LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

Lancaster – Graz intercultural Web-based project: intercultural learning across the Net

This paper presents a web-based, cross-cultural project designed to develop foreign language students’ awareness of both their own culture and the target culture. In addition to the cultural sensitising aspect of the project, students also benefited in terms of their language learning, in particular their reading and writing skills in the foreign language. This was a joint project with Karl-Franzens University, Graz.

The diversity of language services

Every year the schools in the two national networks, translation and interpreting (NNT and NNI), receive representatives from various agencies who are looking into recruiting our postgraduate students not just for work in translation but in jobs classed as ‘translation projects’ where linguists are expected to fulfil such functions as project managers, terminologists, translators, localisers, revisers, editors and publishers. The interpreting services of international organisations talk to our students about remote and ‘chat room’ interpreting, where interpreters reproduce a verbal exchange on a computer screen. And if subtitling used to be exclusively the job of the translator with knowledge of specialised software, nowadays subtitling agencies are keen to recruit simultaneous interpreters. The discussion in this presentation will focus on the diversity of language services.

Liaison interpreting as a teaching technique for Italian

This article is based on my own experience as a tutor of liaison interpreting as a final-year option in the Department of Italian, Leeds University. First, a definition of liaison interpreting will be given, followed by a short comparison between liaison and consecutive as well as simultaneous interpreting.  Particular attention will be dedicated to how liaison interpreting can be a very useful method of language teaching.  Afterwards, I will talk about how this module is delivered in the Department of Italian, Leeds University.  Issues such as group size, methodology adopted to deliver the module, strategies and skills that are necessary to teach this subject will be underlined. I will discuss the importance of giving regular feedback and the types of feedback which may be most useful to students on this type of module.  Lastly, this paper will deal with assessment procedures and difficulties encountered by students/problems specific to Italian.  The conclusion will underline the benefits of this course as a learning and teaching exercise as well as a way of encouraging students to consider further training leading to a possible career in interpreting.

The Language Café

The Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies is coordinating a two-year European Socrates Lingua 1 funded project exploring informal and socially situated language learning for adults. The Language Café project draws on the existing and growing café culture around Europe and aims to create an expanding network of Language Cafés which take place in real cafes and other publicly accessible social spaces. This paper outlines the background to the Language Café project, reports on progress to date, and discusses the major successes and challenges encountered in setting up and sustaining a Language Café.

Keeping up the good work: the motivational profiles of students in secondary and higher education

With the transition from school to Higher Education students are expected to adapt to a new learning environment and to new demands and expectations. As a consequence, during their first year in a Modern Languages Department some learners may have problems learning the language efficiently. They may either be unaware of the new demands, or have difficulties learning in the new situation. Based on the changes in the learning situation caused by the transition from school to university, I shall use a single case study in order to describe some possible negative effects of a mismatch between institutional and students' expectations on the motivational disposition of the students.

Reactivating lapsed language skills: an exploration of language memory

Training to be a teacher is a stressful undertaking but for trainee language teachers, whose linguistic skills are under constant and close scrutiny from mentors, tutors and pupils, this can be a particularly challenging time. Many students, for a variety of personal and professional reasons, allow their language competence and confidence to decline. This study investigates ways of reactivating lapsed language skills in the context of a PGCE programme where students have been invited to take part in a reflective activity to identify effective ways of regaining their former linguistic competence and to contemplate useful strategies to maximise their language memory and ways to develop effective learning styles. This research project is nearing the end of its initial stage and it is intended that the findings will form the basis for a guided learning programme for the next cohort of modern foreign languages trainee teachers.

The Linguacast Project at the Open Access Centre and Schools' Enterprise Euromarch
This report describes firstly the process of setting up a language learning podcast site in order to demonstrate the use of web-hosted mp3 recordings for learning. The second part describes a multi-organisational school-based project that used the site and podcasts to deliver language learning material.

Student award 2005: What makes the best learning experience for students of Languages, Linguistics or Area Studies?
The winner of the Subject Centre's undergraduate student essay competition 2005 was Joanna Britton, Exeter College, University of Oxford.

The agony and the ecstasy: Integrating new literacies and reflective portfolio writing into the languages curriculum
This article reports on the impact of a curriculum innovation in the area of academic and professional skills for undergraduate linguists at Coventry University, the aims of which were to raise students' awareness of language learning processes and reflect upon their own learning. The authors that all involved found this curriculum development very beneficial.

Ab initio language teaching in Scottish universities
This paper is based on a research project which reviewed the provision and operation of a range of ab initio language courses in Scottish universities. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews helped sketch a picture of the Scottish situation. It was found that the current provision demonstrates a number of features highlighted in earlier UK research and that it is possible for students who start as beginners to exit as successful Honours graduates in the language. It may be, however, that the success of these students depends on a curriculum that is not appropriate for all students who take an ab initio course.

Student Participation and Motivation

This resource contains a powerpoint presentation and videos originally given as part of a training event for new language tutors. This resource can be used to highlight the issues of motivation and participation for new language staff.

Italian: Le Varietà dell'italiano

Materials for advanced (post A-levels) students of Italian which comprise a language package which focuses on the varieties of the Italian language. The aim is to develop students' awareness of the different registers of the standard language, of the main features of regional Italian, of the linguistic tools employed in the sectoral language and of the most significant linguistic aspects that characterize the speech of a number of selected Italian films.

EAP: English language skills for university study
This sample of online learning materials introduces and practises some important English language skills needed by international students planning to study at a British university.

Language Café