Exploring practices in language-centre(d) contexts

27th Communication Skills Workshop
Exploring practices
in language-centre(d) contexts
14-16 May, 2015
Tartu, Estonia
CONTENTS
page
Welcome
CSW Committee
Sponsors
Liability
Conference Programme
Parallel Sessions Outline
Plenary Speakers
Plenary Abstracts
Presentation Abstracts
Poster presentations
Discussion forum sessions
Participants
Useful Phrases in Estonian
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http://cskillsworkshop.wix.com/csworkshop
Cover photo: Kissing Students "Suudlevad-tudengid" by Geonarva - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via
Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Suudlevad-tudengid.jpg#/media/File:Suudlevadtudengid.jpg
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WELCOME
Dear Workshop Participants
It gives us great pleasure to welcome you all to Tartu to the 27th Communication Skills
Workshop. The Workshop is a meeting point for language professionals mainly from
Finnish and Estonian language centres and language departments. The event brings
together a diverse group of delegates to gain new insights and brainstorm ideas on
the areas of language teaching and learning, and related topics.
This year we are delighted to welcome new delegates from Norway, Great Britain and
the Baltic states.
The working language of the workshop is English.
CSW COMMITTEE MEMBERS 2013-15
Kärt Rummel (Chair)
Fergal Bradley (Treasurer)
Pia Lappalainen
Heather Kannasmaa
Colette Gattoni (Secretary)
Slaveya Hämäläinen (website)
Tallinn University of Technology
University of Helsinki
Aalto University
University of Oulu
Åbo Akademi, Turku
Kymenlaakso University of Applied Sciences
We hope you will enjoy our time together in Tartu!
SPONSORS
Allecto
Pearson
LIABILITY
By registering for the conference, participants agree that neither CSW nor the CSW
Committee assumes any responsibility for damage or injury to persons or property
during the conference. Participants are advised to organize their own health, travel
and personal insurance.
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PROGRAMME
14-16 May 2015
Thursday 14th May
Venue: Dorpat Hotel Conference Centre, Room Peterson
13:00
Bus departure from Tallinn Passenger Port (also stops in central Tallinn)
Registrations will take place on the bus from Tallinn.
15:30-16:15
Bus arrival at venue. Check in.
Coffee & snack. Further registrations
16:15
16:30-18:00
Opening and welcome: Kärt Rummel
Plenary by Prof. Leena Louhiala-Salminen:
"Our corporate language is 'bad English' - no problem!" - The concept of BELF
and its implications for teaching.
Followed by interview with Pia Lappalainen
19:00
Conference Dinner at the Old Library (Toomkirik)
Friday, 15 May
Venue: Dorpat Hotel Conference Centre, Room Peterson
9:00-10:00
Plenary by Dr Judith Hanks: Exploratory Practice: Putting relevance at the heart
of language teaching research
10:00-10:30
Coffee
Parallel presentation and discussion groups in Dorpat rooms
Room Pirogov
Room Krause
10:30-12:00
Presentations Exploring academic
English
Presentations Exploring
professional language learning
12:00
Discussion Group Tacit knowledge
Discussion Group Language
learning for working life
12:45
Lunch
13:30
Presentations Exploring corpus
linguistics in language learning
Presentations Exploring technology
in language learning
14:30
Discussion Group The roles and
experiences of 21st century language
teachers/learners
Discussion Group Technology in
language learning
15:15
Coffee and posters
17:00
Tartu guided tour
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Saturday 16th May
Venue: Dorpat Hotel Conference Centre, Room Peterson
9.30-10.30
Workshop: Judith Hanks
10.30-11.30
Coffee & close of the workshop
11.45
Lunch and check out
12.45
Bus leaves for Tallinn and connections to Helsinki
15.30
Arrival in Tallinn – stops at Linda line terminal, Tallink terminal, central Tallinn
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Friday PARALLEL SESSIONS (N.B. Numbers refer to listing of abstracts pp 9-18)
Exploring academic English
Exploring professional
language learning
Room Pirogov
(chair: Heather Kannasmaa)
Room Krause
(chair: Colette Gattoni)
10.30 11.00
1.
Practice what you preach – a case study of
teacher reflections on their assumptions about
effective feedback in an on-line academic
writing course
Collins & Raita
11.00
2.
Spirit Photography: Feelings in the EAP
Classroom
Muir
5.
How employees evaluate the role of
foreign languages in relationship
building in international business
Boström
11.30
3.
Generating visions, generating knowledge: peer
group mentoring and collective writing for
language counsellor development
Bradley, Karlsson, Amendolara, von Boehm,
Kidd, Kjisik, Koskinen, Moncrief & Toepfer
6.
Exploring an ESP course
development
Jeret
12.00
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
(chair: Jane Honka)
Tacit knowledge
(Chair: Pia Lappalainen)
Language learning for working life
12.45
4.
Subordinate skills as a
communication education learning
objective Lappalainen
LUNCH
Exploring Corpus Linguistics
Technology Presentations
Room Pirogov
(chair: Slaveya Hämäläinen)
Room Krause
(chair: Fergal Bradley)
13.30
7.
Corpus Linguistics Research and Tools for
Teachers and Students
Buckmaster
9.
iPads in Language Learning
Wallinheimo & Pitkänen
14.00
8.
Is a Littered Coastline a Major Concern?
Coursebook Evaluation of the Treatment of
Lexical Collocations in a Language-Centre
Context
Skopinskaja
10.
In-House Distance (IHD) courses: A
case of game-inspired course design
Lindholm
14.30
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
(Chair: Flis Kjisik)
The roles and experiences of 21st century
language teachers/learners
(Chair: Vilhelm Lindholm)
Technology in language learning
15.15
17.00
COFFEE & POSTERS
TARTU GUIDED TOUR (only for those registered)
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PLENARY SPEAKERS
Dr Judith Hanks
School of Education, University of Leeds UK Lecturer in TESOL
Judith Hanks has worked as a language teacher, teacher
educator and manager in China, Italy, Singapore and the
UK. She started teaching EFL in 1987, and has been
centrally involved in Exploratory Practice (a form of
practitioner research) since 1997, working with colleagues
from Brazil, China, Japan and UK to develop a framework of
principles for relevant research for language teachers and
learners. This culminated in her book with Dick Allwright,
The Developing Language Learner: an introduction to
Exploratory Practice (2009). After more than a decade teaching English for
Academic Purposes, she took on a lectureship in TESOL, moving from the
Language Centre to the School of Education at University of Leeds. She is now
programme leader for the BA in English, Language and Education, and as well as
setting up an MA in Professional Language and Intercultural Studies, she has led MA
modules on Teacher Education, Oral and Written Communication in TESOL. Judith’s
research interests lie in the areas of practitioner research, teacher education, and
intercultural communication.
Professor Leena Louhiala-Salminen
Department of Management Studies. Professor of Organizational
Communication, Aalto University, Finland
My research focuses on the strategic role of communication
in internationally operating organizations. I investigate
communication phenomena both at the macro/organizational
level and at the micro/interpersonal level in the global
business community. BELF (English as the Business Lingua
Franca) and the linguistic ‘superdiversity' of today's
organizations are among my current key interests.
I'm the Program Director of our new Master's Program in
Corporate Communication that started in Fall 2013. More here
facebook.com/AaltoCorpComm.
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PLENARY ABSTRACTS
Professor Leena Louhiala Salminen, Thursday, 14 May, 16:30
"Our corporate language is 'bad English' - no problem!" - The concept of BELF
and its implications for teaching
Abstract:
Most internationally operating organizations today claim English as their corporate
language – often adding that they use ‘bad English’, but survive. It is a fact that
English is the shared language of the global world, but what English is it? And why
should teachers of English and other languages care?
The presentation will discuss the changing role of English in global communication,
and particularly focus on the concept of BELF (English as a Business Lingua
Franca), and its implications for the teaching of communication skills for students
entering their professions in present-day global organizations.
Since the 1990s, scholars in communication and linguistics have explored the nature
of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) as a shared resource, which speakers of
different mother tongues engage in to communicate internationally. Indeed, over ten
years ago Seidlhofer (2001) argued that ELF should occupy a new conceptual space
amongst other ‘languages’ although – she admitted – it is difficult because
language and ‘culture’ are so tightly intertwined in people’s minds. A decade later,
Jenkins et al. (2011) pointed out that ELF speakers are not assumed to imitate
native speakers of English as closely as possible – although ELF needs the English
‘core’ (Jenkins, 2000) – but rather identify themselves as speakers in their own
right. This conceptualization makes the resource inherently fluid and flexible, deeply
multicultural and multilingual, and highly context-bound, negotiable in situ.
Drawing from ELF research, but contextualizing our study in international business,
we identified BELF (Business ELF) as the linguistic resource used by internationally
operating business professionals (Louhiala-Salminen & Charles & Kankaanranta
2005). The new concept was needed to emphasize the significance of the domain –
the ‘B’ – with its goal-oriented nature and shared business fundamentals. The
business professionals examined were using English as a Lingua Franca but, to
some extent, their mother-tongue discursive practices and culture-specific
conventions were identifiable. However, their communication was largely successful
– not ‘bad’. The perceived success was based on the communicators’ knowledge
and experience of the particular (business) discourse community that they operated
in.
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Dr Judith Hanks, Friday 15 May, 9:00
Exploratory Practice: Putting relevance at the heart of language teaching
research
Abstract:
The need for practitioners to engage in researching or exploring their own classroom
practices has long been the subject of debate. In this paper I will argue for a
sustainable way for teachers (and learners) to conduct research that is entirely
relevant to our language teaching (and learning) lives.
It has often been suggested that language teachers should engage in research
(Burns 1999, 2010; Wallace 1991; Zeichner & Noffke 2001), but this is rarely a
simple process. When asked why they don’t do research, teachers cite the lack of
relevance of much research to their classroom lives, as well as limited availability of
time and resources (Borg 2010, 2013; Burton 1998).
As a way through the conundrum, Allwright (1993, 2003) suggests Exploratory
Practice (EP) as a way of integrating research and pedagogy in meaningful and
sustainable ways. In contrast to many other forms of practitioner research, EP places
working-for-understanding before attempting problem-solving (Allwright & Hanks
2009). EP also highlights the need for ‘Quality of Life’ (Gieve & Miller 2006) to be a
central issue in language classroom research. Above all, EP encourages language
teachers and learners to set their own research agendas, and investigate what
puzzles them about their classroom language learning lives, using normal pedagogic
practices.
Drawing on data gathered in a language centre from participants engaging in EP for
the first time, I discuss the challenges and the opportunities that this brings. What
puzzled the learners and teachers? How did they investigate? What did they find
difficult, and what affected their motivation? Their comments offer profound insights
into the processes of exploring practices in language-centre(d) contexts. I end by
suggesting that in putting relevance at the heart, Exploratory Practice offers an
innovative way to integrate research and pedagogy.
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PARALLEL SESSIONS ABSTRACTS
1) Suzanne Collins & Kelly Raita
Turku University Language Centre
Practice what you preach – a case study of teacher reflections on their
assumptions about effective feedback in an on-line academic writing course
We conducted a small-scale research study to investigate peer and teacher
feedback in an on-line postgraduate writing course for medical PhD students in the
University of Turku. This course had previously been held as a classroom-based
course, but a distance-medium option was created for students unable to attend in
person. As a result of the virtual environment, conducted mainly via asynchronous
forums, written feedback provided by peers and teachers gained greater
significance. We thus set out to consider how far we could or should encourage and
help the peers give feedback. More generally, we considered whether peers
provided different feedback from us as teachers, and if so how we could scaffold the
peer feedback to better complement our teacher feedback.
To conduct the analysis we applied Hyland and Hyland’s categories of effective
feedback (praise, advice and criticism), to feedback given by a teacher and peer on
texts of 9 students. We expected to find differences in the feedback in terms of these
categories, and aimed to use this data to construct effective scaffolding mechanisms
for the students in giving better peer feedback.
However, we were surprised to find that it was in fact our feedback strategies that
were foregrounded by the results of the study, rather than those of students. We
found that many beliefs and assumptions had been directing and affecting our
research practices, for example how far we were mitigating our advice and criticism,
which we had not previously fully considered. As a result of engaging with this
research, we have now questioned the beliefs and assumptions that are driving and
justifying our practices. How we approach feedback and how it is presented to
students, and mitigated, is now a central concern in our everyday practice, and a
matter which has already changed based on these findings. For our future practice,
we discovered a clear need to analyse our own decisions more explicitly.
Key Words: Academic writing, teacher assumptions, peer feedback, effective
teacher feedback, research engaged teaching
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2) Tom Muir
Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus
(Oslo and Akershus University College)
Spirit Photography: Feelings in the EAP Classroom
As Nicholas Royle observes, a classroom can be an uncanny place, a place full of
ghosts: when we speak, we speak not only to those who are present but to the
people our interlocutors carry with them: the phantoms of childhood, the phantoms of
the future. These ghosts are present and not present, a background radiation that is
itself the condition of conversation and identity.
How might we address the ghosts in the room?
And what is this, if not a task for a scholar?
“Thou are a scholar; speak to it, Horatio,”
urges Marcellus in the first scene of Hamlet. Jacques Derrida comments that
Marcellus is positioning a dialogue with ghosts as the proper business of a scholar.
Horatio should approach the ghost because he is the scholar, not Marcellus.
This seems a long way from the usual business of a university, or of a language
classroom, but the ghosts and emotions that fill the classroom have been the subject
of an increasing amount of attention, including pathfinding work by Megan Boler and
Sarah Benesch. This paper reflects on some of these developments and begins to
assemble a critical framework for thinking through, and perhaps harnessing, the
emotional contexts of language for academic purposes classrooms. The framework
draws on a range of sources: from DW Winnicott, the idea of transitional objects;
from Sara Ahmed (pace Benesch) the idea of the sticky object; and from the
humanities, the idea of hauntology, the uncanny present absence that structures
dialogue and interaction. The aim of the paper is a kind of spirit photography: to
make ghosts visible, to speak with phantoms, to bring into focus the role of feelings
in academic life and language for academic purposes. This framework will, I hope,
have benefits for greater classroom awareness and more effective teaching
practices.
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3) Fergal Bradley, Leena Karlsson, Sandro Amendolara, Satu von Boehm,
Kenneth Kidd, Flis Kjisik, Leena Koskinen, Robert Moncrief,& Tom Toepfer
Language Centre, University of Helsinki
Generating visions, generating knowledge: peer group mentoring and
collective writing for language counsellor development
This presentation describes a project on language counsellor development
undertaken by the Autonomous Learning Modules (ALMS) team at the University of
Helsinki Language Centre. Nine counsellors are involved in the project, which began
by adapting peer-group mentoring (PGM) techniques developed in teacher education
in Finland (Heikkinen et al., 2012). The aims of our regular PGM meetings have
been to enhance teacher autonomy and well being and to foster critical reflection on
our counselling practice. One of the areas of exploration has been the interaction of
motivation, vision, and possible selves (Markus and Nurius, 1986), specifically in the
light of Dörnyei and Kubanyoiva’s (2013) work on the subject in language learning
and teaching. We have been exploring how a “scholarship of counselling” (cf. Vieira,
2009) can be developed through our discussions and, especially, through collective
writing. In our collective writing effort, we have engaged with a form of academic
writing that uses our autobiographies and experiences and is proving to be
significant in our counselling practice. In the presentation, we outline our PGM
discussions and dia/trialogic writing process and advocate their potential as tools for
developing the scholarship of counselling.
Key words: Learner/teacher autonomy, vision and motivation, collective academic
writing, language advising/counselling, reflective practice
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4) Pia Lappalainen
Aalto University Language Centre
Subordinate skills as a communication education learning objective
The Finnish higher communication education has traditionally focused on
interpersonal communication, placing emphasis on presentation skills, typically the
oral delivery of knowledge related to students’ majors and domain expertise.
However, a recent decision at Aalto University to shift emphasis from processual
transmission of substantive knowledge to a more holistic build-up of professional
expertise implies the additional inclusion of working life competences in engineering
syllabi. As an experiment implementing such integration, the English communication
course Industrial Communications was designed to purposefully meet today’s
working life needs.
The course provides both leadership and subordinate skilling through science-based
frameworks, authentic materials, and exercises that simulate operations in
engineering communities. This study focuses in general on working life skills
demands in today’s economy, and, in particular, on subordinate competences. It
presents recent research findings on industrial competence requirements and
reviews some novel pedagogy in communication education. The paper directs the
pedagogic attention to such teachable and learnable working life capacities as
intrapersonal management, attitudes and emotive skills. As pedagogic methodology,
it proposes integrated education and teacher immediacy as means of helping
students grow familiar, apt and fluent in industrial communication practices and
workplace conduct. As a concrete example, it showcases the Industrial
Communications course and describes how its objectives and assignments promote
professional identify build-up already during university studies.
Key words: Work community skills, higher communication education, intrapersonal
skills
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5) Eeva Boström
Unit for Languages and Business Communication,
Turku School of Economics
How employees evaluate the role of foreign languages in relationship building
in international business
Plurilingual and intercultural proficiency are a part of the key competences in
international business. In companies operating internationally, business people use
several languages at the same time, switching and mediating between languages
and cultures.
A survey focusing on international business communication was conducted to collect
the experiences of 214 alumni from the Turku School of Economics with the
following general research questions: What kind of multilingual situations do
business people encounter in international contacts? What kind of plurilingual
competence is necessary?
The paper concentrates on the part played by foreign languages in relationship
building in multilingual workplaces. The aim is to find out how employees choose and
switch between languages according to how they evaluate the importance of the
communication situation and the power implicitly included in the use of different
languages.
Key words: International business, multilingual employee, communicative
competence, language choice, relationship building
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6) Erika Jeret
Pärnu College of the University of Tartu
Exploring an ESP course development
The presentation looks at the development and design of an ESP course as a case
study. The subject course English for the Catering Industry was developed in 2011 in
response to the request from the Tourism and Hotel Entrepreneurship Department of
Pärnu College of the University of Tartu, and has been reviewed and amended each
time it has been delivered. The process of designing a language course commences
with setting its aims and objectives, always bearing the end in mind. Another two
aspects to the design are assessments and instructional strategies. Finally, there is
designing the content and matching it to the learning objectives and time constraints
in terms of both compiling and delivering the course. The historical review of the
process is supplemented by a study carried out with the most recent group of
students enrolled in the course.
Key words: learning objectives, CLIL and ESP, collaboration with subject teachers
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7) Robert Buckmaster
University of Latvia
Corpus Linguistics Research and Tools for Teachers and Students
In this paper I will briefly look at the key issues in corpus construction [type, size,
representativeness, balance, text sources and copyright] and then examine some
tools which teachers and students can use to examine their own and publicly
available corpora . These tools include Paul Nation's Range and Frequency
programs [available from http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/paul-nation]; the
suite of tools available at the Compleat Lexical Tutor [http://www.lextutor.ca/] and
Microconcord [available from http://lexically.net/software/index.htm]. Using these
tools, and with an awareness of the core issues of corpus design, any teacher or
student can develop their own micro corpus and analyse it to help them with their
language teaching or learning.
Key words: corpus linguistics; teacher/student researcher; corpus tools
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8) Liljana Skopinskaja
Tallinn University, Institute of Germanic-Romance Languages and Cultures
Is a Littered Coastline a Major Concern? Coursebook Evaluation of the
Treatment of Lexical Collocations in a Language-Centre Context
Effective communication in a foreign language requires, among other aspects, a vast
repertoire of lexical knowledge which does not refer to the broad knowledge of single
words but rather to the company these words keep. Collocations as one type of
frequently co-occurring pre-fabricated items help learners to achieve native-like
command and fluency in a foreign language, and their significance as a useful input
material should be acknowledged in terms of teaching materials’ design and
employment. The current report investigates the treatment of lexical collocations in
EFL instruction in an Estonian language-centre context. This is achieved through a
statistical analysis of lexical collocations featuring in the collocation exercises and
other vocabulary-related tasks of the two coursebooks (currently employed in the
language centre of Tallinn University) where the collocations found are analysed in
terms of their type, frequency and usefulness by studying them through an online
language corpus (Collins Wordbanks Online). The coursebooks are systematically
compared and contrasted relying upon the data gathered. The results of the study
reveal that the frequency and range of lexical collocations in a language corpus have
not been regarded as an essential criterion for the selection and practice by any of
the coursebook authors under discussion.
Key words: coursebook evaluation, collocation exercises, corpus analysis, EFL
instruction, language-centre context
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9) Kirsi M. Wallinheimo & Kari K. Pitkänen
Language Centre, University of Helsinki
iPads in Language Learning
For the past two years, the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of
Helsinki has given new students iPads to support their content studies. This
development project, funded by an external foundation, not only provided the iPads
but also the infrastructure needed including additional apps, tools, medicine-related
resources and training. The presentation is based on a questionnaire given to the
students taking the Swedish and English courses in 2014-15. The data will be
analysed by both content analysis and statistical methods. We shall discuss the
ways these students use their iPads in developing their language skills and the
potential needs they have for new types of language-related electronic resources
and materials. In addition to the student perspective, we shall discuss the way the
wide availability of iPads among these students has changed the approaches the
teachers use for teaching the language courses, which already for some time have
been based on the ideas of flipped classroom, task and problem-based learning. The
pedagogical model utilized includes the following categories of ICT use: pedagogical,
instrumental, communicative and collaborative (Vahtivuori-Hänninen, 2005;
Goldsworthy, 1999). We focus on the relationships between language learning and
technology. The results of this study will be used for further developing the language
courses required by the Faculty of Medicine and for gaining valuable first-hand
experience of the future classrooms where most of the students rely on portable
devices in their studies.
References:
R. Goldsworthy (1999): Lenses of Learning and Technology: Roles and
Opportunities for Design and Development. Educational Technology, Vol.39(4), p.5962
S. Vahtivuori-Hänninen (2005): Pedagogical Models in Network-based Education. In
Nicholson, P., Thompson, B., Ruohonen, M. & Multisilta, J. (eds.) E-Training
Practices for Professional Organisations. London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2936.
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10) Vilhelm Lindholm
Turku School of Economics, University of Turku
In-House Distance (IHD) courses: A case of game-inspired course design
We have all experienced the passive students who sit through their classes doing
nothing or very little. And if we are honest, most of them have passed the course.
As the name suggests, In-House Distance courses (IHDs) have no contact teaching
in the traditional sense, meaning no lectures at all. The “in-house” part of the name,
however, refers to the fact that students do have to meet with their groups to
complete interactive tasks, which are recorded on their own devices.
If regular contact teaching is akin to watching television, IHDs function more like
playing computer games. An inactive viewer will not cause a television show to stop;
the show continues even if you fall asleep on your couch. The action in a computer
game is user driven. If you do not move in a Super Mario game, you get nowhere.
Do the same in a game of Counter-strike and you will be shot dead before too long.
In this talk I would like to present how IHDs offers new options for course design by
changing a taken-for-granted chronological progression of regular classes to an
action-driven progression. My examples will come from two pilot Business
Communication courses taught at Turku School of Economics in Finland.
Key words: distance learning, learner autonomy, game-inspired design
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POSTER PRESENTATIONS
Tiina Meos
Estonian Academy of Security Sciences
Application of some of the CLIL approaches based on the example of the
Estonian Academy of Security Sciences
The Language Centre of the EASS aims at teaching languages for specific purposes
(English, Estonian and Russian) to provide the state with competent public servants
and therewith contribute to the security of the entire EU.
Despite the fact that the volume of language courses is decreasing every year, the
employers` expectations in language proficiency remain high. As the feedback given
by employers and alumni stated that the language level of our students was not
satisfactory, one possible solution to improve the language learning process and
outcomes was to start implementing CLIL, which is a dual focussed educational
approach involving competence building in language knowledge and skills, whereas
it is not specifically `language learning` and not specifically `subject learning`, but is
a fusion of both (Maljers et al, 2007).
In the EASS CLIL is interpreted as a means of cooperation between three
counterparts: the employer (ministries, boards, etc.), the language teacher and the
speciality teacher.
In autumn 2012 the Language Centre, with the help of the administration support,
officially commenced with the pilot project of integrating languages into speciality
subjects. Since 2012 the number of CLIL subjects taught at the academy has
increased significantly and we hope to claim that CLIL has proved to be an effective
means of improving the language proficiency through language into speciality
subjects, thus being able to satisfy employers` needs.
Key words: CLIL, LSP, feedback, curriculum, language proficiency, internal security
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Leena Evesti
Language Services, Language Centre, University of Helsinki
Language skill level tests for applicants to the University of Helsinki
Abstract
Since the year 2003, the Language Services unit of the Language Centre has been
arranging language tests for candidates applying to the University of Helsinki. The
tests are given in the English, Finnish and Swedish languages (i.e., the languages in
which the university offers degree programmes). So far, over 800 candidates have
taken these tests, which supplement the array of language tests on offer for
university applicants. The language skill level required of applicants is generally C1,
with some exceptions for B2 or C2 level requirements. The poster presentation
focuses on the main issues that have arisen while compiling appropriate test tasks
and developing the test structure. In addition, the presentation sheds light on the
challenges we have faced as a small independent organiser of non-standardised
tests. Some statistics will be also presented: How many tests have been organised
and how often? Who are the test takers, which faculties do they apply to, and what
are their assessed levels? Thus, all in all, the poster will answer the questions
WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, HOW, WHO and HOW MANY as regards these skill
level tests for university applicants.
Key words: language testing, skill level assessment, university applicants’ language
level requirements
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DISCUSSION FORUM SESSIONS
Tacit knowledge led by Jane Honka,
University of Turku, Language Centre
“We teach who we are and what we are driven by” (Palmer in Jones, 2015) – we all
have a learning/teaching history and different experiences (and “passions”) that have
shaped and shape our philosophy of teaching. Michael Polanyi (1891-1976) refers to
this as ‘tacit knowledge’, the discovery process whereby we act on hunches and
intuitive guesses, starting from the fact that that ‘we can know more than we can
tell‘(in Smith, 2003). We are rarely invited to make this hidden knowledge explicit
except perhaps in a job interview, negotiating a rise in salary . . .
The idea for this topic arose from two recent personal experiences: concern from
English team colleagues that I would retire without passing on vital words of wisdom,
and also an email message to all the University of Turku Language Centre staff
regarding a very interesting (streamed) seminar held recently in Helsinki, at which Dr
Colin Jones from the University of Tasmania was a keynote speaker. Acting on a
hunch that this might interest CSW participants, I recommend the participants in the
discussion to follow the links given below beforehand.
Polanyi placed a strong emphasis on dialogue within an open community, and this is
the purpose of this discussion forum: to share and thereby co-create knowledge. It is
an opportunity to make explicit the informed, committed actions that we (experienced
and novice teachers) take for granted. We all have something worth sharing.
Key words: tacit knowledge; explicit; philosophy of teaching; values; knowledge
creation
References
Jones, Colin,(n.d.). Developing my teaching philosophy for entrepreneurship education.
http://www.teaching-entrepreneurship.com/ Video clip. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
Jones, Colin, 2015. Teaching entrepreneurship. http://www.teaching-entrepreneurship.com/chp11.html Retrieved 22 February 2015.
Opintokirjo (2015). 21st century learning and innovation policy. Seminar held in Helsinki , 4.2.2015.
http://www.opinkirjo.fi/fi/opinkirjo/seminaari_422015 Retrieved 10 February 2015.
Smith, M. K. (2003) ‘Michael Polanyi and tacit knowledge’, the encyclopedia of informal education,
http://infed.org/mobi/michael-polanyi-and-tacit-knowledge/. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
21
PARTICIPANTS
Last name
First
name(s)
E-mail
Institution / affiliation
1
Aalto
Nancy
nancy.aalto@uta.fi
University of Tampere Language
Center
2
Amendolara
sandro.amendolara@helsinki.fi
Kielikeskus, University of Helsinki
3
Boström
Sandro
John
Eeva
Eeva.Bostrom@utu.fi
Turku School of Economics at the
University of Turku
4
5
Bradley
Buckmaster
Fergal
Robert
fergal.bradley@helsinki.fi
robert@rbuckmaster.com
University of Helsinki
Buckmaster Consulting/University
of Latvia
6
7
Collins
Erik
Suzanne
Ursula
suzcol@utu.fi
Ursula.Erik@emu.ee
University of Turku
Estonian University of Life
Sciences
8
Evesti
Leena
leena.evesti@helsinki.fi
University of Helsinki Language
Centre, Language Services
9
10
11
12
Fitzsimmons
Gattoni
Gerald
Graves
Robert
Colette
Netto
Paul
Robert.FitzSimmons@ulapland.fi
Colette.Gattoni@abo.fi
gerald.netto@uef.fi
paul.graves@helsinki.fi
University of Lapland
Åbo Akademi Language Centre
University of Eastern Finland
University of Helsinki Language
Centre
13
14
15
Hafell
Hämäläinen
Hanks
Jenny
Slaveya
Judith
Jenny.hafell@pearson.com
slaveya.hamalainen@kyamk.fi
J.I.Hanks@education.leeds.ac.uk
Pearson
KYAMK
University of Leeds
16
Honka
Jane
jahonka@utu.fi
17
18
19
20
21
Huff
Jakobson
Jeret
Kala
Kannasmaa
Kristiina
Sirje
Erika
Mare
Heather
kristiina.huff@haaga-helia.fi
sirje@lvrkk.ee
erika.jeret@ut.ee
mare.kala@mail.ee
Heather.Kannasmaa@oulu.fi
University of Turku Language
Centre
Haaga-Helia UAS
Lääne-Viru College
University of Tartu Pärnu College
Tallinn University of Technology
University of Oulu
22
Karlsson
Leena
leena.karlsson@helsinki.fi
Helsinki University Language
Centre
23
Kidd
Kenneth
kenneth.kidd@helsinki.fi
University of Helsinki Language
Centre
24
Kjisik
Felicity
felicity.kjisik@helsinki.fi
Helsinki University Language
Centre
25
Koskinen
Leena
leena.koskinen@helsinki.fi
26
Lahti
hanne.lahti@oulu.fi
27
28
Lappalainen
Lehtonen
Hanne
Johanna
Pia Helena
Tuula
Hannele
Helsinki University Language
Centre
University of Oulu
pia.lappalainen@aalto.fi
tuula.lehtonen@helsinki.fi
Aalto University
Helsinki University
29
Lindholm
Vilhelm
lavili@utu.fi
30
Leena
31
32
LouhialaSalminen
Mängel
Martin
Turku School of Economics /
University of Turku
Aalto University
Eha
Jonathon
leena.louhiala-salminen@aalto.fi
eha.mangel@tlu.ee
jonathon.martin@helsinki.fi
33
Meos
Tiina
tiina.meos@sisekaitse.ee
34
Minasyan
Hasmik
hasmik.minasyan@oulu.fi
22
Tallinn University
University of Helsinki
Estonian Academy of Security
Sciences
University of Oulu
35
36
Muir
Olsonen
Tom
Pirkko
tom.muir@hioa.no
pirkko.olsonen@helsinki.fi
Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus
University of Helsinki, Language
Centre
37
Palmen
natalie.palmen@helsinki.fi
University of Helsinki
38
Peterson
Natalie
Erika
Ene
ene@peterson.ee
Estonian Association of Foreign
Language Teachers
39
40
Petjärv
Pitkänen
Britt
Kari K.
britt@tktk.ee
kari.k.pitkanen@helsinki.fi
Tallinna Tehnikakõrgkool UAS
Language Centre, University of
Helsinki
41
42
43
44
45
46
Raita
Roes
Rummel
Saar
Sepp
Sihver
Kelly
Mare
Kärt
Hele
Ele
Ülle
kelrai@utu.fi
mareroes@gmail.com
kart.rummel@ttu.ee
helesaar@gmail.com
ele.sepp@ut.ee
ylle.sihver@emu.ee
47
Simeon
Michele
michele.simeon@helsinki.fi
University of Turku
Tallinn University of Technology
Tallinn University of Technology
Tallinn University of Technology
Tartu Ülikool
Estonian University of LIfe
Sciences
University of Helsinki Language
Centre
48
49
Skopinskaja
Smart
Liljana
Donald
liljana@tlu.ee
smart@cc.helsinki.fi
50
51
Sune
Taiga
Katrin
Aita
katrinsune@gmail.com
aita@tlu.ee
52
Tolsa-Mänttäri
Ilona
ilona.tolsa-manttari@helsinki.fi
Helsinki University Language
Centre
53
54
55
Vaher
Vincent
Wallinheimo
Klea
Kirby
Kirsi M.
klea@tktk.ee
kirby.vincent@helsinki.fi
kirsi.wallinheimo@helsinki.fi
Tallinna Tehnikakõrgkool UAS
University of Helsinki
Language Centre, University of
Helsinki
56
Warnes
Joseph
joseph.warnes@helsinki.fi
Helsinki University Language
Centre
23
Tallinn University
Helsinki University Language
Centre
Tallinn University of Technology
Tallinn University Language
Centre
Useful Phrases in Estonian
Tere! Hello!
Nägemist! Bye.
Ja.
Yes.
Ei.
No.
Palun.
Please. / Here you are.
Aitäh! Thanks.
Ei, aitäh!
No, thanks.
Vabandust. Sorry. / Excuse me.
Ma ei saa aru.
I don’t understand
Kus on .....? Where is the/a ...?
Viru hotell
Viru hotel
bussipeatus bus stop
trammipeatus
tram stop
taksopeatus taxi rank
ülikool
university
sadam port/ harbour
lennujaam airport
kesklinn
town centre
vanalinn
old town
WC (pronounced: veetsee)
toilet
restoran
restaurant
kohvik
café?
Minu nimi on ...
My name is ...
Väga meeldiv!
Very pleased (to meet you).
Kohtumiseni.
See you later.
Palun, näidake mulle seda!
Please, show it to me.
Mis see maksab? How much does it cost?
Jah, ma võtan selle.
Yes, I’ll take it.
Ei ma ei soovi seda.
No, I don’t want that.
Palun mulle üks ... Could I have a ...?
kohv
coffee
tee
tea
vesi
water
õlu
beer
klaas valget/punast veini
white/red wine
Ma olen taimetoitlane.
I am a vegetarian
24
See you next time in .................. !