Achieving multi-level success in managing a foreign language content course with multi-level students

ANU Language Teaching Forum

•  Monday 26 October, 4.15 to 5.15pm

• Room W3.03, Level 3, Baldessin Precinct Building (BPB) , ANU.

Consuelo Martinez Reyes will be talking about Achieving multilevel success in managing a foreign language content course with mulitlevel students.

Abstract: While teaching language courses we introduce our students to basic cultural and linguistic content through practical grammar exercises. But once students gain enough grammatical skills, they venture onto specialized courses in literature, culture, and linguistics. These content-based classrooms often offer challenges specifically linked to the variety of their student body. How do we engage learners presenting differing levels of language skills? How do we encourage students to reflect upon content despite their perceived grammar limitations? This talk will focus on strategies to successfully manage foreign language content-based courses with students from multiple language-levels. I will share useful techniques to engage both mid and advanced level students in courses coded at the 2000-level that welcome students above it. I will look at ways to promote the incorporation of research, reflection, and writing exercises that allow each student to make the best of their individual language skills with the least amount of frustration. The talk will touch on issues like how to mix and match students according to the aims of group activities, and how to reutilize individual reflection exercises in future course assessments. We will also question the role of grammar “limitations” in hindering and/or promoting classroom communication and engagement with cultural content.

This forum is jointly coordinated by the College of Arts & Social Sciences (the School of Literature, Languages & Linguistics and the Centre for Arab & Islamic Studies) and the College of Asia & the Pacific (the School of Culture, History & Language).

For more information and/or to be added to the mailing list contact: Dr Louise Jansen (SLLL, CASS) louise.jansen@anu.edu.au, Dr Duck-Young Lee (CHL, CAP) duck.lee@anu.edu.au or Ms France Meyer (CAIS, CASS) france.meyer@anu.edu.