On 21 January, 2018 I travelled to the UK in order do the job shadowing at the Language Center of Cambridge University. This centre, which is an institution within the School of Arts and Humanities, supports the teaching and learning of languages throughout the University.
The Language Centre offers various facilities to its users:
1. Advising & Learning
2. Teaching Programmes
3. Resources
4. Bursaries & Grants
1. ADVISING & LEARNING
The Advising team consists of language learning advisors. The advisors are there to support the learners on a one-to-one basis, exploring resources and opportunities to structure a path towards their personal language learning goals. Each year the team works with a wide range of learners, for example:
- a researcher requiring Malay for field trips
- a member of staff working to revive GCSE/A-level/degree level French
- an undergraduate linguist wishing to improve listening skills
- a postgraduate needing to read German for academic purposes
Whatever the learners' language interests, level or aims, they are keen to help the learners with structuring a path towards their learning goals. The members of Cambridge University can come and identify the learning strategies and strengths that will help motivate their studies, as well as find methods for tackling weaker areas.
The Advising team consists of very qualified language learning advisors, one of whom is Emma Furuta. While preparing this Erasmus+ project, I contacted Emma, who kindly accepted my request of doing the job shadowing activity at the Language Centre of Cambridge University. I was with her for five days and she supported me during my job shadowing journey at the Centre.
This is the office where the language advisors work:
When they have appointments or interviews with the learners, they go to the smaller rooms where they can have one-to-one interaction and talk more comfortably.
The language learning advisors offer assistance to their learners in different ways:
A. SUPPORT FOR LEARNING
I. One-to-One Language Advising Appointments:
The learners come for a half hour advising session to:
- Decide on their short term and longer term goals
- Discuss learning strategies for independent language study
- Formulate a personal learning plan
- Evaluate their progress so far and identify their next steps
- Tackle more challenging aspects of their language learning, e.g., strategies for developing listening
- Talk about ways of shaping a self-study session
- Explore resources in specialist areas
Those learners who enjoy learning in company come together on Thursdays at the John Trim Centre, in the Language Centre’s building on Downing Place.
This study group particularly suit those learning languages outside of taught programmes and graduate students focussing on developing their academic language skills for reading and/or fieldwork.
Those registered for the Study Group are invited to join a closed Facebook Languages Study Group which they can also use to exchange ideas, to raise questions with Language Centre staff about resources and to provide ongoing peer support outside of weekly meetings.
B. SPEAKING PRACTICE
I. Conversation hours
Groups meet for six sessions every term to discuss topics of cultural, international or general interest. Each group is led by a native speaker who is there to help sustain momentum in conversation, encourage debate and support with feedback on language.
In the French, German and Spanish Conversation Hours learners take it in turns to select a conversation topic, send round a web link to some pre-reading/listening material and draw up a short list of simple questions for small group discussion during the session.
The English groups are led by one of our ADTIS teachers and are available at Intermediate and Advanced level.
University students, staff, their partners and visiting scholars are all welcome. In addition, the Centre charges a small fee for these sessions.
II. Conversation Exchange
Through this exchange, learners speak the language they are learning with a native speaker. It is open to everyone, any language, age and level.
How does the Conversation Exchange work?
- The learner emails the person and decide between them when to meet, where, for how long and how frequently.
- It is free of charge.
When does it end?
If learners wish to discontinue theirr Conversation Exchange, they inform the Conversation Exchange co-ordinator so a new match can be found for the partner.
Is it conversation only?
Partners structure their own meetings. Informal conversation is the main aim, but they may choose to incorporate other activities that assist with each other’s learning in a reciprocal way.
III. Friends without Frontiers
This group consists of a team of native speaker volunteers who will practice conversation and/or pronunciation in a language a learner is learning.
The volunteers, who live in Cambridge, offer 20-minute sessions, which are very informal, friendly and suitable for any level of learner.
Languages currently available are:
Arabic
Chinese
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Polish
Russian
Spanish
Ukrainian
It is great way to improve your fluency and expand your vocabulary in a relaxed and supportive environment.
C. Language For Fieldwork
The Centre offers "Language For Fieldwork" programme to researchers, academicians and graduate students, who need to read material in his/her field that is written in another language or to access an archive or conduct fieldwork in another country. The programme offers a series of six one-to-one advising appointments, spaced over the academic year. The aim of the appointments is to help learners organise their self-study and achieve the language proficiency they need to make the most of their time in the field.
2. TEACHING PROGRAMMES
The Centre offers two kinds of programmes: CULP and ADTIS
A. Cambridge University Language Programmes (CULP)
The Language Centre CULP programme provides a range of courses in fifteen languages for students and staff of the University, in addition to offering teaching directly to specific Faculties or Departments.
The following languages are currently being offered: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Modern Greek, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili and Turkish.
I asked Dr. Kübra Yıldırım Khan, who is the Turkish instructor, to observe one of her classes offered to the members of Cambridge University. She kindly accepted my request. Here are some photos taken during the class:
And here is video from the Turkish class:
B. Academic Development and Training for International Students (ADTIS)
The Language Centre ADTIS programme provides a range of courses and support programmes in English.
These programmes are designed and focused on helping students to improve both their English language and their academic skills.
I had a meeting with Dr. Karen Ottewell, who is the director of ADTIS and got information about this teaching programme and the resources they use to improve their learners' English language and their academic skills.
3. RESOURCES
The Languge Centre offers various onsite and online resources to their users.
A. Onsite Resources (The John Trim Centre)
The Centre provides a wide range of resources physically within the John Trim Centre. and online. The JTC is a treasure trove of some 180 languages, for Cambridge students, staff and members of the public to enjoy as a home-from-home for language learning.
The learning centre is dedicated to the memory of John Trim (1924-2013), a pioneer in the field of language education and the description of language learning proficiency, whose work to establish the Common European Framework of Reference as a tool for levelling competences aids language educators worldwide today. The JTC had its origins in the Department of Applied Linguistics, where John was Head of Department and during which time a small collection of materials began to take shape.
This JTC is open 9am-7pm during term time, and close at 5pm during the vacations.
Here are the photos of the JTC from different angles:
As you can see, the computer lab is inside the John Trim Centre, unlike the one in our Self-Access Centre.
The Language Centre ADTIS programme provides a range of courses and support programmes in English.
These programmes are designed and focused on helping students to improve both their English language and their academic skills.
I had a meeting with Dr. Karen Ottewell, who is the director of ADTIS and got information about this teaching programme and the resources they use to improve their learners' English language and their academic skills.
3. RESOURCES
The Languge Centre offers various onsite and online resources to their users.
A. Onsite Resources (The John Trim Centre)
The Centre provides a wide range of resources physically within the John Trim Centre. and online. The JTC is a treasure trove of some 180 languages, for Cambridge students, staff and members of the public to enjoy as a home-from-home for language learning.
The learning centre is dedicated to the memory of John Trim (1924-2013), a pioneer in the field of language education and the description of language learning proficiency, whose work to establish the Common European Framework of Reference as a tool for levelling competences aids language educators worldwide today. The JTC had its origins in the Department of Applied Linguistics, where John was Head of Department and during which time a small collection of materials began to take shape.
This JTC is open 9am-7pm during term time, and close at 5pm during the vacations.
Here are the photos of the JTC from different angles:
As you can see, the computer lab is inside the John Trim Centre, unlike the one in our Self-Access Centre.
The language learning materials here can only be used inside the Centre, like the ones in our Silent Study Room.
This is the reception area, where users can get information about how to benefit from the facililites such as speaking practice and teaching programmes and appointment for the language advising sessions
These are the videos which the members can borrow from the Centre. The videos are in 180 different languages.
2. Online Resources
The Centre provides online resources via different platforms:
I. Moodle
The CULP and ADTIS course materials are offered via Moodle. The courses are designed by the instructors of the CULP and ADTIS.
As we also offer MOODLE to our students, I was very willing to gain insight to their resources on this platform. For this reason, Emma included a meeting a meeting with the technical personnel, who gave me suggestions on how to improve our MOODLE platform.
II. LC Online- Language Centre Online Interactive Language Learning Resources:
http://lcitc.langcen.cam.ac.uk/
The Language Centre has developed a range of online language learning materials, which are available to all staff and student members of the University of Cambridge via Raven login, which is a Cambridge University account. Resources are currently available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
Some of the resources available on LC Online:
- Interactive online materials developed to be used by those enrolled on the Language Centre's CULP courses
- Interactive online materials designed to support the academic skills development of international students, developed for the Language Centre's ADTIS provision
- Interactive online materials developed to support programmes of study in other Faculties or Departments in the University (e.g. in Divinity, English and MML)
- Interactive online materials designed to support independent learners
- Online audio resources to accompany some of the course books housed in the John Trim Centre (JTC)
- Listening materials from past examination papers for the Faculties of AMES and MML
III. Open Courseware
To support language learning, the Centre is making a range of its language learning resources available as open courseware under the Creative Commons Licence. These materials are open to anyone who is willing to learn:
- Arabic
- Chinese
- French
- German
- Greek
- Italian
- Japanese
- Russian
- Spanish
The Open Courseware materials can be accessed via this link: http://www.langcen.cam.ac.uk/lc/opencourseware/opencourseware-index.html
IV. Online Video Resources
A number of films and documentaries in different languages can be viewed online via Raven login, which is a Cambridge University account.
4. BURSARIES AND GRANTS
The Language Centre provides its members with various bursaries and grants for their language learning needs:
- Bursaries for language training for graduate students in the Schools of Arts and Humanities and Humanities and Social Sciences are administered by the Language Centre.
- Pressland Fund Bursaries for intensive language learning abroad for science and medical students are administered by the Language Centre.
When I was at the Centre, I observed Emma doing an interview with a Cambridge Student, who was planning to improve his Chinese by getting a bursary to be able to go to Taiwan. She asked him questions related to why he would like to get the bursary. I think the Cambridge University Language Centre is so lucky to have such funds supporting their members. I hope our Centre willalso be able to support our students with bursaries and grants, which will help them to improve their foreign language skills.
Comments
Post a Comment