Dear colleagues at Langscape,
I would like to draw your attention to a EU-project in which the Humboldt-University (Dpt. EFL-Methodology) acts as one of six internatinal partners. I would also like to invite you to participate in the final conference in Las Palmas (Gran Canaria, Spain) from Nov. 30 – Dec. 1st 2015. You find all relevant information below.
The project titled “playingCLIL” is supported by the European Commission within the Lifelong Learning Programme – KA 2 Languages (2014-15). The project consortium consists of six partners from four countries (Germany, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom) working in a variety of educational contexts (formal and informal education and higher education).
The project aims at developing a teaching method for Content-and-Language-Integrated Learning (CLIL) which is based on the principles of drama pedagogy using drama games as default settings for classroom activities.
The project targets CLIL teacher and teacher educators at universities and teacher training colleges alike.
PlayingCLIL games are currently being tested by collaborating teachers in primary, secondary, vocational and adult education. A comprehensive collection of tested games will be available as a comprehensive handbook (print and an e-book version) in early December 2015.
The playingCLIL project team invite the CLIL research and teaching community to attend the “European playingCLIL Conference – Method – Practice – Perspecitves” hosted by the Universitad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria from Nov. 30th to Dec. 1st, 2015. The conference will be dedicated not only to the release of the handbook but first and foremost to a general and practical introduction to playingCLIL, voices from the classroom, and discussions by educators and CLIL experts on future perspectives of CLIL in Europe.
Please forward this information to other colleagues interested in the topic.
Contact: Stephan Breidbach
CLIL_flyer_finalconf booklet-pCLIL-es_web booklet-pCLIL-en_web booklet-pCLIL-de_web
Multilingual CALL: Multilingual Language Learning with Digital Media in Primary and Secondary Classrooms
Frankfurt, February 17-18, 2016
Learners of a second or foreign language are not homogeneous with regard to their linguistic backgrounds and their degree of fluency in different languages. Students often have skills in more than one language, including languages previously studied at school, as well as heritage and minority languages. These skills can range from basic conversational skills to fully developed cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP). Teachers are expected to diagnose the different needs of all pupils and cater for them in the mainstream classroom. CALL – computer assisted language learning – can potentially contribute to this.
Online interactions that bring together speakers of different languages, for example telecollaboration and virtual tandems, can add depth and complexity to a language learning setting. Who speaks which language to whom and when? Why? Is code-switching permissible? Many decisions regarding language choice are made by teachers and learners alike, but which “language choice designs”, which “language choice strategies” are most beneficial for learners?
Despite these relevant questions, very little research has been conducted on multilingual CALL. Usually, issues of multilingual language practices in CALL are mentioned only in passing, often based on the assumption that they constitute a problem that needs to be addressed. Sometimes, unspoken assumptions about a monolingual ideal in language instruction (cf Gogolin 1994, Butzkamm 1973) permeate CALL designs – but these assumptions are rarely empirically tested or theoretically challenged
This conference aims to increase the awareness of the existence and functions of multilingual materials and multilingual language use in CALL contexts. Furthermore, it will contribute to a critical assessment on widespread assumptions regarding monolingual/multilingual practices in CALL.
Further information and registration: Multilingual-CALL-2015
Please, find attached the call for contributions.