
F. used to prevent the stern of the vessel moving with
the tide
G. implements, tools, or apparatus, especially as used
for a particular occupation or activity
2. EPIRB
3. flotsam
7. kit
8. log book
14. store
15. log
H. to interrogate at the end of a drill in order to assess
its conduct and results
I. to deposit for keeping
J. to put on or dress in
K. a place, especially on a ship, where people should
gather if there is an emergency
L. a set or collection of tools, supplies for a specific
purpose
M. a line attached to the bow of a dinghy and used to
tie it up or tow it
N. to instruct
O. to cover openings and make movable objects fast
16. don
17. muster station
P. to keep a record of, enter in a log
R. personal flotation device
18. sea painter
19. PFD
S. emergency position indicator radio beacon
T. material or refuse floating on water
9. secure
10. launch
11. drill
12. brief
13. debrief
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
38
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Another matching-type activity will follow: an exercise that is intended to expose the students
to the words and phrases that are heard during the video clip.
e.
______________
i.
______________
b. ______________
f.
______________
j.
______________
c.
______________
g.
______________
k.
______________
d. ______________
h.
______________
l.
______________
a.
______________
water, food rations, first-aid kit, life buoy, sea painter, EPIRB, life raft, life jacket,
immersion suit, flash light
Step 4: Now students are ready to focus on the actual watching of the video clip. The whileviewing activity comprises a series of questions in order to check the students’ actual
comprehension of the video clip.
Answer these questions:
1. How often are fishing vessels lost in the
U.S?
2. What kind of drill is performed?
3. Why are such drills performed?
4. What kind of vessel is it?
5.What is the name of the vessel?
6.What is the crew suposed to gather?
7. What should the crew know how to
operate?
8. How should a drill end?
9. What are the crew’s opinions on the
outcome of the drill?
10. Is this video a substitute for doing
drills?
39
Step 5: Another while-viewing activity comes in the form of a gap-fill exercise. We have
provided the script.
Fill the gaps with the missing words. Watch the sequence and check your answers.
DRILL 4: ABANDON SHIP
A fishing vessel is lost every 1.____ hours in the U.S. A well-practiced plan will greatly
increase the chances of your crew’s 2. _____. Let your crew know that this is a drill.
“Abandon Ship” can also be done as an extension of a “Fire” or “3. _______” Drill.
“Abandon Ship Drill. Get your 4. ______ now!”
Make a simulated 5. ____ call on the proper radio channel.“Mayday, Mayday…”
Be sure to include: name, location, the nature of your problem, and the number of people
on board.
“The fishing vessel Cherokee. We’re outside Samsing Cove. Going 6. ___ with four
people aboard.“
Make sure all crew know how to find the proper radio channel and can determine
the vessel’s position. Critical points in an abandon ship drill are to account for all crew
members. The crew should gather: 7.____, the abandon ship 8.____, water and food, the
9. ___book, and extra 10. ____ if time allows.
Watertight doors and 11. ____ should be secured before abandoning the vessel. Everyone
should be able to get into the right sized immersion 12. ____ in 60 seconds or less.
Crew should assist each other with emergencies. Different sized immersion suits should
be easy to identify even in the dark. 13. ____ are usually mounted where they fit, not
where they’re most accessible. The crew should know how to get to the life raft and how
to 14. ____ it. Make sure the crew knows how to recover one, too.
All the crew should know how to operate the vessel’s 15. ____. Do NOT activate the
EPIRB during your drill. This is also a good time to test your EPIRB and log it, as well as
check your 16. ____ suit. “This is how you test the EPIRB. Push it over towards where it
says Test. (Yeah, I can see now). All right, while we’re at it, we’ll check the 17._____
date. And then we’ll check the lights on each other’s suit.”
Again 18. ___ the drill. Talk with your crew about what can be done better.
“Well, how did it go? Could any of the gear’ve been more accessible?
Man: No, I think it was fine. But I know I’m gonna have to mark my emergency suit 19.
___ so I can tell it from the other bags.
Woman 1: Yeah, boy, those plastic bags made it really easy to get into my suit.
Woman 2: Yeah, I have to agree.”
Check, maintain and properly 20. ___ all safety gear in an accessible location after the
drill. Log the drill. Remember this video is NOT a substitute for doing drills. Your crew
will remember more with hands-on learning than just by talking or watching the video.
Answers:
1. 60 2. survival 3. Flooding 4. gear 5. Mayday 6. down 7. flares 8. kit 9. log 10. clothing
11. hatches
12. suit 13. Life rafts 14. launch 15. EPIRB 16. survival 17. battery 18. debrief 19. bag
20. store
In the post-viewing activity we have decided to ask students to speak about what they are
supposed to do during an abandon ship drill. This final activity should give students excellent
fluency practice, since they must decide what procedures have to be followed and what their
40
responsibilities are in this particular emergency case. The exercise could also be extended as
a writing activity, and assigned as homework.
CONCLUSION
To sum up, we would like to point out yet again the immense potential of YouTube as a
collection of authentic resources to be exploited as a language learning tool with distinct
advantages over more traditional approaches.
REFERENCES
[1] <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO7NtgasqvE&feature=related>
[2] <http://keepvid.com/>
[3] <http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3686661/Abandon_Ship_Drill>
[4] <http://www.wordle.net/>
[5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjxTM-0UaJ0
41
CORPUS OF CRISIS MANAGEMENT
M.A. Jiří Dvořák
University of Defence, Language Training Centre, Brno, Kounicova 65, 66 210
dvorakji@post.cz
Abstract:
Linguistic risks must not have a negative impact on the quality of risk communication. It is
advisable to know the lemmas belonging to crisis management lexicon together with their
frequencies. The acquired statistical data have to be further interpreted and the set of
linguistic phenomena classified according to their occurrences and combinations. The right
exploitation of a representative corpus may provide us not only with the information on the
frequency of particular words, but also with additional information on language use. The
lessons learned in this area may lead to an improved teaching process.
Key words: word frequency, corpus analysis, crisis management, context, specialized
meaning, collocational span, semantic normality.
INTRODUCTION
The area of crisis management has gained a large development potential. Organizations and
all societies have begun to address non-traditional threats to security, including the challenges
brought on by the consequences of political, economic and environmental stress. As crisis
management terminology is drawn from many sources, new word compounds create a new
conceptual model of interdisciplinary terminology. The paper is aimed at corpus linguistics
and the general description of crisis management corpus being currently analyzed by the
author.
1. CORPUS OF CRISIS MANAGEMENT: DESCRIPTION
Crisis management terminology ranges from abstract to concrete nouns as monolexemes, i.e.
assessment, awareness vs. fire, water, and collocations as polylexemes, i.e. nominal and
verbal multi-word terms, such as public risk awareness, to enhance (improve, increase) risk
awareness. (5:2) For a thorough study of lexicon it is advisable to know not only the words
belonging to such a lexicon, but also their frequencies. However, it is still not enough.
Absolute frequency does not reveal much, if it is not at least related to the total number of
words in corpus. A relative frequency is then expressed in percents as the quotient of absolute
frequency and the total number of words. The acquired statistical data have to be further
interpreted and the set of linguistic phenomena classified according to their occurrences and
combinations.
The selected corpus of crisis management includes glossaries related to risk management, an
online dictionary, a collection of reliable authentic texts (including NATO and EU
Directives), and academic papers. Different texts are represented, so that the frequencies of
words are less influenced by individual texts. The corpus has about 750 000 words, which is a
representative sample of English crisis management terminology. The quantity and quality of
authentic corpus material may help increase the efficiency of risk communication. The
42
corpus-based computer analysis enables us to process large amount of language and at the
same time monitor contextual factors to show how related words are used in different ways
and are appropriate in different contexts. The words are classified into the following 3
categories according to the frequency criterion: 1) the words with the highest and high
frequencies having the ranks 1 to 10; 2) the words with the middle frequencies ranging
between the categories 1 and 3; 3) the words with the lower and low frequencies, i.e. the
frequencies from 10 to 1. (6:64) The crisis management lemmas from the second category
(see above) should be the focus of our attention, because it is expected that the highest
frequencies will belong to definite and indefinite articles, prepositions, and conjunctions. As
Drábková stated in her dissertation thesis, early work in the field of corpus analysis found out
that a frequency analysis of a scientific text looked much the same as that of general English
(4:18). Therefore today the corpus studies and corpora processing software concentrate
especially on studying key words and concordances.
The right exploitation of a representative corpus provides us not only with the information on
the frequency of particular words, but also with additional information about language use,
e.g. complex “association patterns”. Linguistic associations fall into two major categories,
lexical associations - investigating how the linguistic feature is systematically associated with
particular words, and grammatical associations - investigating how the linguistic feature is
systematically associated with grammatical feature in the immediate context. (1:6) The corpus
analysis will show us, whether the words, which are nearly synonymous in isolation, tend to
be used with very different kind of words. For example, the lexical association patterns of the
words hazardous, dangerous and risky may be analyzed. Even without knowing the outcomes
of corpus analysis we may assume, that the word substance tends to occur with hazardous and
dangerous, but not with risky. The corpus-based lexicographic research cannot disregard the
grammatical category. The corpus with the words not annotated for their grammatical
category is referred to as “untagged” and is limited in its usefulness. Without knowing e.g. the
word risk being used as either a noun or a verb we do not know the frequency of grammatical
uses and even the frequencies of words.
The overall generalizations of a language are out of the scope of the crisis management corpus
analysis. The corpus is restricted only to one register and therefore cannot represent language
use in other registers.
2. CONTEXTUAL RELATIONS
Studies of language can be divided into two main areas: studies of structure and studies of
use. Traditionally, linguistic analyses have emphasized structure, identifying the structural
units and classes of a language and describing how smaller units can be combined to form
larger grammatical units. The second perspective is to emphasize language use and
investigate the occurrence of similar structures in different contexts. The question to be
answered is whether these structures are used preferentially for different specialized meanings
and whether there are different preferences for one of the forms over others (1:2). According
to Coulson there are two approaches to language comprehension, the compositional account
and the constructivist one. In case of the compositional approach the processor´s task is to
assign a syntactic representation, access semantic information contained in the lexicon, and
compose the meaning from these two sorts of information. In contrast, in constructivist
accounts, language prompts the language user to construct a frame-based representation of
43
meaning. The relationship between elements is understood by binding them to slots in the
frame (2:37).
The comparison of frequent collocations being used in a corpus with dictionary definitions
may serve as an empirical evidence of possible misconceptions about language use. The
frequency-based strategy may result in the need to reassign a lexical entry. The lessons
learned in this area may consequently lead to an improved teaching process.
Contextualization and knowledge of different parts of speech may be called for help when
decoding the meanings of terms. The term “terrain trafficability” is explained as the capability
or extent to which the terrain will bear traffic or permit continued movement of forces.
The knowledge of the words “traffic” and “ability” written in the above mentioned context
gives us a good chance to comprehend the term correctly. The assumed wider knowledge of
terminology in the mother tongue makes it then easier to find an equivalent in the Czech
language. The correct use of dictionaries, negotiation of meaning and deducing the meanings
from context are the strategies compensating for lack of knowledge. The question is what the
range of context should be in order to have the lexical meaning of a word specified
satisfactorily. According to Těšitelová the collocational span of one and two words left and
right of the collocate are considered to be a minimum for such a lexical meaning
specification. (6:108) Verbs require wider context, though.
3. SEMANTIC NORMALITY
According to Cruse (3:16), every aspect of the meaning of a word is reflected in a
characteristic pattern of semantic normality (and abnormality) in grammatically appropriate
contexts. Every difference in the semantic normality profile between two items betokens a
difference of meaning. The meaning of a word can be pictured as a pattern of affinities and
disaffinities with all the other words in the language with which it is capable of contrasting
semantic relations in grammatical contexts. Affinities are of two kinds, syntagmatic and
paradigmatic. A syntagmatic affinity is established by a capacity for normal association in an
utterance (e.g. dog and barked), a syntagmatic disaffinity is revealed by a syntagmatic
abnormality (e.g. the lions are chirruping). Paradigmatically, a semantic affinity between two
grammatically identical words is the greater the more congruent their patterns of syntagmatic
normality. So, for instance, dog and cat share far more normal and abnormal contexts than,
say, dog and lamp-post.
4. COLLOCATIONS
Misunderstanding in the area of terminology is caused by the fact that we do not know the
collocations, which are often fixed and cannot be replaced by alternatives. “Contingency
plan” is a fixed expression and there are not many words which may be used instead of
contingency. The term “contingency plan” may possibly be replaced by the collocation “backup plan” under less formal circumstances, but the term “alternative plan” does not sound
English. The term collocation refers to sequences of lexical items which habitually co-occur,
but which are nonetheless fully transparent in the sense that each lexical constituent is also a
semantic constituent (3:40). Such expressions as risk assessment, risk treatment, risk
acceptance are examples of collocations. The semantic integrity or cohesion of a collocation
is more marked if the meaning carried out by one of its constituent elements is highly
restricted contextually, and different from its meaning in more neutral contexts (3:40). The
44
sense of “safety” in safety catch and “heavy” in heavy casualties requires specific contextual
conditions as opposed to “safety” in safety equipment and “heavy” in heavy backpack.
Collocations whose constituents do not like to be separated, may be termed bound
collocations (3:41), e.g. non-commissioned officer (NCO).
CONCLUSION
The paper is focused on the corpus of crisis management terminology. The corpus analysis
has to be in compliance with certain qualitative and quantitative requirements. Computer
analysis enables us to process large amount of data and monitor not only different structures,
but also similar structures in different contexts. The frequency-based analysis of selected key
terms may result in the need to reassign a lexical entry, which is given inappropriate
prominence in the current dictionaries and terminological glossaries. The lessons learned in
this area may consequently lead to an improved quality of specialized language training.
LITERATURE
(1) BIBER, Douglas; CONRAD, Susan; REPPEN, Randi. Corpus Linguistics. Investigating
Language Structure and Use. CUP. ISBN 0-521-49957-7.
(2) COULSON, Seana. Semantic Leaps. CUP 2001. ISBN 0-521-64361-9.
(3) CRUSE, D. Alan. Lexical Semantics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1986.
ISBN 0-521-27643-8.
(4) DRÁBKOVÁ, Lenka. A Corporeal Analysis of English and Czech Nominal Business
Collocations. MU Brno. 2008.
(5) GRECIANO, Gertrud; BUDIN, Gerhard. Designing Linguistic Support for Risk
Management Communication. In Risk Analysis 5. University of Strasbourg, University of
Vienna, 2006, p. 103-120.
(6) TĚŠITELOVÁ, Marie. Kvantitativní lingvistika. UK Praha. 1987.
45
PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS SKILLS OF UNIVERSITY
STUDENTS: CHALLENGES AND LIMITATIONS
Tsvetelina Harakchiyska
“Angel Kanchev” University of Ruse, Bulgaria
8 Studentska Str, 7017 Ruse
tharakchiyska@uni-ruse.bg
Abstract: The current paper explores the key role of phonological awareness for developing
university level learners' L2 literacy skills. In order to do so it presents the results from a
study assessing the level of phonological awareness skills of undergraduate Bulgarian
students who study English as a foreign language. Based on the study findings the article
discusses the challenges and limitations of incorporating phonological awareness in the L2
university classroom.
Keywords: phonological awareness, L2 literacy skills, university students
INTRODUCTION
The promotion of language awareness and the development of pluriligual and intercultural
citizens are among the top priorities on the European agenda. In acquiring key competences
for life, learners are expected to possess an ability to interact in a number of languages across
linguistic and cultural boundaries. For the realization of their communicative intentions
learners need to possess not only knowledge and awareness of how the target language is
organized and used, but also the skills to perceive and produce correctly the sound units of
that language when reading or writing. One factor that may contribute to the diversity of L2
learners’ literacy skills is the difference in their phonological awareness abilities.
Phonological awareness refers to the explicit understanding of the sound structure of
language, including the awareness that language is made up of words which are composed of
syllables and phonemes. It should be noted, however, that phonological awareness includes
not only the understanding, but also the ability to manipulate speech segments at the level of
phonemes. This ability to blend, segment and manipulate the sound units of a language allows
students to build sound-letter correspondences and becomes a prerequisite for the successful
development of their reading and writing skills. There is considerable evidence that the level
of children’s phonological awareness is a reliable predictor of the reading and writing abilities
of children. Little is known, however, about the phonological awareness abilities of adults.
The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to present the results of a study assessing the level of
phonological awareness skills of Bulgarian undergraduate students enrolled in the Primary
school pedagogy with a foreign language programme and to determine how those
phonological awareness skills relate to the development of L2 literacy.
46
1.
PHONOLOGICAL
DEVELOPMENT
AWARENESS
AND
ITS
ROLE
IN
L2
LITERACY
Phonological awareness is frequently discussed in a vast body of research. Although it came
recently into the general spotlight with the National Reading panel’s report (2000), its
meaning and role in the acquisition of L2 literacy skills has been researched for over 50 years.
1.1. Phonological awareness defined
The rapid development of lingustics in the 1990s and its particular focus on investigating the
link between phonological awareness and the abilities of learners to read and write in a
particular language, led to the wide adoption of the term phonological awareness in speech
pathology, in education and in psychology. Nowadays phonological awareness refers to the
ability to attend to and manipulate the sounds of spoken language (Burgess, 2006; Gillon,
2004; Yopp, 2000). It is a broad term which encompasses larger units of sounds such as
syllables, onsets and rimes and involves the ability to perform a variety of cognitive
operations (such as matching, synthesis, and analysis) of sound units.
Recently, the importance of phonological awareness in learning a language is highlighted in
the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001) which provides a
common basis for foreign language curricula development and which states the strategic
components directly related to phonological awareness – the general phonetic awareness and
skills [ibid.: 107-108] and the phonological competence [ibid: 116-117] language learners
need to possess (Table 1).
General phonetic awareness and skills
Phonological competence
Language learners will find their ability to
pronounce new languages facilitated by:
• an ability to distinguish and produce
unfamiliar sounds and prosodic patterns;
• an ability to perceive and catenate
unfamiliar sound sequences;
• an ability, as a listener, to resolve (i.e.
divide into distinct and significant parts) a
continuous stream of sound into a
meaningful
structured
string
of
phonological elements;
• an understanding / mastery of the process
of sound perception and production
applicable to the new language learning
Involves the knowledge of, and skills in the
perception and production of:
• the sound units (phonemes) of the language
and their realization in particular contexts
(allophones)
• the phonetic features which distinguish
phonemes (distinctive features, e.g.
voicing, rounding, nasality, plosion);
• the phonetic composition of words
(syllable structure, the sequence of
phonemes, word stress, word tones);
sentence phonetics (prosody) - sentence
stress and rhythm, intonation
Table 1. General phonetic awareness and skills and phonological competence
As seen from Table 1 language learners have to develop not only an understranding that
spoken language comprises of smaller units but also an ability to consciously reflect on the
phonological system of that language. Research findings (Bradley and Bryant, 1985; Klatt,
1979; Studdert-Kennedy, 1981) have shown that the understanding of the target language
phonemic units, more than any other factor, is a critical part of the successful development of
all four basic language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
47
1.2. Why is phonological awareness a necessary skill to university L2 learners?
The strong connection between phonological awareness and the attainment of proficiency in
foreign language acquisition is the underlying factor which makes phonological awareness a
preferred approach to teaching English as a foreign language to Bulgarian university level
students enrolled in the Primary school pedagogy with a foreign language programme at the
University of Ruse (Bulgaria). As those university undergraduates are trained to become
primary school teachers of English, the aim of the English language instruction is to provide
high-quality L2 training which enables them to become accurate and fluent speakers of the
target language. However, this is not an easy task to achieve as in their first year at university
students have different levels of knowledge and competences in English ranging from
beginners to intermediate level. Although language learners are divided into groups according
to their level of command of the target language, the need to equip all students with solid
literacy skills demands from tutors to integrate a variety of phonological awareness tasks in
the English lessons – phoneme discrimination and identification, phoneme counting, phoneme
reversal, phoneme segmentation and blending.
Another reason that motivates the use of phonological awareness activities in the teaching of
English to university students is the absense of such activities in the coursebooks used in their
L2 lessons. The analysis of the coursebooks and the extra materials for teaching English
phonetics to the students from the above mentioned programme of study shows that the
phonetic activities included could help language learners improve the general standard of
pronunciation of the target language sounds as they are of the “Listen and repeat” type. These
activities do not lead to the development of phonological awareness skills; they rather
presuppose its existence.
The second reason for the low level of attention paid to phonological awareness in the
teaching of English as a foreign language to university undergraduates is that most teachers
are not entirely convinced in its efficiency and central role in the development of L2 literacy.
They think that phonological awareness activities do not contribute to the acquisition of new
language material so they could be replaced with activities that allow for more structured
vocabulary or grammar work. This is due to the fact that language teachers fail to understand
that phonological awareness is directly concerned with the production and perception of
speech sounds (as its focus initially is on oral language play) and with reading and writing as
later it focuses on the acquisition of sound-letter correspondences.
2.
METHOD OF STUDY
2.1. Participants
Participants in the study were 26 undergraduate students (20 females and 6 males) at the age
of 20 – 21 who were enrolled in the Primary School Pedagogy with a Foreign Language
programme at the University of Ruse (Bulgaria) during the winter semester of the 2010 / 2011
academic year. None of the participants had any speech or language disorders.
2.2. Procedure
The participants were administered three tasks to assess their level of L2 phonological
awareness skills. The three tasks included: phoneme switching, phonetic reversal and vowel
matching.
48
Due to the limited amount of the present paper, we will examine closely only the most
difficult task for the participants – Task II: Phonetic reversal. In this task participants were
presented with 20 words spoken on a stimulus tape. Participants were instructed to sequence
the sounds in each word from last to first so that a new word is created. For example: nose
backward is zone. Participants were asked to write down on a response sheet the word they
created by reversing the sequence of sounds for each of the 20 words.
3.
RESULTS
The participants in the present study demonstrated a wide range of results on Task II:
Phonetic reversal. This tends to support the idea that L2 learners bring with themselves
varying levels of phonological awareness skills to English language classes. One implication
of this finding is that although most of the students have some preliminary knowledge of
English (as about 97% of them have studied English either as a first or a second foreign
language at secondary school), they need additional training in order to be able to analyze and
manipulate the phonetic units of the target language.
The fact that the second phonological awareness task included in the study was the most
difficult task for the participants is not surprising. The successful accomplishment of this task
is based on metalinguistic knowledge about the nature of how words and sounds work in the
foreign language. It clearly illustrates the complex character of L2 phonological awareness
which combines oral language (an ability to segment, blend and manipulate parts of words)
with print awareness (how oral language is recorded on paper). When learners’ target
language phonological awareness skills are not a result of consistent instruction in the English
language classroom, learners usually experience difficulties in: segmenting the speech flow
into words, syllables and sounds; differentiating the sounds within a word; identifying the
sounds; linking a sound with a phoneme that could be used to represent it.
3.1. Difficulties in segmenting words into phonemes
The ability to segment the words as a listener into their constituent sound elements is a basic
phonological awareness skill. Even though the selected words included in Task II were
familiar words to the participants, some of them could not successfully divide them into
phonemes as a result of which they created different phonetic reversals. As participants were
not asked to write down the word spoken on the stimulus tape, it is difficult to guess which
word exactly they had heard but their spellings give a clue (Table 2).
Spoken word
peal / pi:l /
sick / sǺk /
carp / ka: p /
pool / pu:l /
cab / kæb /
torse / tǤ: s/
nose / nəȚz /
pitch / pǺȷ /
Perceived word
? / bi:l /
? sing / sǺŋ /
? card / ka: rd /; ? car / ka: /
? pull / pȚl /
? cap / kæp /
? toss / tǢs /
? / nǢ s /
? bitch / bǺȷ /
49
Created word after the
phonetic reversal
* leabe
* gniss
* drack; rack
* lupe
pack
* sote, sotte
son
* chibbe
shack / ȓæk /
knave / neǺv /
? Jack / ȴæk /
* cadge
even
? navy / ɓneǺvǺ /
? look / lu:k /
cool
lurk / lǬ:k /
veal / vi:l /
? feel / fi:l /
leaf
* tills
slip / slǺp /
? slit / slǺt /
Table 2: Invented spellings as a result of wrong segmentation of spoken words into
constituent phonemes
The results, though with low frequency of occurrence, come to prove what speech
pathologists (Vandervelden and Siegel, 1999; Ardilla and Ramos, 2007) claim about the
fundamental role of auditory perception in language acquisition – we speak (and write down)
what we hear. So if we want to improve our learners’ pronunciation or writing skills we have
to devote time and efforts on developing their auditory perception skills first.
3.2. Difficulties in linking a sound with a letter
Reviewing the spellings produced by participants in the task, we can say that they had
managed to spell successfully only those words in which the vowels are represented by a
letter or a combination of letters with the highest frequency of occurrence in English
(Cruttenden, 1994). For example: the phoneme / æ / orthographically represented with < a >
in cab (back); the phoneme / u: / orthographically represented with <oo> in pool (loop) and
the phoneme / Ǻ / orthographically represented with < i > in slip (pills). This suggests that
participants have some basic knowledge of sound-to-letter correspondences which they apply
when spelling in English. However, when they have to spell words in which the phonemegrapheme correspondences are not that “obvious” they face considerable difficulties.
A closer inspection of the produced by the participants’ spellings shows that L2 university
level learners have problems with the orthographic representation of some of the English long
vowels and diphthongs, as well as consonant clusters. For example:
• The English long vowels:
o / Ǭ: / represented orthographically with < u > in lurk and in the phonetically
reversed curl but spelled with < i > in cirl;
o / Ǥ: / represented orthographically with < o > in torse and in the phonetically
reversed sort but spelled with: < oo > in soot; < oa > in soat and with < o > in
sote.
• The English diphthongs:
o / aǺ / represented orthographically with < i > in light and in the phonetically
reversed tile but spelled with: < ai > in tail; < ei > in teil and < a > as in tale;
o / əȚ / represented orthographically with < o > in nose and in the phonetically
reversed zone but spelled with: < ou > in zoun / *soun; < oo > in zoon;
• The English consonant cluster / ks / represented orthographically with < sc > in scope
and with < kes > in the phonetically reversed pokes but spelled with: < x > in pox and
poux; < ks > in poks.
Although the represented above spelling constitute about 55% of the spellings of the words
curl, sort, tile, scope (the words with the highest index of difficulty in Task II) and nose, there
are other spellings (about 10 % of all spelling mistakes) which are a result of wrong phoneme
segmentation
and
blending.
For
example:
50
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
bag instead of pack;
*leats / leads instead of least;
spoke instead of pokes;
*leab instead of leap;
* srof instead of sort;
*lub instead of loop;
jeep instead of chip;
*vame instead of vane;
*teaf / tiff instead of deaf
The characteristics of the produced spellings resemble very much the first spelling attempts of
English speaking children. Young learners of English as L1 usually record the most prominent
sounds they hear, they use beginning and ending consonants in each word along with a vowel
(which usually is not the correct vowel sound) [Adams et al, 1998: 10]. This only comes to
suggest that the English language programmes at university level should include the same type of
phonological awareness activities that constitute an integral part of kindergarten programmes for
English speaking children, namely: a) activities such as matching, blending, segmenting,
manipulating or isolating sounds in spoken language; and b) connecting these activities to the
exploration of sounds and letters in the development of spelling and reading knowledge.
CONCLUSION
The results of the present study (although too limited) show that university level students also
need to receive additional instruction that develops awareness of L2 sounds, syllables and words
as well as knowledge of sound to letter correspondences. Additional research is necessary to
establish the specific types of phonological awareness tasks that could best fit the aims of each
English language programme at university level.
REFERENCES
ADAMS, Marylin J., FOORMAN, Barbara R., LUNDBERG, Ingvar and BEELER, Terri.
Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: A Classroom Curriculum. Paul Brookes Publishing
Co., 1998. ISBN 1-55766-321-1.
ARDILLA, Alfredo and RAMOS, Eliane. Speech and Language Disorders in Bilinguals. Nova
Publishers, 2007. ISBN: 1600215602.
BRADLEY, Lynette and BRYANT, Peter E. Categorizing Sounds and Learning to Read: A
Causal Connection. In Nature, Feb 1983, Vol. 301 (5899), pp.419-421. Doi: 10.1038/301419a0.
[28.04.2011]
<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v301/n5899/pdf/301419a0.pdf>
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment.
Council for Cultural Cooperation, Educational Committee, Modern Languages Division,
Strasbourg, Council of Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN: HB 0521803136
CRUTTENDEN, Alan. Gimson’s Pronunciation of English, 7th edn., Oxford University Press,
USA, 2008. ISBN: 0340958774.
51
KLATT, Dennis H. Speech perception: a model of acoustic-phonetic analysis and lexical access.
In Journal of Phonetics, 1979, Vol.12, pp. 279-312.
STUDDERT-KENNEDY, Michael. Perceiving phonetic segments. In MEYERS, Terry,
LAVER, John, ANDERSON, John M. (eds.) The cognitive representation of speech, Elsevier
1981, pp.3 – 10. ISBN. 0444861629
VANDERVELDEN, Margaretha and SIEGEL, Linda. Phonological processing and literacy in
AAC users and students with motor speech impairments. In Augmentative and Alternative
Communication, 1999, Vol. 15, pp.191–211.
52
ACADEMIC WRITING – INTEGRATING NEW SUBJECT INTO SCHOOL
OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION IN KARVINÁ CURRICULUM
Krystyna Heinz, Emil Horký, Irena Orszulik
Slezská Univerzita v Opavě, Obchodně podnikatelská fakulta v Karviné
heinzova@opf.slu.cz, horky@opf.slu.cz, orszulikova@opf.slu.cz
Abstract:
The article focuses on integration of a new subject Academic Writing into the curriculum of
School of Business Administration in Karviná. The aim of the paper is to analyse the present
status of Bachelor thesis supervision, point at the main imperfections in academic writing, and to
suggest improvements. Based on the inquiries recorded during the seminars, the difficulties
affecting Bachelor thesis writing are presented. The paper also presents our evaluation
questionnaire research results carried out after the Academic Writing pilot course. The research,
except the pilot course evaluation, has brought numerous stimuli for further improvement in the
course content, instruction, and organisation. The stimuli are to be integrated in the new
modified version of the Academic Writing course.
Key words: academic writing, pilot course, questionnaire
INTRODUCTION
Developing academic writing and presentation skills have been paid little attention at Czech
universities, except philological fields of study, where it is a part of the expertise to be gained. It
probably emerges from the Czech stylistics tradition that considers writing to be a feature of the
writer’s personality and talent, rather than a skill that has to be developed, trained and improved,
as it is in the Anglo-Saxon world.
In this article we would like to pay attention to academic writing perceived from its cognitive and
communication aspects. To achieve it, in the first part, we introduce our view of the traditional
and new approach affecting the authors of academic texts. In the second part we describe the
instruction and present the findings related to the new subject Academic Writing incorporated
into School of Business Administration in Karviná (further only OPF) curricula. The third part
reveals the results of our evaluation questionnaire research. Finally, in the fourth part we discuss
the information obtained from our research.
1. ACADEMIC WRITING
Teaching academic writing and presentation skills at non-philological faculties is not
methodologically elaborated and does not receive sufficient attention at business schools.
Students are demanded and motivated to write their seminary projects or essays, however, their
supervision is non-systematic and often non-existent. The idea to integrate Academic Writing
into undergraduate study plans as a compulsory course is based on the experience with the
53
bachelor thesis (further only BA thesis) evaluation, reflects experience of our colleagues
concerning supervision of the BA thesis, and meets the students’ requirements. When students
are writing their BA thesis, they face difficulties with titles formation, academic text
composition, abstract writing, coherence, and citations, and the extent of their own work.
When developing the new subject, we took into account our experience with teaching foreign
languages and communication courses (rhetoric, communication skill, negotiation), which
confirmed our conviction related to business school students, including OPF, who are not
equipped with sufficient skills in academic writing and presentation. Generally the problem
concerns the development of the students’ communication and cognitive competencies, their
access to valuable information, and their ability to think critically and to formulate opinions.
Several sources (for example Čmejrková, Daneš, Světlá, 1999) paying attention to academic
writing (thesis and academic papers)1 served as a source of inspiration when developing the
course. We strongly support the opinion that a student is to be sufficiently qualified and trained in
academic writing skills. (Daneš, 1999).
1.1 New and Traditional Approaches
Authors and supervisors are often biased and it is a subject of extensive discussions whether to
observe the traditional style of academic writing or to introduce a new concept.
The traditional approach values the standardised and conventional line of academic writing,
which is very stark and sober, prefers passive instead of active voice, avoids personal
experiences, dislikes digression, and requires coherence within a text with strict norms related to
sequencing sentences and paragraphs.
The traditional approach to academic style is significantly different from natural or everyday
communication and thus, it is rather difficult for students. Therefore arguments supporting a
new approach to academic writing have appeared. They are based on the fact that for students it
is not necessarily useful to acquire an invaluable skill for their future careers as they are forced to
suppress their own voice. S. Andrews (2009) states that the narration of personal experience can
bring life into a dry factual description.
Authors are generally made to follow specific basic issues when writing academic texts as
writing is a way of communicating with others. They are related to the following rules:
-
following the purpose of academic writing,
using third person approach,
using formal vocabulary,
implementing referencing style,
1
ECO, U. Jak napsat diplomovou práci.Olomouc, 1997
FAJKUS, B. Filosofie a metodologie vědy. 2005
HOLOUŠKOVÁ,D., KROBOTOVÁ, M. a kol. Jak psát diplomové a závěrečné práce. 1995
KRAUS, J. Jazyk v proměnách komunikačních médií. 2008
ŠESTÁK,Z. Jak psát a přednášet o vědě. 2000
54
-
eliminating grammar errors.
We would only alter the second point - using third person approach. It should be replaced by
using the author’s perspective, which in the new concept means using the first person, author
singular (in case of several authors – author plural). This way the authors present their personal
experience.
We believe writing should be an active communicative process that involves discussion,
interaction with teachers, group work, and pair work and our aim is to reflect our beliefs in
teaching the new subject of Academic Writing.
1.2 Academic Writing – structure
The course, Academic Writing, is approached as a continuous, considered and controlled
production helping develop the author’s personality and thinking. The project character of expert
work dwells in successive consideration of partial steps leading to the final product (seminary
paper, BA thesis). Our aim was also to emphasize the author’s attitude including their
responsibility for the sources, methods, techniques, and progression.
For the pilot course we structured the new subject into three main blocks. Due to academic year
organisation concerns the blocks were scheduled in a form of five intensive semi lectures.
The first block of the instruction was to find answers related to when an academic piece of work
conforms to ethics and features of the academic style. We attempted to outline the methods of
academic argumentation and elementary methods of scientific progression. In order to be as clear
as possible, we applied both analytic and synthetic methods with emphasis on difficulties and
risks that may arise when solving a specific problem.
In the second instruction block we focused on doing a project. The students were instructed to
specify the subject of their perspective final project and to formulate relevant research questions.
The basic problems students faced in the preparatory phase were of communication and
interaction nature. They had difficulties with wording answers and argumentation when being
asked about the BA thesis theme choice and the relevance between the theoretical knowledge and
practical experience. The next phase was to determine the steps needed to accomplish the aim of
the thesis. Evidently, students had insufficient knowledge the possibilities provided by
information sources our faculty has access to. They were not able to work with electronic
databases and sources generally accessible in libraries. They also were not able to word the
problems and questions to be solved. Students mostly changed the aim of the project with the
method of solution.
The third block of instruction included practical training related to academic texts. The students
were to deal with the academic text in concord with the IMRAD model (Introduction, Methods,
Results, Discussion) developing thematic sequences, content and logical relations and text
composition in general. The students analysed academic text samples to develop their
composition skills. The emphasis was put on comprehensibility and definiteness of academic
style. Further on, they focused on the relation of the subject and BA thesis title, structure and
55
function of abstract, and also communication and stylistic progression when formulating the
abstract in English.
2. METHODS AND RESULTS
Following the pilot course, the students had a chance to evaluate the course. Altogether 264
students took part in the questionnaire evaluation and were to answer 4 closed and 1 open
questions. Our aim was to get the students’ feedback, concerning the organisation, advantages,
drawbacks, and to suggest some innovations to the course based on the research data.
Here follow the questions, results, opinions, and suggestions. We leave them without any
commentaries as they are comprehensive and self-explanatory.
1
Do you think after completing the course you are able to approach the task of writing
your final project better?
Quantity
183
25
56
Yes
No
Do not know
Total
264
Table 1
2
Please, mark the most significant benefit the course brought to you.
(You can tick more options.)
Quantity
Approaching and setting the aim of the final project
Defining the hypotheses
Planning the final project
Doing your own research
Method application and research evaluation
Wording the final project conclusions
Setting the structure of the final project
Writing the abstract (Czech and English)
Other
Table 2
128
33
103
15
28
50
150
160
46
Other:
15x citations
12x the presentation of the final project
3x overall orientation, avoidance of certain words
3x non-verbal and verbal communication
4x helped me to start writing, avoid stress, motivation to start doing something finally
56
1x getting the picture of the final project defence
1x relevant advice when writing the English abstract
1x explained how to progress, unknown terminology explained
1x possibility to ask for clarification in case of ambiguity
1x stylistic errors avoidance when writing the final project
1x understanding what academic text is
1x improvement in writing skills (using/not using certain words)
1x what to avoid
1x library - sources - literature
3
How satisfied were you with the quality of instruction?
Quantity
44
184
14
20
2
Very satisfied
Satisfied
Do not know
Unsatisfied
Very unsatisfied
264
Total
Table 3
4
Do you appreciate the subject was introduced?
Quantity
209
55
Yes
No
264
Total
Table 4
5
Do you think there should be a change in the form of instruction?
(You can tick more options.)
Quantity
Regularly once a week
Scheduling the subject into 2nd year summer semester
Scheduling the subject into 2nd year winter semester
Scheduling the subject into 3rd year winter semester
Smaller groups of students in classes
Table 5
6
94
126
18
95
88
Please, state your recommendations what else to incorporate in the instruction:
-
Instruction seemed to me quite fast, as it was a block form, so the lecturers wanted to give
us as much information as possible.
The subject should be scheduled in the summer semester, so that the students can train
their preparation for the final project defence.
57
-
-
1st option – online tutorial – examples of good and bad methods, etc., 2nd option – once a
week or once a fortnight, smaller groups.
If the subject had been scheduled earlier, it would have been more beneficial for us – 2nd
year of study.
The subject should have been scheduled specifically for individual departments.
I would approach the subject a different way. Instead of long lectures I suggest seminars
with smaller number of students.
Shorter lectures.
More practice and examples, shorter lectures.
Divide the students according to the departments, each department is specific for
something (e.g. finance).
Go more deeply in everything.
Elaboration of the plan, individual attitude to different fields of study.
Printed practical examples, what to do and what to avoid doing.
To assess an old final project, point out the mistakes and strengths.
To unify the demands of the final project supervisors and the teachers of the subject.
To explain how to introduce the Internet sources citations.
More about citations.
More practical examples, higher student activity.
Evaluation of our own research.
In my opinion it is important for us to know the issues concerning the final projects. We
have learnt everything related to the correct way of writing and wording. I don’t find
anything I miss.
I have learnt everything I need to know about writing the final project.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
When preparing the course syllabus, we based it on our teaching experience, assumptions,
classroom observations, and professional literature. We considered important to cover basic
methodology of research, project organisation, and practical training in academic writing. Our
choice was correct as it was proven by the evaluation questionnaire.
Based on the students’ recommendations, we are going to pay particular attention to three areas:
methodology, practical training, and course organisation.
Methodology concerns methods and related techniques choice, project planning, and information
sources search. These are the areas students faced the difficulties and need to receive more
expertise.
Practical training was the main demand made by the students. Therefore, we are going to
redesign the syllabus and add more practical exercises including examples and explanations of
mistakes found in the final projects submitted in the previous years and more exercises focused
on developing writing skills. They will include title formation, paragraph formation, word choice,
as well as Czech and English abstract formulation.
58
Course organisation pervades the above mentioned areas. Due to organisation matters, we were
made to organize the pilot course into three semi-lecture intensive units. Students rightly pointed
out that they were rather long and informative, which is also our opinion. Hence, the course is to
be scheduled as a regular seminar - two lessons a week.
The very positive output is that the students do not consider the course to be an extra load to their
duties, but regard it an important aid in writing their seminary papers and final projects.
LITERATURE
ANDREWS, S. Teaching Academic Writing – a Blended Approach, In: Modern English Teacher,
OUP, Vol.18, Number 3 , July 2009, p. 63-65
Chýla, Roman. Publish, or perish?. Ikaros [online]. 2006, roč. 10, č. 9 [cit. 24.10.2010].
Dostupný na World Wide Web: <http://www.ikaros.cz/node/3594>. URN-NBN:cz-ik3594. ISSN
1212-5075.
ECO, U. Jak napsat diplomovou práci.Olomouc: Votobia 1997. ISBN 80-7198-173-7.
FAJKUS, B. Filosofie a metodologie vědy. Praha: Academia 2005.ISBN 80-200-1304-0.
GERŠLOVÁ,J. Vádemékum vědecké a odborné práce. Praha: Professional Publishing,
2009.ISBN 978-80-7431-002-7.
ČMEJRKOVÁ,S:, DANEŠ, F:, SVĚTLÁ,J. Jak napsat odborný text.Praha: Leda 1999. ISBN 8085927-69-1.
HOLOUŠKOVÁ,D., KROBOTOVÁ, M. a kol. Jak psát diplomové a závěrečné práce. Olomouc:
UP, 1995. ISBN 80-7067-475-X.
KRAUS, J. Jazyk v proměnách komunikačních médií. Praha: Karolinum 2008. ISBN 978-80-2461578-3.
ŠESTÁK,Z. Jak psát a přednášet o vědě. Praha: Academia 2000. ISBN 80-200-0755-5.
59
ENGLISH LANGUAGE CERTIFICATION: SETB IN COMPARISON
WITH THE FINALS AT THE SBA, KARVINA
Jana Hejtmánková
Slezská univerzita v Opavě, Obchodně podnikatelská fakulta v Karviné
Univerzitní náměstí 1934/3, 733 40 Karviná
hejtmankova@opf.slu.cz
Abstract:
The article tackles the language teaching at the School of Business Administration of Silesian
University in Karvina. It comes out from the university graduate profile stressing that language
preparation cannot be excluded from the instruction processes at universities. It also mentions
language competences, namely linguistic, sociolinguistic, pragmatic competences with respect to
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL). Secondly, it deals with the
questions of language competence and English for specific purpose, and its certification within
international exams of City and Guilds, namely Spoken Test for Business Communication
(SETB), stage B, in comparison with the content of the finals in English at the faculty.
Key words: second language instruction, English, language certification, international exams,
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, City and Guilds
INTRODUCTION
It is generally agreed that it is necessary to include developing of foreign language
communication competence in the university graduate profile. There is no dispute that language
instruction should be incorporated as compulsory subjects in accreditation materials of any
university even if they attempt at saving money nowadays. There is also no dispute that
communication competence in one foreign language at least is crucial for a university educated
man in 21 century. For the time being, the language instruction at the Department of foreign
languages and communication of the School of Business Administration involves teaching
English and German as the first languages, and again both of them plus Russian, Spanish, French
as the second one. The former is compulsory for all the study programmes in the first four
semesters. The latter is compulsory for the students who major Gastronomy, Hotel Management
and Tourism for four semesters, beginning at the summer semester of the first year. However, in
future the second languages will be cancelled. Thus, the language compulsory study is carried out
only in the Bachelor’s programme. The language input is at the level A2 or less even if the
students have been doing the language for about 10 years. The output should reach B2.
1. LANGUAGE FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSE AND COMPETENCES
In spite of the fact that the matters of language for specific purpose (further LSP) is a subject of
many articles or books, which have attempted to contribute to the given matter, there is no
agreement in the definition. In the presented paper, the starting point for understanding the
60
phenomenon of LSP is taken from Borsuková (1995, p. 229, my translation), i.e. as "abstract
notion” which is actualized in the professional language especially within lexical items and
syntactic structures. However, as generally agreed, language instruction should apply holistic
approach, i.e. it should not include only language development in sense of the four language
skills, i.e. reading, writing, speaking and listening (in whatever order) considering also
professional lexis and grammar structures typical of LSP, all of which could be included into
language competence. Thus LSP or professional language should cover not only language points
of the issue, but also it should develop communicative competence with more other skills
concerning areas such as identifying one’s own goals and plans, organising learning, finding
one’s resources, developing decision making skills and creative thinking, problem solving,
critical evaluation, intercultural awareness, empathy, understanding different cultures and value
diversity, global problems, etc. It may be said that all these, and many more should enable
holistic personality development of the learner. It may be agreed that it is possible to characterise
the competences within:
• Linguistic competence comprising
grammatical competence,
semantic competence,
phonological competence,
lexical competence,
orthoepic competence,
orthographic competence.
• Sociolinguistic competence including
linguistic markers of social relations;
politeness,
conventions,
expressions of folk-wisdom,
register differences,
and dialect and accent.
• Pragmatic competence concerning
knowledge of the principles according to which messages are organised, structured and
arranged, then used to perform communicative functions and sequenced according to
interactional and transactional schemata,
discourse competence,
functional competence,
design competence.
It should be stated that to a certain extend, all of these contribute to meeting the goals of the
language instruction, and subsequently the professional competence. Therefore, they should be
taken into consideration in language instruction, especially in designing language syllabuses.
2. COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE FOR LANGUAGES
In early 1990s, the Council of Europe suggested an idea of creating a unifying system for
language competence evaluation among students within Europe, especially intending to help
teachers who got into touch with students coming from different countries. The Swiss National
61
Science Foundation elaborated a three-dimensional system of language competence evaluation
that actually laid foundations for the contemporary Common European Framework of Reference
for Languages (further CEFR). The original system included the following three dimensions: A –
Basic, B – Independent, C – Proficiency. In 1998-2000, the European Union, namely the Council
of Europe’s language policy, scheduled a common evaluation system of foreign language
knowledge, expanding A, B, and C levels into a six-dimensional system covering A1, A2, B1,
B2, C1, C2 1.
One of the main goals of the system is the fact that the CEFR provides a common basis for the
elaboration of language syllabuses, curriculum guidelines, examinations, textbooks, etc. across
Europe. It also characterises in a comprehensive way what language learners have to learn to do
in order to use a language for communication and what knowledge and skills they have to
develop so as to be able to act effectively. The description also covers the cultural context in
which language is set.
It is very important that objectives, content and methods are described explicitly by providing a
common basis for the descriptions, thus the Framework may enhance the transparency of courses,
syllabuses and qualifications. It follows that it enables to promote international co-operation in
the field of modern languages generally. The provision of objective criteria for describing
language proficiency will facilitate the mutual recognition of qualifications gained in different
learning contexts, and accordingly it will aid not only students´ European mobility. It follows that
the introduction of the Framework plays an important role in language teaching at universities as
well as it can contribute to
. • promote and facilitate co-operation among educational institutions in different countries,
. • provide a reliable basis for the mutual recognition of language qualifications,
• help learners, teachers, course designers, examining bodies and educational administrators
to situate and co-ordinate their efforts.
The levels are described in terms of linguistic, pragmatic, and sociolinguistic competences. Not
all the aspects of competence are described in definition at all levels; distinctions have been made
where they are meaningful. Descriptors need to be holistic in order to give an overview; detailed
lists of micro functions, grammatical structures and lexis are presented in language specifications
for particular languages (e.g. Threshold Level 1990). An analysis of the functions, notions,
grammar and vocabulary necessary to perform the communicative tasks described on the scales
could be part of the process of developing new sets of language specifications. General
competences (e.g. knowledge of the world, cognitive skills) could be listed in similar way.
3. SPOKEN ENGLISH TEST IN BUSINESS, B STAGE
This part refers to the materials issued by City and Guilds2. The Stage B of Spoken English Test
in Business is meant for the learners reaching Achiever/Communicator level, i.e. B1 to B2.
Learners usually include people working in business or business students. The exam is conducted
1
<http://www.coe.int/T/DG4/Portfolio/documents/Framework_EN.pdf>
2
<http://www.cityandguilds.com/16090.html?search_term=SETB>
62
as a one-to-one structured conversation between a candidate and the Interlocutor appointed by the
centre which provides the exams. The Interlocutor manages the conversation and acts as a
conversation partner for the candidate during the various parts of the test, but does not play any
part in assessing the candidate’s performance. The conversation is recorded onto audio cassette
and is then sent to City & Guilds in the UK for assessment by examiners appointed, trained and
monitored by City & Guilds.
The exam contains four parts which together enable the candidates to show their ability across a
range of realistic communicative needs and situations. Part 1 contains generally predictable
questions about the candidates’ work or business studies, and therefore well prepared candidates
can take the part without any problems and calm down. In Part 2, candidates are given their roles,
they should follow the instructions obtained, and use appropriate social or formal language to
make the task an interactive dialogue. However, it is required more than simply answering and
asking questions. At Stage B, the candidate is required to initiate the interaction in one of three
situations and respond in the other two. One of the responses will involve more than one
language function. In Part 3, candidates are required to negotiate with the interlocutor and, whilst
many candidates appear to have a sufficient command of language, a lack of negotiating skills
sometimes leaves them at a disadvantage. At Stage B, the candidate and Interlocutor exchange
given information and their own opinions and suggestions in order to work towards a specified,
joint conclusion. In Part 4, candidates are asked to deliver a presentation, so candidates can
prepare in advance, and are able to talk fluently about their chosen topic.
The areas that are evaluated include communication, accuracy, range, pronunciation, and fluency
as follows. Communication involves the candidate’s effectiveness in performing a range of reallife, business-related tasks at a specified level of language competence, the demonstrated ability
to convey an intended message using language appropriate to the situation. Accuracy concerns
the candidate’s accurate production of general and business related lexis and of grammatical
structure appropriate to the level of assessment as described, the demonstrated ability to produce
utterances without errors and/or to correct errors when they occur. Range covers the candidate’s
demonstrated resource of structure and of general and business-related lexis required for the
effective achievement of a range of tasks set at an appropriate level of language competence, and
the use of a variety of words, structures and language functions. Pronunciation checks the
candidate’s production of individual sounds and connected speech which the listener can
understand with a degree of ease described at an appropriate level of language competence. The
use of stress and intonation patterns to emphasize the intended message is considered as well.
Fluency involves the candidate’s demonstrated ability to maintain the flow of discourse without
hesitation or repetition inappropriate to a level of language competence.
4. THE FINALS IN ENGLISH AT SBA IN COMPARISON WITH SETB, STAGE 2
It may be mentioned in this place that we attempt at keeping similar format of the final exam as
SETB because at first we think that the correspondence with international exams with exact
description within the CEFR can contribute to better transparency. Secondly, we would like to
complete the language preparation at the Department of foreign languages and communication by
similar exam to the recognised one at the international level, Thirdly, we would like to motivate
students to take the given exam in the centre City and Guilds. The final part requirements after
63
four semester language instruction (three lessons a week) cover an exam which comprises written
and oral parts. At first, students take the former one testing language material as business
vocabulary, grammar structures, functions, reading comprehension. Students may obtain 50
points at maximum, however, the pass score is 60%. After meeting the requirements they go on
with the oral exam with maximum number of points reaching 50. The oral exam is taken in pairs.
The format of the oral is similar to SETB in that it consists of four parts as follows:
Part 1 – Initial interaction (personal information, work-related topics such as job description or
career plans),
Part 2 – Functions,
Part 3 – Problem solving,
Part 4 – Short presentation on a chosen business-related topic.
In the first part, which takes about two minutes, examinees introduce themselves, the examiner
can ask something about studies, future career, hobbies, etc. The second part tests language
functions, the list of which is given to the students in advance, some of the tasks are stated below:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Explain why it is advantageous to outsource some jobs in a car company. You are talking to one of the
executives using diplomatic language.
Recommend some places to see in your town and its outskirts to a visitor from your parent company. Be
encouraging and polite.
Explain the job responsibilities to an intern starting a tourist guide job, using diplomatic language.
You are unable to meet your client tomorrow for a meeting. Apologize and suggest an alternative time. It is
difficult to find the time both parties can agree on.
Call a hotel to book a conference room and explain what you need, the number of people, the dates, the kind of
refreshment you need.
Phone a letting agency to see if their advertised office spaces are still available. Explain what you require.
You started looking for jobs opportunities. What do you think are your strengths and weaknesses? Where do
you see yourself in five years’ time?
You started looking for jobs opportunities. Why should the company hire you? Why did you leave your last job?
In the third part, the examinees are given the roles. The following example concerns meetings.
Role A:
Chief Executive
You are having a meeting with the Head of Customer Services. You start by giving your opinion
about moving telephone banking operations to India. Personally you are in favour of outsourcing
your telephone banking operations to India, as the lower salaries for 50 call centre staff will
constitute a significant saving. The bank would have to pay for long-distance telephone calls. But
you are ready to change your mind if your colleague has good arguments.
This meeting should end with a firm decision, no compromise is possible.
Role B:
Head of Customer Services
You are having a meeting with the Chief Executive. You are in favour of the proposal to move its
telephone banking operations to India, for the following reasons:
You have done market research which shows that your customers are quite happy to do their
telephone banking with staff based in other regions of the UK. You expect that the staffs in the
Indian companies are far more educated and competent than many of the telephone staff you
currently employ in Britain. The Indian staff would earn much less than call centre staff in
Britain.
64
You think that everybody will gain from this deal: the bank, its customers, and the employees of
the Indian company you will be working with.
You are tired of listening to some of your colleagues’ weak arguments against this proposal.
The fourth part contains a short presentation taking about two minutes based on business related
topics. They are given to the students in advance; they choose one on their own. The students are
to prove their ability to present an economic topic, see the selected topics in the list below.
1 Corporate culture
• Present a company of your choice. Describe its product(s) or/and service(s), its structure,
its policy and social responsibility.
2 Customer support
• Prepare a short presentation of a brand new interesting device or product of your choice.
4 Careers
• Explain how you can prepare for a job interview. Give some tips how to write a good
style CV.
5 Company and community
•
What is important when thinking about Corporate Social Responsibility?
The assessment is the same as in SETB, involving the student’s ability to communicate in
English, accuracy, range covering business lexis, grammatical structures and language functions
appropriate for the level B1-B2, then pronunciation and fluency. In comparison of both the
formats, it follows that the exams are equivalent in terms of the structure with four parts, and the
assessment involves the same criteria. The content and topics of single parts are quite similar as
well. However, it appears that no students were interested in taking the international exam in our
approved centre last year. It is hoped that our students will be motivated more, and take SETB or
some other international language exam in future.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it may be stressed that present trend is showing that language competence belongs
to crucial competences for a modern man living in the 21 century. It can open the door to the
career fulfilment not only at the European job market, and contribute to the competitive ability
for both the individuals, but also the whole groups. It would be desirable and appreciated at the
same time if at least some students applied for an international exam after completing language
preparation at SBA.
LITERATURE
[1] ALLISON, J. ; EMMERSON, P. The Business Intermediate. Student’s Book. Oxford :
Macmillan Education, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4050-8185-6.
65
[2] BORSUKOVÁ, H. Odborný text – východisko a ciel cudzojazyčného vyučovania na
odborných školách. In MEDACTA ´95. Nitra : Slovdidac ,1995, pp. 229-233.
[3] CANALE, M. ; SWAIN, M. Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to the second
language teaching and testing. In Applied Linguistics 1, Oxford : OUP, 1980, pp.1-47.
[4] Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching,
Assessment (CEFR) [online]. <http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/cadre_en.asp>
[5] HEJTMÁNKOVÁ, J. ESP and its Testing at the School of Business Administration, Silesian
University. In Cizí jazyky se specifickým zaměřením ve výuce a testování včetně češtiny pro
cizince. Poděbrady 22.6.-23.6.2010. (Sborník v elektronické podobě) ISBN 978-80-8723803-5.
[6] MATĚJU, P. a kol. Bílá kniha terciálního vzdělávání/verze projednaná vládou dne 26.1.
2009. [online]. <http://forum.cuni.cz>
[7] PTÁČNIKOVÁ, V. Výuka cizích jazyků v nefilologických oborech se zřetelem na Společný
evropský referenční rámec. In: Výuka cizích jazyků v učitelských a neučitelských oborech na
vysokých školách v ČR a SR. Ústí nad Labem : Univerzita J.E.Purkyně v Ústí nad Labem,
2004, pp. 66-68.
[8] SKÁCEL, J. Efektivnost komunikace z hlediska pragmatického. In Acta Academia
Karviniensia. Karviná : Slezská univerzita v Opavě, 1999. pp. 161-164. ISBN 1212-415X.
[9] Spoken English Tests for Business (8981). Qualification Handbook. [online].
<http://www.cityandguilds.com/16090.html?search_term=SETB>
[10] ŠPATENKOVÁ, D. HOŠKOVÁ, A. Hodnocení a zkoušky z odborného jazyka na Jihočeské
univerzitě v Českých Budějovicích. In: Ústní zkoušky z cizích jazyků a SERR, Poděbrady,
Univerzita Karlova v Praze, ÚJOP Poděbrady, Středisko výuky cizích jazyků INTEX 2006.
(Sborník v elektronické podobě). ISBN 80-901947-6-1
66
THE NATIVE SPEAKER´S LANGUAGE COMPETENCY
AND COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE
FOR LANGUAGES
Darina Hradilová
Czech Studies Department, Philosophical Faculty of Palacký University
Křížkovského 10, Olomouc 771 80
darina.hradilova@upol.cz
Abstract:
The aim of this treatise is to compare the notions of native speaker and experienced language
user as they are defined in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. This
treatise describes a survey verifying the language skills (reading comprehension, writing) of
native speakers. The results of our research show that the principles of the CEFR can be applied
even to a mother tongue. Activities to be managed to meet a certain level of competence must be
often mastered both by a native speaker and a communicant who learns some language as a
second or foreign language.
Keywords: communication skills, experienced user of language, European Framework of
Reference for Languages, language competency, native speaker
INTRODUCTION
European Framework of Reference for Languages the inception of which was initiated by the
Council of Europe aims to create „… a general basis for the elaboration of language syllabuses,
guidelines for developing curricula, examinations, textbooks, etc. across Europe” (Common
European Framework of Reference for Languages1, 2002, p. 2). Its purpose is to systematize
teaching of foreign languages in European countries; systematization is meant here mainly as
coordination of teaching practices and establishing objective criteria to ensure compatibility in
learning the language as for processes and results. Common European Framework provides
recommendations on how to teach languages and how to study, defines the competencies on
which the ability to communicate depends, and defines individual reference levels. Reference
levels determine the degree of mastery of communication skills from which the degree of
communication skills is derived. CEFR (cf. p. 34-36) describes three main levels: A-level,
defined as the level at which students master elements of the language in two stages, A1
(Breaktrough) and A2 (Waystage), B-level with two stages named B1 (Threshold) and B2
(Vantage), at which students should act as independent language users, and, finally, C-level, the
level of advance language users, again having two stages - C1 (Effective Operational
Proficiency) and C2 (Mastery).2
1
Full name of the publication is the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. As we
learn language, how we teach and how to evaluate languages. In text we use CEFR only.
2
Baselines can be supplemented by intermediate levels, allowing for more accurate and sensitive evaluation,
eg A1 +, etc.
67
In any language, to achieve certain skill students must master a specific amount of particular
language elements. That is why descriptions of individual reference levels corresponding to the
CEFR were (or still are) conceived for particular national languages3. They define concrete
linguistic means necessary to achieve communication skills for each level. Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages is a comprehensive description of complex language
skills, a tool for objective assessment of the degree of language competence.
1. NATIVE SPEAKER IN CONTEXT OF CEFR
It is paradoxical that such taxonomies are not created for the users’ competencies and skills in
their mother tongue. Native speakers will be treated as a skilled language user with the highest
levels of competence. Even the CEFR adopts such approach; it claims that C2 level ”... was
indeed named Mastery, a Mastering, it should not imply that it is the competence of a native
speaker or a competence very close it“ (CEFR, p. 36). Competencies and skills of a native
speaker are regarded as absolutely superior to the highest possible competence acquired.
Competence for natural and proper use of a mother tongue does not guarantee the ability of a
native speaker to reach the highest performance in all skills (cf. Vlasáková, 2011, p. 27), even
though in the concept of the CEFR competencies are inextricably intertwined with skills. The fact
has already been pointed out in foreign materials (cf. Hulstijn, 2010, p. 9-16) and it is often
associated with repeated criticism of the low level of literacy among the Czech youth4. Thus we
suppose that not all native speakers can be classified as skilled users of the language.5 In this
context, the question arises whether it is possible to compare the students of foreign languages
with native speakers automatically, without specifying the level of their skills.
2. VERIFYING THE LANGUAGE SKILLS OF NATIVE SPEAKERS IN CZECH
To confirm this argument, or disprove it, we conducted a survey in which we offered native
speakers, the Czechs, tests designed to verify the language skills of the communicants for whom
Czech is a foreign language.
2.1. Conditions of research
The survey involved a total of 200 respondents, first year students of Czech philology and fourth
grade students of a secondary grammar school and a secondary technical school.6 The selection
of respondents was made with respect to psycho-social characteristics, especially to education
and career direction.7 Although all participants were approximately of the same age, ranging from
3
Hádková, M.et al.: Čeština jako cizí jazyk – úroveň A1. MŠMT: Praha, 2005; Čadská, M. et al.: Čeština
jako cizí jazyk – úroveň A2. MŠMT: Praha, 2005; Šára, M. et al.: Prahová úroveň – čeština jako cizí jazyk.
Strasbourg: Rada Evropy, 2001; Holub, J. et al.: Čeština jako cizí jazyk – úroveň B2. MŠMT: Praha 2005.
4
About this problem cf. Palečková et al., 2010.
5
The term used in the CEFR.
6
The Department of Czech Studies, Philosophical Faculty, Palacký University Olomouc; Gymnázium
Čajkovského Olomouc; Střední průmyslová škola Přerov.
7
We are aware of the fact that communication skills are influenced by many psychosocial factors but
education within this range is completely transparent.
68
18 to 22 years, both their professional backgrounds and subsequently users’ relationship to their
mother tongue differed. We believe that we cannot expect the same level of communication skills
for all speakers. No one can expect university students of Czech philology, who are trained to
become qualified language teachers, to have the same amount of communicative skills as other
language users. In spite of that, all students are regarded as so-called native speakers and they are
classified as advanced language users (see above).
In the research we used a calibrated test of the European Consortium for Languages,8 purposed
for the C1 level, i.e. the most advanced level tested. Out of the tested skills we chose reading
comprehension and active writing, the former one representing receptive and the latter one
productive activities. The choice was motivated particularly by the fact that the test was very
time-consuming. The tested skills were also chosen with regard to students’ so-called reading
literacy. When evaluating the results, we respected the ECL method. Each candidate had to
obtain at least 60% of the total number of points; partial results may not drop below 40%.
3. READING COMPREHENSION
Reading comprehension consisted of two tasks, one of which was closed (choosing the correct
option from the menu) and the other semi-enclosed (having read the text, students must find
several key words to answer questions). Each text purposed for reading was defined by max.
1300 words and students had certain amount of time 45 min. to finish the task.
Achieved
results
(in %9)
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
Less than
40
Students of Czech
philology
(in %)
18
31
16
10
9
6
6
4
Secondary Grammar
School students
(in %)
10
13
24
18
13
9
7
6
Secondary Technical
School students (in %)
In total
(in %)
6
7
10
22
24
11
10
10
11,3
17
16,7
16,7
15,3
8,6
7,7
6,7
Table 1: The results of reading comprehension
3.1. Results of reading comprehension
8
European Consortium for Languages (European Consortium for the Certificate of Attainment in Modern
Languages, hereinafter ECL) has sponsored testing and certification of knowledge of European languages. The
subject of testing of reading and listening comprehension, active writing and speaking. Test entries are always
created in the country of the language tests and there are also corrected and assessed. Tested are levels A2 - C1, to
obtain a certificate, acquire at least 60% of the total marks in all skills, while none of the skills may be a result of
lower than 40%.
9
All figures except for the total number of respondents are approximated.
69
The table clearly proves that the achievements varied significantly and it most importantly shows
insufficiency in the linguistic skills of native speakers. Only a relatively small group of
respondents, formed primarily by Czech philology students who can be considered as
professional users of language, achieved absolute success (100% of correct answers). By
contrast, in the group of respondents who would failed in the test (cf. evaluation methodology in
note No 7), practically oriented students of the secondary technical school dominated. The largest
number of incorrect responses was recorded in a closed task which consisted in assigning titles to
particular paragraphs of text. Errors regularly occurred where the title and the text itself included
the same keyword, but used in other factual contexts. We can only guess what the mechanism of
this error was, whether it was an ordinary inadvertence or underestimation of the actual content
of the text caused by mere registering keyword match in a cursory reading. It would certainly be
of interest to continue the research in form of an interview with respondents which would allow
to observe how respondents approach the task of diagnosis and how errors occur, whether they
show students’ lack of understanding or if the students’ failure results from their carelessness.
Even though such result could be considered surprising given the assumption that a native
speaker is an experienced speaker, we will see it as quite predictable if we consider the broader
context. The community of native speakers is a regular social group the composition of which is
subject to general laws. The data we have attained in our investigation are in principle consistent
with the so-called Gaussian curve, according to which extreme positions are always less frequent
than the middle position. Given this fact, which is supported by both general principles and
specific investigation, we believe that a native speaker cannot automatically be considered an
experienced language user and therefore we cannot expect all native speakers to succeed in the
text.
4. WRITING
As for productive skills, we tested the ability of so-called active writing in our research. There
were two tasks, both anchored in concrete communicative situations (letter and report). Both
cases must be considered as guided writing since the instructions to the tasks prescribed
information that had to be mentioned in the text. Instructions for the test determine that both texts
must contain approximately 300 words and that the process of writing must not exceed 90
minutes.
4.1. The results of writing
The results achieved by our respondents in the actively written language (cf. Tab. 2) correspond
with the conclusions which we have formulated above for reading comprehension.
Achieved results
(in %)
100
90
80
70
60
Students of Czech
philology
(in %)
14
19
26
24
8
Secondary
Grammar
School students
(in %)
9
15
22
21
17
70
Secondary Technical
School students (in %)
In total
(in %)
4
8
17
25
18
9
14
21,7
23
14,3
50
40
Less than 40
4
4
2
6
5
5
11
9
8
7
6
5
Table 2: The results of writing
Generally speaking, only minority of respondents obtained extreme results, either 100% or an
insufficient number of points. This is surprising, particularly if we consider those who received
less than 40% points. In a longer period of time, active writing has been the most problematic
part of testing of foreigners.10 We believe that this result may be influenced by the methodology
of evaluation of active writing.11 The respondents hardly lost any points in sections testing
accuracy in writing, the ones communicants learning Czech as a foreign language have always
seen as problematic. They were similarly successful in parts testing formal correctness which is
given special attention in teaching mother tongue. In these aspects, native speakers have a great
advantage over those who learn Czech as a foreign language.
RESULTS
The first phase of our research revealed several findings that should be taken into account when
working with texts of CEFR. We believe it is impossible to identify Chomsky’s notion of
competence, i.e. natural or innate ability to control the systemic structure of the language with the
term communication skill as it is used in the CEFR12. Communication skill is clearly not innate
ability as it is clear from its structure; it is formed by partial competences and it depends on
mastering of individual communicative abilities. To cultivate communication skill, a person must
have some abilities, even innate, and he/she needs to demonstrate certain effort. We conclude
that the communicative competence as defined in CEFR rather corresponds with Chomsky’s
performance, i. e. with realization of natural competence. In this context, it is necessary to use the
term native speaker, as it is used in the CEFR texts, very carefully. Individual skills which form a
certain level of communication skills are not innate, and due to their nature can be fully
developed neither through long term residence in the country (region) where the language one
tries to learn is spoken as a mother tongue nor through constant using of the language as a means
of communication. Individual skills must be built and developed systematically, even by a native
speaker. Thus we believe experienced speaker/user of language is a more appropriate term in this
context. In the term, the measure of the ability to handle language is properly expressed.
The results of our research show that the principles of the CEFR can be applied even to a mother
tongue. Activities to be managed to meet a certain level of competence must be often mastered
both by a native speaker and a communicant who learns some language as a second or foreign
10
The author of this text is accredited by the Commissioner for the trial tests for applicants for permanent
residence in the CR and ECL trial commissioner, therefore she uses the results of these tests reached at the Czech
Department of the Palacky University in Olomouc.
11
Separately scored formal accuracy (morphological and syntactic), orthographic accuracy (spelling),
vocabulary, style and communication aim.
12
Not only the texts of the CEFR, but also other texts.
71
language.13 We certainly cannot suppose that the highest level of competence can only be
achieved by a person with the status of a native speaker.
LITERATURE
Čadská, Milada a kol. Čeština jako cizí jazyk – úroveň A2. MŠMT: Praha, 2005.
Hádková, Marie a kol. Čeština jako cizí jazyk – úroveň A1. MŠMT: Praha, 2005.
Holub, Jiří a kol. Čeština jako cizí jazyk – úroveň B2. MŠMT: Praha, 2005.
Hulstijn, Jan. Harmony or konflikt? Language actvities, linguistics competencies, and intellectual
functioning in the CEFR [online]. 2010 [cit. 16. 5. 2011].
<http://www.ealta.eu.org/conference/2010/docs/Saturday/Hulstijn.pdf>.
Chomsky, Noam. Dvanáct esejů o jazyce. Praha: Mladá fronta, 1970.
Palečková, Jana; Tomášek, Vladislav; Basl, Josef: Hlavní zjištění výzkumu PISA 2009: Umíme
ještě číst? Praha: Ústav pro informace ve vzdělávání, 2010. ISBN 978-80-211-0608-6.
PISA 2009, Assessment Framework, Key Competencies in Reading, Mathematics and Science.
Paris: OECD Publishing, 2010. ISBN 9789264059603.
PISA 2009, Assessment Framework, Key Competencies in Reading, Mathematics and Science
[online]. 2010 [cit. 16. 5. 2011].
<http://www.pisa.oecd.org/document/44/0,3746,en_2649_35845621_44455276_1_1_1_1,00.htm
l>.
Společný evropský referenční rámec pro jazyky. Jak se jazyky učíme, jak jazyky vyučujeme a jak
v jazycích hodnotíme. Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého, 2002. ISBN 80-244-0404-4.
Šára, Milan a kol. Prahová úroveň – čeština jako cizí jazyk. Strasbourg: Rada Evropy, 2001.
Vlasáková, Kateřina. Modelování jazykových prostředků na úrovni C1 pro češtinu. Rkp.
disertační práce, Olomouc 2011.
13
Even in the text of the CEFR it has been pointed out that language users do not always attain skills the
same way (cf. CEFL, p. 17).
72
ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Stanislava Jonáková, Alena Müllerová
University of Defence, Language Training Centre, Brno, Kounicova 65, 66 210
stanislava.jonakova@unob.cz, alena.mullerova@unob.cz
Abstract: Contemporary European society has been undergoing remarkable changes. They are
inevitably reflected in the educational systems whose task is to enhance professional competences
and mobility and thus to prepare young people for their future career. The paper deals with the
problems the authors have to combat while teaching Russian at the University of Defence. In
order to create instructional materials tailored to the students´ needs, they have written a
textbook focused mainly on improving speaking and writing skills. The authors of the paper have
utilised the Common European Framework of Reference for Language Learning (CEFR), which
provides conceptual setting for the development of teaching materials.
Key words: creating instructional materials, foreign languages, higher education, mobility,
speaking and writing skills
INTRODUCTON
We are living in a changing and increasingly knowledge-driven world, which leads to
a
continuing call for being competitive and capable of responding effectively to its challenges.
Thus, to meet these demands requires the building of a knowledge society and universities are
supposed considerably to contribute to it.
In the European context, it was the Bologna Declaration in 1999, which emphasized the
significance of the creation of a ‘Europe of Knowledge’. It set out an idea to form an
internationally competitive and attractive European Higher Education Area (EHEA), which was
officially launched eleven years later at the Budapest-Vienna conference. The establishment of
the EHEA resulted from implementing the Bologna process basic principles in the participating
European countries (though at varying degrees). Besides fundamental aspects of this process such
as a three-cycle degree system, the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), qualifications
frameworks or quality assurance, students’ mobility is also considered one of its core essentials.
It gives students a promising opportunity for their personal development, for gaining
competences required on the constantly changing job market, and thus for better employability.
Moreover, mobility across the whole of Europe promotes language multilingualism and helps
students understand and respect European language diversity traditions more deeply. Language
centres at higher education institutions considerably contribute to the implementation of key
aspects of the Bologna process providing the linguistic and intercultural tools for effective
mobility.
73
1. TEACHING LANGUAGES AT LANGUAGE CENTRES IN HIGHER EDUCATION
As it is stated in the document ‘Wulkow Memorandum on Language Centres at Institutions of
Higher Education in Europe’ (2010), the language centres run high quality courses in Languages
for Specific Purposes at all levels; they support the acquisition of all languages as part of an
ongoing commitment to multilingualism as well as the role of English as a Lingua Franca; they
consider their main task to be teaching languages but also take a new role in creating courses
which develop other key competences and skills for global communication.
The statistical data in ‘Key Data on Teaching Languages at School in Europe’ from 2006 show
that the most often taught foreign languages in European countries at the secondary education
level (95% of all taught languages) are English, French, German, Spanish and Russian. Teaching
English prevails in almost every country, with German or French taking the second place.
The situation in Czech higher education is almost identical with what is mentioned above. Higher
education institutions frequently offer undergraduates only one compulsory language and it is
English. In the case of two obligatory languages, one of them is usually English as well.
Furthermore, students are allowed to study languages like French, German, Spanish and Russian
as optional subjects.
2. FOREIGN LANGUAGES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DEFENCE
In compliance with the European Union language policy reflecting multilingualism, the
University of Defence requires the military students to study two foreign languages. One of them
is always English and that is why quite a lot of attention is paid to it regarding the number of
lessons and semesters.
Unlike English (called ‘main language’), the time allocated to teaching the other languages Russian, German, French, Spanish and Arabic (called ‘additional languages’) is much more
limited. While the total number of English lessons both in Bachelor and Master Study
Programmes is 420, the number of additional language lessons is only 180.
The Ministry of Defence demands a departmental exam in both languages. The preparation for
the English exam does not pose so many problems as the students have already reached a
particular level of English at primary and secondary schools. Thus, the teaching of English
furthers their acquired level of English knowledge. In contrast to English, the level of knowledge
of other languages is generally lower. This results from the fact that quite a high number of
freshmen come from secondary technical schools where either only one language is taught or
English is favoured in the case of teaching two languages. Although the exam requirements are
well known to both the students and teachers, it is challenging to teach complete beginners. The
teachers have to cope with a lack of time for preparation as it is not possible to fully utilise all the
units in the available books. Moreover, there are not enough sufficient and effective commercial
instructional materials corresponding to the exam requirements, mainly in the field of improving
speaking and writing skills as well as vocabulary. Therefore, for the authors of the paper it
seemed essential to develop a textbook tailored to the students’ needs, interests and capabilities
and at the same time to satisfy the demanding criteria of the departmental exam.
74
3. CEFR GUIDELINES FOR MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
The CEFR documents have become a valuable and resourceful instrument supporting all
materials writers while providing them with fundamental guidelines. Nevertheless, teachers and
learners always operate within some kind of educational system which specifies the possibilities,
constraints and demands as well as the context in which the materials will be used.
3.1. Variables and implications
Variables and possible implications for textbooks are presented by CEFR (2009, p.203) as
follows:
Variable
Learner
Age
Monolingual/multilingual groups
Gender
General education
Educational and professional aspirations
Familiarity with types of learning
media and modes
Current ability in target language
Possible implications (examples)
Topic, characters, knowledge
Use of mother tongue
Topic, settings, roles, tasks
Separate textbooks
World knowledge
Course aims, topics, roles, settings,
tasks
Learner development/training media
Institutional system
Curriculum, syllabus and examination
frameworks, teaching and learning
cultures, course length and intensity,
class sizes, staffing, availability of
media and modes…
Course aims, length, structure,
learning media and modes
Teachers
Ability in learners’ target language,
level of pedagogic training, degree of
familiarity with types of learning media
and modes, teaching culture and degree
of flexibility, expectations of material
and attitudes to innovation …
Degree of support and guidance
in Teacher's Book and ease of
use of classroom materials;
balance between innovation and
meeting teachers' expectations
Learning mode
Classroom based; distance (traditional/
Internet) open learning with teacher
available for consultation; mixed
modes; self-study; modular/lin. course
Course length, task types,
media, degree of written support,
learner training, teacher
development
Fig. 1 Scheme of variables and possible implications
75
3.2 Domains
It is essential to consider the context in which the learners are likely to use the target language as
well. CEFR puts emphasis on four fundamental domains – personal, public, occupational and
educational, which cover the lives of learners as private individuals, as members of the general
public, and concern their studies and jobs or professions (2009, p.206). In this connection it is
important to point out that the choice of a relevant domain is decisive for the right selection of
various situations relevant to the students’ social roles. Only then will the instructional material
reflect thematic content complying with the learners’ needs.
Furthermore, CEFR highlights the implementation of communicative language principles
represented by productive as well as receptive language skills; consequently, communicative
activities include a wide range of communicative tasks. Thus, CEFR emphasises the writer’s
responsibility to make a wise choice of appropriate topics.
3.3 Strategies
Communication strategies help to maximize the effectiveness of learning the target language.
CEFR (2009, p. 210) considers them as ‘a means the language user exploits to mobilize or
balance his or her resources, to activate skills and procedures, in order to fulfil the demands of
communication in context and successfully complete the task in question in the most
comprehensive or most economical way feasible depending on his or her precise purpose.’ They
become an integral part of an effective classroom interaction, where the students are taught to use
an additional language accurately and adequately for meaningful communication.
3.4 Competences
Competences fall into another crucial category that writers should keep in mind as they
significantly influence the form and contents of the created material. The competences the
learners bring to the language class include communicative language competences associated
with grammar, lexis and phonology, general competences resulting from life experience,
personality features and acquired study skills. They should all be taken into consideration as they
can have a major impact on the subsequent streaming.
4. CREATING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS IN COMPLIENCE WITH CEFR
While working on the instructional material for Russian classes, the authors took into
consideration primarily the variables and domains listed in the table below. However, only some
of them are commented on.
76
4.1 Variables and domains
Variable
Learner
• Age
• Monolingual groups
• General education
• Educational aspirations
• Current ability in target language
Variable
Institutional system
• Curriculum, syllabus and
examination frameworks
• Course length and intensity
• Class sizes
Variable
Variable
Teachers
Learning mode
• Level of pedagogic training
• Classroom based
• Degree of flexibility
• Linear course
• Ease of use of teaching aid
• Possible self-study
Fig. 2 Scheme of considered variables and implications
The age of the students learning Russian at the University of Defence ranges between 19 and 26.
They are adults with life experience as well as experiences and quite decided opinions about the
world around them, which became the basis for the classroom-based textbook.
The Russian courses are attended by approximately 15-20 students and are organized in
monolingual groups according to the language knowledge level. Although the newly created
textbook does not include any references in Czech, the authors do not oppose the use of Czech in
some justifiable situations. They are convinced that it may make the lesson more efficient and
easier for students to understand and learn various lexical and grammar structures.
In the course, the students are being prepared for the departmental exam NATO - STANAG
6001, SLP 1 (Standardised Language Proficiency level 1), which is equivalent to A2 level exam
according to CEFR. This instructional material has been designed for elementary level students
and it complements the existing syllabus mainly based on a commercially available book
presenting general language for a wider audience. As stated in CEFR, at this level the students
are supposed to communicate in routine tasks requiring a clear and direct exchange of
information on familiar topics and activities, to describe in simple terms their families, other
people, living conditions, and their educational background. As to writing, they are assumed to
write short notes and messages relating to their immediate needs (2009, p. 134). And that is why
the authors focused on the following three domains – personal, public and educational which
comply with the areas of study needed to successfully pass the exam mentioned above (2009, p.
136-137).
4.2 Competences and strategies
In respect of competences, the authors of the book have principally concentrated on lexical
competences which are part of communicative language competences. In compliance with CEFR
recommendations, the authors implemented fixed expressions, single word forms, fixed
collocations consisting of words regularly used together, as well as grammar elements into
77
particular units. They partly paid attention to sociolinguistic competences while teaching the
students how to address, apologize, and react to invitation or apology.
At the A2 level, vocabulary is sufficient enough for expressing oneself within the framework of
familiar situations and topics. Nevertheless, it represents only a limited vocabulary repertoire
related to concrete everyday needs. Thus, the textbook provides the students with various
strategies in order to succeed in coherent monologue and dialogue. The students learn to recall an
appropriate set of acquired lexical items associated with a topic as fast as possible, to
automatically use previously learned phrases, to replace an unknown expression with
a
word of similar meaning, to paraphrase a word or a phrase and to correct themselves in the case
of lexical or grammar mistakes. Some exercises are also aimed at guessing the meaning of
unknown expressions from context. The students are led to ask partners to explain or repeat what
was said and are encouraged to omit a word or phrases they are not familiar with where it does
not distort the message interpretation.
5. TEXTBOOK DESCRIPTION
5.1 Outline and activities
The textbook comprises 14 units which are organized around topics such as family, public
transport, shops, at the doctor’s, and restaurants. A particular unit consists of 7 to 10 pages and
requires 2 to 4 lessons of teaching time (one lesson takes 45 minutes). Each unit starts with
a
small-scale survey focused on the ‘world’ of the students in order to strengthen their motivation.
It provides effective language support by introducing the appropriate number of words needed to
talk about the topic, giving the students opportunities for success from the very beginning. In this
context, the expression ‘appropriate number’ means
a sufficient quantity of words covering the topic
a realistic number of words for students to learn and remember in one session.
Subsequently, a variety of short student-centred activities follows. They provide controlled
practice of the lexical items and key phrases as well as of relevant grammar structures leading to
communication practice. Writing exercises on a particular topic at the end of each unit develop
writing skills and serve to recapitulate the acquired language.
5.2 Sample task
Below you can see an illustrative part of a small-scale survey related to the unit ‘Restaurants and
Eating Out’ followed by a translation into English.
I. Заполните следующую анкету (подчеркните или дополните информацию).
1. Где вы любите питаться?
•
•
•
•
•
•
в ресторане
в кафе
в закусочной/ в буфете
в кафетерии (часто в универмагах)
в пиццерии
в баре
78
•
•
•
•
•
•
в караоке клубе
в Мекдональде
в фастфуде
в студенческой столовой
дома
другой ответ
2. Как часто вы посещаете ресторан/ пиццерию/ фастфуд?
•
•
•
•
•
каждый день
один раз/ два, три, четыре раза в неделю/ в месяц
пять/ шесть/ семь раз в год
регулярно по субботам/ по выходным
другой ответ
3. С кем вы ходите в ресторан/ пиццерию/ фастфуд?
•
•
•
•
со своими друзьями
с родителями
с моей подругой/ с моим другом
один/ одна
4. Какая кухня ваша самая любимая?
•
•
•
•
чешская
европейская (итальянская/ французская/ русская/ испанская/ словацкая)
азиатская (индийская/ китайская/ японская/ вьетнамская)
другой ответ
Fig. 3 Example of a small-scale survey in Russian
I. Fill in the following survey (underline the appropriate information).
1. Where do you usually go when you eat out?
• to a restaurant
• to a coffee-bar
• to a buffet
• to a cafeteria
• to a pizzeria
• to a bar
• to a fast-food place
• another answer
2. How often do you eat out?
• every day
• once/ twice a week/ a month
• three times/ four times/ five times a year
• regularly at the weekend
• another answer
79
3. Who do you usually go with when you eat out?
• with my friends
• with my parents
• with my girlfriend/ boyfriend
• on my own
• another answer
4. What foreign cuisine do you enjoy most?
•
•
•
•
Czech
European (Italian/ French / Russian/ Spanish/ Slovak)
Asian (Indian/ Chinese/ Japan/ Vietnamese)
another answer
Fig. 4 Example of a small-scale survey in English
CONCLUSION
The instructional material has been designed to complement a commercial book of Russian
currently used at the University of Defence. A lot of attention was concentrated on motivating the
students, helping them to fulfil the tasks in an interesting, amusing and effective way and
enabling them to see the results of their learning.
Nevertheless, as Richards (2001, p. 270) states ‘No matter what form of materials teachers make
use of, whether they teach from textbooks, institutional materials, or teacher-prepared materials,
the materials represent plans for teaching. They do not represent the process of teaching itself. As
teachers use materials they adapt and transform them to suit the needs of particular groups of
learners and their own teaching styles. These processes of transformation are at the heart of
teaching and enable good committed teachers to create effective lessons out of the resources they
make use of.’
LITERATURE
Key Data on Teaching Languages at School in Europe: Citing Net Sources [online]. 2011 [cit. 5.
1. 2011].
RICHARDS, C. Jack. Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2001, p.270. ISBN 0521804914.
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Citing Net Sources [online].
2009 [cit. 10. 11. 2009]. <http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/CADRE_EN.asp>.
Wulkow Memorandum: Citing Net Sources [online]. 2010
<http://www.aulc.org/documents/Wulkow_Memorandum1.pdf >.
80
[cit.
30.
12.
2010].
MATCHING LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY AND STUDENT
ACHIEVEMENT OF UNIVERSITY LANGUAGE COURSES
Veronika Kareva
South East European University
Ilindenska bb Tetovo 1200 Macedonia
v.kareva@seeu.edu.mk
Abstract:
One of the biggest challenges that the Language Center (LC) at the South East European
University (SEEU) faces is how to balance students’ achievement and their proficiency with
regard to the language courses. The issue is greater with the local languages, Albanian and
Macedonian, because of the lack of standardized proficiency tests in these languages. As a result
of this situation, the final grades that students achieve from the language courses do not always
correspond to the expected proficiency. It further influences the perceptions of all stakeholders
about the LC efficiency and performance. This is especially important for SEEU being a
trilingual university with obligatory courses in English and the two local languages. This paper
discusses these issues and considers possible solutions.
Keywords: assessment, proficiency, achievement, testing, language center, stakeholders
INTRODUCTION
The Language Center (LC) of the South East European University (SEEU) was founded in 2001
as the first independent teaching unit. Its core activity is to provide obligatory language courses
for the five different faculties: Business and Economics, Public Administration and Political
Sciences, Computer Sciences, Law and the Faculty of Languages, Cultures and Communication.
SEEU operates in three languages: English, Albanian and Macedonian. Language study is a
central part of every SEEU student’s academic career, both as required subjects and as optional
elective courses. LC has the crucial role in achieving this goal. It offers its students, university
staff and the community the opportunity to acquire foreign languages competencies in a friendly
and comfortable environment, using the latest learning theories, methods and other materials in
combination with new technology. LC is the largest teaching organization at the University, with
more than three quarters of the entire student population taking classes there at any given time. In
figures, this is approximately 2500 students.
LC was evaluated externally in March 2010 under very specific terms of reference. The results of
this evaluation showed a very well developed organizational structure and high quality teaching
and learning opportunities for SEEU students, provided by qualified and committed staff.
Nonetheless, its performance is constantly being monitored by the university authorities.
The main reason for such treatment is the fact that in the present times of financial crisis and
budget constraints, the most convenient and the least painful course of action for the university
81
management may be to restrict language programs, especially having in mind that Language
Centers do not offer degree programs.
As in most cases at different universities, the SEEU LC does not have its own students.
Therefore, its existence depends on the good will of other Faculties which devote some of their
credits to languages. This situation is matched up with the traditional struggle of the university
language teachers to win parity of esteem with their other colleagues from content disciplines.
These circumstances and the fact that language competence is more tangible than the knowledge
from the professional disciplines result in pressure on the language courses and language teachers
from the academic community about their effectiveness.
1. THE CHALLENGES OF THE LC ACADEMIC PROGRAM
All students are placed in appropriate levels based on their results on the institutional placement
test with only one exception: native speakers of Macedonian are all beginners in Albanian1.
The English program is the broadest one since all students are required to take English courses in
the first four semesters. They should complete level 4 before entering ESP. Students who are
tested out take Academic English in semester 1 and Advanced Academic English in semester 2
before starting ESP.
The placement test does not have eliminatory character; it only determines the level of students.
This and the fact that there is no preparatory year-long course result in having very mixed ability
language groups especially in the English program and in the more advanced levels. It is here
where we face the biggest challenge related to assessment and evaluation.
There are quite strict criteria according to which students can receive a passing grade from the
language courses: attendance, participation, presentation or project, speaking and writing skills
evaluation, quizzes, final exam; these are all grading components. For speaking and writings
skills evaluation, there are rubrics. What is more, the final exams are swopped in order to achieve
greater objectivity.
Nonetheless, it might happen that some students achieve a passing grade and are promoted into
the next level and eventually complete the language requirements, but actually have still low
proficiency. Or, very often, students finish with all other professional exams and cannot graduate
because of the language exams and then there is a lot of pressure from the Dean’s Offices to
lower the criteria and enable such students to take their diplomas.
1
Macedonia has a population of 2.022 547 inhabitants (State Statistical Office of RM, 2010) out of which 20% are
from Albanian ethnicity. According to the Law, the official language of the country is Macedonian and Albanian in
the regions where the Albanian population exceeds 20 %. Macedonian is obligatory for all native Albanian speakers,
but not vice versa.
82
In both cases, there is a lot of responsibility on the LC teachers and their courses, because the
expectations are that students are fluent in the languages that they have learnt at SEEU. A recent
study conducted among former SEEU students, examining the influence of classroom
communication on student commitment to university (Kareva, 2011) showed that all the
interviewed students identified the English program as the most positive experience and the
biggest strength of SEEU.
On the other hand, not all students are able to raise the level of their foreign language knowledge
and use that language in their professional careers after graduation. It seems that the main issue is
in balancing achievement and proficiency.
1.1. The struggle between achievement and proficiency
As pointed out on the website of “Test English Proficiency” there is a difference between
achievement and proficiency tests.
Achievement test measures what a person knows, how much they know, and compares
them with a group that has the same knowledge; a proficiency test measures what a
person knows, but with an emphasis on how well they will be able to apply that
knowledge in the future. Generally, LEP students will take both of these kinds of test
during their academic career, as the study of English progresses. (Test English
Proficiency, 2011)
The same website further lists some characteristics of both kinds of tests:
Proficiency Test
Ability to function/complete tasks using
English language
Focus on future (what you can do)
Ranks levels of English competence to
complete a task
Achievement Test
Knowledge of English language (parts of
speech, sentence structure, etc.)
Focus on past (what you have learned)
Ranks students high achievers to low
achievers
Table 1. The characteristics of English proficiency and achievement tests
For the time being, all the tests that are organized at the LC are achievement tests. They are
created by all the teachers that teach the same level, based on the material covered using the rich
database of tests used in the past.
The Center is not authorized to administer some of the standardized proficiency tests and not all
the students need to take them. What is more, there are still no standardized proficiency tests for
Albanian and Macedonian, which are studied as foreign languages at SEEU.
It remains to us to find some solution which will ‘protect’ us in terms of giving information about
student knowledge of a certain foreign language and at the same time conveying to all
stakeholders that the achievement does not guarantee proficiency, exactly because of what was
stated above in Table 1. Harmer (2001) recognizes the pressure on teachers regarding proficiency
83
tests. He states that, “proficiency tests have a profound backwash effect since, where they are
external exams, students obviously want to pass them and teachers’ reputations sometimes
depend (probably unfairly) upon how many of them succeed” (p. 322). In our case, not only the
reputation of the teachers is in question, but the reputation and the effectiveness of the whole
Language Center.
1.2 Possible solutions to overcoming the gap between achievement and proficiency tests
According to Morrison, Ross and Kemp (2004), “the broad purpose of evaluation is to determine
to what extent the objectives of the instruction are being attained. The assessment used to inform
the evaluation should therefore have a direct relationship with the objectives” (p. 247). In order to
ensure that the courses offered by the SEEU Language Center are outcome based, we have set
course objectives for every week of instruction. For instance these are the learning outcomes for
week 1 of the LC level 4 Basic English (approximately A2 of Common European Framework of
Reference):
By the end of this week the students should be able to distinguish and use vocabulary
related to schools, subjects, grades, etc. Students should also be able to perform a Role
play related to ‘student – teacher interaction’. Students’ role plays will be evaluated based
on a given rubric. Students should be able to recognize and use in context first conditional
and future time clauses.
Or, similarly, the objectives for week 3 of the same course are the following:
Students should be able to discuss issues related to educational system. Students should
be able to develop a persuasive debate topic in order to pre-write on the same topic.
Students should be able to recognize and use some of the pre-writing strategies such as
brain storming, mind mapping etc.
Judging from these examples, it is evident that among the main objectives of our courses, the
development of the communicative abilities of our students has quite a preference. This was done
on purpose, having in mind the results from the needs analysis done with all the stakeholders.
Namely, SEEU students have a high employability rate. According to the data from the
University Career Center, 51% of students graduated from SEEU manage to find jobs within a
year and 12, 44% find jobs even before graduation. (Brochure, Access Your Future) One of the
reasons why SEEU students fit the labor market requirements is their language competence. They
really use the languages they learn at university for work and for everyday communication.
Nonetheless, except for the part from the grading criteria that refers to student speaking skills in
class, their communication abilities are not evaluated.
In order to overcome this gap between the course objectives and the evaluation, we have decided
to pilot an oral examination with all our students from the intermediate level. For this purpose,
we organized a workshop with the teachers and we created rubrics for the evaluation of students’
speaking skills. The exam is to be carried out during the last week of instruction, before the
semester ends. In order to increase objectivity, two or more teachers will evaluate students from
every class.
84
We hope that in this way, the speaking and communicative component of the English classes will
be given more accent and in the future we will practice it with students from all levels and with
the other language programs, as well.
Our final goal, in the efforts to balance the achievement with proficiency, will be to create a good
quality institutional proficiency exam that students can take when they finish their English
requirements. The results from this proficiency exam can be given in the diploma supplement
issued on graduation. It will provide information about student proficiency no matter of the
number of courses and time spent at the Language Center. This will ‘protect’ the Language
Center from being blamed that it either contributes to student retention rate because of the strict
requirements, or the other end: students go from one level to another because they regularly
attend the lessons and they complete the course requirements, but actually have low English
proficiency when they graduate from SEEU.
This will not be an easy task when dealing with English courses and we might have to engage
professionals in the field. With the two local languages, Albanian and Macedonian, the situation
is quite different, because we will be the pioneers in creating such tests and we can copy some
existing English test tasks.
Thus, this year, our teachers have created a database of 160 multiple choice questions to be used
for a randomized computer test that students are taking at the end of the semester. Then we will
compare the results from these tests with the results from the final (achievement) tests to see if
there are differences and what they are.
CONCLUSION
By improving evaluation, we really hope to address two target ideas: “First, to obtain a good
match between types of assessment instruments and types of objectives and second: Consider
using several data sources to gain as complete picture as possible about the degree of learner
attainment of each objective and the process involved”. (Morrison, Ross and Kemp, 2004, p.
247). At the same time we have to be aware that we are testing language skills.
Finally, although rather a formative approach to assessment and not directly related to the two
kinds of tests mentioned previously, there is a need to develop practice in Classroom Assessment,
as an approach “designed to help teachers find out what students are learning in the classroom
and how well they are learning it”. ( Angello, Cross, 1993. p. 4) Through Classroom Assessment
Techniques (CATs), both teachers and students are empowered with tools to improve the quality
of learning in the classroom.
Steadman and Svinicki (in Soetart, 1998) provide concrete examples of using CATs to enhance
learning. We would also like to recommend using of these techniques for more effective teaching
at the Language Center. As the most commonly used techniques for classroom assessment, the
following were suggested: (p. 15-16)
85
(1) Minute paper, that can be used for comprehension monitoring, rehearsal of key ideas and
organization of knowledge
(2) Muddiest point, also used for comprehension monitoring
(3) Categorizing grid for organization of knowledge and identifying critical attributes of
concepts
(4) Directed paraphrasing (putting things in learner’s own words) for meaningful
connections
(5) Concept maps for organization of knowledge and identifying connections and key ideas
(6) Memory matrix for rehearsal of key words
(7) Free writing (students spend five minutes in class writing about a course topic or
question in their own words) for checking understanding
(8) Pair and share (students explain a course concept to a partner)
The main goal of the aforementioned steps and activities is to determine student success in
learning, but also to improve the ways the courses are taught and to provide information about
courses effectiveness.
REFERENCES
ANGELO, Thomas; CROSS, Patricia. Classroom Assessment Techniques. Jossey-Bass, 1993.
ISBN 1-55542-500-3.
Pristap kon idninata. (2001). SEEU Brochure. <www.seeu.edu.mk>
HARMER, Jeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Pearson Education Limited,
2001. ISBN 0 582 40385 5
KAREVA, Veronika. The Influence of Classroom Communication on Student Commitment to
University. Doctoral thesis. (2011) Available from <v.kareva@seeu.edu.mk>
Language Center Academic Program. <www.seeu.edu.mk>
MORRISON, Gary; ROSS, Steven; KEMP, Jerrold. Designing Effective Instruction. John Wiley
and Sons, Inc, 2004. ISBN 0-471-21651-8.
SOETART, Elaine. (1998). Quality in the classroom: Classroom assessment techniques as TQM.
New Directions for Teaching and Learning. No 75. 1998. Jossey-Bass Publishers. Available from
EBSCO Electronic Reserves.
Test English Proficiency. (2011)
<http://www.testenglishproficiency.com/TestEnglishProficiency.html>
86
VÝBĚR OPTIMÁLNÍCH UČEBNÍCH TEXTŮ PRO VÝUKU ANGLIČTINY
NA CJP UO V BRNĚ
Ludmila Koláčková, Dana Zerzánová
University of Defence, Language Training Centre, Brno, Kounicova 65, 66 210
ludmila.kolackova@unob.cz, dana.zerzanova@unob.cz
Abstrakt:
Ani v současné době, pro kterou je charakteristické využívání moderních technologií v různých
oborech lidské činnosti, si většina žáků, učitelů, ale i široké veřejnosti nedokáže představit
vzdělávací proces bez používání učebnic. Výběr konkrétní učebnice a vhodného doplňkového
materiálů je jedna z nejdůležitějších činností, kterou každý učitel provádí vždy na začátku
školního roku nebo semestru. Učitelé nemohou ovlivnit počet vyučovacích hodin, třídu nebo
studijní skupinu, ve které budou učit, úroveň znalostí svých studentů, s nimiž na danou školu
přicházejí, ale výběr učebnice je většinou v jejich kompetenci. Při výběru učebnic musíme mít na
zřeteli nejen odborné, ale i ekonomické hledisko, proto se můžeme setkat i se situací, kdy je
menší finanční náročnost upřednostněna před hlediskem pedagogickým. Výběr vhodné učebnice
není jednoduchou záležitostí, neboť vhodná učebnice by měla splňovat několik základních
kriterií, z nichž k nejdůležitějším patří schopnost motivovat studenty k uvědomělému osvojování
základních řečových dovedností. Rozhodovací proces při výběru učebnic angličtiny na CJP UO
dokumentují autorky ve svém příspěvku
Klíčová slova: výběr učebnice, motivace, studium angličtiny, dotazníkové šetření
ÚVOD
Při výběru učebnice musíme mít na zřeteli několik faktorů. Jednak si musíme ujasnit, co od dané
učebnice očekáváme a jak ji budeme používat. Žádná univerzální učebnice, která by poskytovala
učiteli a studentům naprosto vše, co je pro výuku důležité, neexistuje. Také přístup vyučujících
k učebnicím je rozdílný, na jedné straně jsou učitelé, kteří chtějí, aby metodická příručka pro
učitele pro ně byla detailním návodem, jak s jednotlivými aktivitami pracovat, jak jednotlivá
cvičení hodnotit a podobně. Na druhé straně jsou učitelé s diametrálně odlišným názorem, kteří
v žádném případě nechtějí, aby učebnice řídila jejich práci v hodinách.
Problematikou učebnice v cizojazyčné výuce u nás se zabývají autoři E. Hájková (1986), R.
Choděra (2008), J. Průcha (1986), a V. Martinková (2008), ze zahraničních autorů P. Ur (1997) a
J. Harmer (1998). Podle Harmera (Harmer, 1998) musí optimální učebnice (coursebook)
splňovat tři kritéria: být přiměřená potřebám, zájmům a schopnostem studentů, vyhovovat
vyučujícím a splňovat požadavky školního kurikula.
Jak by tedy měla dobrá učebnice vypadat? Podle dlouholetých zkušeností autorek by měla
splňovat následující kritéria:
• Text by měl být dostatečně rozčleněn a měl by umožnit průběžné opakování probrané
látky,
87
• Měla by učiteli poskytnout širší škálu materiálů než je učitel schopen sám nashromáždit.
• Měla by představovat pro učitele základní jistotu, na které může ve vyučovacím procesu
stavět.
• Příprava výuky podle dané učebnice by pro učitele neměla být časově příliš náročná.
• Měla by být dostatečným zdrojem praktických námětů,
• Měla by umožnit, aby žáci dostali prostor k samostatné práci, kdy učitel není hlavním
činitelem výukového procesu, ale pouze samostatnou činnost žáků či studentů monitoruje
a vhodným způsobem usměrňuje.
• Měla by být vhodným podkladem pro zpracování domácích úkolů.
• Měla by dát prostor k diskusi, výměně názorů nejen mezi vyučujícími, ale i mezi
vyučujícími a studenty.
Dobrý učitel je schopen s vhodně vybranou učebnicí pracovat kreativně, volí texty a
cvičení podle pokročilosti studentů, cíle hodiny a možnosti uplatnit v praxi
mezipředmětové vztahy; tedy studenti např. v rámci výuky jazyků mohou využít svých
znalostí z jiných vědních oborů (historie, přírodní vědy, geografie, ekonomie apod.).
1. OPTIMÁLNÍ UČEBNICE ANGLIČTINY
Na většině středních škol je praxe taková, že vyučující anglického jazyka se dohodnou na jedné
konkrétní učebnici, na základě které výuka probíhá1. Současné komerční texty jsou využitelné
pro všechny vědomostní stupně znalosti jazyka a lze považovat za samozřejmost, že jsou
doplněny pracovními sešity, audio a video nahrávkami, metodickým průvodcem pro učitele,
sadami testů, odkazy na internetové stránky a souborem nadstavbových aktivit. Dobrá učebnice
by měla splňovat očekávání studentů i učitelů a měla by být v souladu s platným kurikulem.
Učitel potom může zastávat roli manažera a student se stává aktivním a kreativním účastníkem
vyučovacího procesu, tedy učitel rozvíjí předchozí schopnosti studentů v nových situacích
prostřednictvím učebních textů a materiálů. Autorky se ztotožňují s názorem Z. Vépyové
(Vépyová, 2000), že dobrá učebnice napomáhá realizaci efektivního vzdělávacího procesu díky
následujícím funkcím: 1. Informativní, 2. Stimulační, 3. Testovací, 4. Integrační a aktivizující
(mezipředmětové vztahy), 5. Vzdělávací a motivační.
Moderní učebnice by měly pomoci vyučujícím i tím, že poskytují rozvržení jazykového učiva,
které je metodicky zpracované a uspořádané tak, že zahrnuje i průběžné opakování probrané
látky, dále by měly vést k hospodárnému využití času potřebného na přípravu, měly by
poskytovat dostatek podnětů pro domácí úkoly, které by neměly být samoúčelné (Graf č. 1).
1
Šetřením, jaká kritéria uplatňují učitelé SŠ, se zabýval v průběhu září a října 2010 dotazníkový průzkum na
náhodně zvolených středních školách v Brně a Jihomoravském kraji (celkem třicet středních škol v JM kraji a
dvacet v Brně).
88
Graf č. 1: Nejpoužívanější učebnice na středních školách
Učitel by měl předem znát kritéria, která zohledňují požadavky komunikativního přístupu
s ohledem na věk a jazykové dovednosti svých studentů a na učební texty, se kterými pracovali
v předchozím studiu.
2. VÝSLEDKY DOTAZNÍKOVÉHO ŠETŘENÍ NA CJP UO
Abychom mohli během vysokoškolského studia zvýšit zájem studentů o studium cizího jazyka, je
nutné mimo jiné zvolit takovou učebnic, se kterou se pokud možno během středoškolského studia
nesetkali. Proto se učitelé na Centru jazykové přípravy Univerzity obrany v Brně (CJP UO)
rozhodli dlouhodobě sledovat, jaké jsou trendy v používání učebnic pro výuku anglického jazyka
na středních školách. Na začátku každého akademického roku zpracovávají výsledky
dotazníkového šetření zaměřeného mj. na používanou učebnici na střední škole (Graf č. 1).
Zjistili jsme, že na středních školách se stále nejčastěji učí podle učebnice Headway
z nakladatelství Oxford Press, a to jak podle starší, tak i nejnovější aktualizované verze, která
reaguje na současné globální problémy (v roce 2006/2007 - 53,9%, v roce 2007/2008 - 50%,
v roce 2008/2009 - 54%, v posledním roce - 59,59%). Tento učební materiál je už po několik
roků nejvíce využíván i díky možnosti používat volně dostupné doplňkové materiály a manuály
z Internetu2, pomocí kterých si studenti mohou sami nejen ověřit, ale i rozvíjet své znalosti
(sekce Tests) a koncipovat samostudium (rubrika Word of the week).
Dále k oblíbeným komerčním textům patří Matrix (14,78%, v roce 2006/2007 9,16%, v roce
2007/2008, 4,83%, v roce 2008/2009 a v posledním roce 10, 10%) a New English File (v roce
2
<http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/headway/>
89
2006/2007 - 0%, v roce 2007/2008 - 0,83%, v roce 2008/2009 - 2,5%, v posledním roce - 9,09%).
Zřetelný je nárůst uživatelů učebnice New English File, která se používá k výuce také na UO, a
proto se musíme do budoucna zabývat otázkou, kterým učebním textem ji nahradíme v počáteční
fázi výuky, kdy se studenti mají zdokonalit především v obecném jazyce3.
Naopak jsme zaznamenali pokles obliby učenice Opportunities (v roce 2006/2007 – 14%, v roce
2007/2008 - 16%, v roce 2008/2009 - 7, v posledním roce – 0,7%). Není pro nás překvapivé, že
dříve často používaná učebnice Angličtina pro jazykové školy stále zaujímá své místo v jazykové
přípravě středoškoláků (kolem 5%). Je to dáno tím, že svou strukturou stále vyhovuje potřebám
českého uživatele (bohatá slovní zásoba s českými ekvivalenty, přehledně a jasně vysvětlená
gramatika, aktualizované, nepříliš dlouhé a srozumitelné úvodní texty v každé lekci; bohužel tato
učebnice není vybavena dostatečným množstvím poslechových materiálů).
70%
60%
HEADWAY
50%
MATRIX
ENGLISH FILE
40%
OPPORTUNITIES
30%
AJŠ
ENTERPRISE
20%
TIME TO TALK
10%
HOTLINE
0%
2006/07
2007/08
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
Graf č. 2 Učebnice, které používali na SŠ studenti FEM UO Brno
Jedním z důležitých faktorů při studiu cizích jazyků je motivace, aby se mladí lidé snažili co
nejvíce zdokonalovat v oblasti jazykových dovedností a znalostí. Při studiu jazyků nejde jen o
zvládnutí určité slovní zásoby, ale je především důležité si uvědomit, jak se chovat při užívání
cizí řeči a v jakých situacích je vhodné určité obraty použít. Ne vždy lze najít adekvátní výraz
v mateřském jazyce pro pojmenování v cizím jazyce, totéž platí i naopak, nelze automaticky
používat cizí jazyk totožně s rodným jazykem. Při studiu jazyka je nutné seznámit se i s reáliemi
země, kde se daný jazyk používá. Motivujícím faktorem je využití jazykových znalostí
v praktickém životě, ať už osobním nebo profesionálním.
90
ZÁVĚR
V dnešní době není problém sehnat jazykovou učebnici, ale spíš se správně zorientovat v široké
škále nabízených titulů a na základě vlastní zkušenosti, ale i zkušenosti kolegů, se rozhodnout pro
používání konkrétní učebnice, jejíž využití by mělo maximálně přispět k efektivní výuce jazyků.
To je také jeden z důvodů, proč vyučující CJP UO přistoupili k projektu Dlouhodobého sledování
úspěšnosti studentů v anglickém jazyce, jehož součástí je i monitorování učebnic využívaných na
střední škole s cílem vybrat co nejatraktivnější titul pro studium jazyka na vysoké škole. Při
výběru takové učebnice je jedním z rozhodujících faktorů skutečnost, že na většině středních škol
se vyučuje pouze obecný jazyk, ale chybí výuka jazyka odborného. Proto výuka anglického
jazyka na UO je po prvních dvou semestrech zaměřena především tímto směrem, což má
absolventům bakalářského i magisterského studijního programu umožnit nejen číst a porozumět
anglickému odbornému textu, ale i samostatně se vyjadřovat k aktuálním ekonomickým
problémům a nabyté znalosti uplatnit v praxi.
LITERATURA
HÁJKOVÁ, E. Učebnice jako komunikátor. In : Dovednostní model učitelovy profese. Praha:
1986, s. 139 – 161.
HARMER, J. How to Teach English. Harlow: Longman, 2007. ISBN 978-1405853095. 288 s.
CHODĚRA, R. Didaktika cizích jazyků. Praha: Academia, 2006. ISBN 80-200-1213-3. 209 s.
MARTINKOVÁ, V. Učebnice a měnící se kurikulum. In: Sborník z konference Kurikulum a
učebnice z pohledu pedagogického výzkumu. Brno: MU, 2008. s. 1 - 3.
NEUWIRTHOVÁ, L Standard cizojazyčného vzdělávání na vysoké škole technického zaměření.
Brno: CERM, 2009. 186 s.
PRŮCHA, J. Učebnice: teorie a analýzy edukačního média. Brno: Paido, 1998.
UR, P. A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1997. ISBN 0521449944. 375 s.
VÉPYOVÁ, Z. Kritéria výberu vhodnej učebnice angličtiny. In: Výuka cizích jazyků
v nefilologických oborech na pedagogických a filozofických fakultách v ČR a SR. Ústí nad
Labem, 2000. ISBN 80-7044-322-7.
91
LMS MOODLE IM DEUTSCHUNTERRICHT AM ZENTRUM FÜR
FREMDSPRACHENAUSBILDUNG DER
VERTEIDIGUNGSUNIVERSITÄT
Tereza Kučerová, Marta Nevrlková, Zbyněk Rektořík
Zentrum für Fremdsprachenausbildung, Verteidigungsuniversität Brno
Kounicova 65, Brno 66 210
tereza.kucerova@unob.cz, marta.nevrlkova@unob.cz, zbynek.rektorik@unob.cz
Abstrakt:
Das Ziel dieses Beitrags besteht darin, an konkreten Beispielen aufzuzeigen, wie das E-Learning
Programm LMS Moodle im Deutschunterricht für Präsens - und vor allem Fernstudiengänge
einzusetzen ist. LMS Moodle ermöglicht die Entwicklung der Kenntnisse und Fertigkeiten durch
interaktive Übungen, die zehn grundlegende Alltagsthemen betreffen.
Schlüsselwörter: Lernplattform Moodle, Fernstudium, E-Learning, Interaktivität.
EINLEITUNG
An der Verteidigungsuniversität wird die Ausbildung nicht nur für Berufssoldaten, sondern auch
für Zivilstudenten an drei Fakultäten angeboten.
Der Fremdsprachenunterricht an der Verteidigungsuniversität wird vom Zentrum für
Fremdsprachenausbildung
sichergestellt.
Die
Zielgruppe
am
Zentrum
für
Fremdsprachenausbildung bilden Studenten der Präsens- und Fernstudiengänge im Bachelor-,
Master- und Doktorandenstudium. Im Präsensstudium geht es um die Altersgruppe von 18 bis 25
Jahre, im Fernstudium meistens von 25 bis circa 40.
1. DEUTSCHUNTERRICHT
MANAGEMENT
AN
DER
FAKULTÄT
FÜR
WIRTSCHAFT
UND
Der Fremdsprachenunterricht verläuft nach dem sogenannten Modulsystem. Es handelt sich um
Module A, B, C – allgemeine Sprache, V – Militärfachsprache, E, M – Fachterminologie, S –
spezielle Fachterminologie.
Sowohl auf Studenten des Präsensstudiums, als auch auf Studenten der Fernstudiengänge werden
die gleichen Anforderungen gestellt. Im Vergleich zum Präsensstudium haben Studenten des
Fernstudiums um 80% weniger Unterrichtseinheiten. Um ihnen die Sprachenausbildung zu
erleichtern, entschieden sich die Autoren, die Lernplattform Moodle anzuwenden.
92
2. E-LEARNING PROGRAMM LMS MOODLE
Was ist LMS Moodle? Lernmanagement-System Moodle ist eine Lernplattform auf OpenSource-Basis. Moodle ist auf der ganzen Welt zu einem bei Unterrichtenden sehr beliebten
Fernunterricht-Werkzeug geworden, um dynamische Webseiten für die Lernenden zu erstellen.
Zur Zeit wird Moodle in vielen Ländern benutzt.
Durch die Arbeit mit der Lernplattform Moodle eröffnen sich neue Möglichkeiten im Unterricht:
Kooperatives Arbeiten in Gruppen oder im Rahmen von Projekten wird ebenso unterstützt wie
individualisierte Lernformen. Im Arbeiten mit der Lernplattform Moodle lassen sich deshalb
nicht nur unterschiedliche Formen multimedialen Unterrichtens zusammenführen, sondern
insbesondere auch neue Konzepte des Lernens umsetzen:
•
•
•
individualisiertes Lernen
selbstorganisiertes Lernen
kooperatives Lernen
Die Arbeitsmaterialien in Kursen sind Texte, Links und Dateien. Die Lernaktivitäten sind Forum,
Test, Aufgabe, Lektion, Wiki etc. Die Anordnung von Arbeitsmaterialien und Lernaktivitäten
erlauben unterschiedliche didaktische Szenarien, die einem konstruktivistischen oder
instruktionalistischen Lernmodell folgen können.
Die neue Multimedialität des E-Learnings, so auch Moodle, ist in der Lage zu animieren, zu
stimulieren und daher zu motivieren, weil mit dem Computer interaktiv gearbeitet werden
kann und der Nutzer so stärker mit einbezogen wird. Medieneinsätze fördern das
Verständnis, veranschaulichen und erklären verschiedene Inhalte spielerisch. Dazu gehören
vor allem die Tests in Moodle, hier kann der Teilnehmer seinen eigenen Wissensstand
spielerisch testen.
Ein weiteres Argument für den Einsatz von E-Learning Systemen ist, dass das individuelle
Lernen gefördert wird. Dafür sprechen das personenbezogene Tempo des Lernens, die Ort- und
Zeitunabhängigkeit, die eigenständige Themenauswahl nach Interesse und Bedarf und die eigens
differenzierten Lernwege. Allgemein ist eine Kombination aus E-Learning und der klassischen
Präsenzveranstaltung, das so genannte „Blended Learning“ oder integriertes Lernen, besonders
effizient. Einerseits kann sich der Lernende selbständig auf die Veranstaltung vorbereiten, diese
auch nachbereiten und vertiefen, andererseits kann er in direkten Kontakt mit der Lehrperson
treten.
3. MOODLE IM DEUTSCHUNTERRICHT
Im Rahmen der Lernplattform Moodle haben die Verfasser vor, zehn grundlegende
Alltagsthemen zu bearbeiten. Es geht um folgende Themenbereiche:
•
•
Persönliche Angaben und Familie
Schule, Ausbildung und Beruf
93
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Wohnen
Freizeit und Sport
Verkehr und Reisen
Essen und Trinken
Dienstleistungen
Wetter und Jahreszeiten
Feste und Bräuche
Gesundheit und Krankheiten
Die Auswahl von diesen Themen geht davon aus, dass sich die Militärstudenten während ihres
Studiums der Prüfung STANAG SLP 6001 unterziehen müssen.
Jeder Themenbereich stellt im Moodle eine Lektion dar, die verschiedene Lernaktivitäten,
Aufgaben, Übungen und Testaufgaben beinhaltet. Diese Struktur ermöglicht, den gesamten
Lehrinhalt in einzelne Abschnitte zu gliedern. Dies hat den Vorteil, dass die Studenten immer ein
Zwischenziel vor Augen haben und somit zum Lernen motiviert werden.
Die erstellten interaktiven Aufgaben und Übungen helfen den Studenten, den Wortschatz zu
erweitern und kommunikative Kompetenz zu entwickeln.
Am Ende jeder Lektion erhalten die Studenten einen Test, um sich zu überzeugen, wie sie das
Gelernte geschafft haben. Das Spektrum der möglichen Testfragen im Moodle erstreckt sich von
Multiple-Choice-Fragen, Ja-Nein-Aufgaben, Zuordnungsübungen bis hin zu Fragen mit kurzer
oder längerer schriftlicher Antwort.
Als ein Bestandteil des Beitrags wird die von den Verfassern erstellte Lektion zum
Themenbereich Wohnen vorgeführt (siehe Bild 1 und Bild 2).
SCHLUSSFOLGERUNGEN
In diesem Beitrag richten die Verfasser ihre Aufmerksamkeit auf die Vorführung LMS Moodle
und auf das Gestalten von interaktiven elektronischen Unterstützungen, die zu einem effektiven
Unterricht der deutschen Sprache am Zentrum für Fremdsprachenausbildung der
Verteidigungsuniversität einen großen Beitrag leisten.
In Zukunft wird damit gerechnet, diese Lernplattform auch den Studenten der Präsenslehrgänge
zur Verfügung zu stellen.
94
Bild 1: Interaktive Übung zum Themenbereich Wohnen im LMS Moodle
Bild 2: Interaktive Übungen zum Themenbereich Wohnen im LMS Moodle
95
LITERATUR
HÖPPNEROVÁ, Věra. Moderní učebnice němčiny. Praha: NS Svoboda, 2000. ISBN 80-2051014-1.
KOLIBAČ, Richard. E-learning moderní forma vzdělávání. Ostrava: Ostravská univerzita, 2003,
s. 40-45. ISBN 80-7042-970-4.
LERNPLATTFORM MOODLE, <www.moodle.de>.
VANĚK, Jindřich. E-learning jedna z cest k moderním formám vzdělávání. Opava: Slezská
univerzita v Opavě, 2008, s. 10-12. ISBN 978-80-7248-471-3.
96
VÝUKA LÉKAŘSKÉ ČEŠTINY PRO CIZINCE ZA PODPORY
E-LEARNINGU (OBOR STOMATOLOGIE)
Dita Macháčková
LF UK v Plzni
Husova 3, Plzeň 306 05
ditusamachonte@seznam.cz
Abstrakt:
Zahraniční studenti studující v anglickém programu na LF UK v Plzni mají češtinu v prvních
dvou letech studia, při časové dotaci čtyři hodiny týdně. V prvním ročníku se studenti učí základy
češtiny přibližně na úrovni A1 a A2. Ve druhém roce se jejich komunikační schopnosti prohlubují
a klade se důraz na komunikaci s pacientem. Studenti jsou proto seznamováni s terminologií,
frázemi a zvyky, které je třeba si osvojit pro úspěšné zvládnutí preklinického zubního lékařství ve
třetím ročníku a kontakt s pacientem a lékařským personálem vůbec. Jelikož neexistuje učebnice,
která by se zaměřovala na stomatologickou problematiku češtiny pro cizince, byla připravena elearningová podpora, která supluje chybějící učebnici.
Klíčová slova: čeština pro cizince, stomatologie, e-learning, lékařská fakulta.
ÚVOD
Na LF UK v Plzni se studenti zubního lékařství v anglickém programu učí českému jazyku
v prvních dvou letech studia. Při časové dotaci čtyři vyučovací hodiny týdně a s ohledem na fakt,
že čeština je coby flektivní jazyk náročná, je tato doba nedostatečná k tomu, aby na konci
druhého ročníku byli studenti s to komunikovat s pacientem a zdravotnickým personálem
v českém jazyce. Situaci navíc komplikuje skutečnost, že pro výuku stomatologů neexistuje
speciální učebnice. Byl proto vytvořen e-learningový kurz Čeština pro stomatology, který funguje
formou blended-learningu, je tedy doplňkovou formou prezenční výuky, a probíhá ve 4. semestru
studia.
1. CHARAKTERISTIKA VÝUKY ČEŠTINY PRO STOMATOLOGY
Během prvních dvou semestrů se studenti seznamují s nejfrekventovanějšími pády základních
deklinačních paradigmat substantiv a adjektiv, částečně i pronomin, a s prézentem českých verb
(včetně nepravidelných sloves). Obsahem třetího semestru je problematika préterita a futura,
modálních sloves, konjunkcí a gradace adjektiv a adverbií. Čtvrtý semestr má simulovat
komunikaci lékaře – pacienta a lékaře – sestry. Tento – bez nadsázky – nabitý program má
samozřejmě za následek značnou redukci ostatních gramatických jevů a také lexikálních
jednotek, a to ve prospěch specifických potřeb našich studentů. Další problém je u některých
obtížnějších slov či jevů (především u odborných termínů) – zde nestačí pouhý překlad do
angličtiny, ale velmi vhodná je nějaká forma zobrazení.
97
2. DŮVODY VZNIKU A VÝHODY E-LEARNINGOVÉHO KURZU
Kromě nezbytně nutných kopií vlastních materiálů se z výše uvedených důvodů začalo ve výuce
využívat také multimediálních prvků – obrázků, fotografií, videí, on-line dokumentů atd.
Studenty tento typ výuky natolik zaujal, že přirozeným vyústěním naší snahy byl pokus o
vytvoření e-learningového kurzu, jehož obsah by měl logický sled a řád. E-learningová forma
multimediální podpory výuky má na rozdíl od multimediální prezenční výuky tyto výhody:
1. Katedra šetří náklady na kopírování materiálů; učitelům, ale i studentům odpadá starost o
zajištění materiálů (v případě absence studenta na konkrétní hodině).
2. Barevné materiály jsou daleko atraktivnější a také čitelnější než černobílé kopie.
3. Respektuje časové možnosti studentů. (Ve druhém ročníku se procento absence studentů
ve výuce výrazně zvyšuje, a to především kvůli náročnému plánu 4. semestru.) Student si
může zvolit, zda a kolikrát se k látce vrátí, volí si tempo výuky, a pokud chybí na
semináři, je schopen si látku dostudovat – ví co, proč a z čeho studovat.
4. Kontrola znalostí. Student má možnost si sám ověřit, zda a nakolik látku pochopil a
osvojil si ji. Možnost kontroly studenta má samozřejmě i učitel, ať už ve formě testů
zařazených na konci každé kapitoly, nebo formou konzultace (chat, diskuzní fórum),
pokud je o to studentem požádán.
5. Studenti mají možnost spolupracovat. Tato forma výuky je samozřejmě možná i
v prezenčních hodinách, ale časové možnosti jsou omezené.
6. Aktivizuje potřebu studentů orientovat se v českém prostředí. V základních
komunikačních situacích se zahraniční studenti často obejdou bez znalostí češtiny – buď
se domluví v angličtině, nebo neverbálně (placení zboží a služeb). Jejich přirozená
motivace v cizojazyčném prostředí je proto značně nízká, navyšuje se až ve třetím
ročníku, kdy studenti v rámci klinického zubního lékařství začínají pracovat s pacienty a
kolegy. V tomto roce už je ale studium češtiny ukončeno, takže motivace přichází pozdě.
V multimediální sféře se profese mediků supluje samozřejmě mnohem lépe než
v klasických hodinách s učebnicí a tabulí.
7. Efektivněji poskytuje zpětnou vazbu učiteli. Vyučující má tak možnost pružněji reagovat
na studijní a profesní potřeby studentů.
8. Možnost neustálé inovace materiálů. Na rozdíl od skript lze e-learningový kurz aktuálně
měnit podle potřeb a invence studentů i učitelů.
3. OBSAH A CHARAKTERISTIKA E-LEARNINGOVÉHO KURZU
Samotný kurz je vytvořen v prostředí Moodle a je strukturován klasickým způsobem, tzn. je
rozdělen do kapitol (příp. podkapitol), které obsahují kromě studijního textu úkoly, cvičení,
autotesty, testy a slovníček, později přibude i anketa. Zařazeno je také diskuzní fórum. Kurz je
moderován. Jelikož je struktura kurzu standardní, nebudeme se jí zde dále zabývat, raději
zmíníme určitá specifika kurzu.
98
Obr. č. 1 Struktura kapitoly Chrup
Obsah kapitol odráží speciální komunikační potřeby studentů, je tedy zaměřen na jazyk
lékařského (zubařského) prostředí. Studenti se seznamují s důležitými pojmy své budoucí profese
(zubní kaz, zubařské křeslo, plomba, korunka, bitewing atd.), se základními frázemi používanými
v kontaktu s pacientem (anamnéza), s některými formuláři (zdravotní karta pacienta) a osvojují si
dovednost komunikace s pacientem či kolegy. Během kurzu studenti procházejí tématy jako
anatomie zubu, lidský chrup, nemoci zubů a dutiny ústní, vyšetření pacienta, dentální hygiena,
dentální nástroje či farmakologie.
99
Obr. č. 2 Kapitoly kurzu
Studijní text je kvalitativně i kvantitativně redukován tak, aby studenty zbytečně nezatěžoval, ale
zároveň aby poskytl nezbytně nutné informace odborné a jazykové. Nedílnou součástí jsou
obrázky a fotografie, které mají nejen ilustrativní charakter, ale především pomáhají porozumět
složitějším slovům a jevům (např. ošetření zubního kanálku, stomatologické nástroje) a
samozřejmě zlepšují fixaci učiva v paměti.
100
Obr. č. 3 Fotografie kleští ve slovníkové části
Úkoly jsou zadávány tak, aby byli studenti nuceni pohybovat se v českém jazykovém prostředí i
bez znalosti všech gramatických a lexikálních jednotek daného textu. Jde proto především o
vyhledávání základních informací či obrazového materiálu k odborným jevům (vyhledejte
informaci, jak je definován zubní kaz; najděte video o čištění zubů; doplňte tabulku). Dalším
typem úkolu je kolaborativní vytváření obsahu výukového tématu podle odborných znalostí
studentů. Tento obsah je pak přeložen do českého jazyka a je dále didakticky zpracováván.
101
Obr. č. 4 Úkol z kapitoly Chrup
Cvičení jsou zaměřena především na opakování slovní zásoby a gramatiky. Většinou nejsou
povinná a studenti jimi procházejí buď na základně vlastního rozhodnutí, nebo jsou jim
doporučena tutorem, pokud usoudí, že je to třeba. Při pilotáži se ukázala potřeba zopakovat např.
konjugaci modálních sloves, vokativ a oslovování či konjugaci některých nepravidelných sloves.
Průběžné testování umožňuje studentům i učiteli posoudit, zda a jak dobře je učivo osvojeno,
závěrečný test je zároveň přípravou na písemnou část zkoušky z českého jazyka, která se skládá
na konci 4. semestru.
102
Obr. č. 5 Vyhodnocený autotest v kapitole Chrup
Kurz je moderován v angličtině a češtině. Jazykově složitější instrukce jsou uvedeny v angličtině,
ale jednoduché a opakující se pokyny jsou v češtině (hledejte na internetu video, přeložte, pošlete
obrázek)– je to přehledné a jazykově žádoucí, i když kvalita moderování je tím samozřejmě
značně snížena.
Kurz má blended-learningový charakter: probíhá ve 4. (pro češtinu posledním) semestru a je
sestaven tak, aby dvě hodiny týdně probíhala prezenční výuka a další dvě hodiny týdně byly
rezervovány kurzu, kromě posledního (zápočtového) týdne, kdy je výuka pouze prezenční, a
prvního týdne, kdy jsou studenti seznámeni s e-learningovým programem a způsoby práce s ním.
Výhodou je, že zahraniční studenti mají oproti českým větší zkušenosti s používáním techniky a
moderních informačních technologií, a proto nemusejí překonávat bariéru osvojování základních
dovedností práce s nimi.
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Obr. č. 6 Studijní materiál v kapitole Chrup
ZÁVĚR
E-learningový kurz Čeština pro stomatology byl čerstvě pilotován a zatím jsou ohlasy na něj
velmi kladné. Studenti ho oceňují jako zajímavý, přínosný a zábavný. Objektivní výsledky však
přinese budoucnost. Standardní zařazení do výuky je plánováno na letní semestr 2012 a v plánu
je také učebnice češtiny pro stomatology.
Kurz je k nahlédnutí na stránkách LF UK v Plzni (http://ovavt.lfp.cuni.cz/), ale je nutné si u
autorky vyžádat přístupové heslo pro hosta.
LITERATURA
KOPECKÝ, Kamil. E-learning (nejen) pro pedagogy. Olomouc : Hanex, 2006. ISBN 80-8578350-9.
VEJVODOVÁ, Jana. Metodická příručka pro autory on-line kurzů. Plzeň : Západočeská
univerzita v Plzni : Centrum počítačové podpory vzdělávání, 2004.
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ZKUŠENOSTI S PŘÍPRAVOU A REALIZACÍ E-LEARNINGOVÉHO
KURZU „RUŠTINA VE SFÉŘE PODNIKÁNÍ“
Ljuba Mrověcová
FF OU v Ostravě, Reální 3, Ostrava
ljuba.mrovecova@osu.cz
Abstrakt:
Příspěvek seznamuje s koncepcí e-Learningového kurzu „Ruština ve sféře podnikání“ v distanční
formě studia, informuje o tvorbě, obsahu a struktuře čtyř textových studijních opor a o
zkušenostech s vytvářením elektronické interaktivní verze.
Klíčová slova: distanční forma studia, studijní textová opora, e-Learningový kurz, interaktivní
cvičení, Moodle, Runet, on-line periodika, blogy.
ÚVOD
Obchodní spolupráce mezi českými a ruskými firmami se v posledních deseti letech výrazně
rozšiřuje, což se přirozeně projevuje v rostoucím zájmu o studium obchodní ruštiny. Studenti
distanční formy studia na VŠ patří většinou ke generaci, která se ještě ruštinu učila povinně na
základní či střední škole, a proto si ji poměrně velká část z nich volí ke studiu, pokud se objevuje
v nabídce mezi cizími jazyky na příslušné VŠ, také tam. Mají většinou solidní znalosti ruské
mluvnice a všeobecné slovní zásoby, a proto představují ideální frekventanty kurzu profesního
jazyka, v našem případě nové subvariety ruštiny pro podnikatelskou sféru.
Ruština figurovala v nabídce jak v prezenční, tak v distanční formě studia na OPF SU v Karviné
po celou dobu její dvacetileté existence a počet zájemců o jazyk se vyrovnal v posledních pěti
letech počtu zájemců o jazyk německý. Na relativně vysoký a permanentní zájem o studium
ruštiny jsem v letech 2006-2010 reagovala podáním tří projektů FRVŠ na tvorbu čtyř eLearningových opor pro výuku profesní ruštiny (první volitelný jazyk) ve čtyřsemestrálním kurzu
„Ruština ve sféře podnikání“ v distanční formě studia na OPF SU v Karviné.
Projekty byly schváleny, realizovány a plně využívány ve výuce. Letos v únoru jsem úspěšně
obhájila závěrečnou část zmíněného kompendia pod názvem „Ruský jazyk ve sféře podnikání IV
– Obchodní korespondence v Rusku“. Všechny tři kurzy se osvědčily a byly pozitivně hodnoceny
jak oponenty, tak samotnými studenty. Čtvrtou zpracovanou a obhájenou část kompendia jsem
k mé lítosti nestačila dostatečně prověřit, neboť od ZS 2011 byla ruština v nabídce cizích jazyků
na OPF SU v Karviné zrušena.
Informace o způsobu zpracování studijních opor a struktuře celého e-Learningového kurzu
„Ruština ve sféře podnikání“ jsem zveřejňovala na konferencích a seminářích postupně
v návaznosti na zpracování jednotlivých částí. Dosud jsem neměla možnost prezentovat formální
a obsahovou stránku poslední části čtyřdílného kompendia, Obchodní korespondence v Rusku, o
níž krátce pojednám ve svém příspěvku.
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V následující části příspěvku se stručně zmíním nejprve o celkové koncepci kurzu, obsahové a
formální stránce textových studijních opor a sledovaných cílech. Druhou část věnuji informaci o
přípravě interaktivních cvičení s elektronickou podporu výuky CMS Moodle.
1. CHARAKTERISTIKA KURZU „RUSKÝ JAZYK VE SFÉŘE BYZNYSU“
Kurz je koncipován jako čtyřsemestrální studium jedné z variet současné ruštiny – ruštiny
v podnikatelské sféře formou e-Learningu. Je určen původně studentům distanční formy
bakalářského studia na OPF SU v Karviné, ale může být využit na jakékoliv VŠ ekonomického
zaměření. Předpokladem pro úspěšné absolvování kurzu je znalost ruštiny na úrovni A2
Společného evropského referenčního rámce pro jazyky.
1.1 Charakteristika textových studijních opor
Každá ze čtyř částí studijního textového kompendia je tvořena 5 ekonomickými tématy, která
svým obsahem sledují reálnou situaci postupného navazování obchodních kontaktů s
potenciálním ruským partnerem od seznámení až do uzavření kontraktu (viz dále obsah kurzu).
1.1.1 Obsahová náplň kurzu - témata lekcí
"Ruský jazyk ve sféře podnikání I"
L1 Чешско-российскиe коммерческие контакты - взаимный интерес
L2 Практический минимум по социокультурной адаптации в русской среде
L3 Быстрые средства общения в сфере коммерции - телефон
L4 Факс - новое средство общения в сфере коммерции
L5 Электронная почта - новое средство общения в сфере бизнеса
"Ruský jazyk ve sféře podnikání II"
L1 Выставки, ярмарки, аукционы (торги)
L2 Презентация фирмы
L3 Маркетинг и реклама
L4 Диалоговое деловое общение
L5 Групповые деловые встречи
"Ruský jazyk ve sféře podnikání III"
L1 Международный коммерческий контракт
L2 Dокументы во внешней торговлe - ИНКОТЕРМС
L3 Транспортные и таможенные документы
L4 Платежные документы
L5 Банки в РФ и в ЧР
"Ruský jazyk ve sféře podnikání IV"
L1 Структура и реквизиты деловых документов в России, Гост 2003;
L2 Деловая переписка и коммерческая корреспонденция;
L3 Деловые письма — просьба, приглашение, благодарность, сообщение и др.;
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L4 Коммерческие письма - запрос, предложение, заказ, рекламация;
L5 Языковые и стилистические особенности деловых документов в РФ.
Po prostudování prvních pěti lekcí studijní textové opory "Ruský jazyk ve sféře byznysu I" se
studenti orientují v aktuálních vzájemných podnikatelských a obchodních kontaktech mezi
ruskými a českými podnikateli (výhodné regiony a komodity), jsou obeznámeni se zvláštnostmi a
odlišnostmi ruského sociokulturního prostředí, a tím také připraveni teoreticky i prakticky na
pracovní pobyt na území RF. Pro zvládnutí reálné konverzace při navazování kontaktů s ruskými
partnery a vedení prvních jednání si studenti osvojí dostatečné penzum slovní zásoby a
frazeologizmů. Ve třech posledních lekcích prvního dílu získávají základní informace o
výhodách a nevýhodách prostředků rychlého kontaktu (telefonu, faxu a e-mailu) v ruštině, o
řečové etiketě při telefonování, naučí se frazeologizmy důležité pro jednotlivé fáze telefonického
rozhovoru a procvičováním modelových dialogů se připraví na reálnou situaci.
Studijní textové opory „Ruský jazyk ve sféře byznysu“ II, III svým obsahem navazují na oporu
„Ruský jazyk ve sféře byznysu“ I, každá z opor obsahuje rovněž pět lekcí (viz obsah kurzu).
Témata, která jsou do opor zařazena, se týkají organizace výstav a veletrhů, problematiky spojené
s prezentací firmy, marketingové strategie a reklamy a dále různých forem pracovních schůzek a
jednání na mezinárodní úrovni, struktury a obsahu různých smluv a mezinárodních obchodních
kontraktů, dokumentů používaných v zahraničním obchodě (INKOTERMS) – přepravních,
celních a platebních dokumentů, druhům bankovních operací a služeb poskytovaných bankami,
systému bank v RF a ČR a prezentaci významných českých a ruských bank.
Čtvrtý díl studijní opory "Ruský jazyk ve sféře podnikání IV" - „Obchodní korespondence
v ruštině“ uzavírá celý e-learningový kurz "Русский язык в сфере бизнеса I-IV" а obsahuje
stejně jako všechny předchozí tři části pět lekcí. Cílem materiálu je prezentovat základní
teoretické informace o charakteru a specificích současné ruské úřední a obchodní korespondence,
a poté naučit frekventanty kurzu sestavovat různé typy dopisů, zejména takové, které jsou
v podnikatelské sféře nejužívanější. Po prostudování studijní opory získají studenti konkrétní
představu o funkci a obsahu výrazně inovovaného normativního dokumentu GOST 2003, který
stanovuje nová pravidla pro formální úpravu ruských úředních dokumentů včetně dopisů,
seznámí se se základní ruskou terminologií užívanou v úřední a obchodní korespondenci,
rekvizitami (náležitostmi) ruských úředních a obchodních dopisů, orientují se v klasifikaci a
typologii ruských úředních a obchodních dopisů, osvojí si frazeologizmy a klišé v nich užívaná,
jsou schopni uvědomit si specifika ruské obchodní korespondence a umí sestavit základní a
nejfrekventovanější typy úředních a obchodních dopisů.
Lekce čtvrté části opory mají s ohledem na její odlišný obsah a primární cíl, tj. osvojit si
dovednost psaní obchodních dopisů, zčásti pozměněnou strukturu posledního oddílu. V oddíle
„Prověřte své znalosti“ je formou interaktivních cvičení procvičována slovní zásoba a
frazeologizmy. Vlastní nácvik sestavení dopisů je záležitostí domácí přípravy frekventantů, kteří
mají za úkol dle zadání odevzdat elektronickou poštou stanovené typy dopisů. Analýza dopisů je
provedena u závěrečné zkoušky.
1.1.2 Struktura lekcí v oporách
Každá lekce obsahuje následující tři oddíly:
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1.
2.
3.
Výkladový oddíl obsahuje aktuální informace s ekonomickou a obchodně podnikatelskou
problematikou+kontrolní otázky;
Lexikografický a gramatický oddíl obsahuje modelové ukázky - vzorové dokumenty,
situační dialogy, frazeologizmy, slovní zásobu a gramatický komentář;
Praktický oddíl obsahuje rozmanitá cvičení, úkoly a testy. Součástí tohoto oddílu každé
lekce je Klíč, který slouží studentů ke kontrole správnosti odpovědí.
1.1.3 Cíle jednotlivých oddílů
Texty v prvním oddíle slouží frekventantům kurzu jako prostředek pro:
1. zdokonalení se ve čtení odborných ekonomických textů;
2. nácvik schopnosti se orientovat v jejich obsahové stránce;
3. nácvik schopnosti hledat a nalézt v odborném textu podstatné informace, odlišit je od
informací méně důležitých;
4. nácvik schopnosti reprodukce nové informace, a to jak dílčí, tak celkové.
Při práci s texty si studenti přirozenou cestou rozšiřují dosavadní slovní zásobu o nová slova a
slovní spojení potřebná pro komunikaci v rámci studovaného tématu. Pro usnadnění práce s texty
mohou využívat slovník ve druhé části lekce, anebo pracovat s online slovníky na Internetu.
Za souborem textů následují otázky.
Hlavním cílem práce s texty je tedy naučit se samostatně stručně a výstižně formulovat odpovědi
na otázky a po té reprodukovat obsah textů.
Teprve až se studentům podaří zvládnout tento úkol, mohou přejít k následujícímu oddílu.
Druhý oddíl má charakter teoreticko-praktický a obsahuje čtyři pododdíly:
Vzory dokumentů studentům slouží jako zdroj nové informace o podobě a formální úpravě
ruských dokumentů, mají možnost si vyzkoušet jejich vyplňování, což jim pak v reálné situaci
usnadnit práci s těmito dokumenty. Po seznámení s dokumenty ve studijní opoře frekventanti
vyhledávají další dokumenty na RUNETu, informují a diskutují ve FÓRECH o získaných
poznatcích.
Situační dialogy tvoří další podstatnou položku tohoto praktického pododdílu a slouží jako
příklad a inspirace pro případné použití v reálné situaci či transformaci dle potřeby; jejich nácvik
by měl vést k přirozené komunikaci v reálném prostředí. Rovněž v této části frekventanti
využívají virtuální prostředí ruského Internetu, kde mají možnost, dle odkazu, poslechnout si živá
interview a komentáře.
Slovní zásobu, slovní spojení, frazeologizmy a klišé potřebná pro komunikaci v rámci daného
tematického celku, která si musí osvojit, aby byli schopni úspěšně zvládnout online testy v lekci a
rovněž závěrečný písemný test.
Gramatický komentář je v každé lekci zařazen s cílem procvičení těch gramatických jevů, které
jsou v lekci prioritní a je nutné si je osvojit pro zdokonalení se v odborné ruštině a pro splnění
podmínek kurzu.
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Třetí oddíl je určen k procvičování, k vlastní sebekontrole a zjištění, v jakém rozsahu a nakolik
byl obsah lekce zvládnut.
Na závěr každé lekce je zařazen KLÍČ. Slouží k ověření správností odpovědí některých cvičení,
ostatní cvičení jsou převedena do online verze a jsou jako korespondenční úkoly a testy
kontrolována tutorem dle pokynů daných v prvním tutoriálu.
1.1 Realizace e-Learningového kurzu
Na Slezské univerzitě v Opavě je pro podporu e-Learningu oficiálně využíván systém Moodle,
který je spravován Oddělením eLearningu CIT SU. Každý kurz v systému Moodle má svého
tutora a ke každému kurzu je přidělen pracovník oddělení e-Learningu, který poskytuje tutorům
technologickou a metodickou pomoc a rady. V průběhu semestru se tutor setkává se studenty ve
třech tutoriálech. Pro představu uvádíme obecný program jednotlivých tutoriálů.
Úvodní tutoriál
• Organizační záležitosti,
• představení kurzu v systému Moodle, poskytnutí přístupového klíče studentům,
• seznámení studentů s programovou náplní kurzu - ta je rovněž v samostatném souboru,
• diskuse.
Průběžný tutoriál
• Organizační záležitosti,
• diskuze k látce, problémy studentů s předmětem,
• speciální cvičný test (pouze pro vlastní kontrolu),
• diskuse nad tématy semestrálních prací.
Závěrečný tutoriál
• Organizační záležitosti,
• příprava studentů na zkoušku z předmětu, oznámení termínů zápočtů,
• diskuse k látce kurzu.
1.1.1 Obsahová náplň e-Learningového kurzu
Zpracováním textových studijních opor byla splněna jedna z nezbytných podmínek realizace eLearningového kurzu. Paralelně s prací nad jednotlivými oporami byly konzultovány
s pracovníkem oddělení e-Learningu otázky struktury interaktivních částí a dohodnuta konečná
podoba kurzu. Bylo potřeba zohlednit fakt, že jde o jazykový kurz, jehož cílem je předat
frekventantům kurzu jak teoretické a faktografické informace k jednotlivým odborným tématům,
tak zajistit procvičení a osvojení nové odborné ekonomické slovní zásoby, větných konstrukcí,
gramatických jevů typických pro odborný jazyk a v neposlední řadě zkontrolovat míru osvojení
jak získaných teoretických poznatků, tak lexiky a gramatiky. Nejvhodnější pro splnění těchto cílů
se nám jevila následující struktura kurzu:
•
Výkladová část každé lekce v PDF;
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Autentické dokumenty a odkazy na RUNET;
Situační dialogy v PDF a odkazy na virtuální prostředí ruského Internetu;
Slovní zásoba a frazeologie v PDF a zároveň uvedení odkazů na překladové slovníky na
Internetu a ruské výkladové slovníky na RUNETu;
Gramatika v PDF v tabulkách;
Interaktivní cvičení;
Interaktivní testy;
Práce s ruskými vyhledávači;
Práce s ruskou verzí You tube.
1.1.2
Struktura e-Learningového kurzu
V e-Learningovém kurzu bylo v každém tématu (téma v kurzu = jedna lekce opory) zařazeno
FÓRUM, v němž probíhá řízená diskuse k probíranému tématu. Studenti získávali potřebné
informace pro stanovená témata ve fórech ve výkladových textech (v PDF) a na RUNETU
(ruském Internetu – na ruských internetových vyhledávačích (odkazy měli k dispozici v každé
části kurzu), v různých audiomédiích (online ruská ekonomická periodika, ozvučené texty
článků, blogy, filmy apod.). Příspěvky byly hodnoceny max. 10 body za každé fórum (5 témat =
max. 50 bodů); fóra byla otevřena pro diskusi po celý semestr, nicméně příspěvky byly
hodnoceny v každém fóru jen v určitém časovém rozmezí, a to například takto: fórum k 1. tématu od
8:00 do 23:55 13.10. do 26.10.20xx. Studenti museli uvést zdroj, odkud čerpali novou informaci a jaký
zdroj doporučují ostatním účastníkům kurzu k přečtení.
Další část e-Learningového kurzu tvořily bodované Korespondenční úkoly. Postupně se
získáváním zkušeností se jejich počet ustálil na třech v každé lekci. Odevzdání úkolu bylo řešeno
přes tlačítko "Upravit mé řešení úkolu", po jehož stisknutí se otevřelo zadání, pod nímž
studenti nalezli okno. Do něj vepisovali odpovědi podobně jako v běžných textových editorech,
seznam a termíny, dokdy bylo potřeba odevzdat bodovaný úkol, nalezli studenti na odkazu
"Úkoly" v levém sloupci kurzu. Termín odevzdání každého Korespondenčního úkolu byl pevně
stanoven a jeho nesplnění znamenalo ztrátu bodů.
Znalost učiva celé lekce byla ověřována bodovaným testem on-line, který obsahoval rozmanitá
cvičení: pravda/nepravda, výběr z možností, přiřazovací cvičení a doplňovací cvičení. Také test
byl otevřen jen po určitou dobu.
Celý harmonogram odevzdání bodovaných aktivit byl součástí kurzu.
Kontakt všech účastníků kurzu probíhal neomezeně po celou dobu kurzu prostřednictvím FÓRa a
elektronickou poštou.
1.2.3
Hodnocení práce v kurzu
Studenti získali zápočet po splnění všech podmínek kurzu, s nimiž byli obeznámeni v prvním
tutoriálu.
Kontrola osvojení obsahové náplně jednotlivých lekcí byla tedy prováděna:
• formou diskusních příspěvků na určená aktuální ekonomická témata ve FÓRech;
110
•
•
•
zasíláním korespondenčních úkolů, které byly limitovány časově a termínově;
online testy;
zápočtovým testem v psané formě (100 bodů - úspěšnost 60%).
ZÁVĚR
Za výhody e-Learningu se obecně považuje časová, místní flexibilita a vlastní tempo
frekventanta, což považovali frekventanti mých kurzů rovněž za pozitivum a motivující faktor
pro výběr tohoto typu studia. Podařilo se jim poměrně v krátkém čase zvládnout práci s ruskou
fonetickou klávesnicí a ruskými vyhledávači. Osvojení nové slovní zásoby považovali za
významný krok pro možnost aktivního využívání ruského virtuálního prostředí, získávání
autentických materiálů a zpráv, zvukových i videonahrávek a dalších zajímavých a podnětných
odkazů.
LITERATURA
KOMENDA, Antonín. E-learning a další formy elektronického vzdělávání. In sborník Nové cesty
ve výuce odborného jazyka: Olomouc. Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Právnická fakulta 2008.
ISBN 978-80-7409-012-7.
KOPECKÝ, Kamil. E-learning (nejen) pro pedagogy. Olomouc: 2006, ISBN 80-85783-50-9, 128
s.
KORVINÝ, Petr. E-Learning na OPF SUO – problémy a řešení. Informatika, XVIII/2006.
MROVĚCOVÁ, Ljuba. Obučenije delovomu russkomu jazyku - novaja forma obučenija eLearning I., Kongres MAPRJAL, 17.-23. září 2007, in Mir russkogo slova i russkoe slovo v mire,
tom 3 - Russkij jazyk: Diachronija i dinamika jazykovych processov, Funkcionalnyje
raznovidnosti russkogo jazyka. Heron Press Sofia: 2007, ISBN 978-954-580-215-7, s. 430-436.
MROVĚCOVÁ, Ljuba. Obchodní ruština, Computer Press, a.s., Brno: 2007, ISBN 978-80-2511598-5. Prodejní kód: KEJ006, 463 s.
MROVĚCOVÁ, Ljuba. Ruský jazyk ve sféře podnikání I, studijní distanční opora, FRVŠ 2007,
150 s.
MROVĚCOVÁ, Ljuba. Ruský jazyk ve sféře podnikání II, III, studijní distanční opory, FRVŠ
2009. 150 s.
MROVĚCOVÁ, Ljuba. Ruský jazyk ve sféře podnikání IV – Obchodní korespondence v ruštině,
FRVŠ 2010. 135 s.
RAMÍK, Jaroslav. Distanční studium na Obchodně podnikatelské fakultě Slezské univerzity v
Karviné, INSPO 2005.
KVĚTOŇ, Karel. Základy e-learningu 2003. první. Praha: Vydavatelství ČVUT, 2003. s. 10.
111
PEJSAR, Zdeněk. Elektronické vzdělávání. Ústí nad Labem: Univerzita J. E. Purkyně, 2007. s.
24-25.
VANĚČEK, D. Informační a komunikační technologie ve vzdělávání. Praha: ČVUT v Praze,
2008. s. 64.
112
LANGUAGE TRAINING AS A NECESSARY PRECONDITION FOR
MILITARY OPERATIONS
Radek Nedoma, Ivana Čechová, Jana Beránková, Dana Zerzánová, Hubert Hrdlička
University of Defence, Language Training Centre, Brno, Kounicova 65, 66 210
radek.nedoma@unob.cz, ivana.cechova@unob.cz, jana.berankova@unob.cz,
dana.zerzanova@unob.cz, hubert.hrdlicka@unob.cz
Abstract:
Language training is one of the priorities of the University of Defence (UoD). Under the terms of
their duties within the international units and staffs, future military professionals – graduates of
the UoD – have to be able to communicate in English, either in an oral or a written form. In
order to develop their communicative competence it is necessary to ensure that military
professionals are able to combine their linguistic and cultural knowledge in a social interaction,
and that they use the language adequately under the terms of the given context. Therefore, the
authors designed a new research, the aim of which was to find out what essential language
requirements the ACR (Army of the Czech Republic) professionals have to meet in order to
efficiently accomplish tasks within foreign military missions. The main method of our research
was a questionnaire.
Key words: language training, military professional, skills, listening comprehension, reading
comprehension, speaking, writing
1. COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF LANGUAGE
EDUCATION
Language education at the Faculty of Economics and Management of the UoD respects the
standard of NATO STANAG 6001 and is managed according to the Common European
Framework of Reference, which sets individual competences, especially the communicative one.
Communicative competence assumes knowledge of the socio-cultural environment of the
particular country where the language is spoken as the target competence of language education.
Knowledge of foreign languages helps reduce language barriers and is essential for increasing
individuals´ mobility both in their personal and professional lives.
The two-way process of language education assumes two participants and consists of two
communicative processes. The speaker (writer) produces his/her speech and transfers
information. The listener (reader) receives the information and reacts to it. In other words, every
student of foreign languages needs a whole range of skills and abilities, e. g. writing letters and
emails, reading books, listening to the radio, speaking on the phone, which supposes four basic
language skills:
• Listening comprehension
• Speaking
• Reading comprehension
• Writing
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Relations between productive and receptive competences are described in the following chart:
Speaking
Writing
Listening comprehension Reading comprehension
Spoken language
Written language
Tab 1: Relations between language competences (Harmer, 1991)
Production
Reception
The aim of language teachers at the UoD is to train and practise all four language skills equally
within general language courses as well as courses of special terminology.
2.
RESEARCH
PROJECT:
STATE
AND
CHANGES
PROFESSIONALS’ LANGUAGE COMPETENCE
IN
MILITARY
Thus, in academic year 2010/2011 the Language Training Centre as a part of the UoD has
participated in a sectional task of the research project of the Faculty of Economics and
Management dealing with examining chosen aspects of the construction and usage of the
professional ACR. Our task concerns effective acquisition of a foreign language and improving
language skills/competence of military professionals who carry out their tasks in foreign
missions.
When teaching languages, it’s important to concentrate not only on the development of all basic
language skills, but it is also necessary to find out what each target group will need most, so as
the participants of language training can take advantage of their language knowledge within their
job title in the most effective way. In order to acquire up-to-date information to be able to adjust
language training of military professionals before their dispatching in a foreign military mission,
we decided to work out a questionnaire so that its analysis could provide us with the necessary
information. In general the aim of survey studies was to describe characteristic features of a
population, in our case military professionals, thanks to examining a sample of that group.
We divided the questionnaire into four parts, each of which focuses on a certain kind of
information. In the first part we paid our attention to gathering general information such as the
respondents’ age, military occupational field, and their position in a mission. Age, for example,
can play a big part in terms of the language/languages they studied in the past and which they are
able to use actively in some measure. The older respondents are likely to have some knowledge
mainly of Russian, because it used to be an obligatory subject of the curriculum at any type of
school. On the other hand if speaking about younger respondents we can suppose they have
previous knowledge of another language, mainly of English, which became the prevailingly
studied language at our schools after 1989. We were interested in answers to the question about
the respondents’ position in a mission. It should pass current that the higher the post the
respondents hold, the better knowledge of a foreign language they should have, because they are
in everyday touch with their superiors and subordinates of other NATO armies, are familiarized
with tasks and dates to discharge them, and take part in informal meetings. If their knowledge of
the language was not adequate, they could face big problems.
114
In the second part we concentrated on information which deals with the respondents’ knowledge
of English before being sent to a foreign mission. The length of previous English language study
seems to be an important piece of information, because on the basis of that we can assume the
original respondents’ level of English. We also regard as very important answers to the question
if respondents had passed any language exams from English in the civil sector or which levels of
exam they had mastered according to STANAG 6001, which is crucial for armies within the
NATO. We also included into this part a question the answers of which should give us the
information about the most difficult language discipline during the respondents’ actions in
foreign missions. The evaluated data will help us to determine the most problematic area and
enable us to concentrate our utmost effort on it in the course of language training. Other questions
deal with language courses which respondents attended and language areas the courses were
aimed at – general English, military terminology or terminology of the particular specialization.
The third part of the questionnaire tried to find out how important English was during
respondents’ work in foreign missions and which activities seemed to be the most important for
successful fulfilment of their tasks. Here the questions are concerned with individual language
skills and their practical application so that we can determine what role was played e.g. by
listening comprehension, ability to understand written text or write professional correspondence
clearly and correctly, which types of correspondence occurred most often, to what extent it is
necessary to have a command of special military terminology or be able to make oneself
understood in everyday situations. In this part of the questionnaire we also tried to establish how
the individual respondents perceived their knowledge of English during their deployment in the
mission and what they understand as a potential reason for their inability to master the English
language to such a level as to be able to manage everyday tasks without problems. Depending on
the evaluation of all answers we will search for optimal teaching methods and suitable teaching
materials so that language training should be as efficient as possible and it should correspond to
real needs of military professionals in future operations.
The last part of the questionnaire was devoted to possibilities of using other languages while
working in foreign missions, because it is generally known that not only English is used while
fulfilling military tasks, but also other languages, especially French and Russian, find their full
use. Our further question is focused on finding out what type of the language course is the most
convenient for military professionals as it is evident that somebody can be satisfied with on-line
teaching because of their current position, another one could prefer direct teaching, some
respondents may like a course within the garrison or an army language centre, and others might
prefer a language course at a civil language school.
The questionnaire was sent to approximately five hundred respondents from different army
branches so that the sample of answers for statistical evaluation was characteristic enough and the
results were reliable.
115
3 FINDINGS
3.1 Listening Comprehension
The first skill which we dealt with was listening comprehension. Choděra states that “concerning
communicative skills we should mention listening in the first place because it is the merit of
language study. Listening is not only the first step in learning foreign languages; the ability to
perceive it is also understood as the initial phase of mastering the language. “Listening is the aim
and the means”. (Choděra, 2001, p. 76). The basis of listening consists in the technique of
listening and comprehension, while the technique of listening deals with forms and expressions,
the technique of comprehension deals with the content, meaning and purpose. Listening
comprehension is affected by the knowledge of the context, non/verbal and socio-cultural
elements, as well as the personality of the speaker and receiver/listener. Listening is a universal
device for teaching foreign languages in all skills, not only towards itself as it is not an isolated
skill, but it is directly connected with speaking and indirectly with writing and reading (Choděra,
2001, p. 77).
3.1.1 Analysis of Listening
According to the analysis of listening it is evident that most respondents (64%) assess listening
comprehension as the most important skill. More than two thirds of respondents (83%) consider
listening comprehension as a very important skill. This finding is also supported by the above
mentioned quotes from the professional literature. An interesting fact acquired from the analysis
was that 60% of respondents perceive making themselves understood in everyday situations
(Graph 1) as the most important basic ability.
Everyday English
300
Number of observations
250
200
150
100
50
0
1
2
3
4
5
Categories
Graph1: Everyday English
Our opinion is that if the respondent understands general English in everyday situations, was able
to comprehend the information and pass it on, and then did not have problems in the professional
contacts.
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3. 2 Speaking
Speaking is closely interrelated with development of other skills, mainly with listening. This fact
is underlined e.g. by Luoma, who claims that “specialists who address teaching and testing very
often mention speaking as a term related to various skills which language learners should develop
and acquire” (Luoma, 2004, p. 20). Also a Czech linguist highlights the connection between
speaking and other language skills (Choděra, 1999, p. 48).
Sometimes speaking is incorrectly confused with communicative competence, although this
productive skill is highly stressed from the point of view of gaining communicative competence
in a foreign language. Fulcher gives the following definition: “speaking is a verbal usage of
language with the purpose to communicate with others” (Fulcher, 2003, p. 23). Speaking is “the
basic means of internationalization of the teaching material and it has its firm place among other
skills, given by its motivating power, by which it undisputedly predominates over other
communicative skills. (Choděra, 2001, p. 78).
3.2.1 Analysis of Speaking
Dealing with speaking we concentrated our attention on the possibility of applying the following
practical skills: the ability to make oneself understood at informal meetings with colleagues and
local inhabitants, the ability to speak in everyday situations, the necessity to manage telephone
conversations while everyday working matters, mastering presentations, or the ability to respond
to professional communication without previous preparation.
For 30% of respondents mastering everyday communication is of considerable importance. 65%
of respondents consider the ability to make oneself understood at informal meetings with
colleagues to be of average or higher importance. 51% of respondents use the ability to speak at
informal meetings with colleagues the least often. 31% of respondents very seldom use the ability
to speak in English while communicating with local inhabitants. It was very surprising that 51%
assess the need to use English during everyday telephone conversations as the least frequent
(Graph 2).
Telephones
250
Number of observation
200
150
100
50
0
1
2
3
4
Categories
Graph 2: Telephone conversations
117
5
57% of respondents stated mastering of presentations as the least necessary skill. 31% of
respondents regard the ability to respond to professional communication without preparation as
the least utilizable from the point of view of frequency, whereas 70% of respondents consider this
skill to be of medium to higher importance. 31% of respondents rate the need to master specific
terminology of their own specialization as the least frequent while 51% of them take it as average
or more frequent.
From the above mentioned findings it is obvious that speaking is regarded as the key skill from
the point of view of utilization. We suppose that contrary to writing or reading when the
respondent has the possibility to look up the appropriate equivalents in the dictionary, either in
electronic or printed ones, while speaking or listening they are mostly reliant to their knowledge.
In this way the subjective feeling of “imperfection” and the necessity to concentrate just on these
skills is increased.
3.3 Reading Comprehension
The reading comprehension skill is thought to be “the most useful, needed target skill”and its
primary aim is “understanding the language in its written and printed forms” (Choděra, 1999, p.
48). Richards and Platt define reading comprehension as “perception of written text with the
purpose to understand its content” (Richards, Platt, 1999, p. 306). According to Purm reading
comprehension could be defined as “the ability to read a text written in a foreign language and to
understand its message”. The communicative intention of the reader/receiver usually consists in
the active processing of gained information, comparing the facts and sorting out points of view.
Compared with listening, reading is easier for most students because they can choose their own
pace, go back to more difficult passages or use dictionaries (Purm, Cizí jazyky No. 5_6/93-94).
3.3.1 Analysis of Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension was assessed as a very important skill by 83% of all respondents.
Reading comprehension of official correspondence was regarded as the least useful activity by
62% of respondents, 44% of respondents used reading comprehension while working with
military documents the least often. The same applies for reading instructions, reports and orders
(39%). 63% of respondents seldom used the reading skill working with memos, 53% used the
reading skill for e-mails and faxes the least (Graph 3).
118
E-mails
250
Number of observartions
200
150
100
50
0
1
2
3
4
5
Categories
Graph 3: Reading e-mails and faxes
While analyzing reading comprehension we achieved a very interesting result. Although quite a
high number of respondents think that reading belongs to the most important skills, they assess its
usability by a comparatively low percentage. The most often mentioned case was reading during
working with e-mails. We think that this percentage is higher also because most respondents
included both service and private correspondence to this item.
3.4 Writing
Writing is usually listed as the last among language skills (Choděra, 1999, p. 49). Jelínek, who
stresses connection of all language skills a lot, regards a specific benefit of writing to enable
stronger and more permanent remembering of language phenomena than by the oral practice,
through which the acquisition of these phenomena is relatively easy and fast but they are also
forgotten quite quickly. (Jelínek, Cizí jazyky No. 7-8/92-93, p. 246).
3.4.1 Analysis of writing
More than a half of respondents (77%) assessed the need for writing professional correspondence
as average or rather less important.60% of respondents used the writing skill for creating CVs the
least often. 45% of respondents used writing while working with military documents the least
often. The same applies for writing both formal and informal letters (45%), reports and orders
(41%), memos (64%), and e-mails and faxes (49%) (Graph 4).
119
Writing - documents in English
220
200
180
Number of observations
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
1
2
3
4
5
Categories
Graph 4: Writing e-mails and faxes
From the above mentioned answers it is obvious that most respondents do not regard this skill as
very important or they do not use it within their service duties very often. It is surprising that
while working with e-mails and faxes 53% of respondents say that they use the reading
comprehension skill, but only 49% use writing comprehension at the same activity.
3.5 Military terminology
Military terminology is a specific chapter. More than two thirds (77%) of respondents evaluated
mastery of specific military terminology as important. In the research we distinguished whether
in the foreign mission the respondents used the general military terminology, technical
terminology or the terminology of their specializations. It is not surprising that the knowledge of
terminology is ranked so highly (Graph 5).
Military terminology
140
120
Number of observations
100
80
60
40
20
0
1
2
3
4
5
Categories
Graph 5: Military terminology
This finding is closely connected with the environment, i.e. foreign military mission. Although a
lot of respondents appreciate an informal, non-service communication, the knowledge of
terminology connected with fulfilling tasks at the mission is crucial. Therefore, the remarkable
proportion of respondents recommends taking part in an English language course, specialized in
terminology, before deploying to the mission.
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CONCLUSION
The evaluation of this part of the questionnaire provided us with analyses of individual skills
from the point of view of military professionals in terms of their practical usage in foreign
missions. Although some answers are subjective because of different respondents’ ages (20- 55),
types of units, where they served, and posts, which they held, we managed to obtain a relatively
three-dimensional image of how English and especially individual skills were used by the
military professionals during their deployment in the mission.
The next part of our analysis deals with the impact of age on individual skills and with the
respondents’ suggestions of types and content of specialized courses before foreign missions. The
results of further analyses and findings will be presented to the public after their evaluation,
which is not a short-term matter.
REFERENCES
CHODĚRA, R., RIES L. Výuka cizích jazyků na prahu nového tisíciletí I. 1. vyd. Ostrava:
Ostravská Univerzita Ostrava - Pedagogická fakulta, 1999. 163 s. ISBN 80-7042-157-6.
CHODĚRA, R. Didaktika cizích jazyků: úvod do vědního oboru. 1. vyd. Praha: Academia, 2006.
212 s. ISBN 80-200-1213-3.
FULCHER, G. Testing Secondary Language Speaking. Pearson Longman 2003. ISBN 58247270-9.
HARMER, J. The Practice of English Language Teaching. 1. vyd. Harlow: Longman Group UK
Limited, 1991. 296 s. ISBN: 0582 04656 4.
JELÍNEK. S. Písemný projev v komplexnosti vyučování cizím jazykům. Cizí jazyky, č. 7-8,/9293, s. 246.
LUOMA, S. Assessing Speaking. Cambridge University press 2004. ISBN 0-521-80487-6.
PURM, R. Čtení v cizím jazyce. Cizí jazyky, 1993/1994, č. 5-6.
RICHARDS, J. C., PLATT, J., PLATT. H. Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied
Liguistics. 8th edition. Harlow: Longman Group UK Limited. 1999. ISBN 0-582-07244-1.
121
CONFRONTATION OF CIVILIZATIONS
IN THE INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS THEATRES;
THE IMPACT FROM A LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE ON THE
MILITARY PARTICIPANTS
Marioara Patesan, Ph.D., Crenguta Macovei, Ph.D.,
Stefania Bumbuc Ph.D., Ghita Barsan, Ph.D.
Land Forces Academy, Sibiu, Romania
mpatesan@yahoo.com, crenguta_macovei@yahoo.com,
stefanabumbuc@gmail.com, ghbarsan@gmail.com
Abstract.
At the Land Forces Academy of Sibiu a multidisciplinary team worked on a project called
“Confrontation of civilizations in the international operations theatres; the impact from a
psychological, linguistic and juridical perspective on the military”. Our main concern, as
language teachers, was to find out how important English was as a means of communication,
what its role in carrying out a mission was and which of the four skills are first needed when
being on a military multinational operation. We also tried to see how important nonverbal
communication and cultural awareness are in a military context. Based on questionnaires and
face-to-face interviews the present study reflects the conclusions we reached, after studying and
interpreting the answers concerning the cultural and language difficulties the officers
participating in international missions had encountered.
Keywords: confrontation, operations theatre, linguistic skills, cultural differences
INTRODUCTION
According to Huntington (1992), civilizations are differentiated from each other “by history,
language, culture, tradition and, most important, religion.” These differences are the products of
centuries. Differences do not necessarily mean conflict, and conflict does not necessarily mean
violence. Over the centuries, however, differences among civilizations have generated the most
prolonged and the most violent conflicts. By researching the problems the deployed military face
when encountering other different cultures within international military missions, a number of
problematic situations were identified. These can be included into the objectives of the future
military training because a well prepared international mission should include a cross cultural
training as well, for its success. Both the positive and negative cultural experiences encountered
by those participating in international military missions are quite valuable and can be a starting
point for the improvement of the training programs.
1. LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVES
Most NATO nations, including Romania, have participated in international crises and conflicts in
the period following the Cold War. McKee, Febbraro and Riedel (2008) have studied the impact
122
of intercultural factors on multinational military operations observing that: Since 1990, there has been
a significant increase in the number of military operations that have required North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation (NATO) nations to contribute with forces as part of a multinational
coalition or alliance. Moreover, the range of mission types has broadened to include
peacekeeping, peacesupport, and humanitarian operations. This trend is expected to continue.
The cultural differences can have a huge impact on the military missions. There is certain
evidence that clearly demonstrates that the subtle cultural differences between international
military participants and locals can influence the success of a mission. An army organization - in
contrast to civil organizations - has something of a "supranational" culture. This supranational
military culture is more collectivist and more hierarchical than a civil one. The result is that
military personnel of different backgrounds can work together and be understood well without
too many problems. In a study conducted by Elron, Shamir and Ben-Ari in 1999 it is alleged that
military personnel from different countries appears to be more appropriate to work together than
civilian personnel of NGOs and local agencies in their own countries.
Communication is essential in any team, but it becomes crucial to the multinational military
teams. Research on multinational teams indicates that communication is one of the most pressing
problems affecting the efficiency and effectiveness of the team. A study by Riedel and Karrasch
(2002) found that multinational teams of soldiers in a NATO operation rated communication as
the first among the challenges facing the national team as a member of a multinational work
teams. The communication problems encountered by the military occur due to lack of language
knowledge as well as the lack of cultural awareness.
1.1. Lack of language fluency
We may believe that misunderstandings occur in multinational military missions due to lack of
fluency in the language that is used. While researchers agree that fluency in the language does not
guarantee the accuracy of intercultural communication, a possible communication problem arises
from lack of knowledge at a high level of language used, expressions, idioms and acronyms.
Participants in intercultural groups could take only 50% of the information provided, compared
with 75% in intracultural situations. Proficiency in itself does not provide intercultural
communication.
1.2. Lack of involvement in missions
Non-native participants in missions can misunderstand the initial indications/orders and carry out
the task incorrectly. Their superiors would prefer to give that task to somebody else or even do it
themselves instead of taking the time to resume the explanations / orders. Similarly, when time is
short, officers prefer to give the order to natives, rather than risk a misunderstanding with nonnatives. Some of the soldiers surveyed considered that the practice of giving tasks to native
speakers, simply erode team spirit of the participants in multinational operations. Multinational
coalitions involving Romanian troops often face the problem of using several languages within
the friendly troops.
123
1.3. The language barrier is a significant challenge during any operations.
Developing a mutual understanding of the operation is crucial to successful multinational mission
and is based on effective communication between the troops. Effective communication barriers
include language differences and difficulties and the way the national contingents interpret
information or orders. We must not forget that the language is the ambassador of each culture.
Language barriers are by far the biggest obstacle. In a paper on the "clash of perceptions",
Howard and Guidère (2006) highlight the importance of treating language as a system not only
meaningful but also as a system of meaning and communication.
Learning foreign languages is a necessity for the military. The management of the Romanian
army has recognized this and has developed strategies for its implementation. The language
learning program called PILS (Program for Learning Foreign Languages), aims at professional
developing of the military personnel in Romania, through learning the language, improving and
maintaining the level in that foreign language. Intense preparation in this area starts from the first
year in the military academies, the Romanian future officers reaching higher levels of English
proficiency while still students.
2. OBJECTIVE OF THE RESEARCH
The objective of our research is to identify the linguistic difficulties the Romanian military have
encountered in the theaters of operations. The survey under discussion has been made by
combining quantitative methods - a questionnaire survey – and the qualitative ones - the
interview - and was intended to identify the linguistic issues that have an impact on military
theaters of operations research. The interview was a semistandardized one, so that subjects could
be brought up to situations which were thought representative to the issues at stake. Data
collected by interview fully confirmed the information obtained by questionnaire.
3. POPULATION
The group investigated by questionnaire consisted of 230 military. All interviewees were males at
the age between 24 and 45 years. Distribution of respondents’ ranks ranged from corporal to
major, with a work experience of 4 to 34 years. Structure according to the number of missions
carried out is as follows: 23.9% were on the first mission, 28.25% were on the second mission,
30.4% were on the third mission, 10.9% were on the fourth mission , 4. 3% were on the fifth
mission and 2.2% were on the sixth mission.
4. PROCESSING AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA QUESTIONNAIRE AND
INTERVIEWS
When it comes to the four language skills, the listening and speaking competences were mostly
used, while writing and reading the least. The foreign language was used predominantly at the
operational level rather than in everyday situations. Language level has significantly improved
after the participation in a multinational mission in the theaters of operations. Non-verbal
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communication has helped a lot in communication, all respondents reporting its use to a lesser or
greater extent. Respondents believe they can better overcome language difficulties in the first
place by having a richer vocabulary, not necessarily by mastering the rules of grammar.
23.9%
Very small
extent
2.2 %
Large extent
10.9%
Neither small
or large extent
63%
Small extent
Figure 1. Percentage distribution of responses concerning the degree to which
difficulties in using English were experienced
All of those interviewed admitted that at first, they had difficulties of communication, especially
of understanding and furher explaining certain issues. They asked for additional explanations
whenever an order or indication was not clearly understood so in the end and after a while their
communication skills improved. They also used a lot of non-verbal communication, gestures and
signs to communicate.
13%
Neither
small or
large extent
2.2%
Large
extent
32.6%
Very small
extent
52.2%
Small
extent
Figure 2. Percentage distribution of responses on the degree to which soldiers had
difficulties caused by communicating with colleagues from other countries.
125
19.6%
Neither
small or
large
extent
13%
Large
extent
19.6%
Very
small
extent
47.8%
Small
extent
Figure 3. Percentage distribution of the responses concerning the degree to which
difficulties caused by communication with local people occurred
In the relations with the locals the cultural training they had before deployment was of great help.
The military were helped to communicate with the natives by interpreters. As they could not trust
the interpretors completely, the military noticed all the non verbal signs – posture, face, eyecontact, gestures-to see if their messages were conveyed correctly.
10.9%
Neither
small or
large extent
56.5%
Small extent
32.6%
Very small
extent
Figure 4. Percentage distribution of responses on the degree to which the military had
difficulties due to the use of communications and information systems
The questioned military formulated some recommendations for those who will go on missions.
These recommendations are very well summarized in the following stories:
".... first of all one should be proficient in English as you are a professional in what you do as
you have done your job for ... .. two, three or 15 years... but if you do not know the language
(English), you have a problem ..... so I saw the difference between one who was well trained and
did not know English and one who could speak the language, able to understand much better with
a partner .... to be much closer and to get to know more about each other" (Major)
126
"... in the first place when you go there you're aware of why you are going. You are an expert in
your job so you have the problem with the language. I mean that situation when you have to
speak English.... the type of mission when you have daily contact with Afghans and Americans.
There are other types of missions, I personally haven’t participated in, when you really do not
need the language, you are solely with your countrymen, speak only Romanian, and only one guy
speaks English and is coping with problems .... "(Corporal)
CONCLUSION
Communication is the heart of multinational operations; however, the military participants from
different countries bring different styles of communication and understanding in their
interactions, which can lead to some problems in multinational military operations. We came to
the conclusion that certain steps should be taken in order to improve communication. Thus:
- we should insist more on the existence of an official language (English) to achieve
effective communication during joint military actions. The military personnel should also have
basic knowledge about the local language. Lack of specialized language training is one of the
most serious challenges for the integration of individual soldiers in the multinational
environment.
- the deployed military should be better motivated to learn more languages. This is crucial
for the deployed forces when it comes to carrying out missions as well as solving the daily tasks.
To this end learning English should be intensified.
- when the forces are under enemy fire, communication is critical. In a combat situation, the
units are effective when they are able to communicate. Under tension, the officers and NCOs tend
to have problems even with the native language; in a foreign language these difficulties are
growing, preventing the success of the missions in such intensive and stressful environments.
The multinational component of the military operations will increase, so the training for
multicultural communication must be part of standard military training programs. Multi-media
communication competence involves knowledge, motivation and ability to interact effectively
with members of other cultures. These can be developed using a variety of techniques, including
training, education, experience and role models. But the pre-deployment cross-cultural awareness
courses are not sufficient. Cultural issues should be integrated into all military training courses
starting at the most basic levels. Cultural differences should be taken into account and become a
part of the way in which all military personnel think and act. As teachers of foreign languages we
have to teach the language not only in itself but together with the culture of the people that speaks
it.
REFERENCES
HUNTINGTON, Samuel: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order,
Touchstone: London, 1998, ISBN: 9780743231497
127
BLASCOVICH, James, HARTEL Christine R. (editors): Human behavior in military contexts:
Committee on Opportunities in Basic Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences for the U.S.
Military, National Academies Press. 2008, ISBN 9780309112307
ELRON, E., SHAMIR, B., BEN-ARI, E Why don’t they fight each other? Cultural diversity and
operational unity in multinational forces, in Armed Forces and Society, 26(1), 1999, pp.73-98
FEBBRARO, Angela R., MCKEE, Brian, RIEDEL, Sharon L.(editors). Multinational Military
Operations
and
Intercultural
Factors,
RTO/NATO,
2008,
<http://ftp.rta.nato.int/
public//PubFullText/RTO/TR/RTO-TR-HFM-120///$$TR-HFM-120-TOC.pdf>
MIHAILA-LICA, Gabriela, MACOVEI, Crenguta M., PATESAN, Marioara, BUMBUC, Stefania C.:
The Relationship between Motivation, Anxiety, Learning Strategies and English Language Learning: a
Study on the Cadets of the Land Forces Academy of Sibiu: International Conference on Engineering
and Business Education, LBUS, Sibiu, Romania, 2009, vol. II, pp. 373-378
NEWTON, Howard, GUIDÈRE, Mathieu: The Clash of Perceptions. Center for Advanced Defence
Studies, 2006, < http://cogprints.org/5262/1/cads_report_clash_nov06.pdf>
PATESAN, Marioara. Civilization Clashing: in Revista AFT Sibiu, an XIV nr.2 (54), 2009, pp. 55-60,
ISSN 1582-6384
PATESAN, Marioara. ALIBEC, Camelia. The Role of Communication among Multinational Forces:
The XVI Scientific Communication Session with International Participation, KBO 2010 Sibiu, vol. 2,
pp. 673-677, ISSN 1843-6722
RIEDEL, Sharon L., KARRASCH, Angela. Training communication competence for multinational
teams. Paper presented at the 44th Annual Conference of the International Military Testing Association,
Ottawa, Canada, 2002, http://www.internationalmta.org/Documents/2002/ Proceedings2002.pdf
128
ASSESSMENT OF COMPETENCES
Marioara Patesan, Ph.D, Crenguta Macovei, Ph.D,
Stefania Bumbuc, Ph.D., Dana Carmen Zechia, Ph.D.
Land Forces Academy, Sibiu, Romania
mpatesan@yahoo.com, crenguta_macovei@yahoo.com
stefanabumbuc@gmail.com, dzechia@yahoo.com
Abstract.
The assessment of competences requires a dynamic dialogue between teachers and learners.
Learners should have a role in assessing their own learning and should be aware of their goals,
be able to plan how to reach them, to evaluate their own progress and constantly to improve their
own learning. Generally speaking, assessment, be it self-assessment or peer-assessment, has a
positive impact on learning that not only helps students improve their learning but also motivates
them to learn more. Specific methods of assessing different competences should be explored. In
this study we take a closer look at the evaluation of methods of assessment of the English
knowledge of the cadets and the interpretation of these results, as different assessment methods
have different strengths and functions and it is useful to identify and explore their practical uses.
Keywords: assessment, learning, skills, assessment methods, feedback
INTRODUCTION
The 21st Century is witnessing the rapid transformation of higher education. More students than
ever before enter higher education and a growing number study abroad. The job market demands
new skills and adaptability. The main goal of higher education institutions is to provide students
with expertise in various fields and to prepare them for a career. But the simple demonstration of
factual knowledge is not enough. What a student brings to a degree program and what he or she
leaves will constitute a powerful indicator of teaching quality, availability of resources and the
capacity of students to learn.
When it comes to assessment it seems that both parties involved in this process are not content
with the results. Teachers ask themselves what went wrong when the students’ results are not
good and the students, at their turn, put the blame on the teachers, the difficulty of the subjects
etc. We, as educators, keep on asking which type of assessment is more appropriate. Should we
evaluate our students’ achievements through oral or written exams? Which is more valid? Which
gives chances to teachers to really find out what the students acquired and, on the other hand,
give the students the possibility to show what they really know? Can we really eliminate
subjectivity in our endowers?
An effective assessment indicates the teachers whether the curricular objectives were achieved; it
also helps the teacher make a diagnosis of students’ progress, adapt the tasks given to the students
with their possibilities and also evaluate their own work. A well done assessment guides students
129
in choosing the best ways of self-assertion and makes them to achieve a correct self-assessment,
and, last but not least, provide feedback to parents and to the educational institution.
Evaluation of the teaching is part of the educational assessment, which aims to review the
effectiveness of teaching in terms of the relationship between project objectives and the results
achieved by students during the learning activity. Evaluation cannot be separated from education
and learning, and to be effective it must have clearly defined objectives, effective and modern
methods and techniques as well as methods of investigation and reporting of school results for
each student.
1. INDICATORS OF EFFECTIVE ASSESSMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Assessment is treated by staff and students as an integral and prominent component of the entire
teaching and learning process. Assessment tasks assess the capacity to analyze and synthesize
new information and concepts rather than simply recall information previously presented. A
variety of assessment methods is employed so that the limitations of particular methods are
minimized. Assessment tasks are designed to assess relevant skills as well as subject-specific
knowledge and skills. Excessive assessment should be avoided so that the tasks are weighted to
balance the developmental (‘formative’) and judgmental (‘summative’) roles of assessment.
Scores are calculated and reported on the basis of clearly articulated learning outcomes and
criteria for levels of achievement. Students receive explanatory and diagnostic feedback as well
as grades.
According to Gilbert de Landsheere evaluation implies measurement, assessment as well as
decision.
- Measurement – lies in assigning of symbols (score, numbers, letters, descriptions, etc.) to
some learning outcomes. These symbols are assigned by making a correlation between quality
and quantity of school results, on the one hand, and a rating scale (standard), on the other.
- Assessment – lies in issuing of value judgments about the results found. These results are
given an individual value; they represent progress, stagnation or even regression for students,
depending on the value of past scores, according to the intellectual or physical effort put to obtain
them, according to the expectations of students themselves or the expectations of others.
Assessments such as:”very good”, “good”, “insufficient” are made, as well as praises, critical
observations, encouragements, advice, recommendations.
- Decision – it extends the act of assessment to notification, characterization, award,
recommendation, with the aim of improving the activity in the following phases.
What students value in assessment. Students study more effectively when they know what they
are working towards. They value, and expect, transparency in the way their knowledge will be
assessed: they wish to see a clear relationship between lectures, tutorials, practical classes and
subject resources, and what they are expected to demonstrate they know and can do. They also
wish to understand how grades are determined and they expect timely feedback that explains the
grade they have received, rewards their achievement, as appropriate, and offers suggestions for
how they can improve.
130
What faculty expects out of assessment. As assessment is a process of determining "what is"
providing faculty members, administrators, and others with evidence, numerical or otherwise,
from which we can develop useful information about our students, programs, and courses and
also about ourselves. This information can help us make further decisions about student learning
and development, professional effectiveness, and program quality.
2. ASSESSMENT METHODS
Throughout our teaching careers we have encountered thousands of different assessments.
According to Stiggins, although the variations are endless, all of the assessments a teacher has
experienced fall into one of the following categories of methods:
1. Selected response and short answer methods consist of those in which students select the
correct or best response from a list provided. Formats include multiple choice, true/false,
matching, short answer, and fill-in questions. For all selected response assessments, students’
scores are figured as the number or proportion of questions answered correctly.
2. Extended Written Response requires students to construct a written answer in response to
a question or task rather than to select one from a list. An extended written response is one that is
at least several sentences in length. We judge correctness of extended written responses by
applying one of two types of predetermined scoring criteria. Scores therefore also take one of two
forms: number or percentage of points attained, or rubric scores.
3. Performance Assessment is assessment based on observation and judgment; we look at a
performance or product and make a judgment as to its quality. As with extended written response
assessments, performance assessments have two parts: a performance task or exercise and a
scoring guide.
Brown makes a review of the main methods the university teachers use during evaluations. We
present below those which are mainly used in the academy to assess English language skills.
1. Cases and open problems – their use allows simultaneous assessment of students’
knowledge and cognitive skills. The cases should be short and clear as well as the teacher’s
evaluation criteria.
2. Computer-based Assessment – is a modern method that makes the scoring very quick
and easy; however it increases the time needed by the teacher to come up with a grading
program.
3. Essays – a standard method of assessment, easy to apply, which requires very clear
criteria for the assessment to counter the influence of subjectivity.
4. Learning logs/ diaries – a method less used in Romanian higher education; however, if it
is used in the case of the less motivated students or with those who have developed learning
strategies to a lesser extent, it can be very effective.
5. Modified Essay Questions (MEQs) – is a method that is based on a case study and is quite
easy to implement. If the student has a satisfactory answer, the teacher will give him/her more
information and will ask the next question. This method stimulates thinking.
6. Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) –a rapid assessment method, although it is often
criticized due to its superficiality; however, such a test has a high level of reliability and validity
and it also enables a fast feedback.
7. Orals –– a method to test the emotional control of any student and also his/her ability to
communicate and think quickly. The criteria for evaluation must be clear to the student, in this
case too.
131
8. Portfolios – is a method that belongs to the formative evaluation and which includes an
increased trust between teacher and student. It can be a starting point for oral questioning and the
feedback is also fast.
9. Poster Sessions – this method also evaluates the student's ability to synthesize and
present succinctly and attractively the material that he/she is required to.
10. Presentations – a method involving the student to a great extent with all his/her skills
and knowledge.The feedback can be substantial because it can come from any person who assists
in the presentation.
11. Group Projects and Dissertations- is a method that allows a full assessment of the
knowledge and skills. Due to its great complexity, the method requires clear evaluation criteria as
well as sufficient time resources.
13. Questionnaires and Report Forms – can be thought of a wide range of forms –
structured, semi- structured or open questions. Combination of these forms is recommended to
assess not only the knowledge but also the skills.
13. Short Answer Questions – easily applied standard method but with a low potential for
practical or cognitive skills assessment.
14. Simulated Interviews – a method used especially when it comes to assessing the amount
of communication skills along with the amount of knowledge of the student.
15. Single Essay Examination – is a relatively easy method to apply but it requires
increased time resources. It allows for the assessment of a wide range of skills but the feedback is
slow.
16. Work based Assessment – a complex assessment that may include more of the methods
listed above. The validity of this method is ensured by the validity of the criteria used.
All assessments, regardless of method selected, should answer the following questions: why,
what, how. Why do we assess? -to help students understand how much they have learned, and to
add information to the grade book in preparation for calculating a course grade. What do we
assess? - knowledge, reasoning, performance skills, products, and/or disposition. How to assess?
- Which assessment method is more appropriate to select? To begin with clear targets is
important because different targets require different assessment methods and also because the
breadth and depth of a learning target affects how much coverage it needs on the assessment and
in instruction.
There is no single assessment method or technique that tests the full range of capabilities and
competences. That is why the use of questionnaires is of immense value in gathering information
that can serve as a basis for studying merits and faults in teaching, class organization, curriculum
materials, methods and procedures used in class.
3. QUESTIONNAIRE AND RESULTS
When it comes to the subjects taught in our academy, we tried to reshape the curriculum for the
military by introducing appropriate courses by using specific teaching materials for each military
specialty, by forming the skills necessary to develop an expert. As for learning English, our main
goal has been that of developing communication, both verbal and written at the level of
understanding and conveying professional information in a formal situation, of understanding at
first glance a military-technical text, as well as the filling in of specific NATO formats. We have
132
also encouraged self- study due to a limited number of classes. We wanted our students to
practice reading to enrich their vocabulary, their manipulative thinking skill to be able to identify
the author’s attitude, to find out the meaning of certain unknown specialized words and phrases at
a first reading. We have to mention that by the end of the 6th semester, our military students have
to pass a language competence test with the four skills examined. They have to get a minimum
level to be able to enter the final exam.
We used a questionnaire to find out students’ opinions about the effectiveness of each method of
evaluation which was used during the English language classes. The same questionnaire was
submitted to the teachers who teach English courses at the academy or university. The results of
the two groups were compared to see to what extent their views coincide. The group of students
consisted of 200 students in the second and third years of studies at the academy, and the teacher
group included 30 teachers.
2,7
Work based Assessment
3
Single Essay Examination
2,7
2
4,3
Simulated Interviews
4
1,7
Short Answer Questions
3
Questionnaires and Report Forms
Presentations
4
3,5
2,5
Group Projects and Dissertations
3,1
4,2
1,7
2,1
Poster sessions
2,7
4,3
Portfolios
2,5
5
Orals
4,7
3,3
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
5
Modified Essay Questions (MEQ)
Learning logs/ diaries
2
1,5
4,5
Essays
3,2
1,5
Computer-based assessment
4,3
3,4
1,7
3,4
Cases and open problems
2,5
0
0,5
1
1,5
Students
2
2,5
3
3,5
4
4,5
5
Teachers
Fiure 1. Comparative chart of the average score given to the evaluation methods by the
surveyed groups (students, teachers)
As can be seen from the chart, according to the respondents, the oral examination holds the first
place in effectiveness. Despite the fact that students report difficulties linked to the emotional
control during this type of evaluation, they, however, appreciate its capacity to achieve a true and
accurate feedback. Teachers also consider it to hold the first place. According to the students the
second method in terms of effectiveness is the Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) - a method
they prefer for its simplicity and reliability; it gave them the feeling of recognizing the correct
answer rather than knowing or deducing it. Teachers, however, giave an average score to this
method.
133
Simulated Interviews is the method that both students and teachers agree upon: it is an effective
method for learning English. Assessment through portfolios, presentations, essays, modified
essay questions (MEQs) and questionnaires and report forms are valued by teachers, but not by
students who give these an average score.
The other methods got different scores which, however, remain below average, indicating a lower
valuation by both the teachers and students. The results of this survey show that there are few
significant differences between students and teachers' opinions regarding the effectiveness of
different methods of evaluation. It seems that more problems arise when it comes to the criteria
that teachers use within the assessment method rather than the method itself. Therefore, a major
task for the teachers is to clearly explain and to clarify the criteria that are to be used to their
students.
CONCLUSION
Along with teaching and learning, assessment is an essential component of the educational
process, which provides information on quality and functionality. Evaluation, by its implications,
goes beyond the strict framework of teaching and schooling. When assessing students, we
actually assess both teachers and the quality of teaching along with the educational institution and
the education system as a whole.
We can only subscribe to the conclusion of the Education Committee of the global organization
for the accountancy profession IFAC, regarding the development of assessment methods which is
a continually evolving process, particularly as technological advances in the field introduce new
possibilities. In designing an assessment system, the educators should clearly understand the
capabilities and competences that are identified as being essential: the education system is
structured in such a way as to ensure that the learning opportunities are created to enable the
student to learn and acquire the necessary skills.
REFERENCES
ASTIN, Alexander W., BANTA, Trudy W.; CROSS, K. Patricia; EL-KHAWAS, Elaine;
EWELL, Peter T.; HUTCHINGS, Pat; MARCHESE, Theodore J., MCCLENNEY, Kay M;
MENTKOWSKI, Marcia; MILLER, Margaret A.; MORAN, E. Thomas; WRIGHT, Barbara D..9
Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student Learning. Core principles of effective
assessment, American Association for Higher Education Assessment Forum, December 1992,
<http://www.nova.edu/cwis/saase/forms/aahe_principles_good_assessment.pdf>
BROWN, George. Assessment: A Guide for Lecturers. In Assessment Series No.3, LTSN
Generic Centre, 2001, www.palatine.ac.uk/files/980.pdf
LANDSHEERE, Gilbert de. Evaluarea continuă a elevilor şi examenele – manual de
docimologie, Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică, Bucureşti, 1975
134
GARDINER, Lion F. Monitoring and Improving Educational Quality in the Academic
Department, In Leading Academic Change: Essential Roles for Department Chairs, Ann F. Lucas
and Associates, San Francisco, Jossey - Bass, 1999, pp.165-194
PALOMBA, Catherine A., BANTA W. Trudy. Assessment Essentials: Planning, Implementing,
and Improving Assessment in Higher Education: Jossey-Bass, Inc., Publishers, San Francisco;
1999, ISBN-0-7879-4180-8
STIGGINS, Richard J., ARTER, Judith A., CHAPPUIS, Jan., CHAPPUIS, Stephen. Classroom
Assessment for Student Learning: Doing It Right—Using It Well. Assessment Training Institute,
Inc., 2005
135
VÝCHODISKA PRO KONCIPOVÁNÍ VYSOKOŠKOLSKÝCH KURZŮ
PROFESNĚ ZAMĚŘENÉHO NĚMECKÉHO JAZYKA
Tomislav Potocký
Vysoká škola finanční a správní, o.p.s., Katedra jazyků
Estonská 500, 101 00 Praha 10
tomislav.potocky@vsfs.cz
Abstrakt:
V předkládaném příspěvku je tematizována problematika vysokoškolské výuky odborně a
profesně profilovaného německého jazyka pro podnikovou sféru. V současné době akcentované
konstruktivistické pedagogické paradigma nachází svou odezvu rovněž v úvahách o možnostech
koncipování takových jazykových kurzů, které by byly přesně šity na míru jejich frekventantů.
Předpokladem úspěšného procesu profesního jazykového vzdělávání je v prvé řadě provedení
analýzy potřeb recipientů a rovněž samotné podnikové sféry, která podmiňuje charakter a úroveň
požadovaných výstupů. Právě zhodnocení tohoto aspektu, spolu s lingvistickou charakteristikou
jazykového materiálu budoucích kurzů, který je průnikem odborného, profesního a obecného
jazyka, je vlastní náplní příspěvku.
Klíčová slova:
cizí jazyk pro profesní účely, jazykový management, lingvodidaktika, němčina pro podnikovou
praxi, profesní komunikace, vzdělávací standard
ÚVOD
Příspěvek si za svůj primární cíl klade blíže identifikovat dvě vybraná důležitá kritéria
podmiňující přípravu kurzů německého jazyka pro ekonomickou (podnikovou) sféru na vysokých
školách: 1) jazykovou situaci budoucích potenciálních zaměstnavatelů absolventů kurzů a 2)
lingvistické vymezení jazykového materiálu tvořícího vlastní obsah výuky.
Zamýšlený model výuky, který by v sobě funkčně integroval jak prvky odborného, tak profesního
jazyka, by se měl stát základem autorova dizertačního projektu nenormativního vzdělávacího
standardu (tzv. ideálního profilu) pro příští koncipování obsahů, cílů a metod výuky
odborného/profesního jazyka na studijních oborech fakult s ekonomickým zaměřením. Uvedený
standard by měl zahrnovat vymezení vzdělávacího obsahu výuky německého jazyka pro
ekonomickou praxi na základě zkušeností a potřeb všech zainteresovaných aktérů vzdělávacího
procesu, tj. vyučujících, studentů a jejich možných budoucích zaměstnavatelů. Záměrem je dále
stanovit vzdělávací cíle a profesně zaměřené komunikativní jazykové činnosti, znalosti a
dovednosti v rámci specifické odborně/profesně orientované komunikativní jazykové
kompetence.
136
1. ZJIŠTĚNÍ JAZYKOVÉ SITUACE PODNIKŮ V ČR JAKO PŘEDPOKLAD
IDENTIFIKACE
JAZYKOVÝCH
POTŘEB
BUDOUCÍCH
FIREMNÍCH
ZAMĚSTNAVATELŮ
1.1 Regulace podnikové komunikace z hlediska teorie jazykového managementu
Výzkum jazykové situace v podnikové sféře se v hledáčku aplikované lingvistiky objevuje již od
80. let. V Německu se tehdy etablovala její speciální odnož v podobě tzv. Betriebslinguistik.
V anglosaském prostředí se v téže době objevily první práce věnované hospodářské komunikaci
vycházející z tzv. teorie jazykového managementu1.
Pouhé statistické údaje o podílu zahraničních investic nedokáží beze zbytku postihnout
komplikovanou provázanost neustále se měnících vlastnických poměrů zahraničních, resp.
smíšených společností působících v České republice, jejich korporátní identity a firemního
jazyka, určeného za základ vnitrofiremní komunikace. Volba firemního jazyka u podniků se
zahraniční spoluúčastí totiž často bývá výsledkem komplexního rozhodovacího procesu,
probíhajícího na třech základních úrovních, které představují:
1) místo a tradice, napojení lokálního firemního sídla na komplexní, nadnárodní struktury
společnosti, image společnosti, jednoznačně čitelná navenek i dovnitř,
2) organizace interní i externí podnikové komunikace, včetně výběru nových zaměstnanců a
dalšího vzdělávání těch stávajících s explicitně charakterizovanými komunikačními
profily,
3) stupeň normovanosti jazykového výběru s ohledem na účel možných interakcí (v rámci
tzv. komunikačních událostí – např. porad) a z něho vyplývající dominantní textuality
(např. v podobě standardizovaných formulářů).
Zejména do druhé a třetí roviny se promítají další relevantní extralingvistické i intralingvistické
fenomény, jakými jsou např.: individuální vs. institucionální komunikace, formálnost vs.
neformálnost komunikačních událostí, individuální vs. kolektivní adresát, sociální pozice
producentů a recipientů textů v rámci interní komunikace, stupeň dominance účastníků externí
komunikace (např. dodavatel vs. odběratel). Další uvažované faktory představují ústní vs.
písemná podoba komunikace, resp. odesílatel textů, stupeň kodifikace textů v případě
standardizovaných pracovních procesů apod. (Nekula, Neustupný, 2009, s. 69).
Při identifikaci výše uvedených parametrů firemní komunikace je při sociolingvistických
výzkumech využíváno postupů vycházejících z teorie jazykového managementu. Podle ní je
původ všech jazykových problémů nutno hledat v mikrojevech na úrovni promluvy. Jazykové
promluvy totiž kromě funkce komunikační plní i funkci symbolickou a společenskoekonomickou. Jazykový problém tak musí být lokalizován v interakci, z níž pak vycházejí
jazykové postoje, které jsou rozvedeny v oblasti ideologie a zpětně působí na jazykový
management. V rámci organizovaného managementu je rozlišováno mezi opatřeními preinterakčními (anticipujícími možné problémy) a post-interakčními (řešícími důsledky). Příklady
1
Teorie jazykového managementu vyrostla na konci 80. let na podloží dosavadního pojetí jazykového plánování,
které se vyvíjelo v rámci sociolingvistiky od šedesátých let 20. století. Do českého kontextu byla uvedena přímo
jedním z jejich zásadních původců, prof. J. V. Neustupným (Neustupný, Nekvapil, 2003).
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nejsložitějších systémů organizovaného managementu poskytují zejména systematika vyučování
cizích jazyků a jazyková politika (Neustupný, 2002).
1.2 Vyhodnocení recentních výzkumů jazykového managementu vybraného vzorku firem
v ČR pro potřeby budoucího plánování výuky profesní němčiny
Situací v nadnárodních podnicích působících na území České republiky se v rámci několika
výzkumů zabývali lingvisté sdružení kolem profesorů Nekuly a Nekvapila. Poslední zásadní
výzkum jazykové situace v segmentu mezinárodních, v Česku působících, firem byl proveden na
vzorku 30 vybraných společností mezi lety 2004 a 2008 (Nekula, Marx, Šichová, 2009).
Z posledního výzkumu, jenž měl sice synchronně-deskriptivní charakter, vyplynula řada
zajímavých skutečností, zejména s ohledem na proměnu role češtiny, němčiny, angličtiny a
jiných jazyků ve srovnání s výsledky předchozích šetření, provedených po změně společenských
poměrů. „31% dotázaných německo-českých podniků uvedlo, že pro ně angličtina představuje
jediný, resp. jeden z firemních jazyků. U velkých nadnárodních společností je přitom angličtina
v tomto ohledu zastoupena dvakrát častěji než v podnicích střední velikosti a ve srovnání
s malými firmami je její podíl dokonce desetinásobný.“ (Nekula, Marx, Šichová, 2009, s. 65).
Součástí uvedeného výzkumu bylo také vyhodnocení inzerátů s nabídkou pracovních míst u
mezinárodních společností uveřejněných v příloze Kariéra deníku Hospodářské noviny v letech
1997, 2002 a 2007. Z celkem 2230 inzerátů vyplynulo zjištění, podle něhož se požadavek na
znalost angličtiny objevil v prvním sledovaném roce u 66%, zatímco v posledním roce již u 79%
všech analyzovaných inzerátů. Podíl němčiny ve stejných letech klesl z cca. 11% na 6%.
Zastoupení inzerátů s požadovanou alternativní angličtinou, nebo němčinou se rovněž snížil z
15% na 11% (Nekula, Marx, Šichová, 2009, s. 77). Srovnání údajů z let 1997 a 2007 přineslo
rovněž zajímavý údaj, potvrzující zvyšující se počet zaměstnavatelů, kteří od uchazečů o
inzerované pracovní pozice očekávají znalost více než jednoho cizího jazyka. Z 10% v druhé
polovině 90. let stoupl jejich podíl o deset let později na 17% (Nekula, Marx, Šichová, 2009, s.
75). Analýza inzerátů ozřejmila rovněž tendenci k explicitnímu pojmenování požadované úrovně
jazykových znalostí uchazečů. V roce 2007 se objevilo výslovné pojmenování typu „aktivní
znalost“, „FCE“, „státní zkouška“ apod. u více než 45% všech inzerátů (Nekula, Marx, Šichová,
2009, s. 76). Jiné výsledky týkající se pozice angličtiny, resp. němčiny vyplynuly z druhého
zkoumaného souboru dat, který mezi lety 1991 a 2003 poskytla inzerentní příloha deníku MF
Dnes. Zde se naopak ukázala tendence k posilování pozice němčiny oproti angličtině2, což autoři
vysvětlují odlišnou socioprofesní charakteristikou osob, na něž byly inzeráty zacíleny. Zatímco se
v případě Hospodářských novin jednalo nejčastěji o tzv. „white-collars“, tj. o pretendenty
středních a vyšších manažerských pozic, rekrutovala se cílová skupina inzerátů MF Dnes z osob
zastávajících často „praktické“ profese bez vyžadovaného vysokoškolského vzdělání (Nekula,
Marx, Šichová, 2009, s. 80).
Parciální analýzy jazykových potřeb v tuzemsku působících firemních subjektů propojené
s výzkumem jazykových dispozic studentů (budoucích zaměstnanců) v posledních letech nabídli
akademičtí lingvisté z několika regionálních vysokých škol. Jednalo se povětšinou o mikrosondy
2
V r. 2003 byl poměr explicitně uváděného požadavku znalosti angličtiny, resp. němčiny 42% vs. 20%.
138
na základě dotazníkových šetření, která jsou realizovaná v rámci nějakého širšího interního
výzkumného záměru.
Zjištění jazykových potřeb podniků je rovněž v zájmu zastřešujících organizací typu
hospodářských komor. Česko - německá obchodní a průmyslovou komora provedla svoje interní
dotazovací šetření, týkající se zjištění jazykové situace mezi svými členskými firmami, a údaje
v roce 2010 poskytla tisku. Z celkového počtu 570 podniků sdružených v komoře byla
vyhodnocena data od 158 společností. Implicitně očekávatelnou pozici němčiny potvrdily údaje
firem, které od svých zaměstnanců ve vyšších a středních pozicích vyžadují pokročilé (67%),
resp. velmi dobré (52%) znalosti německého jazyka. Zajímavé trendy lze vystopovat v reakcích
na hodnocení dostupnosti německy hovořícího personálu. Jako uspokojivou ji hodnotí 42% a jako
špatnou 38% firemních respondentů. Ještě markantněji se jeví odpovědi na dotaz týkající se
eventuální pociťované změny disponibility pracovníků s aktivní němčinou na pracovním trhu
v posledních letech. 45% společností sice nevnímá v tomto ohledu žádný rozdíl, dalších 48%
však zaznamenalo jisté (31%), resp. výrazné (17%) zhoršení
Máme-li na základě omezené heuristiky výše uvedených výzkumů vyhodnotit pozici němčiny
v kontextu proměny jazykové situace v internacionálně profilovaných firmách v České republice
a následně predikovat možné kontury budoucího vývoje, lze konstatovat jistou diskrepanci mezi
jazykovou situací, tak jak ji reflektuje podniková sféra, a státní jazykovou politikou.
Z analyzovaných inzerátů, údajů o podnikových jazykových kurzech a interview s firemními
pracovníky speciálně česko-německých společností, má němčina v očích aktérů často zásadní
postavení, přinejmenším pak stejnorodé ve srovnání s angličtinou, přičemž rozdělení působnosti
obou jazyků je výrazně funkčně podmíněné. Naznačené výzkumy podnikové lingvistiky
relativizují status němčiny coby regionálního jazyka a prokazují jinou míru její relevance ve
firemním pre-interakčním a post-interakčním jazykovém managementu, než jak se odráží
v konkrétních postulátech státní politiky jazykového vzdělávání.3
2. LINGVISTICKÉ VYMEZENÍ JAZYKOVÉHO MATERIÁLU
Koncipování úspěšného vysokoškolského vzdělávacího standardu výuky německého jazyka pro
ekonomickou (podnikovou) sféru s sebou nese implicitní nutnost nejprve vymezit definiční obory
„proměnných“, které takový standard obsahuje. Jednu z nich představuje jazykový materiál pro
učební materiály a sylaby příslušných kurzů, jehož „definiční obor“ představuje průnik třech
jazykových variet: obecného (allgemeine Sprache), profesního (Berufssprache)4 a odborného
jazyka (Fachsprache).
2.1 Odborný jazyk z pozice lingvistiky
Segment odborných jazyků doposud zůstává nikoliv úplně definovanou a co do své struktury ne
zcela jasně vymezenou oblastí jazyka. Odrazem tohoto stavu je celá řada různých ekvivalentních
4
Zavádění nových učebních přístupů a učebnic navíc vedlo k další stratifikaci pojmosloví. Můžeme se tak setkat s
pojmem profesně zaměřený jazyk (beruflich orientierte Sprache, resp. berufsbezogene Sprache). O terminologickém
rozrodu blíže pojednává Funk (2001, s. 962-3).
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označení odborného jazyka, která v průběhu posledních asi 100 let v německé lingvistice nalezla
svou
platnost:
Berufssprache,
Arbeitssprache,
Fachkommunikation,
Sachsprache,
Sekundärsprache, Sondersprache, Zwecksprache, Technolekt nebo Teilsprache (Fluck, 1980).
Při uvažování o vzájemném vymezení a odlišení uvedených jazykových subvrstev se v aktuálním
německém lingvistickém diskurzu nejčastěji vychází z původního Hoffmannova modelu
horizontálního a vertikálního členění odborných jazyků (Hoffmann, 1987). Z diferenciace podle
komunikačních sfér v rámci horizontálního členění lze odvodit společná jazyková minima
řečových jednání, vyskytující se 1) ve všech vrstvách jazyka, 2) v mnoha odborných jazycích, 3)
pouze v jednom odborném jazyku. V případě vertikálního členění je pro změnu možno
identifikovat rozdílné jazykové roviny, popřípadě sféry jednání, přičemž rozhodující kritéria pro
určení jazykových vrstev představují 1. míra abstraktnosti, 2. prostředí komunikační interakce, 3.
charakteristika komunikačních partnerů (Hoffmann, 1987, s. 64). Uvedený model ovšem není
zdrojem jednoznačné a vnitřně bezrozporné klasifikace uvedených jazykových variet a
představuje pouze jeden z výkladových rámců, které se za posledních přibližně sto let (přibližně
v takovém časovém horizontu lze hovořit o moderním výzkumu odborného jazyka) speciálně
v německém prostředí objevily.
2.2 Odborná komunikace ve výuce cizího jazyka
V centru všech metodicko didaktických koncepcí výuky odborné komunikace v cizím jazyce stojí
pojem odborně komunikační kompetence (fachkommunikative Kompetenz) jako „schopnost
učících se, (…) produkovat, resp. recipovat odborné texty jako interkulturně, sociálně, situačně a
funkcionálně podmíněné, věcně logicky členěné, sémanticky strukturované, lineárně sekvenčně a
hierarchicky organizované jazykové jednotky.“ (Baumann, 2000, 159)
Odborně komunikativní výuka cizího jazyka je bezesporu specifickou formou předávání
vědomostí a dovedností, jejíž obsahy a cíle se řídí nejen aktuálními potřebami potenciálních
adresátů jazykového vzdělávání, ale podléhá rovněž komplexu vztahových vazeb nejrůznějších
vědních disciplín. H. R. Fluck v předmluvě ke své studijní bibliografii, zahrnující mimo jiné
vědecké a praktické oblasti textové lingvistiky, diskurzivní analýzy, odborné lexikologie,
překladu a tlumočení, jazykové politiky a odborně zaměřeného vyučování cizího jazyka uvádí:
„Výzkum odborného jazyka a praxe cizojazyčného odborného vyučování dnes zahrnuje všechny
formy profesní a institucionální komunikace v jejich funkcionalitě a interakcionalitě“ (Fluck,
1998, s. 2).
V posledních dvou desetiletích navíc došlo k rozšíření referenční platformy
výzkumu odborné komunikace o fenomén interkulturality, rozpracovaný zejména H. Schröderem
(Schröder, 1993), jenž našel odezvu samozřejmě také v koncepcích výuky odborného cizího
jazyka (Buhlmann, Fearns, s. 2000).
Pojem odborně komunikativní výuka cizího jazyka zmiňuji s odkazem na označení
Fachkommunikativer Fremdsprachenunterricht, které T. Schmiedl užívá v distinkci ke
konkurenčním názvům, které se postupně etablovaly v německém diskurzu výuky odborného
jazyka5. V jeho pojetí tvoří základ odborně komunikativního vyučování „systematický popis
5
V odborné literatuře v rámci německého jazykového okruhu označují jednotliví autoři odbornou komponentu
cizojazyčného vyučování přívlastky fachbezogener, fachsprachlicher, fachorientierter, resp.
Fachfremdsprachenuntericht (Schmiedl, 2001, s. 237).
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variantních a invariantních jazykových prostředků nejrůznějších odborných textů, jenž je vsazen
do mnohovrstevnatých souvislostí komunikačních činností.“ (Schmiedl, 2001, s. 244). Implicitně
pro úspěšné plánování takovéhoto vyučování vyplývá nezbytnost neustálé korelace didaktických
záměrů s výsledky lingvistického zkoumání. Vyučování odborné komunikace v cizím jazyce je
chápáno jako specifický způsob zprostředkování cizího jazyka, který přesahuje hranice
jazykového systému a vyznačuje se extrémně úzkou vazbou na požadavky adresáta a orientací na
souvislosti obsahové a textové typologie.
2.3 Integrativní model výuky profesně odborného jazyka
Integrativní pohled slučuje přístupy inovativní metodologie lingvistiky odborných textů
posledních dvou desetiletí a didaktiku cizích jazyků a didaktické veličiny (příprava učební látky,
formy úkolů, cvičení, kontroly výstupů) úzce váže na reálně probíhající procesy odborné
komunikace. Spolu s důležitostí vymezení gramatického minima a lexikálního inventáře nabývají
v rámci výuky odborného cizího jazyka na relevanci rovněž mimojazykový kontext, stejně jako
aspekty interkulturality, multimediality a interaktivity.
V modelu J. Braunerta představují východisko pro vymezení obecného, profesního a odborného
jazyka otázky zaměřené na komunikanty (kdo?), místa (kde?), obsahy (co?), prostředky (jak?) a
záměry (k čemu?). Jmenovaný při své analýze jazykové zkoušky Zertifikat Deutsch für den Beruf
(ZDfB) dokládá, že mezi obecným a profesním jazykem existuje blízká příbuznost, zatímco
hranice odborného a profesního jazyka jsou vymezeny výrazně ostřeji. Obsah jazykových výrazů
z roviny obecného jazyka z velké míry odpovídá výrazům z oblasti jazyka profesního, jenž se
distinktivně projevuje pouze jejich specifickou lexikální výplní. Rozdíly jsou dány především
nutným zúžením profesní mluvy v závislosti na povaze mluvčího a místa jazykového projevu.
Výrazy obecného jazyka v kontextu podnikové sféry se zapojují bezprostředně do jednotlivých
oblastí řečového jednání (Handlungsfelder) profesní komunikace, jakými mohou být například
small talk, představení se, žádost o místo a pod (Braunert, 1999). Tyto náleží ke standardnímu
inventáři jazykového materiálu pro výuku profesního jazyka, v učebnici jazyka odborného si je
lze ovšem představit jen stěží.
Odborný jazyk naopak vykazuje výrazně užší rastr použitelných jazykových výrazů, což je dáno
restrikcí v podobě mluvčího, místa, obsahu a formy promluvy a záměru sdělení, byť i zde
dochází k určitým překryvům s uvedenými jazykovými vrstvami. „Profesní jazyk zaujímá
středové postavení mezi jazykem obecným a odborným, což vyplývá z toho, že speciálně pro
oblast podnikové ekonomiky bývají konstitutivní profesně-odborná řečová jednání rázu osobní a
věcné integrace realizována právě prostředky obecného jazyka, zatímco se řečová jednání
zaměřená např. na instruktáž a zaškolení aktérů uskutečňují prostřednictvím jazykových
prostředků jazyka odborného.“ (Becker, Braunert, Eisfeld, 1997, s. 9). V rámci tohoto středového
postavení je průnik obecného a profesního jazyka výrazně větší než překryv s jazykem
odborným.
Důležitou charakteristikou Braunertova pojetí je, že řečová jednání diferencuje podle stupně
jejich odbornosti. Přesto i zde figuruje pojem profesní jazyk v příliš vágní profilaci a je bez udání
konkrétních subjektů, resp. adresátů těžko uchopitelný ve smyslu jednoho jazykově uzavřeného
korpusu. Schéma průniků má omezenou platnost už jen z toho pohledu, že se - vycházejíc
141
z jednoho korpusu - pokouší vymezit ohraničení, která nelze ani načrtnout již vzhledem
k procesům neustálé proměny odborných jazyků a přejímání z/do jazyka obecného. Navíc
průniky představují vždy relativně malé, navzájem se překrývající dílčí segmenty z celého
množství s rozdílnými diferenciačními znaky. Naznačovaný model tak ovšem neodpovídá
reálným podmínkám jazykového provozu v pracovním prostředí. H. Funk navíc dokládá, že
„převážná část každodenní interní profesní komunikace […] neodráží specifičnost dané profese,
resp. jejího jazyka.“ (Funk 2003, s. 175). Dotyčný uvádí příklady řečových jednání (např.
zjišťování a předávání informací, regulace jednání a upevňování osobních kontaktů v profesních
kontextech), která na všechny učící se – nezávisle na formátu jazykového kurzu – kladou stejné
jazykové požadavky (Funk 2003, s. 175).
Posuneme-li tyto požadavky do centra úvah o pozici profesního jazyka, lze v návaznosti na
model R. Buhlmannové a A. Fearnsové vyabstrahovat komplex řečových jednání, jež zahrnuje
komunikační oblasti (Handlungsfelder) společné všem odborným jazykům nezávisle na jejich
oborově profesní profilaci (Buhlmann/Fearns, 2000, s. 14).
Jmenované vycházejí z primární důležitosti komunikační kompetence pro každého mluvčího,
která se uplatňuje zejména při zvládání rozličných tematických sfér profesní komunikace. Jedná
se zde o standardní komunikační situace společné profesní sféře napříč obory: smalltalk, domluvu
schůzky, představení podniku, prezentování, argumentování, ovládání počítače, apod. Jejich
zvládnutí není součástí odborné kompetenční výbavy komunikanta, představuje ovšem podmínku
jeho jazykové a sociální způsobilosti k adekvátnímu jednání v rámci procesů podnikové
komunikace.
ZÁVĚR
Z výše uvedeného vyplývá, že vymezení jednotlivých dílčích jazykových vrstev, tj. odborného,
profesního a obecného jazyka pouze na základě řečových komunikátů je sotva možné a lze se
k němu přiblížit spíše z pozice pragmatiky a teleologie komunikačních cílů. Tento přístup je
patrný nejen v rovině lingvistické, ale také didaktické, jak dokládá J. Braunert, jenž se přiklání
k diferenciaci na základě rozdílných výukových cílů jednotlivých jazykových kurzů (Braunert
1999, s. 101). Jmenovaný přitom rozlišuje na základě hledisek pragmatiky mezi kurzy obecného
jazyka (s motivickou základnou ve sféře privátních životních potřeb) a kurzy profesně
jazykovými, v nichž jsou učícími se osvojovány jazykové prostředky uschopňující dotyčné
k „funkčnímu začlenění v rámci podniku“ (Braunert 1999, s. 102). Třetí kategorii pak tvoří kurzy
odborného jazyka, zacílené na osvojení profesních jazykově fixovaných vědomostí a znalostí.
LITERATURA
BAUMANN, Klaus Dieter. Die Entwicklung eines integrativen Fachsprachenunterrichts – eine
aktuelle Herasuforderung der Angewandten Lingvistik. In Sprachen im Beruf. Stand-ProblemePerspektiven. Gunter Narr: Tübingen, 2000, s. 149-173. ISBN 3-823-5340-3.
BECKER, Norbert; BRAUNERT, Jörg; EISFELD, Heinz. Dialog Beruf 1 Lehrerhandbuch.
Ismaning : Max Hueber, 1997. ISBN 3-19-021590-1.
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BRAUNERT, Jörg. Allgemeinsprache, Berufssprache und Fachsprache – ein
Beitrag zur begrifflichen Entwirrung. Zielsprache Deutsch, 1999, r. 30, č. 3, s. 98–
105. ISSN 0341-5864.
BUHLMANN, Rosemarie; FEARNS, Anneliese. Handbuch des Fachsprachenunterrichts.
Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2000. ISBN 3-8233-4965-1.
FLUCK, Hans-Rüdiger. Fachsprachen und Fachkommunikation. Heidelberg : Groos, 1998,
ISBN 9783872768285.
FUNK, Hermann. Berufsbezogener Deutschunterricht – Deutsch als Fremdsprache für den
Beruf. In Deutsch als Fremdsprache – Ein internationales Handbuch. 2. Halbband. Berlin :
Walter de Gruyter, 2001, s. 962-973. ISBN 10-3110169401.
FUNK,
Hermann.
Berufsbezogener
Fremdsprachenunterricht.
In
Handbuch
Fremdsprachenunterricht. Tübingen, Basel: Francke, 2003. s. 175-179. ISBN 9783825280437.
HOFFMANN, Lothar. Kommunikationsmittel Fachsprache. Eine Einführung. Berlin (DDR) :
Akademie-Verlag, 1987. ISBN 10: 3050004177.
NEKULA, Marek; MARX, Christoph; ŠICHOVÁ, Kateřina. Sprachsituation in Unternehmen mit
ausländischer Beteiligung in der Tschechischen Republik. Sociolinguistica, 2009, r. 23, s. 53-85.
ISSN 0933-1883.
NEUSTUPNÝ, Jiří. Sociolingvistika a jazykový management. Sociologický časopis / Czech
Sociological Review, 2002, r. 38, č. 4, s. 429-442. ISSN 0038-0288.
SCHMIEDL, Thomas. Fachtextforschung und fachkommunikativer Deutschunterricht. In
Deutsch als Fremdsprache in der Diskussion (Bd 5), Frankfurt/M.: Lang, 2001, s. 237-261.
SCHRÖDER, Hartmut. Interkulturelle Fachkommunikationsforschung. Aspekte
kulturkontrastiver Untersuchungen schriftlicher Wirtschaftskommunikation. In
Fachsprachentheorie: FST. Tostedt. 1993, s. 217-250.
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L´ENSEIGNEMENT DE LA CIVILISATION
AUX COURS DE FRANÇAIS
Mgr. Zbyněk Rektořík
Centrum jazykové přípravy UO Brno, Kounicova 65, Brno, 66 210
zbynek.rektorik@unob.cz
Abstrait: L´enseignement de la civilisation des pays francophones est de nos jours de plus en plus
important. Il oriente et enrichit les apprenants et c´est pourquoi il devrait faire partie intégrante
des cours de français. Cet article décrit des approches théoriques et montre en exemples concrets
la façon d´aborder ce sujet aux cours de français.
Mots-clés: Civilisation, francophonie, culture, comparaison interculturelle
INTRODUCTION
Quelles fonctions remplit l’enseignement de la civilisation aux cours de français? Avant tout,
c’est une fonction de motivation qui rend l´apprentissage plus efficace. L´objectif est d´éveiller la
curiosité intellectuelle des apprenants sur les aspects culturels et linguistiques de la langue
française et de transformer cette curiosité peu à peu en désir ou en besoin d’apprendre et d’aller
toujours plus loin. Ce qui est aussi important, c´est le choix des sujets et des moyens de
présentation des documents authentiques.
1. LES SUJETS LES PLUS SOUVENT CHOISIS DANS LES METHODES DE FLE:
- la géographie /relief, cours d´eau, grandes villes/
- la division administrative et les régions
- le calendrier, les fêtes et les traditions
- la vie sociale
- la gastronomie et la cuisine des régions
- la vie culturelle
- les médias /presse, télévision, radio/
- les transports
- la population
- l´enseignement
- l´économie
- l´histoire
- la réligion
- la vie politique
- Paris et ses monuments
- les curiosités touristiques
- la France et l´Europe
- les departements d´outre-mer
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- la Francophonie
2. LA RELATION CIVILISATION-CULTURE
La civilisation est un ensemble de traits propres à une société, par contre la culture est l´ensemble
des attitudes, des visions du monde et des traits spécifiques de civilisation qui donne à une nation
sa place originale dans le monde. L´enseignement de la civilisation et de la culture est conçu
comme un ensemble des stratégies didactiques par lesquelles les apprenants s´approprient la
langue comme un outil d´expression et de communication. Enseigner la civilisation veut dire
étudier la réalité du monde actuel. Apprendre une langue étrangère veut dire apprendre une
nouvelle culture, des modes de vivre, des façons de penser et de parler, acquérir de nouvelles
informations, améliorer son propre niveau de compréhension et rendre possible la communication
entre civilisations, traditions et cultures.
La classification des faits spécifiques de civilisation:
- les faits sociaux (comment les gens vivent ensemble)
- les faits idéologiques (ce que les gens pensent, croient)
- les faits esthétiques (l’art).
3. LA RELATION LANGUE-CIVILISATION
Le problème de l´enseigment de la civilisation se pose au moment où l´enseignement linguistique
est conçu comme une matière éducative. Il faut considérer la langue et la civilisation comme
inséparables. Le français n´est pas la langue maternelle des apprenants. C´est pourquoi il devient
pour eux un instrument de communication qui appartient à une communauté linguistique
différente. Le devoir du professeur est de transmettre aux apprenants la nouvelle vision et
compréhension du monde francophone. La civilisation française doit être un soutien pour la langue
et le professeur pourra l´utiliser dans un but pratique. La civilisation devient peu à peu une
motivation pour les apprenants comme une source d´enrichissement non-linguistique. Par contre,
la barrière linguistique peut être un obstacle sérieux à des études de civilisation. Cet handicap
limite les possibilités d’expression et se traduit fréquemment par un refus de progresser.
Conclusions concernant la relation langue-civilisation:
- l’initiation à la civilisation doit se faire progressivement
- la civilisation doit être présentée dans les cours régulièrement
- l’enseignement de la civilisation en langue étrangère doit être comparatif
4. LES DOCUMENTS AUTHENTIQUES
L´enseignement de la civilisation met l’accent sur l´influence, la ressemblance et la différence
entre la culture de la langue étrangère et celle de la langue maternelle. Pour cela, des documents
authentiques imprimés sont très importants. Comme exemple de ces documents on peut citer des
billets de train, des horaires, des photos, des BDs, des annonces publicitaires ou des guides de
voyages. L’observation de comportements communicatifs dans les documents vidéo (spots
publicitaires, séquences de films) dans un même contexte situationnel en langue maternelle et en
langue étrangère favorise la prise de conscience du rôle des composantes non-verbales, souvent
source de malentendus communicatifs et culturels.
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5. LE RÔLE DE L´AUDIO-VISUEL DANS L´ENSEIGNEMENT
Les outils audio-visuels sont un moyen efficace d´enseignement du la langue et d´acquisition de
la civilisation. Ils permettent au professeur de présenter des documents multimédia (images et
voix) qui ont un impact sur les apprenants. Ils peuvent ainsi écouter des voix qui sont différentes
de celle du professeur. Les documents audio-visuels favorisent aussi le travail en équipe et par
son authenticité ils sont un grand élément de la motivation. Les documents les plus souvent
utilisés sont:
.
- le film qui aide à mieux saisir les nuances du français, à s’habituer au rythme et aussi à
l’intonation de la langue parlée, à fixer mieux des structures lexico-grammaticales ou aspects de
la phonétique française.
- la photo qui sert à introduire dans un cours de français des textes contemporains. Le coté
visuel accompagne le texte et facilite ainsi la compréhension.
- la bande dessinée qui a pour but d’aider les apprenants à s’exprimer aussi spontanément
que possible en français et aussi de comprendre mieux des éléments de civilisation française.
6. LA COMPARAISON DES METHODES DE FLE, ESPACE ET FORUM
La civilisation et la culture sont entrées dans toutes les méthodes de FLE, utilisées à tous les
niveaux d’enseignement. Comme un exemple on peut comparer deux méthodes de FLE, Espace
/paru en 1990/ et Forum /paru en 2000/. Dans le dossier 4 d’Espaces 1, on est témoin d’une
grève de métro, dans le dossier 5, surgit le problème du chômage des jeunes, dans le dossier 6,
c’est l’inégalité économique des régions en France due à la politique de centralisation. Ces faits
de société sont incorporés implicitement et servent de toile de fond sans être repris et analysés.
Les traits spécifiques de la civilisation y sont présentés à partir d´une histoire suivie sous forme
d´un BD en 12 épisodes parlant de différentes région de la France et mettant en scène différentes
situations de la vie quotidienne. L´objectif de cette méthode est de "fournir des éléments
linguistiques nécessaires à la compréhension et de proposer des thèmes culturellement
fonctionnels".
La méthode Forum par contre traite la civilisation française d’une façon explicite et plus
systématique, par le biais de la rubrique " L´interculturel " étalée sur 2 pages dans chaque unité
sous forme d´un complément intégral. L´interculturel présente la particularité de rassembler une
approche factuelle avec la rubrique "Cadres de vie" qui présente des aspects du patrimoine
culturel français et une approche comportemental avec la rubrique "Comportements" qui décrit
les habitudes des Français sous forme de petit guide illustré du savoir-vivre en France. Cette
double approche permet aux apprenants de mieux comprendre la civilisation française. La
méthode Forume est plus nouvelle et le choix des sujets est donc plus actuel.
6.1 Les sujets de civilisations traités dans les deux méthodes comparées:
Espace 1: l´inscription, la visite, le déménagement, la grève, la mode, l´excursion,
la gastronomie, la culture et l´écologie.
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Espace 2: la poste, la banque, le téléphone, la recherche d´un emploi, le logement,
les achats, chez le médecin, le Minitel et les transports.
Forum 1: la salutation, le téléphone, la convivialité, l´invitation, les fêtes, les gestes,
les vacances, l´argent, la mode, les transports, la gastronomie et le week-end.
Forum 2: l´éducation, les festivals, la recherche d´un emploi, les médias, les loisirs,
l´écologie, la vie associative, le logement, l´art et les institutions politiques.
7. LES SITES INTERNET
De nos jours, ce ne sont pas seulement les méthodes de FLE qui présentent la civilisation
française et francophone. La bonne source des exercices supplémentaires et des informations
pratiques à ce sujet-là est aussi l´Internet. Le contact direct avec la culture devrait constituer un
passage obligé pour chaque apprenant d´une langue étrangère. Il existe un grand nombre de sites
internet de la civilisation française. Ceux-ci seront présentés lors de la conférence:
<http://www.jeux-geographiques.com>
<http://web.cortland.edu/flteach/civ/index.html>
Un élément de l´enseignement de la civilisation française peut être un projet sous forme d´un
voyage virtuel en France ou en un pays francophone. Les apprenants doivent préparer un voyage,
trouver sur Internet des informations pratiques, nécessaires pour ce voyage. La découverte active
d’un lieu comparable au lieu d’origine constitue aussi un élément intéressant pour les apprenants.
Ils choisissent eux-mêmes des perspectives (destination, logement, temps libre) et les
développent avec l’appui des documents authentiques et audio-visuels (plans de ville, dépliants,
prospectus). De bons exemples d´un voyage virtuel offrent entre autres ces sites qui seront aussi
présentés lors de la conférence:
<http://www.bonjourdefrance.com/n5/voyage%20en%20France.html>
<http://www.astrid-hillenbrand.de/paris/frameparis2.htm>
<http://www.ph-ludwigsburg.de/html/2b-frnz-s-01/overmann/baf4/>
CONCLUSION
L’intérêt pour la civilisation mène logiquement à une dimension interculturelle. Tandis que la
seule culture n´exige que des connaissances, l’aspect interculturel fait appel aux valeurs telles que
l’ouverture à une autre culture, la tolérance ou la solidarité. Apprendre une langue étrangère n’est
pas mettre de nouvelles étiquettes sur des objets connus, mais s’habituer à analyser autrement ce
qui fait l’objet de la communication linguistique. Les étapes de l’apprentissage d’une langue
étrangère nécessitent la référence permanente à un contenu socio-culturel. L’initiation à la
civilisation est un grand élement de motivation sans lequel l’enseignement des langues étrangères
risque de devenir monotone et mécanique.
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LITTÉRATURE
[1] CAPELLE, Guy. Espace 1, Espace 2, Hachette, Paris 1990, ISBN 978-2011550132
[2] ČEPČÁNYOVÁ, Jana. Reálie frankofonních zemí, Fraus, Plzeň 2000, ISBN 8072380265
[3] FORUM, méthode de français, Hachette, Paris 2000, ISBN 978-2011550859
[4] GUILLEMANT, Daniel. La nouvelle France en poche, Infoa 2010, ISBN 978-8072406852
[5] ROESCH, Roselyne. La France au quotidien, PUG, Grenoble 2008. ISBN 978-2-7061-1428-1
[6] ROUBALOVÁ, Eva. Výuka reálií - neodmyslitelná součást cizojazyčné výuky, časopis
Bohemistyka 2006, nr 3, ISSN 1642-9893
148
NEW POSSIBILITIES IN TEACHING SPECIFIC AREAS OF
COMPETENCE IN PRODUCTIVE SKILLS
Lenka Slunečková
University of Defence, Language Training Centre, Brno, Kounicova 65, 662 10
lenka.sluneckova@unob.cz
Abstract:
This paper presents two e-learning activities based on a novelty approach to teaching specific
areas of competence in productive skills. Based on semi-formal interviews and questionnaires,
the following activities were focused on: writing short informative texts using Simple English
Wikipedia and raising pronunciation awareness using a blend of digital storytelling and picture
presentations. Both activities were designed to suit upper-intermediate to advanced English for
Specific Purposes (ESP) students, as the target learner group consisted of University of Defence
(UoD) students. The vocabulary focus area covered Aviation English; however, the principles
used are based on fundamental concepts of language teaching, and can be applied universally.
The methodology, including various limiting factors and the outcomes, will be thoroughly
discussed.
Keywords: Aviation English, digital storytelling, picture presentations, Simple English
Wikipedia, pronunciation, Simplified Technical English, undergraduate students
INTRODUCTION
Similarly to other ESP areas, Aviation English can boast an eerie volume of vocabulary and often
rather peculiar skills students need to master. Luckily for teachers, it also usually includes a
group of motivated students. For the purpose of this article, nineteen UoD cadets majoring in Air
Traffic, Aircraft Electrical Systems and Aircraft and Rocket Mechanics will be referred to as an
example. However, the activities presented here have potential implications for instruction in
other tertiary institutions.
Presumably, we could hardly find another branch where oral practice is put into so much
scrutiny. Not without the reason the pilot’s and air traffic controller’s oral production must be
nearing to perfect, for it is “essential to ensuring safety in civil aviation. Communications are
voice only, that is controllers and pilots talk to each other at a distance, through radiotelephony
communications. The verbal message is the only communication tool at their disposal”
(Kennedy, 2008, p. 4). Fiona A. Robertson (2010), President of the International Civil Aviation
English Association, adds that teaching pronunciation to aviation personnel should be one of the
priorities, with “particular emphasis on stress and rhythm as well as the sounds that transmit
badly and are difficult for the language group being taught.” Needless to say, radio
communication presents even more challenges: audibility and speech discrimination can be, and
often are, further worsened by background noise, weak signal or interference. Therefore, a future
pilot or an air traffic controller must strive to perfect his or her speaking skills with pronunciation
in particular.
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Quite the opposite situation seems to be with writing skills for aerospace and rocket engineers.
Here, the emphasis is put on the simplest language possible; the reason for it being the
intelligibility and clarity of the written procedures and other instructional texts. Controlled
English standard in writing is nowadays called for more than ever thanks to the recent trends in
skilled workers and professionals migration, outsourcing solutions, and increasing worldwide
cooperation among specialists. However, it is not a new concept: European Association of
Aerospace Manufacturers (AECMA) and Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) had long gone
beyond the plea for simplified technical English texts. In 1970, they started the development of
Simplified Technical English (STE) to ensure universal readability of maintenance
documentation, which is still developed and used by the professionals all over the world, both
non-native and native speakers of English (AST Simplified Technical English Maintenance
Group, 2011).
1. ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEVEL OF STUDENTS IN QUESTION
Based on questionnaire results, semi-formal interviews and classroom observations, the following
has been concluded about the nineteen UoD cadets mentioned above: they have been studying
English as a foreign language (EFL) for over than 8 years now, and they tend to rank high in their
language skills (upper-intermediate to advanced levels). They share the same passion for aviation
(7 out of them already fly). What is more, studying from English texts often hardly poses a
difficulty for them, as majority of them have developed English vocabulary awareness in their
field. Nonetheless, they have never written a technical text in English.
Even though they are fluent and confident speakers, a glaring discrepancy between their overall
level of English and their level of pronunciation can be observed. First of all, they have a distinct
Czech accent, and they ignore word and sentence stress. Next, vast majority of them does not
distinguish between /w/ and /v/, /æ/ and /e/. Moreover, they exhibit difficulty pronouncing /ð/ and
/θ/, which leads to substituting those with sounds Czech language can offer. Some of the students
have fossilized such mistakes as pronouncing /ð/ as /dz/, /θ/ as /t/, /s/, or /f/. In addition,
neglecting aspiration of /p, t, k/ or final consonant devoicing is a common practice. To top it all
off, they also mispronounce basic terms pertaining to the topic of aviation.
2. THEORETICAL UNDERPINNING
2.1 Pronunciation Practice: Narrated Picture Presentations
An easy way how to make students aware of their oral production is by all means recording their
speech. The equipment needed is simple and inexpensive; and may consist of a laptop with a
built-in microphone, mp3 player, or even just a mobile phone. However, recording student
performance in class or in their teacher’s office causes enormous stress to students, which
subsequently makes their speech sound forced and utterly unnatural. In fact, even if it is recorded
in an informal environment without the teacher’s presence, the very realization that their
pronunciation will be assessed already negatively influences their oral production. Logically, an
activity seemingly aiming at a different objective will be the most suitable for gaining recorded
150
data. That is why a multimedia project, specifically a blend of a picture presentation and digital
storytelling, was chosen.
A picture presentation is a set of pictures presented in a video sequence. It may be silent or
presented with background music, and it seems to be highly popular among PC users, who use it
as screensavers or spread it in what has become known as “friendly spam” (unwanted E-mail
forwards from friends and family) (Stone, 2008). Digital storytelling uses the same form to tell
stories; therefore it includes an audio track. Here, the story has the priority; pictures are only
provided to illustrate the narrative. Similarly to picture presentations, digital stories have become
extremely popular; mainly thanks to YouTube, where they are often used to tell jokes or
anecdotes.
After careful consideration, a decision was taken to combine these two activities and ask students
to create a narrated picture presentation that would follow given criteria. The announced aim of
the activity was to create a short narrated video presenting one of the aircraft used by the Czech
Air Force. Instructions included information that was to be mentioned, such as general
description, manufacturer, variants, specifications, etc., all selected by the author to target
pronunciation of key vocabulary in aviation English. As has already been mentioned, students
were not aware that the real purpose of the activity would be detailed assessment of their
pronunciation.
2.2 Simplified Writing Practice: Simple English Wikipedia
As has been stated, the students in question have never written a technical text in English, the
reason for it being their low confidence. Even if they are told that for technical branches, English
is usually required to be simple, and therefore, unlike with essays, they are not supposed to strive
for author’s voice and less used expressions, they are not quite convinced that the task is easy.
Furthermore, many students tend to view activities they do in class somewhat superficial; thus
not meant to be used outside the classroom. To add, motivating students to write belongs to one
of the hardest tasks for an educator, as many of them consider writing tasks to be rather useless
all in all.
As it became obvious from the questionnaire, 100% of the students in question use Wikipedia,
which is not surprising considering its size and fame. Hence, when the author discovered the
Simple English Wikipedia, she immediately saw its pedagogical possibilities. As the title
suggests, Simple English Wikipedia primarily targets learners of English as a foreign language.
The term “simple” only refers to the language, not the content. As can be deduced from the
Simple English Wikipedia homepage, there are over 71.000 articles at present, ranging from
everyday topics to applied and natural sciences, and the number is still growing (Wikipedia,
2011). In classroom environment, Simple English Wikipedia allows students to publish articles
and teaches them how to write in Simple English, which they need to master.
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3. IMPLEMENTING ACTIVITIES
3.1. Narrated Picture Presentations
To introduce the concept, students were shown a picture presentation and an example of digital
storytelling. Following that, they were provided with the desired format of their presentation
(pictures of the airplane they selected from the list provided by their teacher were to be shown
together with their spoken description of the aircraft), and they were given exact instructions as
what to mention. Other instructions included length of the narrated picture presentation (about 4
minutes, which is roughly one page of printed text), or how to submit it (by email, on a flash
drive, or via Moodle, the learning management system used by the UoD). They were also asked
to submit the tapescript. They were not advised as to which software they should use to complete
the task; rather, they were encouraged to explore it themselves – an approach which has proven to
be fruitful.
When students submitted their narrated picture presentations, the true purpose of the activity,
which lay in pronunciation assessment, was finally revealed. Students were given a lecture on
typical Czech mistakes, followed by practical pronunciation exercises, in which they practiced
pronouncing the sounds in front of a mirror. In the next step, each student was asked to exchange
his or her narrated picture presentation with one of their classmates. Their task was to listen for
pronunciation mistakes and mark them in the provided tapescript. The mistakes were then
recorded into the pronunciation feedback form provided by their teacher and handed back to the
author of the narrated picture presentation, who had the chance to enter more notes before
submitting it to the teacher. The teacher then added few more remarks on how to improve the
particular student’s pronunciation and held one-to-one meetings focused on pronunciation
correction.
For most students, creating a narrated picture presentation was their first opportunity to listen to
their own spoken production and to closely analyze the sounds they make.
Even though they were rather hesitant when asked to listen to their own recorded voice, they
realized the utmost usefulness of such a task, which in some cases led to a dramatic improvement
of their pronunciation (they stopped using /dz/ instead of /ð/, majority of them started to
pronounce /w/ correctly, an increasing number of students began to aspire /p, t, k/ etc.). The
author would still not recommend to use the pronunciation feedback form with lower level
students, as even the advanced students found it challenging to listen closely for their classmate’s
pronunciation mistakes at the phoneme level. The activity itself, though, carries immense
potential for teaching pronunciation, as students make the recording in their homes at their own
pace; what is more, they can record it as many times as they want – until they feel their recorded
spoken English is in the best quality they can produce.
3.2. Publishing Online Articles on Wikipedia
One of the unexpected challenges with getting students publish online articles was to increase
their confidence and persuade them that at their language level, they are perfectly capable of
doing so. As it became clear, writing an article, let alone publishing it online, was still considered
almost an unreachable goal, certainly suitable only for native speakers, thus to be avoided at all
costs. As a matter of course, their most common argument was that their level of English was not
152
sufficient. Luckily for educators, Simple English Wikipedia itself instructs writers of Simple
English pages that their article “does not have to be perfect, because other editors will fix it and
make it better” (Simple English Wikipedia, 2011).
Indeed, owing to Wikipedia's unique approach to creating entries, an article is usually a result of
collaborative effort. When assigning a Simple English Wikipedia article assignment, the teacher
first made the students study the rules of Simple English, as described on Simple English
Wikipedia webpage entitled: Wikipedia: How to write Simple English pages (2011). After that,
the students created their accounts, which only required to enter a username and a password (no
other personal information was needed), and started writing their first article on a topic they have
chosen. The only instruction that was given to them was that the topic had to be connected with
the subject they were majoring in (and approved by the teacher prior to writing the article).
Students could either start writing their own article from the beginning or, alternatively, simplify
an elaborate text). When the article was complete, they sent the link to their teacher.
Unlike writing articles in the classroom environment, publishing articles on Simple English
Wikipedia is highly rewarding, as the article is often edited and enriched by strangers - other
users or editors. Addition of hyperlinks or pictures have been observed in student articles in time
as short as one week. The sheer realization that somebody finds their article worthy enough to
expand it makes students both surprised and proud. Needless to say, it is also a great motivating
stimulus for their future writing. As to possible disincentives: if the students forget to log on to
Simple English Wikipedia before they start writing, their article may be deleted by editors. It is
therefore advisable to remind students to log on and to save a backup copy of their article.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, teaching aviation English has its specifics and challenges, but modern technology
enables us to approach them in a never-before-seen manner. What is more, it even allows us to
incorporate online social trends, which, provided that their usual content is substituted with the
educational one, may serve as a brilliant source of motivation for students and help to overcome
student stress. Fully in compliance with this theory, the following two activities were successfully
tried: narrated picture presentations to increase student pronunciation awareness, and publishing
articles on Simple English Wikipedia to teach students writing in Simple (Technical) English.
REFERENCES
AST Simplified Technical English Maintenance Group [online]. 2011 [30. 3. 2011]
<http://www.asd-ste100.org/stemg.htm >.
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ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES COURSE DESIGN AND
IMPLEMENTATION AT SOUTH EAST EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY
Elena Spirovska, Marijana Marjanovikj Apostolovski
South East European University
Ilindenska b.b. 1200 Tetovo, Republic of Macedonia
e.spirovska@seeu.edu.mk, m.marjanovic@seeu.edu.mk
Abstract
The Language Center which is part of South East European University, located in Tetovo,
Republic of Macedonia, encountered, over a period of 4 years, a growing demand for English for
Specific Purposes (ESP) instruction. Initially ESP courses were limited to learning only specific
vocabulary and focusing on reading texts. With the growing emphasis and increasing the number
of lessons and credits assigned to ESP courses, much attention was drawn to the design of ESP
syllabi for each faculty curriculum individually. The idea of this approach to syllabus design was
to prepare learners for future professional communication, in response to their needs, as well as
to provide them with skills perceived as necessary according to their area of expertise. This
paper attempts to provide a description of the process of creating the ESP syllabi and the theory
supporting it. This paper also reviews current literature related to ESP course design. Other
issues which were addressed include: setting of achievable goals and objectives, selecting
grammatical functions and terminology needed, as well as assessment and evaluation. The
framework for ESP course development described in this paper is viewed as being useful to
teachers who attempt to create ESP syllabuses or teachers who may encounter problems in ESP
course design.
Key words: ESP needs analysis, course design, materials, SEE University.
INTRODUCTION
The aim of this paper is to offer insights gained from the process of English for Specific Purposes
(ESP) syllabi design at tertiary level. It opens with background information on the ESP courses
offered by the Language Centre (LC) at the South East European University (SEEU), Tetovo,
Republic of Macedonia. It briefly reviews relevant literature on ESP with reference to needs
analysis, course evaluation, curriculum design, as well as the role of materials in an ESP course.
The paper then proceeds to describe the scope-and-sequence procedure for syllabi design applied
at SEEU.
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1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Language Centre (LC) at the South East European University (SEEU), Tetovo, Republic of
Macedonia, offers the following ESP courses: ESP for Computer Sciences, ESP for Law, ESP for
Public Administration and ESP for Communication Sciences. ESP for Business courses is offered
by the Faculty of Business and Economics and they shall not be subject to discussion in this
paper. For each of the above listed ESP courses two levels, ESP I and ESP II, are offered as one
semester courses with four class hours per week, bearing six credits each.
Upon enrollment at SEEU, new students are tested for their English proficiency level and placed
in one of the six General English levels: elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate, upperintermediate, academic and advanced academic English. The entrance requirement for attending
an ESP I course is being a second-year student who has successfully completed at least upperintermediate level of General English. The minimum entrance standards in the areas of language
proficiency level and study year that are established and strictly enforced, ensure that the ESP
students come to the ESP course equipped with prior content and general English language
knowledge.
The ESP courses are attended by groups of about 25 students. On one hand, the groups are
homogeneous in terms of the fact that the students are from the same faculty i.e. have attended or
are attending the same core courses offering content knowledge. On the other hand, however,
these are heterogeneous groups characterized by a number of variables. First of all, in terms of
the level of proficiency the groups are mixed abilities, some students have passed intermediate
and upper-intermediate level while others have started at academic and completed academic and
advanced academic English prior to joining an ESP course. Second variable is gender, both male
and female students attend these courses. Third, students attending the ESP courses at the LC are
from different ethnical (Macedonian, Albanian and Turkish students) and educational
background. In our opinion, gender and ethnicity do not play any significant role, unlike the
variation in language level and prior education which can be accommodated only to a certain
extent.
The maximum number of credits gained from English is limited, which means that those students
who start at elementary level will never make it to the ESP courses. Luckily, this number of
students who graduate without attending ESP is very low. At SEEU, ESP is a compulsory course
for which there is an apparent need reflected in the number of class hours devoted to it as well as
the credits awarded for it. In terms of the students’ attitude towards ESP, we could freely say that
the majority of students are motivated and perceive it as a course of vital importance directly
related to their chosen field of study which equips them with transferable skills necessary not
only for their present but also their future studies, as well as for their future careers.
The teaching of English for Specific Purposes in the LC at SEEU has gone through a number of
changes within the last four years. One of the major changes was the process of designing the
ESP courses shifting from teaching specialized vocabulary as a key issue in ESP to integrating all
four language skills and highlighting the communication for the workplace within the ESP
courses. The process of syllabi design is elaborated later on in the paper.
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2. NEEDS ANALYSIS AND COURSE EVALUATION
Needs analysis is the main feature of every ESP course design. Consequently, in each of the ESP
courses offered at SEEU, priority is given to determining students’ needs and attempting to meet
the needs identified.
According to Dudley-Evans and St John, ESP consists of a number of interrelated stages (needs
analysis; course and syllabus design; materials selection and production; teaching and learning;
and evaluation). They define needs analysis as “the process of establishing the what and how of a
course” whereas evaluation is described as “the process of establishing the effectiveness”
(Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998, p.121). Hutchinson and Waters consider needs analysis “the
awareness of a target situation” (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987, p.54) and argue that “what
distinguishes ESP from General English is not the existence of a need as such but rather an
awareness of the need” (Hutchinson and Waters, 1987, p.53). They further point out that the
content of an ESP course is determined by the reason why the learners need English and at the
same time the content is secondary to the ability to specify why the learners need English.
When defining needs analysis, Hutchinson and Waters differentiate between “target needs (i.e.
what the learner needs to do in the target situation) and learning needs (i.e. what the learner needs
to do in order to learn)”( Hutchinson and Waters, 1987, p. 54). With reference to target needs,
they further distinguish among necessities (the things the learner needs to know to be able to
function effectively in the target situation), lacks (the gap between the target proficiency and
existing proficiency i.e. what the particular learner knows and what s/he needs to know) and
wants (learners’ perception of why they need English, which usually is different from the
teachers’ and faculty curricula designers’ perceptions). In the literature on ESP, a variety of terms
is being used to describe needs. Dudley-Evans and St John categorize the various terms used into
“target situation analysis (TSA), learning situation analysis (LSA) and present situation analysis
(PSA)” (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998, p. 123-4). The target situation analysis encompasses
the objective or perceived needs determined by outsiders based on facts which can be easily
justified, as well as the product-oriented needs determined on basis of the target situation. On the
other hand, the learning situation analysis includes subjective or felt needs determined by
insiders, as well as the process-oriented needs determined on basis of the learning situation. The
present situation analysis contains the learners’ strengths and weaknesses which determine what
learners already posses and lack.
Dudley-Evans and St John point out that “needs analysis is the corner stone of ESP and leads to a
very focused course” (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998, p. 122). In order to create tailor-made,
learner-focused ESP courses, faculty curricula designers and ESP learners were closely consulted
when designing the ESP courses offered by the LC at SEEU. At the same time close attention
was being paid to the end-of–course evaluations to determine beforehand what is to be
discovered and what is to be done with the raw data collected.
Due to the role motivation plays in the language learning process, learners’ perceived wants are
seriously considered. At the beginning of each semester, needs analysis is conducted with the
ESP students. The results are seriously taken into account and students’ wants are embedded in
the ready-made syllabi. Each ESP teacher individually tries to accommodate the students’ needs
and wants taking into consideration the students’ language learning beliefs and habits while
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following the approved syllabi. The needs analysis conducted at the beginning of each semester
raises the teachers’ awareness of possible conflicts between the students’, faculty curricula
designers’ and teachers’ perception of students’ needs. It is the individual responsibility of each
teacher to seriously consider these differences and take account of them in the choice of teaching
methodology and materials adaptation and/or use.
Dudley-Evans and St John note that both an “initial pre-course needs analysis” and “final end- or
post-course evaluation” (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998, p. 121) should not be considered oneoff activities. They need to be on-going activities with different goals and perspectives but similar
steps – data collection, data analysis and results implementation. Since needs analysis is not
once-for-all activity but an on-going process, at the LC the students’ needs are continuously
assessed during the course and the findings feed into the end-of-academic year syllabi
harmonization seminar. The information is gathered using mainly questionnaires and formal and
informal interviews with students in and out of class. An example of a quick, on-going, easy to
implement but effective evaluation is in-class discussion with students. Such discussion gives
valuable insights into how the class activities went, what students found most beneficial, what
difficulties they faced and what else they would like to do as follow up.
Apart from needs analysis, the ESP course design in the LC at SEEU is also supported by
evaluation – formative (on-going) and summative (end-of-course) evaluation. The former takes
place during a course and helps ESP teachers make the necessary changes and adaptations to the
teaching materials and methodology. The latter is conducted at the end of a course. Since the ESP
courses are durable courses being offered every semester, the information gathered at the end of a
course is fed into the subsequent courses. The evaluation helps stay focused on what has been
going on well and modify the weaknesses identified as not suitable for a particular group of
students. Determining why a certain aspect of the course was not as successful as planned is
crucial part of the end–of-course evaluation. The end-of–course evaluation focuses on the
learning experience, the objectives and the materials used in order to make feasible changes that
would maximize the learning potential, improve the achievement of objectives and revise
materials used. At the end of each academic year, a syllabus harmonization seminar is held in
which LC teachers teaching a certain course get together to exchange ideas and experiences with
good practices, elaborate on what did not work as planned and find out the main reasons for that
as well as make the necessary amendment and addenda to the syllabus for the following academic
year. This is an established practice not only for the ESP but also for the General English skills
courses in order to emphasize and repeat the success and discuss, modify and avoid unsuccessful
aspects.
3. CURRICULUM DESIGN OF ESP COURSES
This chapter analyses the most important features of ESP (English for Specific Purposes) course
design and the factors which influenced the process of curriculum development. Among the
factors are the characteristics of ESP courses. Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) list absolute and
variable characteristics of ESP. According to them, the absolute characteristics are: ESP is
designed to meet specific needs of the learner; ESP makes use of the underlying methodology
and activities of the disciplines it serves; ESP is centered on the language (grammar, lexis, and
register), skills, discourse and genres appropriate to those activities. The variable characteristics
are: ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines; ESP may use, in specific teaching
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situations, a different methodology from that of ‘General English’; ESP is likely to be designed
for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in a professional work situation and most
ESP courses assume basic knowledge of the language system, but it can be used with beginners
(Dudley-Evans and St. John, 1998, p.4-5).
The characteristics summarized above were of crucial importance while designing the ESP
courses curriculum for students from different faculties at SEEU. The courses aimed to meet the
specific assumed needs of the students of particular faculties, having in mind the issues of content
courses and materials used for those courses, as well as future needs of the students in their
workplaces and projects. Other factors had to be taken into consideration as well, such as
students’ proficiency, mixed abilities groups and perceived needs of the students on behalf of
faculties’ authorities.
3.1 THE SCOPE-AND-SEQUENCE PROCEDURE
Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p.65) define ESP course design as: “the process by which the raw
data about a learning need is interpreted in order to produce an integrated series of teachinglearning experiences, whose ultimate aim is to lead the learners to a particular state of knowledge.
In practical terms this entails the use of the theoretical and empirical information available to
produce a syllabus, to select, adapt or write materials in accordance with the syllabus, to develop
a methodology for teaching those materials and to establish evaluation procedures by which
progress towards specified goals will be measured”.
They distinguish between 3 different types of approaches to course design: language-centered,
skills-centered and learning-centered. They define the language-centered course design process as
one which starts with the learner and identifying the learner’s target situation, proceeds with
identifying the linguistic features of the target situation, creating the syllabus, designing materials
to exemplify syllabus items and establish evaluation procedures to test acquisition of syllabus
items. Although this procedure appears to be very logical and learner-centered, Hutchinson and
Waters point out the weaknesses: the learner is simply used as a mean to identify the target
situation, a very restricted area of the language is taught (located only through the learner) and
the course design process is very inflexible and based on target situation analysis only.
The second approach to ESP course design described by Hutchinson and Waters is skills-centered
course design. This approach takes into consideration the competence as well as the performance
and presents the learning objective in terms of both competence and performance. This approach
equips the learners, apart from the language needed in identified target situation, with skills and
strategies required to cope with the target situation. Yet, they point out that this approach views
the learner as a user of the language rather than a learner of the language, and it is concerned
more with the process of language use rather than language learning.
A learningcentered approach is the third approach to course design identified by Hutchinson and Waters.
The learning-centered approach considers the learner at every stage of ESP course design:
identifying and analyzing the target situation, analyzing learning situation, syllabus and materials
writing, teaching and evaluation of learners’ achievement. The primary concern of this approach
is to maximize learning and to take account of the learner at every stage of the design process.
The approach used in the context of ESP course design at SEE University can be considered as a
combination of skills-centered and learning-centered course design. The process started by
frequent meetings of the ESP teachers who taught a specific ESP course, for example teachers
who taught ESP for Legal Studies, ESP for Public Administration, ESP for Computer Sciences
159
and ESP for Communication Sciences. The teachers met regularly, once in two weeks, during one
semester. In total, each group met 5-6 times during 4 months. In consultations with the Fulbright
scholar, Dr. Judy Richardson, each group of teachers started revising the already existing
syllabuses for ESP courses and generating new and more detailed ones. The process was named
scope-and-sequence procedure, emphasizing the width and the sequence of goals and objectives
we wanted to accomplish. The first, initial meeting had a purpose of establishing the criteria
according to which the ESP courses are to be revised or created. The entire process started by
identifying and defining the course goals, which were set as broad targets of what the students
should be able to do throughout and by the end of the course. For instance, one of the goals set in
the ESP scope-and-sequence procedure for Legal Studies was to increase general presentation
skills. The objectives were defined in more details, for instance, two of the learning objectives
identified in the same syllabus were to read and apply information at literal, inferential and
applied levels of understanding and use oral language skills to speak effectively and proficiently
while presenting about legal topics. Defining the course goals and objectives was followed by
listing the course topics. The lists of topics defined content which was to be covered as well as
possible materials which could be used Some of the topics in the scope-and-sequence procedure
for ESP for Legal Studies included the following: Definition of Law; Law and Values; Sources of
English Law. The assignments were designed in order to evaluate the accomplishment of the set
goals and objectives. An example of assignment is oral presentation or position paper. Finally,
the last two meetings established the course materials and target vocabulary. Each of the stages
described above considered the goals and objectives set at the beginning of the procedure, the
learners and the possibility of accessing materials. The role of materials will be discussed in the
next chapter of this paper.
4. THE ROLE OF MATERIALS
Gatehouse (2001) poses the following question: “Do ESP textbooks really exist? This is central
question Johns (1990) addresses. One of the core dilemmas he presents is that "ESP teachers find
themselves in a situation where they are expected to produce a course that exactly matches the
needs of a group of learners, but are expected to do so with no, or very limited, preparation time"
(Johns, 1990, p. 91) in Gatehouse (2001). Although the emphasis of the process of curriculum
design was on setting the course goals and objectives rather than materials, it is a fact that
materials establish the content of the course. Tomlinson (1998) emphasizes that materials should
achieve impact, help learners feel at ease, develop confidence, to be relevant and useful, expose
the learners to language in authentic use, to achieve communicative purposes, to maximize
learning potential by encouraging intellectual, aesthetic and emotional involvement and provide
opportunities for outcome feedback.
The principles listed above can be applied to ESP materials design or evaluation, meaning writing
ESP materials or selecting from already existing ones. The selection of materials was based on
several criteria which helped teachers choose materials which were suitable to the teaching
environment and learners needs. The materials had to be appropriate to the level of students’
proficiency without being too complicated in terms of language use, which would result in
reduced level of students’ confidence and lack of opportunities to use the target language. Also,
the materials had to be updated regularly. This was especially important for materials used for
ESP for Computer Sciences courses. It is understandable that computer technology develops
160
rapidly and that current textbooks cannot keep up with the same pace. As a result, the texts in
textbooks were often outdated and with obsolete information. Although it is clear that the
language focus in ESP course materials should be emphasized over content, the outdated texts are
not considered as particularly relevant or attractive by the learners. Furthermore, not all of the
materials and texts deal with subject area. Some of the materials and tasks dealt with other skills,
for instance job hunting skills. As a result, we had materials which covered CV or cover letter
writing, or developed students’ persuasive speaking skills and lead to successful class debates.
The question posed at the beginning of this chapter, “Do ESP textbooks really exist?” cannot be
answered positively in our teaching context. None of the ESP courses designed at SEE University
uses only one textbook. The materials are a unique blend for each course, selected primarily to fit
the projected goals and objectives and fit the language needs of the learners. Fortunately or
unfortunately for the ESP teachers, not a single textbook could answer these criteria. The course
materials compiled for each of the ESP courses were a combination of authentic materials such as
newspaper or internet journal articles, reading text with content related to the subject area, other
EFL materials such as grammar exercises for the structures being taught, as well as materials
written or selected by the teachers themselves.
CONCLUSION
The content of this paper was determined by our professional experience as ESP teachers,
designing and delivering ESP courses. All the ESP courses were designed and are regularly
reviewed with the basic question ‘Why do these students need English’ in mind and active
involvement of all stakeholders: students, faculty representatives and ESP teachers.
We honestly hope that this paper will shed light and give insight into the challenges posed by
ESP curricula design and will help other ESP teachers deal with ESP course design successfully.
REFERENCES
Dudley-Evans, Tony and St John, Maggie Jo. Developments in ESP: A multi-disciplinary
approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN 0 521 59675 0.
Gatehouse, Kristen.Key Issues in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Curriculum
Development.In
The
Internet
TESL
Journal,
Vol.
VII,
No.
10.
<http://iteslj.org/Articles/Gatehouse-ESP.html>
Gardner, David. Integrating Self-access Learning into an ESP Course, Learner Autonomy,
Volume 10, Integration and Support. Authentic, 2007.
Hutchinson, Tom and Waters, Alan. (English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1987. ISBN 0 521 31837 8.
Tomlinson, Brian. Materials Development in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998. ISBN 0521 57418 8.
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TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
TO PROFICIENT USERS
Eva Staňková
University of Defence, Language Training Centre, Brno, Kounicova 65, 66 210
eva.stankova2@unob.cz
Abstract:
The paper discusses some psychological and methodological aspects of teaching English as a
Foreign Language to university students at high levels of proficiency. It aims to address the
issues which could cause concern and uncertainty to non-native English language lecturers
when teaching proficient users. It provides an overview of existing research studies in this
field, and shares experiences and thoughts from observations gained in teaching English to
proficient users at the University of Defence. It outlines students and lecturers’ profiles from
the academic and psychological points of view, and suggests some non-traditional methods
which contribute to engaging students in the learning-teaching process.
Keywords: EFL, English language teaching, e-learning, methodology, proficient speaker,
University of Defence.
INTRODUCTION
The unprecedented opportunities to access spoken and written authentic materials in English
via the Internet in non-English speaking countries have profoundly affected learning and
teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in these countries, and the Czech Republic is
not an exception. It has a positive impact on the enhancement of the English language
educators’ knowledge, skills, methodology and utilization of authentic sources available on
the Internet. As a result, the quality of teaching English has been continuously improving.
A number of diligent learners of English seize this opportunity and develop an amazingly
high level of communicative competence during their primary and secondary school study
and become proficient users. In this article, the frequently used terms ‘proficient user’ and
‘high levels of proficiency’ refer to C1 and C2 common reference levels, according to the
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Such high levels on the students’
part challenge university lecturers who are responsible for the students’ further language skills
development. There is no doubt that both these students and their lecturers deserve special
attention.
Therefore, the paper mentions research studies carried out in this field, briefly characterises
the students and lecturers involved, and suggests some non-traditional methods which may
contribute to teaching proficient users. All the concerns on the part of the lecturers and
proposed methods stated below stem from the author’s experiments and experiences in
teaching University of Defence students at high levels of proficiency.
162
1. STUDIES ON TEACHING ENGLISH AT HIGH LEVELS OF PROFICIENCY
A framework for teaching modern foreign languages at advanced level is presented by Pachler
(1999). The book consists of contributions of experienced foreign language teachers and
addresses many issues of teaching modern foreign languages, such as the importance of
content and context, methodological approaches, planning procedures, language skills
development, assessment, and last but not least, reaching beyond the classroom.
The need to supplement classroom-based learning opportunities has become a subject of
several studies on using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Language
Learning (White, 2003, Chambers, Conacher and Littlemore, 2004). The preoccupation
expressed by educators in using ICT in language learning is the coupling of technology with
pedagogy, which cannot be achieved without gaining a deep insight into learners’ needs. This
effort might be guided by the findings of Ellis (1998), who explains the ways in which people
learn a foreign language. Williams and Burden (2010) present a social-constructivist view of
the language teaching process, in which four key elements, the learner, the teacher, the task
and the context interact with and affect each other. An inexhaustible source of information for
examining gifted learners’ potential with regard to developing language ability from a
neuroscientific perspective is provided by Sousa (2009).
2. SPECIFICS OF TEACHING EFL AT HIGH LEVELS OF PROFICIENCY AT
UNIVERSITY
2.1 The changing roles of students and lecturers
The information age, characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely
and to have instant access to knowledge, has brought many changes in all walks of life, and
language teaching is no exception. There has been a profound change in the content and scope
of teaching; the locus of control has been shifted from the educator to learner, and thus the
relation between lecturers and students has been evolving rapidly in favour of mutual
collaboration and support. Lecturers are no longer looked at as mere transferors of knowledge.
Their novel roles are reflected in their denominations; depending on their actual involvement
in mediating knowledge and training to learners, they are referred to as educationalists,
educators, lecturers, facilitators, tutors, mentors, instructors, trainers or even coaches. They
are expected to function as advisors, consultants, co-communicators, partners and joint
problem-solvers. In the process of conducting courses, they have to exercise managerial and
expertise skills, such as analysis; planning; course, material and test design and development;
and assessment. In terms of evaluating student performance, they become examiners, testers,
interlocutors, interviewers, assessors and evaluators. It is obvious that their challenging
multiple roles require diverse training and multiple commitments.
2.2 Students’ profile
English language study at the University of Defence is a very important part of all study
programmes, since the UoD graduates are expected to communicate with their counterparts
from allied countries at high proficiency levels. All applicants for study at the UoD have to sit
an entrance examination test in English language, which is designed approximately at the
independent user level (from B1 to B2), and serves as a placement test as well. At the faculty
of Military Technology, students are placed in groups according to their level of proficiency
163
and study English language for five semesters in the Bachelor’s study programme and for
three semesters in the Master’s study programme.
The concern here is to pay attention to students at high levels of proficiency. Not only are
these students excellent language learners, but they also achieve high scores in other
specialized subjects. For example, their drop-out rate in these groups is only about thirty
percent, whereas in the groups at the lowest level of proficiency, the drop-out rate amounts to
seventy percent. Traditionally, the students taking pride in high performance in almost all
subjects are graduates of the ‘Pilot’ and ‘Air Traffic Control’ branches. The obvious reason
for it is that the number of applicants for studying these branches exceeds the number of
vacancies, and only the candidates with the best entrance examination results are admitted.
Thus most of the students in high level proficiency groups show gifted potential and aptitude
for learning. Various empirical studies (Gardner and Lambert, 1972; Skehan, 1982 in Arnold
and Fonseca, 2004, p. 123) have examined the relationship between Intelligence Quotient and
the capacity for learning foreign languages and have found only a moderate level of
correlation; therefore the traditional concept of intelligence can not been used as a predictor of
successful foreign language learning. Alternatively, an increasingly popular theory enabling
educators to recognize the uniqueness of their learners and, consequently, to elaborate their
assignments into challenging tasks, is Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory. It describes
nine intelligences which are all teachable and improvable based on the neuroscientific fact
that learning is the result of strengthening connections in the brain’s neural network. The
more the pattern is activated the stronger the connection will become (Arnold and Fonseca,
2004). Understanding the processes of foreign language acquisition and students’
personalities enables the lecturers to select interacting strategies and teaching methods which
lead to the students’ progress enhancement.
2.3 Non-native lecturers’ concerns
Teaching groups of students at high levels of proficiency poses a considerable challenge to
lecturers. Contrary to other groups, in terms of the level of proficiency, the group is not
homogeneous – it might vary from B2 to C2 levels. Naturally, the level of proficiency set at
the beginning of the course corresponds with the level of the least advanced members of the
group, which discriminates against the more advanced students; therefore, the lecturer has to
plan classes in a way to provide the students with multi-level tasks. Tasks should be made
optimally challenging by taking into account each individual’s zone of next potential
(Williams and Burden, 2010). Moreover, the lecturer has to bear in mind that the fact that
students’ language competencies are well developed does not necessarily mean that they want
to become linguists, that they are entirely committed to further language skills development,
or that they long for collaboration in classes.
As a teacher I feel enormously responsible for recognizing and nurturing the gifted potential.
The initial step is to identify students gifted in language arts. In line with Sousa’s findings
(Sousa, 2009, p. 146), these students demonstrate competencies in some or all of the
following areas:
• awareness of language,
• communication skills and
• reasoning and arguing.
164
The next step is to gain the students’ support and invite them to collaborate. As most of them
are special individuals, this step requires quite a great deal of empathy and insight into their
personality on the part of the lecturer. To be able to understand the students’ needs, it is useful
to search for archetypes of talented learners and recommendations for dealing with them.
Besides the research studies by Sousa (2009), who translates brain research into educational
practice, Kingore (2004) proposes a three-way comparison of a high achiever, gifted learner,
and creative thinker. Meighan and Meighan (1990 in Williams and Burden, p. 57) have
suggested seven different ways in which teachers construe learners: resisters, receptacles, raw
material, clients, partners, individual explorers and democratic explorers. The first three
constructs are heavily teacher dominated while the latter involve active learner participation.
Proficient users definitely deserve self-confident educated native lecturers; however, for
various reasons they are sometimes not available in educational institutions. Thus non-native
language lecturers are asked to carry the burden. As described above, teaching to proficient
users is extremely demanding and it is no wonder that some non-native educators might show
concerns and experience a certain degree of stress. Research studies refer to a part of it as
‘impostor syndrome’, which is characterized by feelings of inadequacy, personal
inauthenticity or fraudulence, self-doubt, low self-efficacy beliefs and sometimes general
anxiety (Yates and Chandler, 1998 in Bernart, 2008). To deal with the stress, Mousavi (2007)
recommends addressing these issues in pre-service training courses, and raising awareness of
non-native educators’ advantages in language teaching.
From my personal teaching experience, I have reached the conclusion that to pass muster, it is
necessary to realize one’s strengths and weaknesses and realistically consider what I can
achieve within my capabilities. To be an efficient non-native language lecturer entitled to
teach proficient users, I have established the following objectives:
•
•
•
•
•
Getting to know the personalities of students and their attitude to learning English, so
that appropriate teaching strategies can be selected.
Curriculum development of the courses at high levels with constant updating, so that
the content is relevant to students’ needs and interests.
Using ICT as a means for assigning multi-level tasks, personalizing learning and
substituting for a native speaker, both in written and spoken forms.
Engaging students in the learning-teaching process, and thus enhancing their language
awareness and motivation.
Regular sessions with a native speaker in order to consult problematic lexis and
grammar; constant improvement of English language proficiency, methodology and
ICT use.
Although the objectives seem to be obvious and apply to any lecturers teaching students at
any level of proficiency, in teaching proficient users they require much more time and effort
to be fulfilled. The following chapter offers suggestions on how to apply the research and
observations discussed to educational practice.
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3. TIPS FOR STIMULATING AND MOTIVATING PROFICIENT USERS
Non-conventional levels of competences require non-traditional methods and approaches on
the part of lecturers. The following sub-chapters mark the importance of the teaching content
and suggest some tips which might enrich the process of teaching proficient users. Most of the
suggestions respond to the changing roles of students and lecturers and aim at engaging the
students in the process of teaching.
3.1 Curriculum development and e-learning
The importance of input, content and context relevance in language courses has been subject
to many research studies (Ellis, 1998). When teaching EFL at high levels, one of the most
important things is to expose students to authentic language in meaningful contexts, and thus
to assist them in developing native-like competence.
The UoD lecturers created a specific syllabus for courses at high levels of proficiency, which
reflects the UoD future military professionals’ needs to be able to communicate successfully
mainly in military, professional, social, economic, political and cultural contexts. The syllabus
contains selected topics with references, and one of its delivery options is using e-learning
methods.
Research on the effectiveness of e-learning in language learning shows positive results in
learning outcomes. The most obvious advantages of e-learning stated by language educators
are:
• exposure to authentic target language,
• access to wider sources of information and varieties of language,
• opportunities to communicate with the outside world and native speakers,
• a learner-centered, task-based approach,
• development of learner autonomy,
• learning in different locations and institutions,
• working at different rates and levels.
(Directorate-General of Education and Culture of the EU, 2006, 19-21 in Andrews and
Haythornthwaite, 2007, p. 361).
The UoD lecturers are aware of the power of e-learning for enhancing students’ motivation
and participation in the foreign language acquisition process. They have been implementing elearning experiments in the English language instruction within a specific research project for
six years. Since 2010, they have been using the Moodle Learning Management system for
storing their existing e-learning objects, communication with students and testing student
progress. The intrinsic merits of using e-learning with students in multi-level classes lie in the
options to select teaching materials at different levels of proficiency. Thus the teaching
becomes more personalized. In addition to that, e-learning brings about opportunities to
engage students in the process of teaching.
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3.2 Students generate teaching materials
There are several possibilities of inviting students to participate in the teaching process. One
of them is e-learning materials development. I have conducted several case studies the aim of
which was to motivate students’ English language acquisition with the use of multimedia,
and, at the same time, to enlarge the existing English language electronic learning support.
The whole process – from setting the task, through team design and development, to
evaluation of the outcomes – was conducted entirely in English. The students were supposed
to select an authentic text according to their interest and adapt it for teaching purposes.
During the process, students were practising the principles of open-mindedness, intellectual
curiosity, objectivity, adaptability and comparative perspective. The outcomes of team work
were interactive e-learning objects, which were posted on the Study Portal as relevant
teaching sources. From my experience with advanced groups, the students involved
considered this experiment challenging and meaningful. Moreover, several students were
working with me on the improvement of the e-learning English language objects; three of
them presented the outcomes of their projects at the Student Conference, both at the UoD and
abroad, and were placed second. Some of the learning objects created by students will be
shown at the conference.
3.3 Students teach students
Another way of promoting collaboration between students and teachers is peer-teaching. I
have encouraged my students to teach their peers several times, and seldom have I regretted it.
It proved suitable particularly in teaching English for Specific Purposes, namely Aviation
English. Future pilots and traffic controllers are ambitious and eager to show their expertise.
Furthermore, as they are expected to occupy prestigious posts in the Czech Army, the
development of communicative and leadership skills is vital for them.
For the lecturer, it is sometimes quite surprising to find out which teaching methods students
consider effective. For example, in several cases the peer-teachers resorted to the translation
method, which has almost died out with the introduction of the communicative approach to
teaching. Peer-teaching has proved to be refreshing and sometimes even entertaining.
However, as remains true of each method, if it becomes routine, or if the peer-teacher does
not demonstrate enough language, methodological or communicative competence, it may fail.
So the lecturer should choose the peer-teachers very carefully and provide them with
appropriate instructions or even a short training. If possible, it is useful to record the peerteaching and analyze its strong and weak points from the perspectives of both the peer-teacher
and the students.
3.4 Students test students
University students are able do develop, distribute and assess written progress tests based on
specific teaching content. Due to students’ experience with recent English course-books
designed with the learner-centred approach in mind, the students are aware of various types of
questions checking student progress, and thus the creation and assessment of tests does not
pose a problem. My students designed several tests, which were assigned as voluntary
homework. Most of them were aimed at checking knowledge of aviation vocabulary. The
question types used included labelling pictures, translation of expressions, matching
expressions with their definitions, explaining expressions, gap-filling, cross-words, and once
167
even a problem solving task. At the conference, pen-and-paper tests developed by UoD
students of Air Force branches will be presented.
This year, the UoD lecturers and students are engaged in a specific research project in the
field of e-leaning aimed at developing and using web-based tests. The aim of the project is to
create a test database in Moodle, which would serve various testing purposes. The research
includes other foreign languages than English. Working on specific research projects provides
a unique opportunity for collaboration between lecturers and students, and contributes to
relevant outcomes in language educational practice.
To conclude, engaging learners in e-learning material development, peer-teaching, peertesting and research in e-learning requires effective organization which must be based on a
clear pedagogical rationale; it is essential to consider methodological and instructional
aspects. Educators who endeavour to share their teaching experiences with their learners
should develop clear guidelines prior to carrying out their teaching experiments.
CONCLUSION
The paper considers psychological and methodological aspects of teaching English as a
Foreign Language to university students at high levels of proficiency. Non-native language
lecturers facing this challenge should be aware of the obstacles on the path of such a
demanding task. The paper suggests e-learning as an efficient means of mediating authentic
language, both in written and spoken forms. Engaging students in material development, peerteaching, peer-testing and research in e-learning are proposed as invigorating experiences,
responding to the change in roles of students and lecturers.
Without accepting a new paradigm of continuous learning and improvement, both the
lecturers and students would deliver merely mediocre performance. However, this is scarcely
the case of those who are involved in teaching and learning foreign languages at high levels,
since their ambitions keep mediocrity at bay. Thus teaching English at high levels is
rewarding for those educators who indulge in challenging their limits.
REFERENCES
ANDREWS, Richard; HAYTHORNTHWAITE, Caroline. The SAGE Handbook of Elearning Research. London : SAGE Publications Ltd, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4129-1938-8.
ARNOLD, Jane; FONSECA, Carmen M. Multiple Intelligence Theory and Foreign Language
Learning: A Brain-based Perspective. In International Journal of English Studies (IJES),
2004, vol. 3, pp. 119-136. ISSN 1578-7044.
BERNART, Eva. Towards a pedagogy of empowerment: The case of ‘impostor syndrome’
among pre-service non-native speaker teachers in TESOL. In English Language Teacher
Education and Development (ELTED), 2008, vol. 11, pp. 1-8. ISSN 1365-3741.
CHAMBERS, Angela; CONACHER Jean E.; LITTLEMORE, Janette. ICT and Language
Learning: Integrating Pedagogy and Practice. Birmingham : The University of Birmingham
Press, 2004. ISBN 1-902459-50-4.
168
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.[on line] [cited 2011-04-08].
Available from : < http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/Framework_EN.pdf >.
ELLIS, Rod. Second Language Acquisition. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 019-437212-X.
KINGORE, Bertie. High Achiever, Gifted Learner, Creative Thinker [online]. 2004 [18. 4.
2011]. < http://www.bertiekingore.com/high-gt-create.htm >.
MOUSAVI, Elham Sadat. Exploring ‘Teacher Stress’ in Non-native and Native Teachers of
EFL. In English Language Teacher Education and Development (ELTED), 2007, vol. 10, pp.
33-41. ISSN 1365-3741.
PACHLER, Norbert. Teaching Modern Foreign Languages at Advanced Level. London :
Routledge, 1999. ISBN 0-415-20314-7.
SOUSA, David A. How the Gifted Brain Learns. Thousand Oaks : Corwin, 2009. ISBN 9781-4129-7172-0.
WHITE, Cynthia. Language Learning in Distance Education. Cambridge : Cambridge
University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-521-89455-7.
WILLIAMS, Marion; BURDEN, Robert L. P. Psychology for Language Teachers. Cambridge
: Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-521-49880-7.
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TRANSFORMATION OF THE LANGUAGE EXERCISES INTO
ELECTRONIC VERSION FOR THE USE IN LMS MOODLE
Jana Stodolová
University of Defence, Language Training Centre, Brno, Kounicova 65, 66 210
jana.stodolova@unob.cz
Abstract:
The aim of the paper is not only to present the publication Pocket size essentials of English
military vocabulary (originally ZÁKLADY ANGLICKÉ VOJENSKÉ TERMINOLOGIE DO
KAPSY) but also to show the way how some vocabulary exercises can be transformed into
electronic version for the use of military English course students on LMS MOODLE. It was
published in December 2010 as the second edition in updated and amended version for the
better use of Czech soldiers on missions as well as military students and military personnel
throughout the Czech armed forces. In view of the fact that some students prefer working on
computer to working with a regular paperback format, the author shows how paperback
publication can serve as the source for electronic exercises with the possibility of getting the
feedback just by clicking on one button and not by looking up the correct answers in the
answer key which is of course the inseparable part of the paperback version. In conclusion
the author enumerates the pros and cons of both electronic and paperback versions.
Keywords: vocabulary exercises, electronic version, Moodle, feedback, paperback format,
quiz
INTRODUCTION
Firstly, the author introduces her publication Pocket size essentials of English military
vocabulary. Secondly, she gives the examples of some language vocabulary exercises
contained in this publication. Thirdly, she talks about the possibilities of the transformation of
these exercises for the use of students on MOODLE courses it means the transformation from
the paperback format to an electronic version and using the publication as the source.
Fourthly, she compares using the paperback format exercises with the working on the same
exercises in electronic version. In the end she elicits the advantages and disadvantages both
of them.
1. POCKET SIZE ESSENTIALS OF ENGLISH MILITARY VOCABULARY
It is the second edition, updated and amended. The publication is divided into 2 volumes
because of its size. The first volume is structured into thematic units concerned with some
fields of operation, life and training of forces and small units of contemporary armed forces. It
contains 18 texts with the batteries of language exercises (reading comprehension questions,
matching exercises, gap fill, word-building, etc.) that are focused especially on the key
vocabulary of each topic and on word-building. The key vocabulary is recycled in all the
given exercises therefore at the end of each chapter students are supposed to be familiar with
the key vocabulary. Some basic commands and English-Czech dictionary are also contained
in the first volume.
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The second volume involves Czech-English dictionary, Answer key to all the exercises and a
few descriptive pictures of some military uniforms, vehicles and equipment.
Because of the fact that the publication contains the Answer key, it is convenient particularly
for self-study. Thanks to its format it is possible for soldiers to put it in a pocket of their BDU
uniforms it means to have it handy.
Picture 1. The cover of the publication
1.1 Some examples of the exercises from the publication
There are various types of language exercises in each chapter. The texts are not of the same
length but the structure of the exercises is consistent. It always starts with some reading
comprehension questions (sample answers for nearly all the questions are given in the answer
key but some questions require individual answers) and then the battery of exercises focusing
on practicing the key vocabulary of the topic follows. It means a matching exercise (matching
the key words with their definitions), a gap fill exercise (using the key words to complete the
sentences – the sentences are always connected with the certain topic), some word-building
exercises (for example turn the following verbs into nouns or vice versa; turn the following
nouns into adjectives or give the opposites using prefixes), T / F statements, synonym match,
etc. Every chapter ends with an exercise in translation of a few sentences in the context of the
given topic from Czech into English.
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Picture 2. The example of exercises in paperback format publication
2. USING MOODLE FOR BLENDED LEARNING PURPOSES
2.1 What is Moodle?
The acronym Moodle stands for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment.
According to the main Moodle website <http://moodle.org/about/>, which includes forums for
discussing anything and everything about Moodle, “The focus of the Moodle project is always
on giving educators the best tools to manage and promote learning, but there are many ways
to use Moodle.”
On <http://dictionary.sensagent.com> Moodle is defined as “a free and open-source elearning software platform, also known as Course Management System, Learning
Management System, or Virtual Learning Environment.”
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2.2 Using Moodle in the author’s classes
The author provides a few courses on Moodle, but she uses it simply to augment her face-toface courses (this approach is known as blended learning). She believes that elearning is
undoubtedly more flexible than face-to-face teaching but agrees with Robin Mason and Frank
Rennie that “teaching online is not a process that can be controlled in the way that face-toface lecturing can be.” She favours the combination of both.
According to Robin Mason and Frank Rennie the term blended learning became popular
around 2000. They say that “The original and still most common meaning refers to
combinations of online and face-to face (f2f) teaching. However, other combinations of
technologies, locations or pedagogical approaches are increasingly being identified as
examples of blended learning.” They consider courses, in which there is even a minor online
component, elearning courses. They claim that “blended approaches can encourage
participants to make better use of face-to-face contact in the knowledge that preparations and
follow up can be conducted online.” Larry Bielawski and David Metcalf state that “moving
from training (where one individual provides information to many in a classroom-style
setting) to self-directed learning and internally initiated efforts to find information that is
useful to a person’s work is an important transition.”
The author of this paper prefers to use Moodle as a way to deliver the content to students and
assess learning using assignments (for example essays) or quizzes. She likes creating new
quizzes for students. A quiz is “an activity in which your students’ learning will be assessed,”
according to <www./atrobe.edu/.au./ms/.moodle/guides/glossary.html>.
To be sure that the quiz works perfectly, a teacher can take the advantage of Switch Role to a
feature that allows lecturers to have a true student view of the subject, including the ability to
take quizzes and submit assignments and then switch back to the lecturer role. It is really good
to see how the students view the quiz you have programmed, how it really works and how the
results of the quiz are assessed. Actually, Moodle offers you a lot of possibilities you can take
advantages of but unfortunately, she has used only a few of them so far.
3. TRANSFORMATION OF THE EXERCISES FROM THE PAPERBACK
FORMAT INTO THE ELECTRONIC VERSION AND SOME EXAMPLES
According to the author of this paper, the most suitable exercises for transformation into the
electronic version are matching exercises and gap-filling exercises. When students are
learning a new unit, they always come across masses of new words. Matching exercises are
used to introduce and reinforce the key vocabulary of the respective unit and after that gapfilling exercises follow. It is easier for students to learn new words in the context and they
will know how these words fit in with the other words in a concrete sentence. The author
considers using key words in sentences (always in the context of the given topic) beneficial
for students. The words should be used in their proper forms, varying the parts of speech.
Students have to figure out what is missing in the blank, what part of speech of a word is
needed and make sense of the sentences. She believes that words learnt in this way are not
that easy to forget. That is why she uses such exercises in her publication and even transforms
them into the electronic version for the use of students on Moodle courses. The transformation
is convenient especially for the students who prefer working on computers and who are fond
of getting feedback just by clicking the button.
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Picture 3. An example of a matching exercise on Moodle
Picture 4. An example of a word-building exercise
174
Picture 5. An example of a word-building exercise on Moodle
Picture 6. An example of a gap-filling exercise on Moodle
3.1 Pros and cons of paperback format
Some students find it helpful to have the paperback publication handy especially because of
the fact that its size allows them to place it in a pocket of their BDUs and have it with them
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when appropriate. For example, when they are waiting somewhere for someone or something
and have nothing else to do, in the meantime they can use it for learning the vocabulary or
doing the exercises and reinforce their vocabulary this way. The fact that the answer key is
contained in the second volume can be found as a disadvantage. And of course, you have to
turn over pages to find the proper page you want to work on.
3.2 Pros and cons of electronic exercises
There are undoubtedly a lot of advantages. For example, when you use electronic exercises,
you do not have to print these exercises out; it is less expensive to produce them; it is selfpaced; it can work from any location and any time; it can be updated easily and quickly; it can
be easily managed for large groups of students; it can easily provide students with test
feedback; students can quickly pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses; it saves time because
there is automatic marking so there is no photocopying and no paperwork at all.
As regards disadvantages, the author cannot see any major ones. Nowadays, when the world
is computerized, nearly all the students are computer-literate and usually prefer working on
computers. We can say that computer accessibility is the only necessary prerequisite for using
electronic exercises on Moodle courses.
CONCLUSION
To sum up, the author considers her effort to transform the chosen language exercises from
the paperback format of her publication to the electronic version usable on Moodle courses a
worthwhile idea. She thinks that using her publication as the source for the electronic version
of the military language exercises is for the students’ benefit. The exercises are considered
user friendly. The transformation enables students to revise and brush up the key vocabulary
of the given military topics that they have come across with (in the paperback format
publication) and improve their knowledge of this vocabulary. They are expected to use it
correctly and fluently.
REFERENCES
BIELAWSKI, Larry, D.Sc.; METCALF, David, Ph.D. Blended eLearning. Published in the
United States by HRD Press, Inc. 2005. ISBN 0-87425-717-4.
MASON, Robin and RENNIE, Frank. Elearning, The Key Concepts. Published in the Great
Britain 2006. ISBN 0-415-37307-7.
STODOLOVÁ, Jana. Základy anglické vojenské terminologie do kapsy. Prague, Ministry of
Defence of the Czech Republic, 2010. ISBN 978-80-7278-534-6.
MOODLE: Citing Net Sources [online]. 2011 [cit. 30.4 2011]. <http://moodle.org/about/>.
DICTIONARY: Citing Net Sources [online]. 2011
[cit.2.5.2011].<http://dictionary.sensagent.com/>.
MOODLE guides: Citing Net Sources [online]. 2011 [cit. 5.6.2011].
<www./atrobe.edu/.au./ms/.moodle/guides/glossary.html>.
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POUŽITIE WEBOVÝCH APLIKÁCIÍ - AUDIOBLOGU A WEBLOGU VO VÝUČBE CUDZÍCH JAZYKOV
Eva Stradiotová
Ekonomická univerzita v Bratislave, Fakulta aplikovaných jazykov, Katedra anglického
jazyka,
Dolnozemská 1, 852 35 Bratislava
eva.stradiotova@euba.sk
Abstrakt:
Informačné technológie (IT) zaznamenali vo svojom vývoji v poslednom období obrovský
rozmach, ktorý sa odzrkadľuje vo všetkých spoločenských oblastiach. Vo vzdelávacom
procese sa v súčasnosti postupne dostávajú do popredia aj niektoré nové technické prvky,
napríklad interaktívne biele tabule, ktoré sú však stále ešte veľmi drahé, čím sa pre mnohé
školy stávajú nedostupné. Vzhľadom na to, že internet je v dnešnej dobe čoraz dostupnejší, na
rozdiel od niektorých iných technológií, sa chceme v našom príspevku venovať weblogom a
audioblogom, a možnosti ich využitia vo vyučovacom procese. Weblogy aj audioblogy sú
jednoduché webové stránky, ktoré môžeme použiť ako podporu tradičnej výučby jazykov v
triede. Pomocou weblogov a audioblogov môžeme študentom pomôcť zlepšiť si zručnosti
písania, čítania, počúvania a hovorenia. Okrem toho, pre študentov môže byť práca na
weblogu a audioblogu motivujúca.
Kľúčové slová: Informačné a komunikačné technológie, weblog, audioblog, zručnosť
písania/čítania, zručnosť hovorenia/počúvania
ÚVOD
Problematikou Informačných a komunikačných technológií (ďalej IKT) sa zaoberám už
niekoľko rokov a pozorne sledujem zmeny, ktoré v tejto oblasti vznikajú. Časopis English
Teaching Professional zo septembra 2010 napríklad uverejnil štúdiu, v ktorej sa autorka
Nicky Hockly zaoberá mikrobloggingom, čo je jasným signálom, že ani vývoj v oblasti
bloggov nezastal, ale stále pokračuje.
Avšak v tomto príspevku sa nebudem zaoberať mikroblogmi, ale možnosťami použitia
weblogov a audioblogov vo výučbe. Ešte predtým, chcem však v skratke objasniť, čo to
vlastne spomínaný mikroblog je a ako sa líši od weblogu. Mikroblog je krátka správa, ktorej
rozsah je 140 znakov, to znamená, že je to vlastne typ SMS, a je posielaný cez účet Twitter.
Z toho nám vyplýva, že mikroblog môžeme použiť len na rozsahovo kratšie texty. Oproti
tomu weblog nie je rosahovo ohraničený, z čoho vyplýva, že jeho využitie je všestrannejšie.
1. WEBLOG
Voľba blogov, audioblogov, weblogov či mikroblogov, vždy závisí od našich cieľov, ktoré
chceme vo vyučovacom procese dosiahnuť.
Weblog, ktorý v súčasnosti nie je už žiadnou novinkou, môžeme použiť ako doplnok výučby.
Jeho ciele môžu byť veľmi široké: od nástenky až po triedny blog. Rozlišujeme tri typy
177
blogov: učiteľský, študentský a triedny. Tieto typy sa od seba líšia cieľmi, pre ktoré boli
založené.
Učiteľský blog, ktorý si zakladá učiteľ, môže slúžiť:
• ako nástenka, na ktorej informuje študentov, poprípade aj rodičov, o tom čo je nové
v triede, o dosiahnutých výsledkoch jednotlivých študentov, o úlohách, ktoré majú
urobiť, o dátumoch písomiek a pod.
• na komentáre študentov
• na študijné tipy, t.j. rady ako študovať
• na doplnkové vysvetlenie prebraných gramatických kategórií
• na sprostredkovanie ďalších cvičení na zdokonalenie prebraného učiva
• na sprostredkovanie podkladov na štúdiá
Študentský blog môže slúžiť:
• ako portfólio písomných prác študenta, ktoré sú na jednom mieste a sú pre učiteľa aj
študenta informáciou o pokroku, ktorý dosiahol
• ako denník
• ako portfólio domácich úloh
Triedny blog
• je veľmi vhodný na spoločné projekty
• môže sprostredkúvať informácie o tom, čo sa v triede deje
• výborne poslúži ako časopis
Weblog je vhodným nástrojom
na zdokonaľovanie zručnosti písania a čítania
s porozumením. Moja osobná skúsenosť s weblogom je pozitívna. Vo výskume, ktorý som
uskutočnila v rokoch 2008-2010, som vyskúšala rôzne formy weblogu. Pre slabších
študentov a osobitne pre študentov popri zamestnaní je veľmi dobrým doplnkom klasickej
výučby práve učiteľský blog, na ktorom učiteľ zhrnie prebrané učivo a poskytne študentom
ďalšie materiály na precvičovanie. K týmto dodatkovým cvičeniam môže poskytnúť
študentom kľúč. Rozhodnutie, či študentom dať kľúč k dispozícii alebo nie, závisí od cieľov,
ale tiež aj od počtu vyučovacích hodín, ktoré majú k dispozícii. Študentom popri zamestnaní
je vhodné poskytnúť kľúč, lebo počet stretnutí s učiteľom je pomerne malý a študent by mal
vedieť, či sú jeho odpovede správne, je to spätná väzba, ktorú potrebuje mať, aby sa mohol
poučiť z chýb, ktorých sa dopustil. Pre denných študentov, ktorí sú s učiteľom v pravidelnom
kontakte, nie je kľúč k cvičeniam potrebný, lebo správnosť odpovedí si môžu na hodine
skontrolovať s učiteľom. Všeobecne však môžem konštatovať, že odozva študentov na tento
typ blogu bola pozitívna.
Iným typom blogu je študentský blog, ktorý zohráva významnú úlohu najmä ako časopis.
Výskum preukázal, že študenti pristúpili k tvorbe časopisu so záujmom, lebo tvorba on-line
časopisu v cudzom jazyku bola pre nich niečím novým. Ak sa však učiteľ rozhodne použiť
na doplnenie výučby tvorbu on-line časopisu, mal by študentov presne oboznámiť s tým, ako
si môžu blog tohto typu vytvoriť (do vyhľadávača treba napísať www.blogger.com a otvorí sa
stránka, kde si možno vytvoriť weblog aj s návodom), a čo od nich očakáva. Osvedčilo sa
rozdeliť si triedu do skupín s 5 – 7 študentmi v skupine. Každá skupina si vytvorí svoj vlastný
blog a pomenuje si ho. Názov blogu bude vlastne aj názvom časopisu, na ktorom budú
spoločne pracovať. Keďže pre študentov takýto typ kolektívnej práce môže byť novou
skúsenosťou, je dobré im na začiatku pomôcť rozdelením úloh, ktoré majú vykonávať, treba
vopred určiť kto má akú úlohu v skupine, napr. kto bude písať o športe, kto o umení,
178
o ekonomike, o turizme, kto bude hlavným redaktorom...atď. Ale je tiež dobré nechať im
určitú voľnosť v rozhodovaní sa, t.j. necháme na samotných študentov, aby si sami vybrali
o čom chcú písať, čo ich zaujíma. Okrem vymedzenia úloh je dôležité určiť aj frekvenciu
písania príspevkov (aspoň jeden krát týždenne), aby sa vytvoril u študentov pozitívny vzťah k
písaniu. Je tiež veľmi dôležité, aby učiteľ kontroloval prácu študentov na časopise. Forma
kontroly závisí od samotného učiteľa. Môže byť podrobná, t.j. každému študentovi napíše v emailovej správe, akých chýb sa dopustil, aby si ich mohol v článku opraviť. Takýto spôsob
opravy je síce pre študenta prospešný, ale pre učiteľa je časovo veľmi náročný. Ďalší spôsob
opravy môže byť na hodine, kde učiteľ rozoberie najčastejšie chyby, ktorých sa študenti
dopustili pri písaní článkov. Tento spôsob opravy je časove menej náročný, ale je dôležité,
aby spomínané opravy chýb boli z príspevkov, ktoré v časopise publikovali.
Písanie príspevkov do časopisu, ako ukázal výskum, bolo pre väčšinu študentov zábavné,
lebo okrem písania príspevkov sa študenti mohli realizovať aj v ich ilustrovaní vyhľadávaním
a výberom vhodných obrázkov.
1.1 Výhody a nevýhody weblogov
Na základe získaných skúseností s prácou na weblogoch, môžem povedať, že výhody
weblogu sú nasledovné:
• vytvára spojenie medzi hodinami, lebo učiteľ môže zverejniť aplikované materiály a
môže poskytnúť aj nové materiály na opakovanie
• motivuje k zvýšenému úsiliu pri štúdiu jazyka
• poskytuje študentom príležitosť písať a čítať príspevky na konkrétne témy
• obsah môže byť posudzovaný spolužiakmi a učiteľom, t.j. môžu získať od spolužiakov
a aj od učiteľa spätnú väzbu k tvorbe weblogu
• poskytuje široké publikum (užívatelia internetu, priatelia, spolužiaci, rodinní
príslušníci,...atď.)
• dáva priestor pre vzájomnú spoluprácu študenti získavajú sebaistotu v písaní
a čítaní
• blog, ktorý slúži ako on-line časopis umožňuje študentom prejaviť sa, t.j. môžu tu voľne vyjadriť a prípadne obhájiť vlastný
názor
• príspevky sú archivované, učiteľ aj študenti si ich môžu kedykoľvek prečítať znovu,
pripomenúť si akých chýb sa pri ich písaní dopustili a aká bola odozva na ich
príspevok a tiež môžu pozorovať ako sa ich zručnosti v písaní menia
• blogy sa nielen ľahko tvoria, ale aj ľahko používajú a od užívateľa vyžadujú
minimálne technické znalosti.
Weblogy majú okrem výhod aj určité nevýhody:
• snáď najväčšou nevýhodou je časová náročnosť, ktorá pre študenta vyplýva
z pravidelného publikovania príspevkov, ktorých napísanie mu zaberie určitý čas a pre
učiteľa je náročná ich kontrola
• nie sú dôverné, t.j. každý kto je na internete si ich môže otvoriť a prečítať a každý sa
môže aj kriticky vyjadriť k napísanému príspevku prostredníctvom funkcie komentára
a negatívny komentár môže byť pre autora blogu demotivačný
• niektorí študenti pravdepodobne nebudú chcieť blogovať, pokiaľ nebudú k tomu
nútení, lebo blogovanie zaberá istý čas
• študenti so slabšími počítačovými zručnosťami môžu mať problémy s blogovaním
(Trimarco : 2004).
179
Tieto nevýhody weblogov nie sú natoľko významné, aby negatívne ovplyvňovali ich
aktívne a pravidelné využívanie vo výučbe cudzích jazykov.
2.
AUDIOBLOG
Ďalším typom blogu je audioblog. Už z jeho názvu vyplýva, že ide o blog, ktorý je zameraný
na hovorené slovo. Prostredníctvom tohto blogu možno študentom výrazne pomôcť v
zdokonaľovaní zručnosti hovorenia a počúvania v cudzom jazyku. Audioblogging je
rozšírenie weblogu, kde weblogeri nahrádzajú množstvo textových príspevkov hlasovými
nahrávkami. (The Guardian : 2004).
Vytvorenie audioblogu je pomerne jednoduché a vzhľadom na to, že vývoj počítačov sa
výrazne posunul dopredu, ani nahrávanie hovoreného slova nie je náročné. Aby sa dali
nahrávať a prehrávať zvukové nahrávky, je potrebné aby počítač mal mikrofón a
reproduktory. Ak počítač nemá vstavaný mikrofón a reproduktory, potom ich treba dokúpiť
a pripojiť k počítaču. Rovnako ako pri weblogu aj tu rozlišujeme tri druhy audioblogov:
učiteľský:
• na sprostredkovanie nahrávok napr. prednášok
• sprostredkovanie dodatkových nahrávok týkajúcich sa preberanej problematiky
• sprostredkovanie ďalších cvičení a úloh zameraných na hovorenie a počúvanie
študentský:
• online nahovorený denník
• portfólio orálnych domácich úloh, epizód, ...
triedny:
• na spoločné projekty, napr. na vytvorenie „triedneho rádia“.
Pred použitím audioblogu vo výučbe, by sme si mali najprv položiť otázku „prečo by sme
tak mali urobiť ?“ a na základe odpovede/odpovedí sa rozhodnúť, či ho naozaj chceme a
potrebujeme použiť. Určite jednou z odpovedí prečo, by sme mali použiť audioblog by mala
byť súčasná situácia v školstve (nedostatočný počet hodín cudzieho jazyka) a veľké počty
študentov v triedach, čo znamená, že študenti nemajú veľa príležitostí na rozprávanie, čo sa
odzrkadľuje v ich neistote a následne neochote rozprávať v cudzom jazyku. Práve audioblog
by mohol pomôcť túto situáciu aspoň čiastočne riešiť.
Audioblog učiteľom umožňuje:
• novým spôsobom podporovať výučbu orálnych zručností
• lepšie usmerňovať a viesť jednotlivých študentov, čo tradičná výučba v triede
nezabezpečuje v takej miere. (Tan Yuh Huann, Mong Kok Thong: 2006)
Študentom umožňuje:
• precvičovať si hovorenie a počúvanie
• tvoriť epizódy a prezentovať ich.
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2.1 Výhody a nevýhody audioblogov
Tak ako weblog aj audioblog má svoje výhody a nevýhody. Výhody audioblogu sú
vzhľadom na veľké počty študentov v triede (t.j. možnosti rozprávania sú obmedzené)
zrejmé:
• publikovanie príspevkov je motivujúce a zábavné
• pomáha zlepšiť a zatraktívniť zručnosti hovorenia a počúvania
• epizódy sú archivované automaticky
• zverejňovanie nového obsahu je jednoduché
• datovanie a organizovanie epizód je v spätnom chronologickom poriadku, t.j. ako prvé
vidno najnovšie epizódy
• študent aj učiteľ môžu monitorovať pokrok v zlepšovaní jednotlivých zručností
• obsahová syndikácia cez RSS kanály.
Nevýhody audioblogu sú:
• najväčšou nevýhodou, tak ako je to aj pri weblogu, je časová náročnosť, ktorá pre
študenta vyplýva z pravidelného publikovania epizód, ktorých nahovorenie, pokiaľ ich
chce nahovoriť správne, mu zaberie určitý čas a pre učiteľa je ich kontrola náročnejšia
ako je to pri weblogoch, lebo tu ide o hovorené slovo a nie písaný text
• nie sú dôverné, t.j. každý kto je na internete si ich môže vypočuť
• je dosť možné, že študenti pravdepodobne nebudú chcieť blogovať, pokiaľ nebudú
k tomu nútení, lebo tvorba epizód im zaberie veľa času
• študenti so slabšími počítačovými zručnosťami môžu mať problémy s tvorbou epizód.
ZÁVER
Na záver chcem vyjadriť želanie, aby tento príspevok vzbudil záujem u tých učiteľov, ktorí
ešte stále váhajú, či používať alebo nepoužívať IKT ako doplnok klasického vyučovania
jazykov v triede. Weblog a audioblog sú len dve možnosti z mnohých, ktoré nám súčasné
technológie ponúkajú, ale môžu byť veľmi účinným a motivujúcim nástrojom na zlepšenie
zručnosti písania/čítania a zručnosti hovorenia/počúvania za predpokladu, že študenti
pravidelne plnia úlohy, ktoré sú im dané na weblogu alebo audioblogu.
181
LITERATÚRA
DUDENEY,G.; HOCKLY,N. How to Teach English with Technology. Harlow: Longman,
2007. 192 s. ISBN 978-1-405-85308-8
TAN YUH HUANN- MONG KOK THONG. Audioblogging and Podcasting in Education
[online]. 2006 [cit. 24. 5. 2011]. <http://www3.moe.edu.sg/edumall/rd/litreview/audioblogg
podcast.pdf>
TERBEN, T.; BAN, R.; CASTANEDA, M. Teaching English Language Learners through
Technology. New York: Routledge, 2009. 219 s. ISBN 0 203 89442 1
The Guardian. Personal soundtracks [online]. 2004, December 2. [cit. 24. 5. 2011].
<http://technology.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1363637,00.html
TRIMARCO, R. Use of Blogs in Online College Classes [online]. 2007 [cit. 24. 5. 2011].
<http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/blogonlineclass/index.htm>
182
SO-CALLED CHUNKS IN COURSE BOOKS FOR STUDENTS OF
CZECH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Jindřiška Svobodová
Czech Studies Department, Philosophical Faculty of Palacký University
Křížkovského 10, Olomouc 77180
jindriska.svobodova@upol.cz
Abstract:
When learning a foreign language, so called chunks always play an important role; they are
groups of words used always as a whole, as one unit. The acquisition of them leads both to
automatized expressing and eliminates unwanted negative transfers. Author of the article
deals with the role chunks play in communicatively conceived textbooks of Czech for
foreigners (A1 level).
Keywords: chunks, communicative method, European Framework of Reference for
Languages, foreign language, teaching.
INTRODUCTION
Methods of foreign language teaching were subject to considerably long evolution. It is
possible to say that the shape of a method has always been derived primarily from the goals
and needs of foreign language acquisition.
0. HISTORY
By no accident was the Middle Ages foreign language teaching focussed above all on dead
languages. Language teaching which consequently depended upon a very complex
architecture of Latin and Greek grammatical systems became merely an opportunity to
practice logic. High priority was ascribed to the written code command, the teaching of which
was conducted in students’ mother tongue only. The lessons were dedicated to reading and
word-for-word translation of texts which provided the students with vocabulary. The method
was in its modifications still in use as late as the 20th century. Even then there were theories
defining the command of a foreign language as a mental activity based on the students’
learning the grammatical rules and their ability to apply the rules on the basis of analogy. At
the end of the above described lesson the students were able to faultlessly translate sentences
containing the grammar in question from their mother tongue to the target language. Of
course, the changes of the social situation as well as the students’ needs require brand new
methods of language teaching.1
Since the 1960s, the development of linguistics in general has been showing tendencies to
emphasize the pragmatic-communicative research. The language system and structural
characteristics of a language are no longer focussed upon. The main interest has moved to the
1
Teaching methods overview accessible from
<http://is.akcentcollege.cz/el/AK10/leto2010/APPLA/Prehled_metod_vyuky_CJ.pdf?fakulta=AK10;obdobi=62;k
od=APPLA> /accessed 15. 5. 2011
183
description of a language in communicative interaction. Subject to analysis are the
circumstances that can influence the final form of the discourse. The general trend is
reflected in foreign language teaching as well; consequently, it is possible to trace the
influence of the “langue-to-parole” turn. “From the beginning of the 1970s the term
“competence” is further specified. Dell Hymes belongs to the pioneer scientists articulating
the need to establish a boarder concept of a competence which requires not only the before
requested knowledge of a language (i. e. of the means of all language levels), but also the
knowledge of the rules of unmarked usage of the above mentioned means resulting in socially
acceptable utterances. Hymes in accordance with the contemporary methodological climate
brought into usage the term communicative competence. The supporters of the new concept
emphasize that from their point of view the ability of the speaker to produce grammatically
(linguistically) correct sentences and texts (in a “general,” “abstract” sense) is no longer
sufficient. On the contrary, to achieve a successful and meaningful natural sounding and
appropriate communication it is crucial that the speaker is capable of generating utterances
in accordance with currently important features of communication.”2 Newly accepted
methods (mainly the communicative method) avoid theoretical acquisition of grammatical
rules, praxis is clearly preferred to theory. Language teaching is required to provide the
command of a language in its complexity; reading skills are not accentuated diminishing the
ratio of listening skills or even the productive skills such as speaking or writing.3 The
situation at the end of the 20th century and during the first decade of the 21st century clearly
shows that the ongoing globalization and European integration brings still more urgent need
for communication among the citizens belonging to various language communities. “The
study of foreign languages is not a study for its own sake, languages are studied as a tool for
communicating various contents. People want and need to ´speak about a thing´.”4
[translation Kateřina Danielová]
1. COMMUNICATIVE NEEDS
While developing educational programs attention should be paid to practical communicative
needs, a communication practice should become an integral part of foreign language courses
giving the students possibilities to reflect their communication goal as well as interpersonal
relationships.
The teachers build working conceptions upon a certain strategy that enables the students to
proceed from nonexistent knowledge of a foreign language to its command. To choose a
suitable conception it is inevitable for the teacher to answer the following questions:
•
In what situations will the students communicate?
•
What skills will they need to achieve their goals?
•
Why do they study a foreign language, what is the source of their motivation?
•
Whom will I teach?
•
How much time do the students have to learn the language?
The procedure from nonexistent knowledge of a language to its practical acquisition is mainly
modified with respect to different kinds of learning environment. A language can be learned
in the target language environment, which means that the students are exposed to native
2
Hrdlička: < http://www.auccj.cz/starestranky/kotazcekomunikac.htm>
3
Some other possibilities of using the communicative method for mastering a grammaticalized language such
as Czech are described by L. Holá and D. Hánková (2011).
4
<http://is.akcentcollege.cz/el/AK10/leto2010/APPLA/Prehled_metod_vyuky_CJ.pdf?fakulta=AK10;obdobi=62;
kod=APPLA> /accessed 15. 5. 2011
184
speakers from the very beginning and are forced to communicate with them. On the other
hand, when the language learning takes place in a “scholarly” environment, there is no need
for the students to actually use the foreign language in everyday life. It is mainly in the first
mentioned environment that enables the students to develop a whole range of language
competence. In everyday social interaction the students are forced to use the newly acquired
language means activating their former social and pragmatic competence at the same time.
2. COURSE BOOKS OF CZECH FOR FOREIGNERS
The focus of our study lies in materials used for students who only have basic command of
Czech. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages characterizes
communicative competence of such speakers using descriptors.5 It is important that even
before the students reach the A1 level, they can use even the minimal range of a foreign
language that they have acquired so far, to fulfill some of their needs satisfactorily. In a
foreign language speaking environment it is for instance important to acquire a limited
repertoire of the most frequent greetings, basic phrases used for getting accommodation,
doing shopping or finding one’s way in the town and so on. The students acquire complete
structures by memorizing them. They develop competence to activate the structures in
adequate situations. For successful communication it is essential to acquire a clear and
intelligible pronunciation, rather than to be able to understand the language system and
analyze language structures into elementary units. At the first stage of language learning the
choice of topics for communication should be adapted with respect to the following criteria:
•
What are the predominant communicative frames / situations in which the students
will communicate?
•
What role will the students play in the communicative situations?
•
With whom will the students probably communicate?
Language is always bound to a certain communicative situation; therefore it is useful to give
the students a set of schemes or algorithms which will lead to achieving the communication
goal, provided that the principles of cooperative interaction are ensured. It proved highly
effective even at the first stage of language learning to equip the students with set frames that
can be completed according to the current communicative situation. Such as: Mohu se vás
zeptat, kde / May I ask you where…; Promiňte, že obtěžuji, ale … /Excuse me …; Nevíte
náhodou, kdy … / Do you happen to know when… Oversimplification brings the students no
advantage with respect to further development of their communicative competence; on the
contrary, once the students acquire a natural structure, they can use it in a whole range of
situations.
While learning a language, the students should be intensively exposed to the target language,
at the same time it is essential that they actively participate in communication. Again we have
to ask what form of the foreign language the students will be exposed to. See various
possibilities listed below:
•
Face to face communication with a native speaker / a colleague or a student of the
same foreign language
•
Listening to adapted / authentic texts
•
Reading adapted / authentic texts.
5
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, Olomouc 2006, p. 26-29.
185
Grammatical competence can be developed either by a text-based grammar presentation and
their teacher-guided analysis letting the students discover the rule. The discovery is followed
by application of the rule.6 Alternatively, the teacher can omit the presentation of the rule and
make the students memorize lexical chunks containing the structure in question.
Understanding separate elements of the structure is not a necessary prerequisite to successful
communication.
The latter mentioned are the principles of the lexical approach described by Michael Lewis in
his monograph The Lexical Approach. Michael Lewis built his theory on assumption that we
acquire a language through its lexicon.7 L. Holá and D. Hánková (2011) study the method in
greater detail. For our study it is important that such an approach enables us to use whole
phrases while both teaching a language and using it for communication. This is possible due
to the fact that it is not necessary for the students to understand individual parts of the phrase
(the so-called chunks).
For the most widely used course books of Czech for beginners such as Communicative Czech
(Elementary Czech), New Czech Step by Step, Czech Express the analysis focussed on stating
the degree of correspondence between the presented and practised grammar in each course
book. Attention was paid to the occurrence of linguistic material exceeding the assumed
“grammatical competence” of the students. The analysis was intended to decide which course
book qualifies as the most effective tool for language acquisition in the environment of the
students’ mother tongue and the target language respectively. Another analysed feature was
the number of model sentences that might be used in authentic communicative situations.
First five lessons of each course book were analysed with respect to the following features (cf.
Table No. 1).We can describe here only textbook Czech Express, analysis of other textbooks
will be made directly to the lecture.
6
The SOS method is used for instance by F. Komárková (2006); the method is drawn attention to in the latest
case study by L. Holá a D. Hánková (2011).
7
More detailed characteristic of the method is accessible from
<>http://is.akcentcollege.cz/el/AK10/leto2010/APPLA/Prehled_metod_vyuky_CJ.pdf?fakulta=AK10;obdobi=62
;kod=APPLA /accessed 15. 5. 2011:
-the basic language units are words and their (customary) combinations (‚multi-word lexical units‘ / chunks)
which we acquire as a whole; i.e. as lexical units and use them as such;
-the author finds support for his theory in for example in computational linguistics namely in collocations,
customary units of various types in both written and spoken language.
- the author recommends reading and study of authentic texts( means of language exposure) work with corpora (
using concordances) observation and analysis( contrast with mother tongue)
- proposes a set of activities for vocabulary acquisition for example using various dictionaries and different
techniques of keeping „vocabulary“ record.
186
Lesson topic
Presented grammar
Grammar in chunks
Greetings Dobrý den X
Ahoj
The verbs být, dělat
Numerals 1 - 10
The genitive singular
Orientation
Imperative
The vocative singular
The verbs rozumět, mluvit, The genitive case in
vědět, vidět
constructions: vedle +
Numerals 11 - 100
noun
The dative of pronouns
Vidíte ten bílý dům vedle
banky?
Jet autobusem / Musíte jet
autobusem.
Jet metrem áčkem / Musíte
jet 4 stanice metrem
céčkem.
Musíte jít druhou ulicí
doleva.
Chunk: Let ne Havaj
zrušen pro špatné počasí.
Kolik je hodin?
Kuchař šel do jiné
restaurace.
Ája a Pája jsou
v restauraci
Co si dáte k pití?
Co si dáte k jídlu?
Kolik mu/jí je?
Comparative adjectives
(politeness means)
Je trochu starší.
Kolegyně je silnější.
The accusative singular
The instrumental singular
In a restaurant
The verbs mít rád, číst,
pít, jíst
Numerals 100 – 100
Nominative singular
Accusative singular
The genitive singular
The locative singular
The dative singular
My family
When we meet?
Pronouns můj, moje
The verbs jmenovat se,
pracovat, studovat
Sentences exceeding the
grammatical competence
Lori je z Kanady
Já jsem ten slon
z autobusu.
Čtěte, pečlivě vyslovujte
Pane Maláte
Vedle kina, vedle
restaurace
Structures: Kdy je to?
The locative singular
Co rádi děláte? The genitive singular
The verb jít + do
+ na
Chunk:Mám velkou
rodinu, uvidíš!
V pondělí, v lednu
Prvního ledna
Jít do školy
Jít na koncert
Table 1: Czech express
SUMMARY
Analysis of the most widely used beginners’ course books of Czech as a foreign language
revealed differences in the means of grammar presentation as well as in grammar practice. We
may assume that even a highly grammaticalized language such Czech can be taught to
students who possess no previous knowledge of grammar theory. For the students being
exposed to an unknown language in its natural environment, memorizing language chunks
that can be activated under suitable circumstances proved to be more useful in comparison
with theoretical knowledge of grammar, even though they were not able to analyze the chunks
into individual elements. From this point of view, Czech Express was labeled the most
suitable “first-experience” course book especially for students exposed to native speakers.
The structures used in the course book are mostly not “adjusted” to suit the grammar in focus;
on the contrary they are formed to be as native like as possible. New Czech Step by Step is
187
also designed as a communicative course book. Both instruction to the exercises and grammar
presentation are however given in English. In didactic texts preference is given to sentences
using verbal phrases based on already acquired cases. Communicative Czech pays special
attention to perfect acquisition of the presented grammar; it makes use of many grammar
drills. Mastering the drills provides a high-quality grammar basis. Thus we believe this course
book to be the most suitable one for Czech learners studying in the environment of their
mother tongue.
LITERATURE
CVEJNOVÁ, Jitka. K pojmu „jazyková funkce“ v popisech referenčních úrovní češtiny.
Bohemistyka, 2006, roč. 6, č. 3, s. 169-176. ISSN 1642-9893.
HOLÁ, Lída; HÁNKOVÁ, Dana. K výuce gramatiky v češtině pro cizince. Češtinář. 20102011, roč. XXI, č. 3, s. 82-87. ISSN 1211-6874.
HOLÁ, Lída. New Czech Step by Step. Praha: Akropolis, 2006. ISBN 809034175-6.
HOLÁ, Lída; BOŘILOVÁ, Pavla. Čeština expres. Praha: Akropolis, 2. vydání, 2011. ISBN
978-80-87481-22-6.
HRDLIČKA, Milan. Gramatika a výuka češtiny jako cizího jazyka: K prezentaci gramatiky
českého jazyka v učebnicích češtiny pro cizince. Praha: Karolinum, 2009. ISBN 978-80-2461527-1.
HRDLIČKA, Milan. K otázce komunikace. [online]. 2005. [accessed 15. 5. 2011] :
<http://www.auccj.cz/starestranky/kotazcekomunikac.htm>.
<http://is.akcentcollege.cz/el/AK10/leto2010/APPLA/Prehled_metod_vyuky_CJ.pdf?fakulta=
AK10;obdobi=62;kod=APPLA> [accessed 15. 5. 2011]
REŠKOVÁ, Ivana; PINTAROVÁ, Magdalena. Communicative Czech (Elementary Czech).
Praha: Ústav jazykové a odborné přípravy UK, 1995. ISBN 80-901947-2-9
Společný evropský referenční rámec pro jazyky: Jak se učíme cizím jazykům, jak je vyučujeme
a jak v jazycích hodnotíme. Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, 2002. ISBN 80-244145-2.
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COMMON MISTAKES IN WRITING
Mária Šikolová, Nataša Mocková
University of Defence, Language Training Centre, Brno, Kounicova 65, 66 210
maria.sikolova@unob.cz, natasa.mockova@unob.cz
Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to identify the most common mistakes in writing of Ph.D.
students at the Faculty of Military Technology of the University of Defence. Homework tasks
collected in the years 2004 – 2010 have been statistically analysed. The tasks were from
students of different proficiency levels, mostly pre-intermediate. The participants were
administered eight different writing tasks (Personal Information, How to Write Curriculum
Vitae, Curriculum Vitae, How to Write a Formal Letter, Formal Letter, How to Write a
Conference Circular, Conference Circular, How to Prepare a Good Presentation). Firstly,
students had to find information about writing certain piece of homework. Then they wrote
instructions, tips and/ or recommendations for writing it. After that they did the task
themselves. The tasks have been identified based of common sense of the teachers in Ph.D.
English courses at the Language Training Centre of the University of Defence. The mistakes
were categorized into about ten basic types most frequently occurring in Czech native
speakers. The identified and counted mistakes were further processed statistically. Selected
results have been interpreted and further research recommended.
Key words: writing tasks, error analysis, corrections, frequency of mistakes
INTRODUCTION
At present mastering English is one of the pre-requisities of success in most professional areas
of life. Academic world is undoubtedly one of them. In the Czech Republic, it is still not
taken for granted that university graduates are able to fluently communicate in English.
Nevertheless, educational documents proclaim the importance of learning languages and in
case of higher education, the language policy is fully in the hands of university or faculty
management. In this respect, the Faculty of Military Technology shows deep understanding of
the importance of language training. Unlike many other universities, even Ph.D. students have
mandatory language lessons.
Based on teaching English in these courses, the authors wanted to find out the most frequent
linguistic problems. To narrow the topic, they have decided to focus on error analysis in
writing tasks. All of them were assigned to the students as homework, so no time limits were
applied. The students were allowed to gather the information needed from any source though
they were warned not to simply “copy and paste”. They were also free to use dictionaries.
1. THE OBJECTIVE
The objective of the research was to identify the most problematic linguistic categories, as
well as the frequency of the mistakes made. The idea behind this research appeared while
correcting learners’ papers. Certain types of mistakes were obviously more frequent than the
others. That is why the authors decided to explore this problem more in depth. The sample
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population consists of Ph.D. students at the Faculty of Military Technology, the University of
Defence in Brno. Their proficiency levels varied from pre-intermediate to intermediate. All
sample papers come from these students in the period of time from 2004 to 2010. These
writings were firstly gathered only for purposes of giving feedback to students. Later on, the
similarities of mistakes inspired authors’ interest and in fact led to writing this article.
Generally speaking, the approaches to teaching English in these courses are based on several
principles of teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP). The authors believe that “ESP is
not a matter of teaching ‘specialised varieties’ of English. …not just a matter of Science
words and grammar for scientists, …not different in kind from any other form of language
teaching” (Hutchinson, Waters, 1994, p 18).
The writing tasks that are regularly assigned to Ph.D. students in these courses have been
formulated bearing in mind the above mentioned theoretical approaches. The tasks
administered and gathered were as follows: Personal Information, How to Write Curriculum
Vitae, Curriculum Vitae, How to Write a Formal Letter, Formal Letter, How to Write a
Conference Circular, Conference Circular and How to Prepare a Good Presentation. Firstly,
students had to find information about the topic of individual piece of homework. Then they
were expected to write instructions/ tips/ recommendations for writing it strictly in their own
words. After that they did the task themselves. For each of these tasks, about 30 samples of
writing were collected. Each category of writing was assigned as a piece of homework with a
required range of about one standard page A4. However, this requirement was not strictly
kept and the learners were given certain amount of freedom in this respect.
The writing tasks were assessed from the point of view of the following categories of
mistakes: spelling; word order; other grammar errors; vocabulary; constructions where
something is missing; punctuation; dates; mixing the use of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs;
capitalization and constructions with no meaning.
2. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETING OF RESULTS
The analysis was carried out according to the categories of tasks and categories of mistakes.
On the grounds of the restriction of the length of paper, only selected results will be presented
and interpreted.
2.1 Most frequent mistakes in particular tasks
2.1.1 Personal information
As it is obvious from Fig. 1, three most frequent types of mistakes were in articles, grammar
and vocabulary. Possible reason behind this is that this piece of writing was not a structured
task; it was personal and students worked independently of any sources and relatively freely.
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236
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139
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Fig. 1 Personal Information
2.1.2 How to Write Curriculum Vitae
This task was more guided – to write instructions on how to write curriculum vitae. The
students were allowed to study any materials available, but at the same time they were asked
to produce their own piece of writing. The most frequent are in fact the same three categories
as in Personal information task. This is quite surprising, as in this task it was expected that
the students will find and study some sources before, so it seemed probable that at least
articles and vocabulary should not be a problem. The fourth common mistake in this piece of
writing was something missing. Possible explanation is that the students have worked with the
sources. In other words, they did not only copy and paste, but tried to modify what they have
found in the source texts, but not always successfully.
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40
35
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Fig. 2 How to Write Curriculum Vitae
2.1.3 Curriculum Vitae
Although this piece of homework was considered by the authors to be one of the easier ones,
it definitely was not without mistakes. Obviously, if compared with the two previous tasks,
there were not many grammar mistakes, as structured CVs were submitted exclusively. So the
text mostly did not consist of whole sentences which might have been the reason why
grammatical errors were not so frequent. It was probably also the reason why incorrect use of
articles was less frequent than in Personal Information writing. Not so surprisingly, number
of mistakes in capitalization was relatively much higher in comparison with the previous tasks
(see Fig. 3). This could possibly be ascribed to the fact that lots of names of schools, courses
or other institutions were mentioned in this sort of writing.
3.1.4 How to write a formal letter
Similarly as in previous tasks, the most frequent mistakes in formal letter appeared in
grammar, articles and vocabulary. This can be possibly explained by the fact that this piece of
writing was intended to be written more freely; in such case, usually in attempt to write
naturally, natural mistakes occur. They may show clearly which language phenomena have
not been acquired yet. Another fact worth mentioning is that in this piece of writing there was
relatively high number of parts of writing that were obviously copied and pasted (5 such parts
were identified) – for an experienced teacher, it is quite easy to find out. In such cases, the
parts of writing are not homogeneous in terms of level of English; most parts show the real
level of the learner while some of them are apparently higher. On the other hand, this does
not seem to be a serious problem in the population dealt with in the paper – the learners were
strictly advised not to do it. Moreover, bearing in mind that they all attended Ph.D. course at a
military university might also mean good discipline.
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Fig. 3 Curriculum Vitae
106
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100
80
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Fig. 4 How to Write a Formal Letter
2.2 Selected mistakes and their occurrence in all tasks
2.2.1 Mistakes in spelling
The authors have decided to illustrate this kind of mistakes, as it is somewhat unexpected.
Taking into account that all tasks were submitted electronically, one might presume that there
will be almost no spelling mistakes. However, the opposite was true. The highest number of
mistakes was in Personal Information, Conference Circular and How to Write a Formal
Letter. It is worth mentioning that the students were strongly recommended to set the
computer to English language, as well as to switch on the spell-check. So, the only
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explanation might be not paying attention to the recommendations, or the lack of ability to
perform this very simple operation on the computer.
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60
50
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40
30
30
27
28
23
20
13
10
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Fig. 5 Mistakes in Spelling
2.2.2 Mistakes in using articles
This category covers all the mistakes related to using articles, i.e. using incorrect article
(definite instead of indefinite and vice versa), skipping out articles where they should be used
or using articles where they should not be used. This is a very common mistake in Czech
native speakers – thus, there is no wonder, as there are no articles in the Czech language. The
highest number of these mistakes was identified in Personal Information, How to Write a
Conference Circular, and How to Write a Good Presentation. Interestingly, the writings that
may be used in real life (CV, Formal Letter, Conference Circular) do not seem to have such a
high number of mistakes. The reason could be that these kinds of writings are more structured
and do not require to use more complex sentences.
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150
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100
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Fig. 6 Mistakes in Articles
CONCLUSION
The paper has presented and interpreted a survey of the most common (frequent) mistakes in
writings of pre- up to intermediate Ph.D. students at the Faculty of Military Technology
(University of Defence). The results have proved what the authors have repeatedly come
across in teaching process - the students generally make the most mistakes in grammar (using
articles) and in using vocabulary (inappropriate words and/ or collocations). It can be assumed
that it occurs in linguistic categories that are non-existing in their native language. Some of
the mistakes were strongly influenced by their mother tongue (capitalization). The kinds of
mistakes were also affected by the type of writing task. In this respect, the authors have come
to a conclusion that the achieved results should be taken into consideration in the lesson plans
for the following Ph.D. courses. From the point of view of further research, a similar study
could be conducted in different education facility or at the same institution, but on different
sample of learners (Bachelors’course, Masters’ course, upper-intermediate level). The results
would be compared and interpreted.
LITERATURE
HUTCHINSON, T., WATERS, A. English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge: University
Press, 1994. ISBN 0-521-31837-8.
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SOME ASPECTS OF SPECIALIZED MILITARY TERMINOLOGY
Jana Tomšů, Eva Staňková
University of Defence, Language Training Centre, Brno, Kounicova 65, 66 210
jana.tomsu@ unob.cz, eva.stankova2@unob.cz
Abstract:
The paper examines some aspects of terminology used in specialized military and defence
fields. It provides a theoretical background for selecting terms when building terminology
databases, and informs on current printed and online sources containing specialized military
vocabulary. Although the paper illustrates the theoretical aspects with examples in the Czech
and English languages, it may also address the educators and translators of other languages,
who will find numerous analogies with terminologies in their target language.
Keywords: AAP-6, concept, defence, dictionary, military, specialized vocabulary, term,
terminology.
INTRODUCTION
Current competitive environment places emphasis on professional foreign language
competence. Therefore, teaching professional foreign language becomes an inseparable part
of university study all over the world. In addition to that, some universities offer specialized
courses in a foreign language, and thus the students are introduced to vocational subjects
through the target language.
To achieve a high level of professional foreign language competence, it is necessary to master
specialized vocabulary. One of the prerequisites for a successful acquisition of specialized
vocabulary is to have an access to reliable sources of specific terms: specialized dictionaries,
electronic databases of terms, corpora, course books and up-to-date specialized texts and
recordings.
The following chapters discuss some aspects of terminology, terminological databases and
terms. They examine the criteria which make a concept eligible for the inclusion in a
terminology database. As practical applications of collecting and processing of terms, several
printed and online sources of military vocabulary are introduced.
1. TERMINOLOGY
It is well known that a uniform terminology is the basis for joint activities in interdisciplinary
fields. Specialized words and expressions, unique in usage and meaning, are used to shorten
communication and share information in a particular field. One of the basic tasks of
terminology is to determine the nature of a term in opposition to a general word. In
connection with this task some questions can be raised: ‘Which attributes distinguish terms
from general expressions? What are the criteria for selecting entries for terminology
databases? To what extent do the centre and periphery of general and specialized vocabulary
overlap?’
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The theoretical part of the paper is based on the concept of terminology as it is presented in
the Guidance for the Development and Publication of NATO Terminology (hereinafter
referred to as Guidance, 2007). Illustrative examples are taken from the SynPub2009 corpus
and the allied publication AAP-6: NATO Glossary of Terms and Definitions (hereinafter
referred to as AAP-6, 2010). The examples belong to the area of military security. The paper
does not evaluate terminology as such and does not examine the meaning of terms, or their
standardization procedures.
1.1 Basic concepts
The basic elements for determining the nature of a term are a concept, definition and
designation (Guidance, 2007). The starting point is the concept, rather vaguely defined as
mental representation of an object/phenomenon of extralinguistic reality. The concept that
refers to a set of two or more objects/phenomena is called a general concept; e.g. letadlo
(aircraft), armáda (army) and tank (tank). The concept that depicts a single
object/phenomenon is called an individual concept (e.g. Aero L-159 Alca, the Armed Forces
of the Czech Republic, tank T 72). A concept is never isolated, it is always in relation with
another concept and they together form a system of concepts. In this system, the concepts are
ranked in descending order from general to specific and form a system of superordinate
(parent), subordinate (child) and coordinate (sibling) concepts. Hierarchical relationships
between the various concepts of a semantic field can be illustrated in a concept diagram. The
concept diagram is organized into levels, where the superordinate concept is subdivided into
subordinate concepts when the same semantic criteria are applied (see Fig. 1).
Figure 1. Concept diagram 1 (Guidance, 2007, p. 15)
The boundaries of a concept are specified by a definition, on the basis of which the concept is
attributed a designation. In the NATO Terminology Program, only a term or an abbreviation
is used for a designation.
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1.2 Criteria for identifying terms for inclusion in a terminology database
‘A term is a designation of a concept in a specific subject field. It consists of one or more
words.’ (Guidance, 2007, p. 8). Ideally, a term should be unambiguous, should not have
synonyms and should be well established. Despite the requirement for unambiguity of terms,
more than one denomination may correspond to one concept. They are called terminological
synonyms. However, similarly to general vocabulary, the principle of preference is applied
in terminology in the use of synonyms as well. It means that one designation – a term – is
preferred in a particular context; its use in this context is considered the best. Another
designation may not be ideal, but is admitted. Some other designations are possible, but they
can be, for various reasons, misleading or deprecated. A designation may be considered
obsolete, and yet is still used. For example, in the SynPub2009 corpus, the term jaderné
zbraně (nuclear weapons) that is preferred in the field of security occurs 1,421 times; the
admitted term nukleární zbraně (nuclear weapons) occurs 102 times; and the obsolete term
atomové zbraně (atomic weapons) occurs 171 times.
The above mentioned example confirms the fact that both in general language and
terminology the obsolete and newly preferred terms coexist side-by-side for some time.
Occasionally, the obsolete terms that have been firmly rooted in specialized terminologies for
a long time are more viable than the current ones. On the other hand, there are some obsolete
terms that are left very quickly; e.g. the outdated term speciální očista (decontamination),
with just two occurrences in the SynPub2009, has been substituted promptly by the term
dekontaminace (decontamination), which occurs 175 times in the corpus. In this case the
principle of language economy certainly played a role in favour of the term dekontaminace
(decontamination), as the new term is a mono-word term and is shorter.
In terms of synonymous terminology, it is necessary to mention here that some recipients of a
special language content might be sometimes misled and look for the differences in the
meaning of synonyms, such as třídění mostů a vozidel and vojenská klasifikace zatížení
(military load classification), amortizace and odpis hodnoty (depreciation), vzdušný and
letecký (air), podpora and zabezpečení (support), palba and střelba (fire).
‘Ideally, the objective of term-concept assignment in a given special language is to ensure that
a given term is attributed to only one concept and the given concept is represented by only
one term.’ (ISO/FDIS 704, 1999, p. 22). This condition is called monosemy. An opposite
situation might occur, when a designation may represent more than one concept. This case is
referred to as terminological polysemy. In general, there is an effort to avoid polysemy in the
same field, but not even this situation can be fully excluded. Polysemy interferes with the
unambiguity principle of terms in one discipline, but it can be encountered in interdisciplinary
fields, because different disciplines can terminologize one word in different meanings. For
example, the term průchod (pass, transit, passage, run, drain, duct, channel, manway) has
different terminologized meaning in various specialized fields, such as engineering,
topography, armament, medicine, electromagnetic radiation and the science of sound. The
term baterie (battery) has a different meaning in the artillery and in the technical field.
However, in one terminology system, a polysemy should be avoided. Since the overlap in the
meaning of terms complicates the comprehension of specialized texts, it is necessary to
remove such intrusions by specifying the terms by definitions.
Another desired feature is the stability of a term. It means that well-established terms should
not be changed, even if poorly formulated, unless there are compelling reasons to do so
198
(Guidance, 2007, p. 9). However, this requirement is to be understood relatively. Knowledge
is in constant development, and because terminology reflects a state of the knowledge in a
scientific discipline, terminology is in constant development as well. Therefore, terminology
cannot fulfil the requirement for stability. Until the development of a specific concept is not
satisfactorily completed, the term cannot be completely stable. In numerous cases, the
specialists who are to determine the same concept might see it from different points of views,
or can have a conception of the problem, and thus the concept has a different interpretation
and tends to have different designations. Beside the recognized and generally accepted terms,
the authors might use some working terms without any pretence to general acceptance. There
are also terms proposed for general acceptance, but they are either not accepted or they are
altered.
Similarly to general vocabulary, also terminology has its centre and periphery. The centre of
terminology consists of terms, which are positioned at the highest levels in the concept
system. The question is to what extent the terminology centre overlaps with the centre of
general vocabulary. The basic characteristic that defines the boundary between terms and
words of general vocabulary is specialization (Hacken, 2008). It is an intrinsic characteristic
of terms and it has different levels given by the concept system. The more general a concept
is, the higher is the probability that the expression will bear both general and specialized
meaning. For example (see Fig. 2), a generic term operace (operation) occurs 24,176 times in
the SynPub2009. The semantically more specialized term vojenské operace (military
operations) occurs 797 times, but the non-terminological collocation speciální vojenské
operace (special military operations), which originated in journalistic style by combining
general and professional language, occurs only three times in the corpus. On the contrary, the
specialized military term speciální operace (special operations) occurs 67 times in the
SynPub2009. The term of speciální operace (special operations) is superordinate to the term
tajné operace (clandestine operations). This term occurs 29 times in a military context, 35
times in a political context, six times in a relation to finance and twice in other contexts,
which are difficult to be determined.
Figure 2. Concept diagram 2
As another example, let us consider a general expression látky (substances, agents), which
occurs 23,023 times in the SynPub2009. The semantically more specialized expression
chemické látky (chemical substances) occurs 738 times and the very specialized term bojové
chemické látky (chemical warfare agents) occurs only 11 times.
The examples show that similarly to general vocabulary, the narrowing of meaning leads to
the displacement of the word from the centre to the periphery.
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1.3 Principles for term formation
When creating new terms, it is advisable to respect the following principles. The first of these
principles is transparency. ‘A term is considered transparent when the concept it designates
can be inferred, at least partially, without a definition. In particular, the formulation must not
be misleading or incomplete’ (Guidance, 2007, p. 9). For example, the term prereliminary
target (předpokládaný cíl) related to the concept: ‘A target which is earmarked for demolition
...’ is not transparent, because it is not possible to infer that it refers to the target which is
earmarked for demolition, and not to any other kind of targets. The appropriate term is
preliminary demolition target (předpokládaný objekt ničení).
The second principle is conciseness. According to this principle a term has to be as concise as
possible while maintaining the requirement for transparency. For example, let us consider two
expressions: self propelled road vehicle (kolová silniční vozidla) and automobile (automobil).
These are synonyms, both are correct, but the automobile is better because it is shorter and
more transparent.
The third principle is stability. It states that well-established terms should not be changed. Let
us state one example from NATO terminology. In 2003, in connection with the change in
NATO command, a new, much more precise term Headquarters Allied Command Operations
was to be established. However, since the term Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
(SHAPE) had been used for decades, it was decided not to replace this term forcibly by
another term.
The last principle is consistency. In the concept system of superordinate, subordinate and
coordinate terms of one semantic family, it is necessary to maintain consistency of terms. For
example, in the terminology approved by NATO the adjective operational (operační) is used
to qualify the concept referring to military operations, such as operational command,
operational readiness, operational requirement, operational intelligence, etc. If we need to
include a new term into the concept of operations, it is necessary to maintain consistency with
the existing terms. Therefore, a commander at the operational level of command will be an
operational commander and not an operating commander (Guidance, 2007, p. 9).
2. MILITARY TERMINOLOGY
The practical outcomes of building terminology databases are printed or electronic
dictionaries used in specialized military fields. Since the Czech Republic joined NATO in
1999, there has been an urgent need to commence the standardization procedure of Czech
military terms in compliance with the NATO Terminology Program.
NATO Terminology Program is the highest forum for NATO terminology. One of its main
components is the Military Committee Terminology Conference (MCTC), which deals
with military and doctrinal terminology. NATO terminology is standardized at the highest
level of standardization – a commonality level – by means of the standardization agreement
STANAG 3680. This standardization agreement states that member countries will be in
contact with each other to manage terminology in the English and French languages, as
specified in the AAP-6. The AAP-6 provides a NATO standardized terminology in both
official languages. It states that the main source for the English language is the Concise
Oxford Dictionary (latest edition), and for the French language it is the Le Petit Robert (latest
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edition). This is a very important statement, since the AAP-6 introduces vital military terms
that differ in their definitions of the above-mentioned general dictionaries, and on which the
NATO member states agreed that they would be classified as binding. If an expression is used
in NATO in accordance with the definition included in the above-mentioned general
dictionaries, it is not introduced again. In short, the official English and French languages in
NATO are based on these dictionaries. But if a definition of a concept is not consistent with
these dictionaries, it is introduced either in the AAP-6 or in other terminology documents. The
entries in the AAP-6 are regularly discussed at the meetings of the NATO Military Committee
Terminology Conference. Currently, the AAP-6 includes about 3,200 terms. It is a very vivid
document, since 5-8% of the terms and definitions are updated annually; the terms may be
included, altered or excluded.
In the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic (ACR), all activities related to the military and
defence terminology are carried out under the auspices of the Defence Standardization
Department, Defence Standardization, Codification and Government Quality Assurance
Authority. The activities reflect the need to ensure that the translation of official NATO
documents and their implementation in the documents of the ACR comply with the
standardized terminology. The main discussion forums are the Committee for Terminology
and the Terminology Conference of the Ministry of Defence.
Both authors participated in several projects within the Terminology Programme of the
ACR. One of the most important projects was the Defence Research Project named Czech
Military Normative Terminology, which was carried out in 2000-2004 and its outcomes are
still subject to constant updating. This project triggered hot heated debates on the
harmonization of concepts and formation of terms, in which linguists and military specialists
have been engaged. The terms and their definitions in the strategic political, operational
tactical, logistic, military technology and military medicine fields have been discussed and
revised, and Czech specialized terms have been proposed. Some of these activities resulted in
several military dictionaries, listed in the reference section below. The dictionaries are used at
the University of Defence (UoD) and are accessible at the ACR Intranet.
Finally, let us introduce a useful online source of numerous military terms – Military
Encyclopaedia, which may be helpful for students, educators and translators outside the
military sector. It comprises a glossary of military terms as well as links to the NATO
terminology documents (AAP-6, AAP-15). Apart from NATO glossaries, there are numerous
military dictionaries on the Internet. Some of them are listed in the reference section.
In today’s world of the overwhelming amount of information, it is advisable to preselect
reliable sources and offer them to students in an organized way. UoD students can find, for
example, the list of hyperlinks to general and specialized online dictionaries in the UoD
Moodle Course Management System. One of the courses in Moodle serves for collecting
specialized military articles in English language, selected by students, which are intended for
further language material development in the near future. This is just one of the ways of
exposing students to authentic professional foreign language.
CONCLUSION
The paper presents some aspects of terminology, terminological databases, concepts and
terms. There is a difference between general and specific terms, which is reflected in a
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different number of their occurrences in corpora. The quantitative characterization of the
occurrences of terms is based on their semantic value that is not associated with the context,
but with the concept system. With the decrease in the frequency in the usage of a term, its
polysemy decreases and the length of its designation increases.
In line with the harmonization process of the concept systems in the area of security within
NATO, the formation of contemporary Czech terms is influenced by the English and French
languages. The examples show that in journalistic texts, some traditional and newly coined
terms coexist. As specialized terminologies are subject to change, educators should be aware
of it and provide students with reliable terminology sources.
REFERENCES
AAP-6: NATO Glossary of Terms and Definitions [online]. 2010 [22/06/2011].
< http://www.nato.int/docu/stanag/aap006/aap-6-2010.pdf >.
GUIDANCE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND PUBLICATION OF NATO
TERMINOLOGY [online]. 2007 [22/06/2011].
<http://www.nato.int/docu/stanag/terminology_docs/C-M%282007%290023-GUIDANCEENG-DECLASS.pdf>.
HACKEN, P. Prototypes and Discreteness in Terminology. In Proceedings of the XIII
EURALEX International Congress. Barcelona. Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 2008, pp. 979 –
987. ISBN 13: 978-84-96742-67-3.
ISO/FDIS 704: Terminology work – Principles and methods [online]. 1999 [22/06/2011].
<http://www.ap233.org/ap233-public-information/reference/ISO-FDIS-704-TerminologyDevelopment.pdf>.
SYNPUB2009: Český národní korpus. Ústav Českého národního korpusu FF UK, Praha
[online]. 2009 [22/06/2011]. <http://ucnk.ff.cuni.cz>.
MILITARY DICTIONARIES
KOLEKTIV AUTORŮ. Anglicko-český vojenský terminologický slovník. Brno: Vojenská
akademie v Brně, 2002. 522 stran.
KOLEKTIV AUTORŮ. Česko-anglický vojenský terminologický slovník. Brno: Vojenská
akademie v Brně, 2003. 413 stran.
KOLEKTIV AUTORŮ. Anglicko-český slovník vojenských pojmů a definic. Brno:
Univerzita obrany, 2005. 211 stran.
TOMŠŮ, J., STOJAN, J., LANGEROVÁ, A. a kol. Česko-francouzsko-anglický sborník
strategických, termínů. [Výkladový slovník]. 1.díl. Praha: Avis, 2006. 186 stran.
TOMŠŮ, J., STOJAN, J., LANGEROVÁ, A. a kol. Česko-francouzsko-anglický sborník
operačně taktických termínů. [Výkladový slovník]. 2.díl. Praha: Avis, 2006. 316 stran.
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TOMŠŮ, J., STOJAN, J., LANGEROVÁ, A. a kol. Česko-francouzsko-anglický sborník
logistických termínů. [Výkladový slovník]. 3.díl. Praha: Avis, 2006. 512 stran.
Vojenská terminologie 2006. 1.vyd. CD ROM. Praha: MO ČR AVIS, 2006.
Vojenská terminologie IDET 2007. [Výkladový sborník]. 1. vyd. CD ROM. Praha: MO ČR
AVIS, 2007.
ONLINE MILITARY DICTIONARIES
MILITARY ENCYCLOPEDIA [online]. 2010 [23/06/2011].
< http://vavtest.unob.cz/encyklopedie >.
<http://www.militarydictionary.com/>
<http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/dod_dictionary>
<http://www.alphadictionary.com/directory/Specialty_Dictionaries/Military/>
<http://www.military-dictionary.org/>
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GLOBAL SIMULATIONS AND LANGUAGE FOR SPECIFIC
PURPOSES
David Tual
Durham University
Centre for Foreign Language Study, New Elvet, Durham, DH1 3JT, U.K.
david.tual@durham.ac.uk
Abstract:
Global Simulation (GS) can be defined as a student-centred, task-based learning approach
that provides a motivating and flexible additional element to more traditional classroom
activities. This paper will introduce the concept of GS, outlining its advantages and the
potential challenges attached to it. The implications it can have on the course that it is part
of, including the impact on the role of the teacher, will also be discussed before adopting a
more pragmatic approach by presenting and critically assessing some examples drawn from
our previous experience with a general intermediate French course. Finally, we will devote
the last part of the paper to presenting and discussing new ideas aiming to incorporate the GS
into two new French courses for specific purposes: one designed for engineering students, the
other for a cohort from the School of Government and International Affairs.
Keywords: Actional Approach, French, Global Simulation, Language for Specific Purposes.
INTRODUCTION
For a few years, Global Simulation (GS) has been used on a French course at Durham
University Centre for Foreign Language Study. It runs alongside other more traditional
teaching techniques and therefore participates to what is known as “principled eclecticism”,
better described by Lowe (2003:6) as “principled integration”. It is not a substitute for
existing practices and, although it came into existence alongside the communicative approach
in the early eighties, remains relevant to learning and teaching in the twenty-first century by
aligning extremely well with the action-based approach suggested by the Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL, 2000:9).
After introducing the concept and offering a brief description of the underpinning notions at
work in GS, including the redefined role of the learners, this paper will dwell upon the new
functions of the teacher that consequently emerge from this paradigm shift. The second part of
this paper will first provide the reader with some examples drawn from our past experience at
Durham University before adopting a more critical stance and focusing on areas for
development. The final section will be devoted to presenting how GS will be integrated to
future French for specific purposes courses that are currently being developed and will be
made available to our students in October 2011.
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1. THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS AROUND GLOBAL
SIMULATION
1.1 Definition and History of Global Simulation
1.1.1 What is a Global Simulation?
Francis Yaiche, who is one of the founding fathers of the concept, describes the key principles
of GS as pretending to be living elsewhere and taking on a new identity within this
environment (Yaiche, 1996:11); this will constitute the basis for written and oral expression
(including interactions). Other authors such as Magnin (1997:55) define it as “a class activity
allowing students to encounter situations that include love, life and death in a simulated
environment”, adding that “it provides opportunities to teach oral skills as well as written
proficiency”. One must also underline that it lends itself very well to contexts other than
language-related and particularly to interdisciplinary projects; see Béliard & Gravé-Rousseau
(2009:72) for a very good example where “the learner is constantly faced with historical or
linguistic difficulties which s/he must resolve in order to breathe life into his chosen
character”. However, even when used in a language course setting, GS does provide an
opportunity for multidisciplinarity (including elements from geography, statistics, sociology,
IT, etc.).
1.1.2 A brief history of GS
The expression 'Global Simulation' was first coined at the BELC (Bureau pour
l’enseignement de la langue et de la civilisation françaises à l’étranger) in the 1970's to
emphasize the idea of a simulation that is not just punctual (such as a simple role play) but
offers continuity and also encapsulates as many aspects as possible (i.e. not only linguistic
elements). This corresponds very much to the birth of the communicative approach and that
leads didacticians like Puren (2008) to bring the two phenomena together. The birth of the GS
also corresponds to some strong criticisms of textbooks and the pedagogical approaches in
place at the time (Debyser, 1973) in the sense that they provided very little leeway when it
came to content and teaching techniques. Finally, the trend to make learning fun should not be
overlooked and certainly played an important role in the growing popularity of GS.
The first published guidebooks for GS aimed to develop general language skills, followed
very soon by other publications targetting more specific needs: for trainees working in the
hospitality industry, businessmen, diplomats, etc. (see www.hachettefle.fr for some
examples). However, it is interesting to notice together with Levine (2004:27) that “it appears
to have found infrequent application in university-level foreign language classes”. Although
this statement applied to the situation in the United States, we have hardly heard of its use in
the United Kingdom either. It is however worth noticing an interesting number of more recent
articles or guides that present and/or study its application in various educational settings
(Béliard & Gravé-Rousseau, 2009; Dicks & Leblanc, 2009; Dupuy, 2006; Levine & al.,
2004).
1.2 Students' Engagement
If that teaching technique continues to draw a lot of attention and interest today, it is due in a
large part to the echo it finds in our preoccupation as teachers to engage our learners as much
as possible. Indeed, GS does exactly that through different processes. First of all, it gives
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more independence to the learners; this is achieved through the decision power that is handed
to them: not only do they have a say in the choice of the GS setting but they have also some
freedom when it comes to establishing their new identity. That will therefore encourage them
to look for relevant information (about possible locations in France, French popular names,
customs, etc.) and for the necessary vocabulary and other linguistic components (instead of
relying solely on the teacher’s input). Alongside other elements, this independence will
naturally lead to the development of certain skills: some language-related (researching French
online resources, creative writing, metalinguistic competence, etc.), others more general (IT,
communication skills, intercultural competence, etc.) or even interpersonal skills both through
the simulation itself and the process behind it (conflict resolution, project management, team
work, etc.). The latter elements are clearly related to the collaborative dimension of GS:
during the whole process, students will need to work together to take each other’s
contributions into account, react to them, negotiate for the project to reach a satisfactory
outcome.
1.3 A Redefined Teacher's Role
Placing the students at the centre of the decision and learning processes consequently calls for
a redefinition of the teacher's role; Dupuy’s phrase, “GS is not taught” (Dupuy, 2006:20),
perfectly illustrates this paradigm shift. Thus, depending upon the exact conditions under
which the GS is operating and the decisional power granted to the students, there can be a
need for the teacher to act as an overall coordinator, if that role is not left to the group as a
whole; a role often compared to that of an architect (choosing the type of GS, its components,
the tasks, etc.). Regardless of the degree of control given to the students, the tutor must also
be a reality checker (ensuring the scenario, setting, characters, etc. are not too stereotyped or
surreal). A direct consequence of this need for monitoring the construction of the GS
environment is that the teacher should play the role of a resources bank (pointing out relevant
sources of information, listing references, providing cultural content) for the times when
students' independent research proves insufficient. Finally, the fact that the use of GS in class
is not teacher-centered also provides tutors with a chance to focus further on their feedback
function (which the reality check mentioned previously constitutes an integral part of), giving
them more opportunities to stand back, observe and notice what happens within the class
interactions.
2. AN EXAMPLE: THE BLOCK OF FLATS
2.1 Background Information
When asked to teach on an ‘intermediate’ course (CEFR A2/B1), we seized the opportunity to
implement a GS for the first time. Our previous experience had been mainly teaching lower
levels, for which GS is not recommended as a certain level of independence is expected (and
too much scaffolding risks killing the spontaneity that characterizes GS). As mentioned in the
introduction, GS was not seen as a substitute for the use of other methods but rather as a
complement. It run alongside more traditional teaching techniques and was used at various
points of the course, often as an opportunity to further practise certain language points within
a different context to that which students had been used before: their learning experience at
secondary level had indeed often been restricted to rote learning of ‘ready-made’ chunks of
language, leaving very little place for creation and recycling. GS forces the students out of
their comfort zone by providing a virtual –and yet realistic- environment where they are faced
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with new real-life situations.
2.2 Examples
We will now present some of the elements included in the GS with, for each, a brief outline of
the activity, its implementation and its aims.
2.2.1 Setting the scene
The first stage of the GS, once the general scenario has been chosen (between a block of flats,
an island or a village for instance), the students should decide together what the exact setting
is going to be. Is it going to be an old council tower block in a French suburb, an
environment-friendly construction in a Swiss medium-sized town or a Haussmannian building
in the heart of Paris? To do this, the students are set a group task to prepare outside of class
time: they must prepare a presentation to suggest a possible setting for their GS. That should
include some general data about the place, its geography, and a set of advantages and
drawbacks to living there. It should be pointed out at a very early stage to the students that
they are not to build an idyllic world but rather a tangible environment where real life
interactions will later take place. This conformity with reality could constitute an important
element in the discussion that will take place in class after each group presented their
‘scenario’ (which may include some input from the tutor if required). Following potential
questions from the students on each other’s presentation, a vote will take place (to ensure
involvement from the students they can be required to motivate their decision).
Following this collaborative decision, it is a good idea to give each student the opportunity to
individually contribute a key element to the GS: their character. A lot of flexibility can be
given here, but equally some constraints can be imposed onto the students. For instance, their
character’s name, age and profession can already be decided for them (drawing them at
random from a hat, after the class has chosen a list of names, professions, ages for example)
but the students can also be given carte blanche. Even if some elements are already decided
for them, the students have a lot of freedom when it comes to writing their characters
biography, which constitutes the first individual task. The use of a blog or of a wiki works
very well alongside this activity (and others at various stages of the GS) as it acts as a
repository of all the contributions and can therefore constitute a base for reading
comprehension activities (to get to know one’s neighbours in the first instance).
2.2.2 Interactions
At a later stage of the GS, one can imagine different scenarios that will lead to oral and/or
written interactions between the characters. One of them can be related to problems that can
potentiallyS occur in a block of flats: unpleasant noises and smells, rudeness, various
damages, pets, etc. Students can be invited to write a letter to expose a problem they have
with a neighbour (equally it can be done through a voicemail, a conversation, an email, etc.),
suggesting ways to solve it and/or threatening of further actions. Students are then invited to
reply to the letter of complaint they will have received. Such an exercise constitutes a good
base to revise/apply correspondence writing skills as well as to develop conflict resolution
strategies.
Another popular activity is one well-known of language teachers and consists in imagining
that a crime has been committed in the block of flats. The scenario can be designed by the
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tutor previous to the lesson or be left to the student to prepare (it does not need to be as
dramatic as the death of the porter, and can simply be arson or a broken window). After
having been given some time to agree on an alibi with one of their neighbours, the inhabitants
are then all involved in solving this mystery by questioning each others in order to spot any
contradiction in their schedule on the day the crime was committed. That speaking activity
can then be followed by a vote to decide who is more likely to have done it, and can also
include imagining a motive and how the crime was committed for instance. From a pure
language point of view, this exercise is a good way to practise questions and past tenses, but
also hypothesis and reported speech for example.
2.3 Considerations for Improvement
Like any teaching method, GS should regularly be submitted to review and constructive
criticism in order to improve its efficiency and relevance to the students’ needs. Below are
miscellaneous considerations we would like to submit to the reader.
First of all, it is essential to try to involve the students as much as possible so that they quickly
feel that the GS belongs to them. In order to do that, the objectives and benefits of the GS
should be clearly communicated and as much control as possible should be handed in to the
students. The latter is not always easy and means for the teacher to be prepared to take some
risk, but one cannot expect the students to leave their comfort zone if the teacher does not set
the example. This could go as far as to ask the students to design a whole GS activity (similar
to the ones presented in section 2.2 above) connected to what they have studied in class, or
even to leave the choice of the type of GS they want to put in place. A second suggestion,
inspired by Dicks & Le Blanc (2009), is for the teachers who feel comfortable integrating
more drama in the classroom to use the GS to that end since it provides a perfect platform:
once it is established, there is a ready made framework to carry out improvisations (built
around a prop for example) or acting out various daily situations that happen in a block of
flats (mundane conversation with the next door neighbour or in the lift about the weather, the
news, asking for a favour, complaining, etc.). Finally, one should not oversee the reshaping of
our practices that the GS might call for in some cases. As it was explained earlier, the GS sits
between the communicative and the actional approach and could therefore be seen as an
invitation to reconsider the balance between communication and accuracy: as Jones puts it,
“the aim of the simulation is not to produce correct words, grammar, or pronunciation, but to
communicate effectively according to roles, functions and duties” (1984:38). As suggested by
Levine, both the product and the process should be assessed (2004:33), which may require a
review of the assessment in order to align it with the action orientated nature of the learning
process.
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3. INTEGRATION OF GLOBAL SIMULATIONS TO FRENCH FOR SPECIFIC
PURPOSES COURSES
3.1 Background Information
In an attempt to enhance our students’ experience, the Centre for Foreign Language Study has
decided to provide new French courses for specific purposes. In the first instance, they will
target students from the Department of Engineering and from the School for Government and
International Affairs (SGIA). These new courses will be the opportunity for the students to
acquire more specific language skills that will enable them to interact in a professional
environment as well as in a more general setting (such as it was the case with the intermediate
course mentioned above). Given the flexibility offered by GS and the range of its possible
applications, including vocational courses, it appeared worth considering including a GS
element in these two new modules (French for International Affairs and French for
Engineers). It should be stressed again that GS is only considered as one tool amongst many
and is to be used alongside a wide range of teaching methods. It is a way to provide an
environment in which students can practise their language skills.
3.2 French for International Affairs
This course is aimed at SGIA students who have reached level A2 of the CEFR and wish to
improve their French and to be able to use it in an environment directly related to their field
(i.e. politics or international relations). We thought the Francophonie Summit (Sommet de la
Francophonie) could provide an interesting and suitable setting for this group of students. The
class as a whole will first have to conduct some research on the International Organisation of
La Francophonie before each student is allocated a member state for which they will act as
the representative. This delegate will of course be expected to research the country in question
in order to later present its stance on various relevant issues (political, environmental,
economic, etc.).
A direct consequence of opting for this GS setting will be the embedding of some cultural
elements into the course. It will also constitute the perfect platform to deal with topic related
to those one expects to cover at a similar level while retaining a language specific element. To
take only one brief example, the topic of education could be dealt with from the point of view
of children rights to education, including some UNESCO reports and data for example
(instead of comparing the British and French system, which is often the case on a general
course). The overall aim of the conference will have to be decided at a very early stage and
could for instance be the publication of a charter. Such an objective will naturally lead to the
development of certain skills by the students, such as debating and negotiating, with the
emphasis on being able to construct and present an argument in a convincing fashion for
example.
3.3 French for Engineers
Similarly to the course described above, the French for Engineers course will target students
who have reached level A2 of the CEFR. They will be on an Engineering course and will have
chosen to study French for the elective module they can take during their first year at
university. Again, we want to provide them with a setting than can be relevant to their field of
expertise and can help them to become more internationally mobile. The setting to be used
here will be that of Ingénieurs Sans Frontières (a humanitarian organization similar to the
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better known Médecins Sans Frontières) and a hypothetical intervention in Haiti. In this GS,
after having researched Haiti and the recent disaster that struck it, students will have to
consider various aspects of disaster management, and the challenges presented, from an
engineering point of view.
In addition to the cultural awareness that will arise from dealing with a French-speaking
country other than France (including its history, geography, culture, etc.), this setting will
enable us to deal with various topics related to environmental issues and technologies for
example. Amongst various tasks, students will be expected to carry out some basic research,
write some memos, as well as deliver presentation of a technical nature. It should be noted
that other elements of L’immeuble can also be incorporated into this simulation (based on the
idea of having the team of engineers sharing accommodation in Haiti for example).
CONCLUSION
A good summary of the role of the student in any GS is offered by Dupuy when she explains
that “the role of the learner is no longer to listen and regurgitate information but to pull
content together, negotiate meaning, reflect on learning, and come up with an appropriate
final product” (2006:21). It is worth reminding here that that can only happen if the teacher
accepts the new role that consequently arises for him. Secondly, although GS consists in
‘acting as if’, one must not lose sight of the fact that it is not reality even if the students deal
with “situations that are plausible and consistent with the real world” (Levine & al.,
2004:110). Even if GS remains only a ‘simulation’, its impact on students’ engagement and
progress is nonetheless genuine, therefore truly contributing to prepare them to become social
agents in a ‘real’ plurilingual world.
REFERENCES
BÉLIARD, Jérôme & GRAVÉ-ROUSSEAU, Guillaume. Cross-curricular CLIL practice :
historical simulation in role play [online]. 2009 [16.05.2011]. <http://www.icpj.eu/?id=9>
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2001.
DEBYSER, Francis. La mort du manuel ou le déclin de l’illusion méthodologique. In Le
Français dans le monde, 1973, no. 100, pp. 63-68.
DICKS, Joseph E. & LE BLANC, Barbara. Using drama for learning to foster positive
attitudes and increase motivation: global simulation in French second language classes. In
Journal for Learning through the Arts, 2009, vol. 5, no. 1.
DUPUY, Beatrice. L'Immeuble: French language and culture teaching and learning through
projects in a global simulation. In Project-based Learning in Second Language Education:
Past, Present and Future, Research in Second Language Learning, 2006, vol. 5, pp. 195-214.
JONES, Ken. Simulations in language teaching. Cambridge: CUP, 1984.
LEVINE, Glenn S. Global simulation: a student-centered, task-based format for intermediate
foreign language courses. In Foreign Language Annals, 2004, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 26-36.
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LEVINE, Glenn S., EPPELSHEIMER, Natalie, KUZAY, Franz, MOTI, Simona & WILBY,
Jason. Global simulation at the intersection of theory and Practice in the intermediate-level
German classroom. Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching of German, 2004, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 99116.
LOWE, Charles. Integration not eclecticism: a brief history of language teaching, 1853-2003
[online]. 2003 [16.05.2011].
<http://www.ihworld.com/ihjournal/articles/03ABRIEFHISTORY.pdf>
MAGNIN, Michèle Claude. The building: An adaptation of Francis Debyser’s writing project.
A global simulation to teach language and culture. In China–U.S. conference on education.
Collected papers (pp. 55–62). Beijing: 1997.
PUREN, Christian. La nouvelle perspective actionnelle de l'agir social au regard de
l'évolution historique de la didactique des langues-cultures [online].2008 [16.05.2011]. <
http://www.aplv-languesmodernes.org/vid/PUREN_Francparler/>
YAICHE, Francis. Les simulations globales : mode d'emploi. Vanves: Hachette FLE, 1996.
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THE VIABILITY OF ACADEMIC LANGUAGE
Dagmar Vrběcká
Lékařská fakulta v Hradci Králové
Šimkova 870, Hradec Králové
vrbeckad@lfhk.cuni.cz
Abstract:
When studying medical English students acquire varied professional vocabulary. The
textbook Professional English in Use Medicine provides well-organized medical topics that
help students to acquire the necessary vocabulary. However, a large proportion of the
communication, which students will eventually carry out is doctor – patient communication.
Therefore this article will focus primarily on speaking. Furthermore, the very nature of
doctor – patient communication requires the use of lay terms instead of medical terms to
enhance patient understanding. In this sense, academic and professional language for many
can be seen as incomprehensible and isolated, and must therefore be put in more practical
terms. The author focuses on the possibility of expanding the proportion of communication
and its practice. In conclusion, samples of interactive activities that promote language
communication skills will be provided.
Key words: speaking, communication, board games, short activities, practice activities
INTRODUCTION
“If language structures make up the skeleton of language, then i tis
vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh. “ (Harmer,
1994: 153)
Having acquired correct language structures and essential vocabulary, i.e. the skeleton, organs
and flesh, we might get a perfectly shaped body. The body, however must be brought to life,
which is to say that language structures and vocabulary alone, do not ensure the effective
usage of the language. It is the language skills and their practice that help the students with
the appropriate language usage.
Unfortunately, coursebooks provide very few ideas for interesting, meaningful and
contextualized practice (Ur, 1998). This is very true about the textbook Professional English
in Use Medicine. The textbook is a great source of professional vocabulary – it reviews all
systems, diseases, investigations, treatments, taking history, examination, explanation, and
presentations. However, it offers little material for spoken practice, which must be largely
supplemented. I will therefore primarily focus on speaking. Furthermore, the very nature of
doctor – patient communication requires the use of lay terms instead of medical terms to
enhance patient understanding. In this sense, academic and professional language for many
can be seen as incomprehensible and isolated, and must therefore be put in more practical
terms. Learning academic and professional language does not have to be boring and formal, it
can be presented and practised in a lively and practical way and become enjoyable.
212
1. Main principles of speaking activities implementation
It can be agreed that there is very small range of activities for practising speaking; in
academic language it is very true: not only novice teachers need guidance and inspiration.
Also, experienced teachers lament the lack of material encouraging communication in the
classrooms. Some teachers might need to refresh their repertoire and possibly rediscover
forgotten activities. A successful speaking activity requires certain rules, which must be
followed:
Our objective should be very clear, and we must share the objective with the students so that
the feelings of wasted time are avoided. Clear instructions are a must.
Preparation should never be underestimated. We should know exactly what is going to
happen, and how it is going to happen.
Repetition is another important factor. Practice makes perfect. Practice means repetition. We
need out students to engage with the item to be learnt as many times as possible. As repetition
might kill the learners’ interest, we need a variety of activities focusing on the same item.
Meaningfulness and purposeful language follows. Speaking activities are acknowledged to
create context in which meaningful and purposeful language is provided [Wright, 1984; Ur,
1996; Harmer, 1991]. We need to stimulate real situations and imitate ‘real-life’
communication as much as possible.
Personalization means that speaking activities should be based on students’ experience,
opinions, ideas and feelings. Plus, people like to speak about themselves. I will never forget
anonymous Mr McSporan from New Headway Elementary.
The game-like character of speaking activities contributes significantly to a positive climate
of relaxation, confidence and motivation. The tensed feeling of saying something
inappropriate or awkward is eliminated, which is very important for building self-confidence
and self-esteem.
2. Samples of speaking activities
2.1. Board games
Aim: Vocabualry review, clear explanations, presentation of the given topics
Aids: dice, counters, board Table 1
Interaction: Pair work
Table 1: The board
1
2
3
4
5
1
The eye
Eye
problems
Fever
Epidemiology
X-ray
2
The endocrine
system
Affective
disorders
Microorganisms
Endoscopy
CT
213
6
Explain
diabetes
Research
studies
3
The nervous
system
Substance
abuse
Skin lesions
MRI
ECG
Giving bad
news
4
Loss of
consciousness
Senile
dementia
Rashes
Ultrasound
Contraception
Case
presentations
5
The motor
system
Infections
Skin injuries
Oncology
Palliative
treatment
Conference
presentations
6
Sensory loss
Diabetes
Immunizations
Symptoms and
signs of
malignancy
Fractures
Bones
2.1.1. Throw twice and speak 30 seconds
Aids: board Table 1, counters, dice
Procedure: Student A throws the dice twice. The first throw means the line across, the
second throw means the line down. Student A speaks about the given topic for 30 seconds.
Students take turns (e.g. the first throw is 6, the second throw is 2. Student A will speak about
research studies).
2.1.2. Marathon run
Aids: board Table 1, counters, coin
Procedure: Students take turns tossing a coin. The head means one space forward, the tail
means two spaces forward. Students speak about the given topic for 30 seconds.
start
↓
→
↓
→
→
←
→
←
→
→
←
→
←
→
→
←
→
←
→
→ ↓
←←
→ ↓
←←
→ cíl
2.1.3. Noughts and crosses
Aids: board Table 1
Procedure: Student A picks one square with a certain topic. S/he speaks about the topic for 1
minute. If s/ he succeeds, s/he can mark the certain square with e.g. nought. Then it is student
B’s turn. The game continues until one of the students has 3 marks in a row vertically,
horizontally or diagonally.
2.1.4. Crosswords
Aids: board Table 2 and 3
Procedure: Students in turns describe the words that are missing on their partner’s grid.
214
Table 2 Crosswords Student A
1
A
B
2
3
Eye problems
Fever
The endocrine
system
Microorganisms
Rashes
Research
studies
Giving bad
news
ECG
Contraception
Infections
F
6
Endoscopy
MRI
D
The motor system
5
X-ray
Substance
abuse
C
E
4
Oncology
Palliative
treatment
Diabetes
Bones
Table 3 Crosswords Student B
1
1
2
4
The eye
5
Affective
disorders
3
The nervous
system
4
Loss of
consciousness
6
Explain diabetes
Epidemiology
2
CT
Skin lesions
Senile
dementia
Case
presentations
Ultrasound
Conference
presentations
Skin injuries
5
6
3
Sensory loss
Immunizations
Symptoms and signs
of malignancy
Fractures
2.1.5. Topics and time
Aids: board Table 4, counters, dice
Procedure: The first throw indicates the topic, the second throw indicates the time
Table 4 Topics and Time
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
GIS
DIABETES
SYMPTOMS AND SIGNS
TAKING HISTORY
FRACTURES
GYNEACOLOGY
1. 30 seconds
2. 15 seconds
3. 1 minute
4. 1,5 minute
5. 20 seconds
6. 2 minutes
215
2.1.6. Ask the right question
Aids: Cards with answers
Procedure: Students get a pile of cards with cut sentences face down. Student A picks up a card
and asks a question in such a way so that student B answers exactly what is written on the card.
Students take turns.
Table 5 Ask the right question Growth.
No, I haven’t.
By applying heat.
Endoscopy.
Swallow.
Through one of the natural orifices.
Biopsy.
Lubricate.
CONCLUSION
Speaking activities have great potential, which should not be wasted. If the speaking activities
are carried out properly, they can serve as a useful tool to increase the proportion of the
communication in the classes. Hopefully, samples of speaking activities will inspire teachers to
create their personal collections to which sucessful activities will be gradually attached.
REFERENCES
BRUMFIT, Christopher. Communicative Methodology in Language Teaching. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1984. ISBN 0521264235
GLENDINNING, Eric H; HOLMSTROM, Beverly A.S. English in Medicine. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1987. ISBN-13 978-0-521-60666-0
GLENDINNING, Eric H; HOWARD, Ron. Professional English in Use. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-521-68201-5
GYORFFY, Mária. English for Doctors. Havlíčkův Brod: Triton, 2001. ISBN 80-7254-203-6
Harmer, Jeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Harlow: Longman Goup,
1994. ISBN-9780582746121
216
KIPPEL, Frederike. Keep Talking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984. ISBN 0-52127871-6
LINDSTRTOMBERG, Seath. The Recipe Book. Harlow: Longman Group, 1990. ISBN 0-20106509-6
MARSLAND, Bruce. Lessons from Nothing. Activities for language teaching with limited time
and resources. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0-52-162765-8
MCCARTER, S. Medicine 1,2. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2010. ISBN 978-0-30-0139518
SCRIVENER, Jim. Learning Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1994. ISBN 978-0-43524089-9
UR, Penny A course in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
ISBN 978-0-52-165624-5
---. Discussions that Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. ISBN 978-0-52128169-0
---. Five-Minute Activities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-521-39781-2
---. Grammar Practice Activities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-52133847-6
217
ENGLISH AND OTHER LANGUAGES IN ENGLISH PHILOLOGISTS'
LINGUISTIC REPERTOIRES: SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR FOREIGN
LANGUAGE TEACHING AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL
Teresa Maria Wlosowicz
Academy of Management, School of English SWSPiZ
ul. Lucka 11, 00-842 Warsaw
teresamaria@poczta.onet.pl
Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is an investigation of English philologists' linguistic repertoires, taking
into consideration different motives for becoming multilingual despite the predominance of
English as a global language. As the results of the survey show, rather than limit their interests
to English, English philologists generally regard other languages as useful for a variety of
purposes, from communication abroad, through research, to teaching contrastive linguistics. It is
thus concluded that not only should multilingualism and plurilingualism be promoted at the
academic level, but that instruction and evaluation should be tailored to the needs of that
particular group of language learners and users.
Keywords: multilingualism/plurilingualism, the Common European Framework of Reference for
Languages, language needs, motivation, multilingual repertoires, multilingual competence.
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this paper is an investigation of English philologists' linguistic repertoires,
focussing on their knowledge of languages other than English, and their attitudes towards them.
Particular attention is paid to the purposes other languages are useful for and to the arguments in
favour of studying them.
Given the predominance of English in the world, it might be argued that a good knowledge of
English is enough for successful communication and that, consequently, English philologists can
fully content themselves with it. However, as the results of the survey indicate, this is not true.
From the subjects' different sources of motivation for the study of languages other than English, it
can be concluded that multilingualism should be promoted at the university level, taking into
consideration highly specific language needs. Moreover, some implications of the results might
contribute to the development of language policy aimed at the promotion of multilingualism,
especially in the domain of academic language proficiency.
1. MULTILINGUALISM AS A PHENOMENON AND AN EDUCATIONAL GOAL
By and large, bilingualism and multilingualism constitute very widespread phenomena in the
world. At the same time, multilingual repertoires are not homogeneous, but they are often highly
complex and involve a variety of linguistic and cultural competencies, developed as a function of
218
one's linguistic needs (Coste, Moore and Zarate, 1997). This influences multilinguals' language
organization and, consequently, their linguistic performance, which has led Clyne (1997:113, in
Hoffmann, 2001:18) to observe that 'trilinguals will be trilingual in different ways.'
Certainly, such differences are connected with different contexts of language acquisition or
learning. Hoffmann (2001:19) distinguishes five types of trilinguals based on the social context in
which they became trilingual: children brought up with two home languages which are different
from the language of the community, children growing up in a trilingual community, children
growing up in a bilingual community, yet using a third language at home, third language learners
(bilinguals learning a third language at school), bilinguals who became trilingual through
immigration and, finally, members of trilingual communities. Still, in the case of people speaking
four, five or more languages, the situation can be assumed to be even more complex.
Moreover, it must be remembered that multilingual systems are dynamic (Herdina and Jessner,
2002) and proficiency levels in the different languages can not only increase, but also decrease if
a language is no longer used regularly and attrition sets in. One of the factors influencing
language use is the prestige of languages. In bilinguals, both languages can be maintained, which
results in additive bilingualism, or the less prestigious one may be subject to attrition or even
become lost, which is called subtractive bilingualism (Lambert, 1977, in Herdina and Jessner,
2002:15).
As Peal and Lambert (1962, in Herdina and Jessner, 2002:14) have shown, additive bilingualism
is connected with a number of cognitive advantages, such as greater cognitive flexibility,
creativity and divergent thinking, whereas subtractive bilingualism offers no such advantages.
Similarly, as Cenoz (2003) and Van Gelderen et al. (2003) demonstrate, although bilinguals have
an advantage over monolinguals in the learning of further languages, this finding applies
predominantly to additive bilingualism. In contrast, subtractive bilinguals, whose native language
enjoys little social prestige, neither reach a high level of competence in L2 nor outperform
monolinguals in language learning, which can be attributed to affective and social factors.
Consequently, Cenoz and Genesee (1998:27-28) propose that multilingual education should
promote additive multilingualism, in which all languages are valued and the cognitive benefits of
multilingualism, including metalinguistic awareness, are capitalized on.
An important factor determining the competence attained in each language, as well as the growth
or attrition of particular languages, are an individual's language needs. Contrary to the
monolingual view of bilingualism, which assumed native speaker competence in both languages,
Grosjean (1992:55) has proposed a holistic view, according to which '[t]he bilingual is NOT the
sum of two complete or incomplete monolinguals; rather, he or she has a unique and specific
linguistic configuration.' At the same time, what makes a person bilingual is not native or nearnative competence in both languages, but rather communicative competence developed on the
basis of language needs. As Grosjean (1992:55) puts it, '[t]he bilingual's communicative
competence cannot be evaluated correctly through only one language; it must be studied instead
through the bilingual's total language repertoire as it is used in his or her everyday life.'
Grosjean's holistic view has been extended to multilingualism by de Angelis and Selinker
(2001:45), who state that 'a multilingual is neither the sum of three or more monolinguals, nor a
bilingual with an additional language.' Instead, he or she is 'a speaker of three or more languages
219
with unique linguistic configurations, often depending on individual history' (de Angelis and
Selinker, 2001:45).
In their analysis of the nature and components of plurilingual (rather than multilingual, as the
CEFR distinguishes between both notions) competence, which served as a preliminary study for
the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, Coste, Moore and Zarate (1997)
stress the heterogeneous character of plurilingual competence, enriched by different partial
linguistic and cultural competencies. However, all those competencies constitute a complex
repertoire which a multilingual speaker manages and uses according to his or her needs.
Therefore, in a language acquired in a naturalistic context one may have mainly oral competence,
whereas in another language, learned at school, one may develop predominantly writing and
reading skills.
Certainly, not all languages are mastered to the level of academic proficiency. As Cummins
(2000) points out, many learners possessing apparently good L2 communication skills fail in their
education conducted in that language, which he attributes to the divergence between BICS (Basic
Interpersonal Communication Skills) and CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency). In
order to promote CALP, Cummins (2000:80) concludes that bilingual and multilingual
programmes should focus on its cognitive, academic and language components. In particular,
'instruction should be cognitively challenging' (Cummins, 2000:80), academic content should be
integrated with language instruction and, last but not least, students should be encouraged to
develop language awareness.
Undoubtedly, a document which greatly contributes to the promotion of multilingual and
plurilingual competence is the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
(2000). In the face of globalization, increased mobility and international contacts, such
institutions as the Council of Europe propagate the learning of multiple languages, not only as a
means of communication (here, apparently, English as a lingua franca might suffice), but also as
vehicles of greater tolerance and international understanding (Holtzer, 2001). While
multilingualism, or the knowledge of several languages, can be attained by diversifying the offer
of foreign language courses in a school or an educational system, the plurilingual approach
stresses the construction of a varied repertoire of communicative competencies, flexibly applied
in different situations (CEFR, 2000:11).
Consequently, different levels of competence (A1, A2, B1, etc.) are specified according to the
knowledge and skills connected with a particular level. One can thus, in accordance with one's
needs, achieve, for example, a C2 level in English, C1 in French and, say, A2 in Portuguese.
However, despite its overall linguistic accuracy, this classification may not be perfect, also for
cultural reasons. As Tardieu (2010) argues, the descriptors used by the CEFR are not precise
enough and, moreover, students in one country may be better at gap-filling, whereas those in
another country may be better at providing short responses. Thus, as Tardieu (2010:226)
observes, an item solved by a B1-level student in one country may be solved by an A2-level
student in another. She therefore proposes another evaluation scale, called Cef-Estim, which is at
the same time transnational and more universal, as well as local and particularized (Tardieu,
2010:236).
220
As for particular means of achieving multilingual or plurilingual competence, researchers make
different suggestions. Arguably, in the face of English as a lingua franca, students may not be
motivated to study other languages. However, as Szczurkowska (2007) demonstrates, a lingua
franca is not sufficient for all purposes. First, moving to a foreign country and integrating into the
local society requires learning its language. Second, although a lingua franca may serve the needs
of basic business negotiations, talking to customers in their native language increases one's
chances of selling one's products. Third, confining science to only one language may impose on
researchers one way of thinking and limit creativity (Szczurkowska, 2007: 43-48).
The solutions proposed by researchers include intercomprehension as the development of
receptive multilingualism within a given language family (Meißner and Reinfried, 1998),
introducing English as the second foreign language, once the learners have mastered the basics of
another language, such as French or Spanish (Müller-Lancé, 2002, Castellotti, 2006), or
capitalizing on English as a stepping stone towards multilingualism or plurilingualism (Vollmer,
2001). Certainly, as Müller-Lancé (2002:141) argues, propagating plurilingualism requires
abandoning the ideal of the balanced coordinate bilingual, yet since only active vocabulary can be
a source of transfer, even receptive plurilingualism requires a good knowledge of at least one
foreign language (Müller-Lancé, 2002:142). Therefore, students should be motivated to develop
plurilingual competence and the motivational strategies should involve both integrative and
instrumental motivation, stressing the cognitive, cultural and material benefits of knowing several
languages (Wlosowicz, in press).
2. ATTITUDES AND MOTIVATION
In general, language attitudes play an important role in the choice of foreign languages at the
individual level as well as in language policy and language planning at the level of the state or the
educational system. However, attitudes are not stable, but they may change under the influence of
certain factors. Katz (1960, in Baker, 1992:99-101) enumerates four functions that are important
for attitude change: the utilitarian or instrumental function, related to obtaining some reward, the
ego defensive function, connected with increasing security and reducing anxiety, the valueexpressive function (expressing such values as one's identity) and the knowledge function (for
example, the desire to understand a given culture may increase one's motivation to learn its
language).
Motivation for learning a language can thus involve cognitive motives, such as learning about the
target language culture, affective ones (for example, the desire to identify with speakers of a
particular language), or material ones, such as getting a well-paid job thanks to one's knowledge
of languages (Szałek, 2004). On this basis, Gardner (1985, in Dörnyei and Skehan, 2003:613) has
distinguished within motivation an integrative and an instrumental orientation. Broadly speaking,
integrative motives are related to the desire to integrate into the target language community,
whereas instrumental ones are connected with particular rewards, such as good grades at school
or a good job.
Given its role as a global language, English is also the language people are generally most
motivated to study. It has even been observed that in border regions, where the traditionally
taught language was the one of the neighbouring country, parents have insisted that their children
221
should learn English, claiming that teaching them the neighbour's language would put them at a
disadvantage (Szczurkowska, 2007, Holtzer, 2001).
Therefore, motivating learners to learn languages other that English seems difficult and requires
changes in language attitudes. However, it may be hoped that multilingual education will, in the
long run, bring about such changes and learners will be motivated to expand their linguistic
repertoires. As Aronin and Ó Laoire (2001) have shown, one of the features of multilingual
systems is self-extension, which means that multilingual speakers often want to study further
languages in order to expand their knowledge. Similarly, the study described in this paper shows
that English philologists, although experts on the world language, do not content themselves with
it, but try to enrich their linguistic repertoires.
3. THE STUDY
In order to investigate the language attitudes of English philologists, a survey has been carried
out with thirty-four academics from Poland and France, with degrees ranging from M.A. (13
subjects), through Ph.D. (16) and 'habilitation', a degree used in some European countries,
including Poland and France (2), to Professor (3). The participants were native speakers of Polish
(30), French (3) and English (a native speaker teaching English at the University of Strasbourg).
They work at different universities and private graduate schools; the survey was sent to them by
e-mail. Apart from English philology, one person also had an M.A. in German and one had a
degree (not specified) in physics.
Among the languages the subjects had studied apart from English, the most frequently mentioned
one was German (25 subjects), then Russian (16), French, in the case of the Poles and the native
speaker of English (14), Italian (9), Latin (7), Spanish (6), Chinese, contemporary or classical (3),
Japanese (1), Old English (1), Sanskrit (1), Hindi (1), Arabic (1) and Klingon, a fictional
language from Star Wars (1). Only one subject admitted having studied English only. Certainly,
one should be careful with Russian and Latin, as they had mostly been simply obligatory school
subjects (Russian in Poland and Latin in both countries), but the other languages had generally
been studied out of interest, even for pleasure, or for practical purposes, such as work,
communication abroad, or understanding the functioning of different languages. Given the
university context and the subjects' favourable attitudes, their multilingualism is definitely
additive.
None of the subjects regrets studying languages other than English. On the contrary, most of
them regret having given up the study of those languages and as reasons they give lack of time,
lack of opportunity, no need to use a particular language or lack of motivation. Still, these reasons
can be regarded as interconnected; for example, one subject wrote she had stopped using Italian
after she had given up correspondence with an Italian friend. Moreover, nine subjects explicitly
stated that they would like to study more languages, especially Spanish (five of them), and some
of them mentioned such exotic languages as Arabic, Hebrew and Swahili.
As for the applications of languages other than English, they range from practical ones, such as
communication abroad, through entertainment (watching films, reading for pleasure), to
academic purposes, such as research on those languages, reading publications and teaching
222
academic subjects, especially linguistics. To the question of whether an English philologist
needed other languages too, thirty subjects replied in the affirmative, one (the native speaker of
English) wrote that she did not know, two wrote 'yes and no', depending on the person's field of
research, and only one wrote: 'No, unless he or she needs to expand their field of research.'
It can thus be seen that most of the English philologists interviewed recognize the usefulness of
other languages. Among the arguments in favour of studying them, they mention understanding
how language works, getting to know other cultures, better access to Universal Grammar,
possibilities of research in contrastive linguistics, access to the etymology of English words,
contacts with other researchers, encouraging learners and facilitating the learning process,
increasing language awareness and understanding the problems students have while learning
other languages.
Finally, the subjects were asked about different degrees of usefulness of English as a lingua
franca to a researcher. (They were allowed to tick more than one option.) Here, the most frequent
answers were: 'the language every researcher must know because it makes international
communication possible' (24 subjects) and 'very useful, but a researcher, especially a linguist,
should know other languages as well' (24). Seven subjects decided it was only one of the
languages a scholar should know, while the most 'extreme' answers ('the only language that is
useful to a researcher' and 'an option because it is enough to know another international language,
such as French, Spanish or German') were ticked by two subjects each. One subject chose 'other',
explaining that a monolingual could also be successful as a linguist working on his or her native
language.
CONCLUSION
The results of the survey indicate that, even at the time of the global predominance of English,
English philologists recognize other languages to be useful as well. It is noteworthy that they
ascribe to them not only basic communicative functions, but also important academic
applications, such as research in contrastive linguistics or Universal Grammar. It is therefore
advisable not only to provide language courses, but actually to encourage multilingualism and
plurilingualism at the university level. In fact, as language professionals, English philologists
need multilingual repertoires.
On the other hand, it might be a good idea to create a framework of evaluating academic
proficiency, including the ability to read, write and present papers in several languages.
Arguably, some advanced options might be introduced into the CEFR, for example, a more finegrained framework at the C1 and the C2 levels, or a scale of academic language skills at lower
levels, such as B2.
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TRANSLATION IN TEACHING
ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP)
Zlata Zelenská
Univerzita sv. Cyrila a Metoda v Trnave
J.Herdu 2, 917 01 Trnava, Slovenská republika
zlata.zelenska@ucm.sk
Abstract:
The paper deals with the problems of teaching and training translation skills in courses of ESP
respecting principles of communicative approach. Translation has been neglected for a long time
and forced out of methodology as a method that is not communicative however, according to
many theorists it is an act of communication. The paper characterises basic features of
translation and shifts that are necessary to be made in the original text to express socio-cultural
reality, conventions, and norms of the target language. It describes some procedures that might
be used for teaching translation during ESP lessons. ESP courses should be designed to extend
the general language competence of students, but also to increase the proportion of professional
language teaching focusing on translation skills.
Key words: ESP, communicative competence, translation, training skills, problems, mistakes.
INTRODUCTION
In today´s globalised world there is no doubt about the need to be proficient in at least one
foreign language and the labour market often requires from people to be fluent in two or three
foreign languages. Among all languages English has spread all over the world unlike any other
language before and has become the number one language in the world. This expansion was
possible mainly due to political and economic factors. Nowadays, English is a necessity, a
competence indispensable for modern existence almost everywhere in the world. Furthermore, a
necessary prerequisite for placing graduates from Slovak universities in the labour market is their
foreign language literacy, not only in general language skills, but mainly in English for specific
purposes (ESP) as it is estimated that almost 80% of scientific and technical literature is
published in English. This is particularly true in the field of marketing.
Language training courses for students of non-philological curricula programmes should be
oriented in accordance with the principles of the communicative approach so as to prepare them
to be able to discuss not only general subject topics but particularly to be able to discuss, in
depth, topics within their specialised field of study. Student need to be able to acquire knowledge
from literature published in the English language and to be able to utilize that knowledge in their
native language. Competent translation skills would enable students to present projects in their
native language or a foreign language with equal ability, a skill highly sought in today’s multinational job markets.
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TRANSLATION IN LANGUAGE TRAINING
Professionally oriented language training of students in universities should not be aimed only at
teaching specific vocabulary. Specific vocabulary is only a means not the goal of the course. The
aim of teaching ESP is to develop skills necessary to cope with English academic texts in written
and oral forms, to learn specific professional vocabulary and primary rules of scientific style, to
be able to communicate with other specialists and to train students in presentation techniques and
writing annotations and abstracts in the English language.
The communicative approach is the most important part of language education but an equally
important component in language training is translation which has been neglected for a long time
and forced out of methodology as a remnant of the grammar – translation method. It has been
considered a method that is not communicative and closely associated only to grammar and
specific vocabulary. However, many theorists engaged in problems of translation (Levý, Popovič,
Hochel, Rybák and others) understand translation as an act of communication. Kvetko also
confirms that translation is a certain act of communication and the process of translation begins
with the reception of an original text or the source text or source language and ends with its
conversion (reproduction) into a new text – the target text (target language) (Kvetko 2009: 1314). Gromová believes that developing translation skills focuses on all parts of communicative
competence:
- linguistic competence means knowing the rules of the codes of the source language and the
target language of translation (vocabulary, word formation, sentence structure, pronunciation,
spelling);
- sociolinguistic competence refers to one’s abilities to produce and understand utterances in the
proper context;
- discourse competence lies in the abilities to work with the form and meaning and to achieve the
uniformity of the text in different genres; the uniformity depends on cohesion of the form (the
way in which utterances are interconnected so that the reception and interpretation of the text can
be facilitated) and on coherence of the meaning (relations between different meanings in the
text);
- strategic competence means to know communicative strategies of translation and to use them to
improve communication or to compensate for losses that may be caused by certain limiting
factors in communication and also by insufficient competence in one or several components of
communicative competence of the translator. (Gromová 2000: 29)
The definition of translation has been written about by many scholars with varying results, but
simply said - translation is the process of changing something that is written or spoken into
another language, a text or work that has been changed from one language into another. (Oxford
Advanced Learner´s Dictionary 2000)
Translation is the transfer of information from the text of the source language into the text of the
target language. Through translation of a specific text a new document is not created, but the
original is reproduced in another language in a way that precisely preserves the structure, format
and style of the original. Many authors however, admit that certain shifts - changes from the
source text/speech to the target text/speech that arise as a result of language and cultural
differences between the two languages - are sometimes necessary. These authors contradict some
scholars who have a strict opinion that translation of specific texts does not allow for creative
work and that language norms should be preserved.
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For messages to be identical between the source language and the target language then some
language changes are necessary and in particular cases some means must be taken away, but they
must be compensated for in some other way and some means must be added. This compensation
is a strategy that should achieve a similar effect in the target text through different means than
those in the source text. Shifts are any changes made in the original text that are necessary to
express socio-cultural reality, conventions and/or norms of the target language. Shifts may be of
different types but the most frequent are: linguistic shifts caused by the different systems of the
languages (different word orders, system of tenses, articles, inflections, etc.) and cultural shifts
based on different approaches to extra-linguistic reality (due to different traditions/conventions
the original facts must be substituted). The translator´s task is thus to decode the original
information (the meaning of the information) and express (reproduce) it using the target language
means, which may not necessarily be in agreement with the source language. Reproduction of
particular information is/may be complicated because individual linguistic units/items (may) have
different content (denotation), connotation (stylistic and emotional colouring), different usage
and other features. However, the aim of translation is not to reproduce language means but to
convey the information which they express. (Kvetko 2009: 14)
Absolute equivalence of the translated text and the original is not attainable but the text in the
target language should be an optimal variant of the original. In cases where an exact match
expressing a particular term or concept cannot be found in a dictionary, it does not mean that it is
impossible to express it by means of the target language. Although the term is missing in the
target language, its meaning can be expressed by means that in a particular context can provide
the recipient with sufficient understanding of the source text. In professional translation the most
important task is to capture the exact meaning. Translation thus primarily works with clarifying,
it should explain and transfer as much of the semantic content of the original as possible.
However, explanations always add something and the original unit/item is necessarily enriched
by the surrounding context.
Special academic, specifically technical and scientific texts are based on notions/concepts and
special terminology however, the language used in them is not an isolated language system as it
is based on the source language’s general rules. Technical and scientific texts do not contain
grammar that would be different from that used in the general language but they do use
vocabulary, word formation and syntax in a way that differentiates from the use in the general
language. These texts differ in the use of special vocabulary and the frequent use of specific
language means/forms and are generally written in an impersonal style.
When translating a scientific text language competence (solid knowledge of the source and target
languages and stylistics) alone is not sufficient but professional competence (knowledge of the
field or at least its terminology) is inevitable as well.
The main problem in the translation of special texts is the fact that there is no exact equivalence,
the language is relatively simple but what is difficult is the terminology. Translation of individual
words is sometimes difficult but if the emphasis is placed on the communicative aspect of the
language, then some solutions are always present in how to deal with individual words. We have
to use the constructions that express the same information in one language with information in
another language even if by different means.
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Scientific texts are characterised by their logic, exactness and explicitness and they work with
unambiguous notions and terms. This means that exactness and terminology are the main
problems in translating them and that they may not necessarily correspond in the two languages.
There is a large number of neologisms, some terms are absent or not yet fixed in the target
language. The terms and terminological expressions in a given specialised field to denote a
scientific phenomena accurately may be expressed in the source and target languages quite
differently (a concept is expressed in one language by one word while in the other it is expressed
by a collocation). The accuracy and exactness of terminology is the most important task for
translators however, the most important criterion should be that the translated terms are clear,
understandable and capture the correct meaning. Sometimes it is more appropriate to use
descriptions instead of forcibly creating one-word equivalents.
One of major problems is specific terminology that names new realities and concepts that are not
lexicographically processed in the target language at the same level as in the source language.
This applies particularly to the field of marketing. Many terms are used in their original forms
and are placed into the Slovak language with their original spelling (guerrilla marketing,
stakeholders, benchmarking, franchising, leasing, etc.) or new synonyms are created to for
original terms (public relations – vzťahy s verejnosťou, cash flow – tok peňazí v hotovosti,
peňažný tok, lobbying – lobovanie, ovplyvňovanie, etc.) or new terms arise combining the forms
from the source language and a suffix typical for the target language (viral –virálny marketing,
mobil – mobilný marketing, etc.) or they are taken with the original pronunciation but using
Slovak spelling (image - imidž, design – dizajn, etc.)
When translating a professional text the message consists of two aspects: theme and language and
they are both interlinked through stylistic means. In professional translation however, language
and stylistics are not as cultivated as in translations of art works, yet they must not be neglected
as they are necessary for the overall understanding of the text.
Scholastic training should follow certain phases of the translation process:
- understanding the original (translation of lexical components using dictionaries),
- interpretation of the text (as accurately as possible),
- stylistically processing of the text (respecting the rules and means of the target language),
- revision of the translation (should be done in with absolute concentration comparing the
translation with the original).
Concerning the requirements for the formal aspect of translation, it is important that the same
terminology is always used throughout the text and that the degree of formality should comply
with the original – the same formats, headings, subheadings, paragraphs, links, font, etc.
For practising translation skills it is appropriate to use authentic texts that contain terminology
and specific structures typical for professional language (impersonal expressions, passive,
nominal and infinitive constructions, conditionals, etc.) since authentic texts help to develop
communication skills necessary for one’s future profession. At first, texts that are stylistically
demanding should be adapted and simplified and activities that would motivate students to work
with translation should be created. With the increasing number of word units grammar becomes
more complicated and possible meanings lose their explicitness or they may allow for
alternatives. Then the attention should be paid to those grammatical phenomena that cause the
most problems for students and practise them. In addition to the above mentioned language
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structures articles are a problematic area since their absence in Slovak may lead to ambiguity or
confusion and a lengthy description may be necessary.
To learn and master professional vocabulary it is recommended to use exercises ranging from
those that develop receptive skills to productive skills (filling in gaps, matching terms to
definitions, practising verb-noun collocations, explaining acronyms and paraphrasing, etc.).
Paraphrasing (putting ideas from a reading source into one´s own words and using different
phrase and sentence structures than the original) is often neglected but it is very useful for
practising translation skills in general use as well as in professional use. Steiner considers
paraphrasing the first path along which a translator should go “… or translation with latitude,
where the author is kept in view by the translator, so as never to be lost, but his words are not so
strictly followed as his sense, and that too is admitted to be amplified, but not altered.” (Steiner
2010:229)
Translation of shorter texts can be practised during lessons but a suitable alternative is translation
of longer texts as independent work at home. Students choose a text dealing with a topic they are
interested in, translate it and prepare a presentation as their semester work.
It is also necessary to teach students how to work with dictionaries - monolingual, bilingual and
specialised. Working with monolingual dictionaries requires a solid knowledge of language
including all aspects of it: riches, styles, genres, special terminology and all spheres of life.
When working with bilingual dictionaries, language and grammar knowledge is not always
sufficient, it is also necessary to distinguish the finest shades of meanings and equivalents of
words since the semantics of vocabulary is changing and new meanings are always being added.
The most common problem when working with dictionaries is the fact that students are not able
to choose the right word from several possible meanings that is appropriate in a given context.
Another problem is that for some words there are no equivalents of English terms in Slovak, or
they have not yet been established so the word is often used in its native form from the source
language and not translated. In such cases it is acceptable to use the term in its original form and
explain it in the notes.
If the text is grammatically simple it is possible to translate it through the computer compiler. The
text, after being put in the compiler however, has to be read for proofreading and edited. Despite
the fact that computer scientists and linguists constantly improve translation software, even the
most sophisticated machine cannot replace an experienced translator. Students often rely only on
the computer translation and ignore dictionaries in the printed form that show more options and
collocations. Without basic knowledge of translation theory they often work intuitively and
finally it seems that the main problem is not the source language – English but the target
language – Slovak
Certain problems in translation of technical texts are caused also by globalisation. New scientific
knowledge can arise simultaneously in different institutions and different places and then the
same phenomenon is named differently. Most frequently new terms appear in the institutions
where the working language is English so the overwhelming majority of new terms are
introduced in this language. This is particularly visible in marketing. As a newly created and
established scientific field it introduces a lot of new terms and the technical texts are often
translated hastily without proper professional editing however, they serve later as the sole source
of terminological information. Dictionaries cannot capture current trends and name new objects
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and phenomena as quickly as they should be so terminology is not fixed and the terms vary
significantly. Inexperienced translators thus concentrate on the literal wording of the original
text, more experienced translators, on the contrary are aware of the fact that they have to translate
the meaning, not the individual words.
The most common types of problems students face when translating an academic English text to
Slovak are problems caused by ignorance of the field: factual errors, inaccuracy in terminology,
inappropriate vocabulary, use of English terms even if the terms denoting a given phenomenon
already exist in Slovak. In technical texts some stable collocations are used (idiolects) typical for
a given field and if a translator does not understand them he/she produces an unusable text.
Other types of problems are the problems caused by ignorance of the language:
incomprehensible formulations, inappropriate syntax, discrepancy between the style and genre,
translation word for word, inappropriate Slovak meanings, mechanical transfer of language
structures, word order, syntax and vocabulary of the source language into the target language,
over-use of foreign words even if Slovak equivalents are commonly known. Some problems are
also caused by “phraseology” of technical English because even though a term can be derived
from the meaning of individual words it can be misunderstood and translated inappropriately, e.g.
when a new product is developed the first step is “idea generation” but some students translate it
as “idea generácie,” (“idea of a generation” instead of “development of the idea”). Sometimes
English terms are inappropriately combined with Slovak suffixes or words, e.g. copacks
(copacky), in-store communication (in-store komunikácia), re-launched product (re-launchovaný
výrobok), etc. In addition to the above mentioned errors students often have problems with
prepositional phrases, cross-ties, inappropriate use of reflexive constructions, passive,
misunderstanding the principles of nominalisation and condensation in English. Mistakes caused
by interference of one’s mother tongue, the so called “false friends” are also frequent, e.g.
economic-economical- economics-economy, vignette-label, etc. A poor translation may also be
caused by the fact that some students paraphrase incorrectly or leave out difficult passages
entirely.
CONCLUSION
Technical translation is becoming increasingly necessary for professional life in this period of
rapid expansion of new knowledge and the advent of information technology. It is also important
for the mediation and exchange of academic, scientific and technical knowledge. Translation
however, is a natural and necessary activity for anyone who has to communicate in a foreign
language. Any user of a foreign language is essentially a translator regardless of whether he/she
translates for his/her own purposes or for other reasons. It is a skill that is not acquired
automatically but some theoretical knowledge and practical skills are necessary. Therefore, the
curriculum of an ESP course should be designed so that the communicative competence in
general language is developed, but accordingly the proportion of time teaching professional
language aimed at translation skills increases as students themselves realize they need to acquire
translation skills vital to their future chosen profession.
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