Language Centres at a Crossroads

In the presentation, the author will show an example of best practice when designing, implementing, and evaluating the Meetings and Social Skills course held in cooperation with Tampere University. The purpose of the module is to practice skills needed in participating in meetings conducted in English, as well as to work with international business contacts. The course consists of a series of meetings and the aim is to find out the best location for a joint venture of a British (Cambridge Display Technology) and an American (Corning) company. During the first week students from the two universities are assigned to CDT (Tampere University) or Corning (USB) companies, and are then divided into four project teams according to geographical region (Asia, Africa, South America or Eastern Europe.) Each team member creates a new persona for him/herself and is that persona during the meetings. The responsibilities of chairing the meeting and being the secretary rotate so that every member of each project team can practice both roles. The chairperson is responsible for preparing the agenda as well as organizing and running the meeting. The secretary prepares the minutes after the meeting.

Each project team is involved in two online meetings, held via Zoom, with their counterpart team from the other university: a 15-minute introductory meeting at the beginning of the term and a full meeting at the end. The purpose of the second meeting is to discuss and agree on the project proposal to be presented to each company in the last class of the course. This meeting is videotaped for evaluation and self-assessment purposes. In addition to participating in the meetings of his/her own project team, each member observes and comments on two meetings of another project team. The project plans created during the module will be presented in the last class and a decision on the location of the joint venture is made within each company.

The students benefit from the course in various areas. Not only do they practice their language skills in real-life situations with its benefits and drawbacks, but also improve their soft skills such as teamwork, cooperation, and communication. Another important aspect is fostering students' intercultural awareness by experiencing international environment.

Autorka seznámí posluchače s příkladem dobré praxe projektové výuky. Kurz Meetings and Social Skills vznikl ve spolupráci s univerzitou ve finském Tampere a jeho cílem je procvičování komunikačních a sociálních dovedností pro pracovní prostředí. Kurz se skládá z několika modelových jednání, jejichž cílem je najít lokaci pro společný podnik dvou obchodních firem. Během prvního týdne je studentům každé univerzity přidělena jedna obchodní společnost. V rámci této firmy se studenti rozdělí do 4 projektových týmů podle geografických oblastí a tyto týmy pak hledají vhodnou lokaci pro společný podnik. Všichni studenti si postupně vyzkoušejí roli předsedajícího schůze i roli zapisovatele. Během kurzu rovněž proběhnou dvě on-line schůze, kterých se společně zúčastní oba univerzitní týmy. Na začátku semestru se uskuteční patnáctiminutová seznamující schůze, a na jeho konci proběhne skutečné obchodní jednání, jehož účelem je seznámit své protějšky s výsledky práce během kurzu a s návrhem lokace pro společný podnik.

Kateřina Kortusová is an English language lecturer at the University of South Bohemia. Apart from teaching General English courses to Bachelor's Degree students, she is also responsible for the English for the Workplace courses for both Bachelor's and Master's Degree students. She provides individual counseling to students involved in English for the Autonomous Learning Project. She has recently developed cooperation with Tampere University and now runs a Meetings and Social Skills course together with her Finnish counterpart. She is mainly interested in creativity, motivation, learner autonomy, and project-based teaching.