Language centre brochure grundtvig

A GRUNDTVIG PROJECT AT LSE LANGUAGE CENTRE

LanguageCentre

AUDIO-VISUAL MEDIA IN L2 TEACHINGA GRUNDTVIG PROJECT AT LSE LANGUAGE CENTRE

DISCLAIMER:

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

INTRODUCTION

As a leading institute aiming for teaching and research excellence, the LSE Language Centre is committed to delivering high-quality and innovative language courses. For two-years, we have been a part of a Grundtvig Partnership Project titled Audio-visual Media in L2 Teaching. This project was delivered with three EU partner institutes and its aims are right at the heart of our mission for teaching excellence. Through the Grundtvig Partnership, we aimed to exchange teaching experiences and share our best practices. Such activities will ensure that language and cultural exchange will continue to be promoted and encouraged at schools, universities and in broader society. We believe it is essential for language teachers in Europe, of all ages, organisations and backgrounds, to develop an international outlook. It is hoped that this approach will aid Europe in positioning itself successfully on the global stage by allowing it to draw on its diverse language skills and intercultural awareness.

Over the past fifteen years, the LSE Language Centre has supported language learners of both English and Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) across the School and beyond. We offer English for Academic Purposes via Pre-sessional, In-sessional and Foundation programmes, and in the MFL course provision, we deliver courses at Undergraduate Degree level as well as Institute-wide language modules in eleven languages. In addition to languages, we also offer a range of literature and sociolinguistic courses. Moreover, collaboration with other EU institutions has long been a tradition at the LSE Language Centre. In the past, we have successfully delivered other European projects, such as LETPP (http://www.letpp.eu/) and LUCIDE (http://www.urbanlanguages.eu/).

As we develop and grow professionally, our teaching methodologies also evolve to meet our learners’ needs. Technology and social media has now become an inseparable part of our classroom teaching and general language education. There is a pressing need to examine and understand how language teachers use audio-visual media in their teaching and how language learners respond and contribute to the teaching materials and learning outcomes themselves. With the support from the Grundtvig Partnership funding, the LSE Language Centre, representing the UK, has been working with three other corresponding organisations from Cyprus, Italy and Germany on these issues since September, 2012

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This document is a summary of the LSE Language Centre’s contribution to this two-year project. There will be two parts included regarding the main project achievements: Part 1, Teaching with Audio-visual Media; Part 2, Students at the Centre of Learning; and Part 3, Other Considerations. In the first two parts, we present a range of case studies and how audio-visual media are incorporated in teaching and learning by our different teachers. The participating languages include Chinese, English, German, Japanese and Spanish but methods can be customised to suit any target L2 language. The final part discusses two important aspects which need to be considered in teaching with audio-visual media: copyright implications and student feedback.

We are grateful for the support of the European Union in enabling us to put forward our questions and to provide some possible answers. The work we have done so far would not have been possible without our consortium of partners and learners, whom I would like to thank for their commitment and involvement. At the very least, it is our hope that this work will provide innovation or new insights in making the most of what audio-visual media has to offer in L2 language teaching.

Dr Catherine H Xiang Project Director, Grundtvig Partnership: Audio-visual Media in L2 Teaching Language Coordinator (Mandarin, Japanese & Korean) LSE Language Centre

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LSE LANGUAGE CENTRE AND THE GRUNDTVIG PARTNERSHIPAudiovisual Media in L2 Teaching was an international project funded by the Grundtvig Programme (August 2012 – July 2014). The Grundtvig Programme was part of the European Union’s Lifelong Learning Programme, which lasted from 2007-2013. It supported the participation of individuals and organizations involved in non-vocational adult education in European training activities and projects, with the aim of deepening collaboration between European educational bodies in teaching. The learning partnerships were based on mobilities: the funding depended on the number of persons travelling to meetings.

Since August 2012, the LSE Language Centre, representing the UK, worked closely with the following three corresponding organisations from Cyprus, Italy and Germany respectively:

• BIOS Life Long Learning Centre is the partner from Cyprus. It is a non-profit association set up by educators involved in the teaching of foreign languages, media and technology. The organisation’s main occupation is the provision of teacher training courses both at a local and European level as well as the coordination of international projects related to the teaching and learning of foreign languages. For this project the institution cooperated with the School of Modern Greek Language of the University of Cyprus, which is an institution specializing in Greek as a foreign language courses for adults.

• Istituto d’ Istruzione Superiore “Matteo Raeli” is a secondary school in Noto/ Italy (Sicily). The schools active in a series of European projects that equip students with a range of skills for coping with contemporary workplaces at the national and international level. Moreover, these projects have also encouraged students to become citizens with a strong awareness of democratic values and the principle of legality. “Matteo Raeli” participated in this project in cooperation with the Third Age University (Università della terza età di Noto-Unitre). Unitre depends on the voluntary activities of its members offering training, information, research and intergenerational contacts.

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• The Institute for Intercultural Communication (IIK), as a non-profit organization, is committed to promoting international education and research. This is achieved using a variety of different techniques and modes of communication including: Language Courses in German as a foreign/second language (DaF/DaZ); teacher training and professional staff development; development and application of interactive media software in collaboration with the Agentur für Arbeit and with the support of the European social fund; and training for management personnel and vocational training for employees

The main aims of the project are:

• to contribute to the improvement of quality of L2 adult teaching

• to create innovative teaching material with the use of audiovisual media

• to test and apply various methodological approaches

• to focus on issues of intercultural communication and non-native speakers’ social integration

Throughout this project, the partners held four transnational meetings and four bilateral meetings. The main project activities included:

• learning resources production, evaluation and publication

• trial courses in 4 countries

• research in teaching L2 with audiovisual media

• dissemination activities, presentations and workshops

• publication of results on project’s website: http://audiovisualmediablog.worpress.com

In addition to the above contribution, the LSE Language Centre brought to the partnership our unique social science focus on language teaching. This will be illustrated through a series of case studies in the next section.

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PROJECT ACHIEVEMENTS AT THE LSE LANGUAGE CENTRE

At the LSE Language Centre, a range of audio-visual media has been used in foreign language teaching with a social science focus. In order to provide effective lessons for the specialist language required in social sciences, our usage of audio-visual media has gone beyond traditional language teaching. Our work also examines and explores the relationship between the media, language, society and culture. We keep up to date with new technology and strive, through student and teacher evaluation, to improve our course delivery and assessments.

In Part 1, we will show case studies across the teaching of four different languages via seven different audio-visual media: Jing, image, music, animation, documentary and films, topical videos and news clips.

All Recommended Levels use the Common European Framework for Reference for Languages (CEFR) unless stated otherwise.

PART 1: TEACHING WITH AUDIO-VISUAL MEDIA

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CASE STUDY 1#

Japanese Language and Culture via Animation

Anime and manga are some of Japan’s biggest cultural exports and can be an excellent way to supplement textbooks and other official learning materials as it gives insight into the country’s culture.

At the Language Centre, a course has been developed specifically using authentic Japanese animation as the key input. This changes the tradition of the textbook-based approach in the classroom and, thereby, adds to student motivation. In addition, online interactive materials were created using Moodle functions to supplement the course. Additional functions available in Moodle such as forums and wordbanks allowed for collaboration between students.

Recommended Level: B2 – C2Linguistic skills practiced: Listening, reading, writing, speaking, vocabulary.

Outcomes and advantages

• Authentic and entertaining input material used as the key component of the course.

• Anime offers rich cultural insights into Japanese society.

• The supplementary interactive online materials promote independent study.

Technical and other requirements

• Time to construct the course content. • Teachers must be familiar with the anime in order

to highlight what is relevant.• Physical copies of the anime and manga, for

teachers and students to refer to.

Recommended Level: B2 – C2Linguistic skills practiced: reading, speaking. Other skills: critical thinking.

Outcomes and advantages• Visual stimuli helps initiate discussion and debate. • Authentic posters help promote understanding

of the social context. • Offers opportunity to read different writing styles

embedded in authentic materials.

Technical and other requirements• Requires suitable images, colour printing if

possible.

For further details, please contact Dr Catherine Xiang via [email protected]

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CASE STUDY 2# Music as cultural identity: German music videos

From a language-learner’s point of view, being exposed to authentic cultural aspects of the target language culture is both useful and motivating.

A music video of Wir sind wir (We are who we are), a 2004 pop song, was shown to an Intermediate German Language and Society class. The objective was two-fold: firstly, to act as a linguistic exercise and secondly, to make students aware of the issues surrounding Germany identity.

A worksheet relating to stills from the music video was produced for the students so that they could practise the description of images and use new vocabulary. For homework, students were asked to select one of the historical situations depicted in the video and were asked to find out more about this event and evaluate how the representation of that particular event has helped to shape post-war German identity.

Recommended level: B1 – B2Skills practiced: listening, speaking, writing.Transferable skills: discussion, research and evaluation skills.


• The music video features cultural references which facilitates student discussion on social-cultural issues relevant to the culture and society of the target language.

• The audio and visual combinations can help students with retention of grammatical structures and vocabulary.

• The description of images is a concrete writing task, which encourages students to expand their vocabulary and creates links between words and images.

• The use of music videos can be a stimulating and refreshing change to textbook-based lessons.


• Requires internet links to be working

• A worksheet must be prepared to match the cultural media being used.

• The teacher will need to spend some time searching for suitable cultural media that can be used in the classroom.

For further details, please contact Dr Peter Skrandies via [email protected]

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CASE STUDY 3#Using Images in Social Science Context in Mandarin teaching

Visuals can be a useful way to stimulate students in a language classroom. At the LSE Language centre, it has been used in a range of different languages for different purposes.

In Beginner’s Chinese, image sequences were used to help students drill basic questions and also for the recognition of nouns. The objective was to familiarise students with useful basic Chinese vocabulary. Pictures of famous personalities and political figures were displayed on a PowerPoint and the teacher asked students what the name, nationality and job of the person in the image was before allowing them to practice amongst themselves. The exercise was relevant to LSE students as the figures were all related to politics and/or social-sciences.

Recommended Level: A1-2Linguistic skills practiced: Vocabulary expansion, speaking, listening.


• Visual stimulus of picture helps retention of new vocabulary.

• PowerPoint easy to create and re-usable. • Students can practice asking questions and

answering them. Drilling the questions will help with memorising vocabulary.


• Projector and computer in the classroom.

In an Advanced Mandarin class, images of Chinese propaganda posters were used to help students gain insights into the promotion and implementation of the one-child policy in China back in the 1980s. The images were used to introduce the topic to the students and get them understand the social context. The posters were chosen because they were authentic materials with Chinese characters on them. It offered an opportunity for students to read, recognise and discuss different Chinese writing styles. They were then asked to read a series of posters and summarize the main benefits that Chinese government claimed the policy to have. A class debate was then held to allow students express their own views, based on the ideas raised in the discussion.

Recommended Level: B2 – C2Linguistic skills practiced: reading, speaking. Other skills: critical thinking.

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• Visual stimuli helps initiate discussion and debate • Authentic posters help promote understanding

of the social context. • Offers opportunity to read different writing styles

embedded in authentic materials.

Technical and other requirements-

• Requires suitable images, colour printing if possible.


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CASE STUDY 4#

Spanish society via Documentary and Film

Activities using documentary and film were used for Elementary Spanish Language and Society classes. The main aims of this were to develop students’ linguistic skills and as well as introduce to socio-cultural issues of Spanish-speaking societies, including Colombia, Cuba, and Chile.

The documentaries and films were first screened in the classroom (either using a whole lesson or in half-hour sessions). Students were then asked to complete a questionnaire relating to the content in the documentary or film shown. There was also an opportunity to discuss and feedback to the class. Finally, for homework, students were asked to either write an essay or upload an oral recording, in the target language about the documentary or film.

The two documentaries used were La Sierra (2005) and Habana del Este (2006); the film shown was Machuca (2004). These three were selected because they all explored modern historical and/or recent events through the eyes of young people: such as the Chilean situation before the 1973 coup d’ etat, the Colombian armed conflict or the current political situation in Cuba, issues which are relevant to social sciences and current affairs.

Recommended Level: A2 and aboveLinguistic skills practiced: Listening, reading, writing, speaking, vocabulary. Transferable skills: clarity in written or spoken communication.


• Emotionally evocative, informative, and authentic input material used as the key component of the activity.

• Students greatly value the use of film and documentary in classes.

• Raises student awareness of complexity and variety in socio-political and economic issues in Spanish speaking societies.


• DVD copies of the material and working projector and sound system in classroom.

• Subtitles must be enabled to help students watch at lower level of CEFR.

For further details, please contact Lourdes Hernandez-Martin via [email protected]

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CASE STUDY 5#

Topical videos and transcripts

Topical videos addressing political, cultural or social questions are excellent materials for language learning.

In the German classroom, topical news videos such as from Deutsche Welle’s “Deutsch Lernen” page were screened. It was important that the transcripts were available, so students could read as well as listen to the text of the video.

Students then discussed the video content; this gave them a foundation towards writing longer pieces related to the topic for homework. Using this teaching method, students were able to build on their debating skills and ability to articulate themselves in the target language, both orally and in writing.

Also, the use of topical videos encouraged students to develop awareness of German society and to seek out more authentic material online in their own time.

Recommended Level: B1 - C1 (dependent on tasks) Skills practiced: Listening, writing, reading and speaking.


• Combination of visual and audio helps with retention of new vocabulary and grammar; inclusion of transcripts or subtitles is useful as students can read, analyse and annotate them.

• Use of internet media encourages students to search out content by themselves and engages them in current issues relevant to their target language.


• Projector, internet access and working sound system in the classroom. Alternatively, students can be asked to watch the videos in their own time.

• If videos lack subtitles or transcripts that are necessary for the follow-up activities, the teacher will need to spend a lengthy amount of time transcribing the audio text.

For further details, please contact Dr Peter Skrandies via [email protected]

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CASE STUDY 6#

News clips from the Spanish-speaking world

In Intermediate to Advanced Spanish Language and Society classes, news clips on various topics were shown to students. The aim was to introduce them to more social science-related and current issues from the Spanish-speaking world. It was also an opportunity for students to experience linguistic features and vocabulary specific to news broadcasting as well as different language varieties within Spanish.

The students were then asked to research more into the news topics before presenting their findings in a brief oral presentation. Videos and related topics included Latin America’s economic issues and fifty years of the Cuban Revolution. These clips were hosted on broadcasting websites or video-hosting websites such as YouTube and were, therefore, easily accessible in the classroom or at home.

Recommended level: B2 – C1Linguistic skills practiced: Listening, speaking, vocabulary expansion. Transferable skills: research and oral presentation skills.


• Students can hear pronunciation from authentic material.

• Current news topics are interesting in themselves; students value classes that use relevant source material.

• The approach deepens students’ understanding of society and current issues via the target language and encourages them to search out more of such language on their own.


• Projector, internet access and working sound system in the classroom. Alternatively , students can be asked to watch the videos in their own time.

• Obsolescence in current affairs media makes keeping up-to-date time consuming; links will also become dead and videos will be removed as time passes so the teacher will need to keep track and adjust the lessons.

For further details, please contact Lourdes Hernandez-Martin via [email protected]

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CASE STUDY 7#

Using Jing to provide video feedback

Jing is a free screen-casting software that allows the user to create videos of up to five minutes in length. The program can capture any chosen section of your screen and any audio input that is happening simultaneously.

In this instance, it was used in an L2 Chinese class. The teacher used it to record themselves discussing a word-processed essay they had marked. Thus the student is able to receive “live” feedback as opposed to simply making sense of the teacher’s written comments.

Recommended Level: AnyLinguistic skills practiced: Listening, reading.


• Added audio information in feedback to student, increasing impact of critique or praise, deepening their understanding of how their work is marked.

• As the feedback is recorded and saved online, the students can access it anytime and this allows them to track their progress over the year and so this approach is also useful for revision.

• Videos can be used in the class, thereby inviting all students to see and familiarise themselves with the marking process and criteria.

• Submissions can range from handwritten, scanned images to word-processed.


• Jing (freeware) or other screen-casting software and a mic.

• Projector if used in lessons; Adobe Flash for viewing the screencast.

• Teachers may require basic training.


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PART 2: STUDENTS AT THE CENTRE OF LEARNING

We have never forgotten the fact that students need to be at the centre of learning. This project also allowed us to test our teaching methods. We were able to identify best practices to involve students in the learning process and how different media can encourage students to organise their own study and learning outcomes. These activities tended to be outside the classroom and strongly promoted learning autonomy.

The case studies included in Part 2 demonstrate the work at the LSE Language Centre to help the students enhance both linguistic and cultural awareness via their own oral or written production.

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CASE STUDY 1#

Talk Show: Current Affairs in Mandarin

Current Affairs in Mandarin is an ongoing student-orientated, audio-visual media project. In this project, students are recorded discussing topics using Mandarin in an interview with a teacher.

The aim of this is to allow participants to practice their oral presentation and debating skills on current affairs topics they are passionate or interested in but entirely in Mandarin Chinese. The video discussion itself is also geared towards independent Mandarin learners; the videos are edited so that key social science terms and example sentences with Pinyin and translations are introduced before the discussion begins. Participating students gain confidence in articulating complex ideas in Mandarin for a lengthy period of time. Students also enhanc their subject-specific vocabulary in current affairs. A number of the project videos are already available to view on the LSE Youtube channel.

Recommended level: B2 – C2Linguistic skills practiced: Speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary expansion.Transferable skills: research and interview skills.


• Highly rewarding for participating students as they can choose what topic to present on, write their own scripts and decide for themselves what social science terms to include.

• Results in open resources on current affairs for non-LSE Mandarin learners ranging from China’s economic development to the Brazil World Cup. .

• Supplementary Moodle content with automatically graded question sets so learners will get immediate feedback.


• Will require resources for post-production work; software such as Camtasia, Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple Final Cut Pro X

• Somewhere quiet to do the recording and allow time for retakes.

• Student consent is required to make videos public on LSE Youtube channel.

• External users will need to request a guest login from the LSE Language Centre in order to access the supplementary Moodle materials.


PART 2: STUDENTS AT THE CENTRE OF LEARNING

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Students record themselves speaking in the target language, backed by a sequence of images. The two main aims of this are to improve students’ enunciation and overall speaking skills. Digital storytelling has been implemented in both Modern Foreign Languages and the English for Academic Purposes courses.

In this activity, students are divided into small groups of 2-3 and are given a set amount of time (anywhere between one workshop session to a whole term) to find suitable images and record themselves narrating alongside them. Students were also given a set of images to get them started. Digital storytelling allows students to record and listen to themselves and then re-record until they are satisfied with the product. Students use a simple video-editing program to time and arrange the images and audio before presenting it to their class. The complexity and requirements of the stories (such as vocabulary used or story length) can be adjusted to suit student abilities and time constraints.

Recommended level: AnyLinguistic skills practiced: Speaking, writing, vocabulary expansion.Transferable skills: Group work, creative skills, time management.


• Students find it highly rewarding to present their final product.

• Students find autonomous creative exercises requiring group work enjoyable.

• Students can perfect their speaking and intonation by recording audio several times.


• Easy-to-use video image editing software such as Windows Movie Maker or Apple iMovie. Open source options are available

• The teachers will require training and will need to monitor students’ progress to make sure they do not lose track in the smaller details such as the look of the video or what images to use.

For further details, please contact Teaching and Learning Facilitators via [email protected]

CASE STUDY 2# Digital storytelling

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CASE STUDY 3#Independent Research and Presentations (Posters)

The English Foundation Programme at LSE has, regularly incorporated an independent research and presentation project into their ten-week courses. Students must research and give an oral and visual presentation on a social science topic that they are interested in. The aim is to teach students to break down complex topics into terms that can be understood by their classmates.

To add variety to their normal classes, students are asked to create posters, as opposed to using PowerPoint or presentation software. These posters are then displayed in a classroom “gallery” where students and teachers mingle and the posters’ creators stand by their works and talk about them. Aside from expanding their vocabulary, this activity also teaches students to use terms and phrases selectively so that their audience can understand the topic easily.

Recommended level: B2 – C1Linguistic skills practiced: Speaking, writing. Transferable skills: oral presentation skills.


• Students enjoy talking about something they are interested in and they can be creative with the poster, so long as it does not get in their way of preparing the oral presentation.

• Students learn to express complex ideas in layman’s terms both orally and visually, on the poster

• Allows teachers and students to mingle in the classroom.


• Suitable stationary; colour printing preferred. • The teachers will need to regularly monitor

students’ progress and timetable the research and presentation to make sure that students find a balance between preparing for the presentations and creating the poster.

For further details, please contact Chris Scibberas via [email protected]

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CASE STUDY 4#

Wikispaces for Student Exchange

This summer, a group of students from LSE visited Fudan University in Shanghai for 5-8 weeks and vice versa. In order to facilitate greater cultural and language exchange between the students, the Language Learning Support team set up a Wikispace. The Wiki functions by allowing registered users to contribute content and create new pages. The aim of the Wikispace is to allow communication between the students, such as recommending places of interest or worthwhile activities to do in the city they are familiar with. The students can write in either Chinese or English.

Recommended level: AnyLinguistic skills practiced: Writing, reading.


• Wikispaces encourage student-based input and increase communication between students in a way that other registered students will also be able to see.

• Wikispace is an open source platform and simple to use.

Technical and other requirements• Internet access; the teacher will need to set this

up and then instruct students how to use it. • The Wikispace may require moderation.


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CASE STUDY 5#

Independent Online Learning

The Language Centre Learning Support Team have set up a digital literacy course, called eLang, to aid independent language-learners. eLang teaches students how to use Mahara.org, an open source ePortfolio platform, to manage and compile a record of their language learning. eLang caters to a wide spectrum of learners. It is suitable for self-learners who do not take lessons and want to ensure that they are constantly moving forward with their target language as well as students who want to complement their ongoing classes or as a standalone programme.

Access to the eLang is valid for two months. In those two months, students must update their ePortfolio regularly, writing their achievements in a Language Log. Many useful functions on the ePortfolio are added to help foster the habit of using open source internet tools that will help with language learning. These include social bookmarking (Delicious) and listening to podcasts and building a personal wordbank (Quizlet). Finally, students will record themselves speaking in the target language.

At the end of the course, the student’s ePortfolio will be assessed by one of the Teaching and Learning facilitators and feedback will be given.

Recommended level: A2 and above. Linguistic skills practiced: Writing, reading. speaking.Transferable skills: IT skills, digital literacy, time management.


• The ePortfolio will help to support independent learners and give suggestions as to what kind of online resource they can use.

• Learners who have completed the eLang course will have increased Digital Literacy as well as having made progress with their target language.

• Students set their own targets.


• Registration is required. • A computer and an internet connection.


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CASE STUDY 6#

Audiocapture with WimbaCreate

WimbaCreate is a paid suite of voice tools that can be used in either Moodle or Blackboard. Its functions can be helpful for language learning as students can submit voice recordings in a variety of formats, such as through Voice Board, Voice Presentation and podcasting.

For Spanish at the LSE Language Centre, it was used for a wide range of activities from pronunciation practice, to news commentary to voicing over images in a role-play. The teachers could then access these recordings to check students’ performances. Students were able to replay their recording and evaluate their own speech and pronunciation or, alternatively, listen to what other students had uploaded and made public. Work was done entirely through computers so people could speak in a low-anxiety environment (for example, from their own homes) and prepare what they wanted to say in advance.

Recommended Level: Any Linguistic skills practiced: speaking, listening, vocabulary.

Advantages

• WimbaCreate can integrate with pre-existing systems, such as Moodle or Blackboard.

• Intuitive and user-friendly, for both students and teachers; recordings are all stored centrally so teachers have a record of their students’ performances.

• Allows for both oral and written feedback to students.

Disadvantages

• Expensive. • Vulnerable to connectivity, server and other

technical problems. • Loss of face-to-face communication experience

such as paralinguistic gestures; some students felt it was awkward to talk to a machine.

For further details, please contact Mercedes Coca via [email protected]

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PART 3: OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

In this final part, we would like to share some practical considerations that teachers need to take into account when using audio-visual media in their teaching. Firstly, we will be looking into the copyright implications for collecting images and videos. The LSE Language Centre has worked closely with the Learning Technology and Innovation (LTI) to ensure the awareness of copyright issues associated with educational use. Secondly, we will share a study on student perception towards active involvement in video making in their language learning. We hope that the findings shed some light on how best to use audio-visual media in language teaching in general.

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COPYRIGHT IMPLICATIONS

There is a wealth of media resources freely available to educators via the Internet. A wide range of video, audio and other digital media can now be easily discovered, repurposed and remixed to enrich our teaching materials and the learning experiences of our students. Beyond the prominent portals (YouTube, Flickr et al), there exist a range of other projects and providers that make available fantastic resources specifically tailored for educators, and which also help colleagues make the correct decisions in respect of copyright issues around the use of digital media.

Copyright restrictions will differ from country to country, and colleagues will find that there are country specific resources (such as those provided by BUFVC and JISCDigitalMedia in the UK), while Creative Commons Search (http://search.creativecommons.org) gives users a portal whereby they can more easily navigate and find materials for use in their teaching that have been issued under one of the many, easily understood, Creative Commons Licenses

For further details, please contact Darren Moon via [email protected].

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STUDENT FEEDBACK

To understand whether the audio-visual media has been used effectively in class, it is essential to understand students’ perceptions and feedback. As to this topic, further research is needed. In the current project, we investigated and evaluated students’ responses to the ‘Current Affairs in Mandarin Project’. A questionnaire and interview were used with all the students who took part in producing the videos.

The key findings follow:

Clear evidence was found of students’ agreement that language learning, motivation, development of transferable skills and employability skills had all been enhanced.

These are illustrated in the charts below:

The above graph shows that nearly 70% of students strongly agreed that participating in the project had enhanced their language awareness of Chinese.

The above chart indicates that 93% of the participating students found that they either agreed or strongly agreed that this project helped them enhance their learning of subject specific language.

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86% of the students found that the Mandarin Current affairs project was a useful experience.

93% of participating students surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that they would recommend the project for future classes.

This chart indicates that over 70% of the students agree that their participation in this project enhanced their transferable skills.

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THESE ARE SOME WRITTEN STATEMENTS MADE BY THE STUDENTS

It was certainly difficult because you have to collaborate with someone else and find the time to make it good. Nonetheless, working with someone also spurs you on to do as well as possible. In terms of relevance, the autonomy to choose your own topic certainly enabled students to pick what they felt was relevant to them and really enabled us to incorporate our social science backgrounds into our language education. I definitely enjoyed it and would recommend doing it again.

It helped me develop a lot of confidence in speaking Chinese, and getting my ideas across to others in Chinese. Moreover, I learned to correct my tone, my grammar, and improve upon much vocabulary.

I thought it was a great experience, had a good time recording and preparing for it with my classmate. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product so I can see for myself how I can improve my pronunciation etc.

I thought the video project was unique way to improve our Chinese interviewing skills. The project was of an appropriate difficulty and was enjoyable and educational.

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It helped me develop a lot of confidence in speaking Chinese, and getting my ideas across to others in Chinese. Moreover, I learned to correct my tone, my grammar, and improve upon much vocabulary.

It was difficult at first in trying to come up with answers to the question in Chinese using the Current Affair-related topic. However, it was an enjoyable task because we have chosen our own interested topic. Furthermore, researching on different women’s health issues has raised a lot of knowledge and awareness too.

As my presentation focused specifically on the issue of Scottish independence, this project certainly helped improve my competence in expressing benefits/harms from an economic and a political point of view in Mandarin.

It gave me an opportunity to learn about a current affair topic in Chinese. Researching and scripting the first draft on a topic I had little understanding of even in English was the most challenging aspect.

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Through the above study, we found that authenticity and choices support learning motivation. Students appear to value language learning through hands-on activities and active discussion in the target language. Such experiences can be both inside and/or outside the classroom setting. Actively involving students in creative ways of using the target language via using or producing audio-visual materials seems to be one of the most effective approaches in L2 teaching.

For further details, please contact Dr Catherine Xiang via [email protected].

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Audio-visual Media in L2 Teaching project has contributed to the improved quality of L2 adult teaching by encouraging the development of innovative teaching material using audio-visual media.

The project has concentrated on the following: testing, sharing and applying various methodologies to develop effective audio-visual teaching material for second language courses in adult education for the languages relevant to partner institutions, with a special focus on issues of intercultural communication and non-native speakers’ social integration.

After conducting research into the benefits resulting from the use of audio-visual media in L2 teaching, the partner institutions developed the materials, integrated them into teaching units and then tested the developed material in trial courses. These materials as well as suggestions for their use were presented and discussed during the transnational meetings and are published on the project website at http://audiovisualmediablog.wordpress.com.

This document includes a range of case studies of the developed material and the methodology by the LSE Language Centre. These case studies highlight the social science focus of the LSE and its language teaching approach. Joining this Grundtvig project has not only allowed LSE colleagues to fully engage with students and other colleagues at a local level, but more importantly to gain experiences and knowledge from colleagues in other EU institutions. The participating teachers have found the project useful in terms of:

• Developing confidence and furthering teaching skills

• Reflecting on what teaching methods are used and why

• Informing teaching practice with theory

• Improving classroom practices

• Learning new ways to apply audio-visual media in one’s work

REFLECTION AND LOOKING AHEAD

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Taking part in the Grundtvig project has been a great opportunity to meet colleagues in other countries who have exploited media in their teaching and thereby created both social and professional links. Sometimes media and technology were used in a way which was completely new to us, other times they inspired us in using already adopted technologies to their fullest potential or in new, innovative ways. I would start the project all over again, if possible.

MATTEO FUMAGALLI TEACHING AND LEARNING FACILITATOR

Participating in the Grundtvig project allowed us to share common issues across different contexts. I learned, not only from colleagues from other countries, but also from my Institution by getting to know more in depth projects I had previously only known vaguely.

INES ALONSO-GARCIA TEACHING AND LEARNING FACILITATOR

It’s a very innovative project which allowed learners to use target language for meaningful purposes. I particularly liked the idea of it being ‘learner-led’ as this meant students could develop their learning skills alongside their linguistic ones

LIJING SHI ASSISTANT LANGUAGE COORDINATOR: MANDARIN

I found it very useful to share experiences with colleagues who work in contexts totally different from the Higher Education environment. There were many examples of their practice that can be implemented in HE.

MERCEDES COCA LANGUAGE COORDINATOR FOR SPANISH,

ITALIAN AND PORTUGUESE

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Overall, the project offered a wonderful platform for various practices of audio-visual media use in and outside classroom being discussed and explored. Some implications of such an approach for the practice of teaching and learning were identified as follows:

• Audio-visual media offers rich input both in terms of language and society. New pedagogies need to be developed to see how such stimulus could be used more effectively in and outside the class.

• Teacher training and development is needed in order to keep up with new forms and new media. A range of technical as well as copyright implications needs to be considered before any audio-visual are used in the classroom.

• Teachers need to be more aware of learning progression through sectors, valuing what colleagues in other sectors and the learning which takes place there.

• The impact and student perception of the usage of audio-visual media needs further research and development. It is important to gain more understanding of how different methodology impacts on the learners’ motivation and learning outcomes.

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CONTACTS

Dr Catherine H Xiang

Project Director, Grundtvig Partnership: Audio-visual Media in L2 Teaching Language Coordinator (Mandarin, Japanese & Korean)

C516, Clare Market Building Houghton Street London, WC2A 2AE

Tel: +44 (0)20 7955 6929 Email: [email protected]

The ePortfolio will help to support independent learners and give suggestions asLSE Language CentreFloor 7, Clare Market Building Houghton Street London, WC2A 2AE

Tel: +44 (0)20 7955 6713 Email: [email protected]

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Documents

Language centre brochure grundtvig