Language Centres at a Crossroads

As a member of the English Autonomously project at Masaryk University, the author has been providing individual counselling sessions to her students and trying to gain understanding of how those sessions contribute to language learning. The three counselling sessions involved in the English Autonomously course each have a different main goal. The first one focuses on planning, the second on monitoring and the last one on evaluating the learning process. Ideally, the sessions should be driven by the students/counselees and their individual needs. The aim of this presentation is to investigate the interaction between the counsellor and her counselees and to observe different types of practices used during the sessions.

This pilot case study is based on analysis of the sessions' recordings and attempts to identify patterns in communicating and turn-taking. It will be discussed whether and how the identified patterns correspond to the counsellor's and counselee's roles. Special attention will be paid to pausing and dealing with silence. The presentation will demonstrate what practices result in students becoming (more) active in the counselling dialogue and to what degree they are capable of overtaking control over their learning. The three sessions will be both compared and contrasted as there are various levels of given structure in each of them. During the first and last session, the counsellor relies on a set of course materials to plan or evaluate students' activities. In the second session, there are more opportunities for the counselees to navigate the communication themselves and thus, to concentrate on issues of their choice. The sessions 'analysis is going to explore if counselees use this opportunity and if they are willing not only to discuss the generally established agenda , but also to address issues that are personally important for them.

The presentation aims at analysing which types of interaction can be considered to be most useful for students' progress in learning and observing if these practices are present enough in the counselling sessions. It will be proposed that what could support students in improving their learning best, is counsellors speaking less and being (consciously) silent more.

Prezentace bude vycházet z analýzy individuálních jazykových konzultací, které probíhají v rámci kurzu Angličtina autonomně. Průběh konzultací bude zkoumán s ohledem na typy interakcí mezi poradcem a studentem, střídání mluvčích, zvláštní pozornost bude věnována pomlkám a práci s tichem. Prezentace se snaží zjistit, které praktiky vedou k aktivnějšímu zapojení studentů do průběhu konzultací, nakolik jsou studenti schopni převzít kontrolu nad svým učením a zda využívají možnost zaměřit se při konzultacích na své individuální potřeby. Cílem prezentace je ověřit, zda postupy, které jsou pro učení nejpřínosnější, jsou v konzultacích dostatečně využity a navrhnout, že v roli poradce platí "mluviti stříbro, mlčeti zlato".

Die Präsentation basiert auf einer Analyse der individuellen Sprachkonsultationen, die im Rahmen des Kurses English Autonomously stattfinden. Der Verlauf der Konsultationen wird im Hinblick auf die Interaktionen zwischen dem Berater und dem Studenten und das Sprecherwechsel untersucht, mit besonderer Aufmerksamkeit für die Pausen und Stillebehandlung. Die Präsentation soll ermitteln, welche Praktiken zu einer aktiveren Einbeziehung der Studenten in den Konsultationsprozess führen, inwieweit die Studenten die Kontrolle über ihr Lernen übernehmen können und ob sie die Gelegenheit nutzen, sich während der Konsultationen auf ihre individuellen Bedürfnisse zu konzentrieren. Der Ziel der Präsentation ist zu überprüfen, ob die Best Practices in den Konsultationen ausreichend genutzt werden, und darauf hinzuweisen, dass die Rolle des Beraters in dem folgenden besteht: "Silber zu sprechen, Gold zu schweigen".

References:

• Mozzon-McPherson, M., Vismans, R., eds. (2001). Beyond Language Teaching Towards Language Advising. The Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research (CILT), London.
• Mynard, J., Carson, L., eds. (2012). Advising in Language Learning: dialogue, tools and context. Pearson, Harlow.
• Kato, S., Mynard, J. (2016). Reflective Dialogue: Advising in Language Learning. Routledge.
• Ludwig, C., Mynard, J. eds. (2019). Autonomy in Language Learning: Advising in Action. Candlin & Mynard.

Martina Šindelářová Skupeňová is an English language lecturer at the Masaryk University Language Centre, Brno, Czech Republic. She has been a member of the English Autonomously team for 6 years, leading various modules and providing individual counselling sessions for students. Since she is interested in intercultural communication and arts, she has been trying to incorporate those areas into her teaching activities at Faculty of Arts as much as possible.