Language Centres at a Crossroads

This poster session deals with the concept of mediation and its manifestation in university language classes. It concerns both, the side of the teacher and that of the learner, whose needs, motivations and intentions influencing the educational process have changed in the more interconnected world. Nowadays, the student of a foreign language is perceived as a social agent rather than a mere learner. Moreover, the fundamental documents for framing European curricula such as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages emphasises also the non-linguistic elements related to the learning and use of a foreign language, such as mediation or pluricultural competence. However, although mediation is an inseparable part of communication, language teachers may find it difficult to include it, or better put, reveal it in their teaching strategies. Therefore, the objective of the poster and the presentation of it is to inform what mediation is, how it relates to language learning and teaching and to illustrate how it manifests in a particular teaching/learning situation.

Firstly, the poster will outline the concept of mediation in language learning and teaching. Secondly, an English course taught for university students will serve as a case study to describe the integration of mediation by the teacher and by the learner. Specific qualitative data (for example, descriptions of in-class events, and anonymised excerpts from students' journals, extracts from peer observations) will be presented in the poster.

The authors of the poster are involved in an international Erasmus+ project Mediation in Language Learning and Teaching (MiLLaT) together with colleagues from the University of Warsaw (Poland), University of Helsinki (Finland), and Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania). Thus they will present the findings resulting from the completed phases of the project, which are transnationally conducted research on mediation and executed peer observations of online lessons.

Poster představí koncept mediace a jejího zapojení do výuky jazyků v univerzitním prostředí. Potřeby, motivace a záměry, které ovlivňují vyučování a učení se změnily. V současné době je na studující cizího jazyka nahlíženo jako na sociální činitele spíše než jako na ty, kdo se (pouze) učí nové dovednosti. V návaznosti na tuto proměnu zdůrazňují základní evropské dokumenty, které rámují kurikula, nelingvistické aspekty učení se jazykům. Mezinárodní projekt Mediation in Language Learning and Teaching (MiLLaT) se proto zaměřuje na mediační aktivity a strategie. Členky týmu z Filozofické fakulty UK představí výstupy z ukončených projektových aktivit a uvedou případovou studiu jednoho konkrétního kurzu. Cílem posteru a jeho prezentace je informovat o tom, co je mediace, jak se vztahuje k jazykovému vzdělávání a jak se projevuje v konkrétním případě vyučování/učení.

Michaela Konárková graduated in English and American Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. Since then she has taught English at the Jan Palach Grammar School, Josef Škvorecký Literary Academy, and in 2011 she joined the Language Centre staff at the Faculty of Arts, where she currently teaches EAP, specifically academic reading and writing courses. She also translates British and American prose for Argo publishing house. Michaela is the project coordinator for the Charles University team in the Erasmus+ project Mediation in Language Learning and Teaching.

Šárka Kadlecová graduated in English Language and Literature and Social Sciences at the Faculty of Education, Charles University. She is currently the head of the English Section of the Language Centre of the Faculty of Arts. She teaches English for academic purposes. She has also designed and taught specialized courses focused on intercultural competences and on art and visual culture. She is a PhD candidate in Ethnology at the Department of Anthropology of the University of West Bohemia. Her current research interests are grounded in the fields of memory studies, cultural studies and visual anthropology. She is a member of the Charles University team in the Erasmus+ project Mediation in Language Learning and Teaching.