My presentation at Maynooth University's conference on English & Multilingualism in 21st Century Europe: https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/english-multilingualism-21st-century-europe
At the ‘Second International Conference on Telecollaboration in Higher Education' my colleagues and I announced plans to launch an academic organisation for telecollaboration and virtual exchange. This is an outline of our ideas.
Twenty years on and still reinventing the wheel? A critical review of Telecollaborative Exchange in Foreign Language Education
Robert O’Dowd, University of León, Spain
Eurocall 2015 Keynote Presentation
University of Padova, 26 August 2015
http://www.eurocall2015.it/
Abstract and Bibliography
Contact:
robert.odowd@unileon.es
See the presentation slides (August 2015):
http://www.slideshare.net/dfmro
Join UNICollaboration:
www.unicollaboration.eu
It has been 20 years since the first major publications on online intercultural interaction and exchange began to appear in the CALL literature(Cummins & Sayers, 1995; Eck, Legenhausen & Wolff, 1995; Warschauer, 1995). Since then, we have seen telecollaboration go on to become one of the pillars of CALL research and practice.
Therefore, it is appropriate that the 20th anniversary of these publications coincides with this Eurocall conference calling on us “…to unpack and examine some of the assumptions that may have become ingrained in our practice, and also to reflect on the state of CALL and language pedagogy”. As telecollaboration begins to enter the mainstream of university education, it is indeed high time thatweask ourselves some challenging questions regarding the principles which underlie our practices, the effectiveness and impact of what we do,and the potential value of our work for other areas of university teaching and learning.
In this plenary Itake a critical look at both research and practice of telecollaboration over the past 20 years
At the ‘Second International Conference on Telecollaboration in Higher Education' my colleagues and I announced plans to launch an academic organisation for telecollaboration and virtual exchange. This is an outline of our ideas.
Twenty years on and still reinventing the wheel? A critical review of Telecollaborative Exchange in Foreign Language Education
Robert O’Dowd, University of León, Spain
Eurocall 2015 Keynote Presentation
University of Padova, 26 August 2015
http://www.eurocall2015.it/
Abstract and Bibliography
Contact:
robert.odowd@unileon.es
See the presentation slides (August 2015):
http://www.slideshare.net/dfmro
Join UNICollaboration:
www.unicollaboration.eu
It has been 20 years since the first major publications on online intercultural interaction and exchange began to appear in the CALL literature(Cummins & Sayers, 1995; Eck, Legenhausen & Wolff, 1995; Warschauer, 1995). Since then, we have seen telecollaboration go on to become one of the pillars of CALL research and practice.
Therefore, it is appropriate that the 20th anniversary of these publications coincides with this Eurocall conference calling on us “…to unpack and examine some of the assumptions that may have become ingrained in our practice, and also to reflect on the state of CALL and language pedagogy”. As telecollaboration begins to enter the mainstream of university education, it is indeed high time thatweask ourselves some challenging questions regarding the principles which underlie our practices, the effectiveness and impact of what we do,and the potential value of our work for other areas of university teaching and learning.
In this plenary Itake a critical look at both research and practice of telecollaboration over the past 20 years
2021-06-29_Language Learning in Distance Education in Times of Covid-19: Oppo...Dr Martina Emke
Invited speaker at the Foreign Language Education in Turkey and European Practices: Developments and Suggestions Conference, which was held during June 28-29 by the Board of Education, Ministry of National Education in Turkey.
BC DL Conference 2010 - Teacher Education and Virtual SchoolingMichael Barbour
Barbour, M. K. (2010, April). Teacher education and virtual schooling. A presentation at the British Columbia Partners in Online Learning Conference, http://knowevents.ca
Bridging the Digital Divide:
New Media training strategies for language tutors
By Benoît Guilbaud
“Languages for the 21st century: Training, impact and influence” The Edge, University of Sheffield
1-2 September 2010
New technologies and Media Literacy are increasingly proving a prevalent aspect of every discipline and profession. Yet, discrepancies in their implementation and development are everywhere to be seen. In this paper, I propose to focus on specific strategies aiming at mending the existing gap between the ever-advancing learning technologies and the way they are really put into practice in language teaching in British Higher Education.
The development of new media literacy in language teaching faces a number of challenges and obstacles. I shall focus on one of the major obstacles which I have come across as a classroom practitioner: the disparities in accessing, understanding and using new technologies among both staff and students. The problem originates from a variety of sources: generational gap, social diversity, lack of financial or technical support, all recognised in Warschauer’s gradation-based redefined concept of digital divide (2002).
Focusing on academic and technical staff training, several solutions can be thought of in order to easily and affordably implement some of the latest recommendations made by the New Media Consortium’s Horizon Project in the Horizon Report 2010. These solutions will address the problems of workload distribution, human and financial resources allocation with a particular focus on balancing the ratio between hardware, software and human investments, as well as raising awareness of the importance of new media and its impact on independent learning personal development and employability.
These strategies are designed with quantifiable objectives in mind. They can rationalise costs and prevent technological resources from being misused or unused, thereby losing a large proportion of their economical value over time. They can also enhance learner autonomy and student employability, which are two measurable factors.
Intent Project Experience, UniCollaboration platform and International placement by Francesca Helm (University of Padova)
Presented at the Italian VMCOLAB Awareness Seminar “European Co-Laboratory for the Integration of Virtual Mobility in Higher Education Innovation and Modernization Strategies” on 27 March 2014 in Padova.
This presentation was given by Nicoleta Fotiade as part of the MEDEAnet webinar on "Researching Media Literacy in Europe" on 28 November 2013. MEDEAnet aims to promote media-based learning to organisations and practitioners through local training and networking events, online resources and knowledge sharing. MEDEAnet will also exploit best practices of the annual competition MEDEA Awards and extend its existing informal network and support the MEDEA Association, a membership organisation that ensures the sustainability of the MEDEA Awards. More info: http://www.medeanet.eu/
2021-06-29_Language Learning in Distance Education in Times of Covid-19: Oppo...Dr Martina Emke
Invited speaker at the Foreign Language Education in Turkey and European Practices: Developments and Suggestions Conference, which was held during June 28-29 by the Board of Education, Ministry of National Education in Turkey.
BC DL Conference 2010 - Teacher Education and Virtual SchoolingMichael Barbour
Barbour, M. K. (2010, April). Teacher education and virtual schooling. A presentation at the British Columbia Partners in Online Learning Conference, http://knowevents.ca
Bridging the Digital Divide:
New Media training strategies for language tutors
By Benoît Guilbaud
“Languages for the 21st century: Training, impact and influence” The Edge, University of Sheffield
1-2 September 2010
New technologies and Media Literacy are increasingly proving a prevalent aspect of every discipline and profession. Yet, discrepancies in their implementation and development are everywhere to be seen. In this paper, I propose to focus on specific strategies aiming at mending the existing gap between the ever-advancing learning technologies and the way they are really put into practice in language teaching in British Higher Education.
The development of new media literacy in language teaching faces a number of challenges and obstacles. I shall focus on one of the major obstacles which I have come across as a classroom practitioner: the disparities in accessing, understanding and using new technologies among both staff and students. The problem originates from a variety of sources: generational gap, social diversity, lack of financial or technical support, all recognised in Warschauer’s gradation-based redefined concept of digital divide (2002).
Focusing on academic and technical staff training, several solutions can be thought of in order to easily and affordably implement some of the latest recommendations made by the New Media Consortium’s Horizon Project in the Horizon Report 2010. These solutions will address the problems of workload distribution, human and financial resources allocation with a particular focus on balancing the ratio between hardware, software and human investments, as well as raising awareness of the importance of new media and its impact on independent learning personal development and employability.
These strategies are designed with quantifiable objectives in mind. They can rationalise costs and prevent technological resources from being misused or unused, thereby losing a large proportion of their economical value over time. They can also enhance learner autonomy and student employability, which are two measurable factors.
Intent Project Experience, UniCollaboration platform and International placement by Francesca Helm (University of Padova)
Presented at the Italian VMCOLAB Awareness Seminar “European Co-Laboratory for the Integration of Virtual Mobility in Higher Education Innovation and Modernization Strategies” on 27 March 2014 in Padova.
This presentation was given by Nicoleta Fotiade as part of the MEDEAnet webinar on "Researching Media Literacy in Europe" on 28 November 2013. MEDEAnet aims to promote media-based learning to organisations and practitioners through local training and networking events, online resources and knowledge sharing. MEDEAnet will also exploit best practices of the annual competition MEDEA Awards and extend its existing informal network and support the MEDEA Association, a membership organisation that ensures the sustainability of the MEDEA Awards. More info: http://www.medeanet.eu/
Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities Phoenix, 2005
Analyze the need for Accelerated Dual Language education
Discuss the characteristics of the Accelerated Dual Language model
Share the experience of the implementation & assessment of the Accelerated Dual Language model
Present services and opportunities to establish Accelerated Dual Language programs
Contact=Learing? Keynote at DGFF, Germany 2019Robert O'Dowd
Slides from my keynote at the Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Fremdsprachenforschung: 28.09.2019
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Germany
Establishing the Impact of Virtual Exchange in Foreign Language EducationRobert O'Dowd
This plenary talk was given at the National Forum for English Studies 2019 at the Faculty of Education and Society, Mälmö University, Sweden 10-12 April 2019.
Presentation "The Influence of Teacher Intervention on Quality of Interaction in a Telecollaboration" at UNICollaboration 2018 by Robert O’Dowd, Shannon Sauro & Elana Spector-Cohen.
Moving from Intercultural Contact to Intercultural Learning in Virtual Exchange Robert O'Dowd
Keynote presentation at Sixth International Conference on the Development and Assessment of Intercultural Competence:
Intercultural Competence and Mobility: Virtual and Physical
Entering the World of Virtual Exchange: Learning from Teachers’ Experiences Robert O'Dowd
Keynote presentation of the International conference of the KA2 Erasmus project Intercultural Communicative Competence –
A Competitive Advantage for Global Employability
International Conference in Prague, 22-23 June 2017
COIL initiatives across university education: Learning to learn from each otherRobert O'Dowd
My plenary talk for the first-ever European Conference on Collaborative Online International Learning on December 1st and 2nd 2016 at the Hague, Holland.
Telecollaboration for CLIL Teachers in Secondary EducationRobert O'Dowd
Introductory workshop on telecollaboration for secondary school teachers of Bilingual Education / CLIL in Spain. The workshop took place on 7 July 2016 at la Universidad Menéndez Pelayo de Valencia.
My presentation at the ‘Second International Conference on Telecollaboration in Higher Education - New Directions in Telecollaborative Research and Practice’ which took place in Trinity College Dublin, Ireland from 21 to 23 April 2016.
Operation “Blue Star” is the only event in the history of Independent India where the state went into war with its own people. Even after about 40 years it is not clear if it was culmination of states anger over people of the region, a political game of power or start of dictatorial chapter in the democratic setup.
The people of Punjab felt alienated from main stream due to denial of their just demands during a long democratic struggle since independence. As it happen all over the word, it led to militant struggle with great loss of lives of military, police and civilian personnel. Killing of Indira Gandhi and massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other India cities was also associated with this movement.
How to Create Map Views in the Odoo 17 ERPCeline George
The map views are useful for providing a geographical representation of data. They allow users to visualize and analyze the data in a more intuitive manner.
Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology:
Ethnobotany in herbal drug evaluation,
Impact of Ethnobotany in traditional medicine,
New development in herbals,
Bio-prospecting tools for drug discovery,
Role of Ethnopharmacology in drug evaluation,
Reverse Pharmacology.
Students, digital devices and success - Andreas Schleicher - 27 May 2024..pptxEduSkills OECD
Andreas Schleicher presents at the OECD webinar ‘Digital devices in schools: detrimental distraction or secret to success?’ on 27 May 2024. The presentation was based on findings from PISA 2022 results and the webinar helped launch the PISA in Focus ‘Managing screen time: How to protect and equip students against distraction’ https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/managing-screen-time_7c225af4-en and the OECD Education Policy Perspective ‘Students, digital devices and success’ can be found here - https://oe.cd/il/5yV
The Art Pastor's Guide to Sabbath | Steve ThomasonSteve Thomason
What is the purpose of the Sabbath Law in the Torah. It is interesting to compare how the context of the law shifts from Exodus to Deuteronomy. Who gets to rest, and why?
Instructions for Submissions thorugh G- Classroom.pptxJheel Barad
This presentation provides a briefing on how to upload submissions and documents in Google Classroom. It was prepared as part of an orientation for new Sainik School in-service teacher trainees. As a training officer, my goal is to ensure that you are comfortable and proficient with this essential tool for managing assignments and fostering student engagement.
We all have good and bad thoughts from time to time and situation to situation. We are bombarded daily with spiraling thoughts(both negative and positive) creating all-consuming feel , making us difficult to manage with associated suffering. Good thoughts are like our Mob Signal (Positive thought) amidst noise(negative thought) in the atmosphere. Negative thoughts like noise outweigh positive thoughts. These thoughts often create unwanted confusion, trouble, stress and frustration in our mind as well as chaos in our physical world. Negative thoughts are also known as “distorted thinking”.
Basic phrases for greeting and assisting costumers
Training & Accreditation of EMI Teachers
1. Training and Assessing University Teachers for Teaching in English:
An International Survey of Universities’ Needs and Practices
Robert O’Dowd
University of León, Spain
robert.odowd@unileon.es
Publications: http://unileon.academia.edu/RobertODowd
Presentations: http://www.slideshare.net/dfmro
Twitter: robodowd Skype: robodowd
UNICollaboration: www.uni-collaboration.eu
2. Presentation Outline
• What is English Medium
Instruction (EMI)?
• Outline of the European Survey
on EMI
• Presentation of Results
• Conclusions from survey
• Example of training and
accreditation at a Spanish
university
3. • What is EMI?
• The use of the English language to teach academic subjects in countries
where the first language (L1) of the majority of the population is not
English (Dearden, 2015)
• Rise in the numbers of courses completely taught in English in EHEA:
– 725 in 2001
– 2,389 in 2007
– 8,089 in 2014
Wächter, B. and Maiworm, F. 2008. “English-Taught Programmes in European
Higher Education. The state of play in 2014”.
4. • Why has English medium instruction (EMI) become so
important in European universities?
• To support the internationalization of universities
• To make study programmes more accessible to international
students
• To improve the foreign language skills of local students
• To enhance the international prestige and mobility of
academic staff (Coleman, 2006; Dearden, 2015)
5. • Challenges and questions for universities
• Is English a danger for local languages and cultures (Phillipson, 2015) ?
• Will EMI cause a loss of authentic cultural experiences for visiting
international students (Coleman, 2006)?
• Will local students struggle to follow subjects taught through a language
which is not their own?
• Are teachers capable of teaching content in the second language?
(Dearden, 2015; Halbach and Lázaro, 2015)
6. • A survey of training and accreditation for teachers of EMI:
• Objectives:
• 1) to gain an overview of how European university teachers
are being trained in order to teach in English
• 2) to identify the requirements and standards teachers are
expected to meet in order to engage in EMI
• Disseminated in Spanish and English by:
– the Compostela Group of Universities
– the Santander Group of Universities and
– the Languages for Intercultural Communication and Mobility group
(LICOM) of the European Association of International Education (EAIE)
7. Who responded to the survey?
• Representatives of 70 European
universities
– Spain (22 universities)
– 10 other European countries:
including Austria, Italy, Sweden,
Holland, Germany and France
• Different roles of respondents:
– Directors of Language Centers
– Heads of International offices
– Vice rectors of international affairs
– coordinators of university bilingual
programmes.
8. Yes, a small number of
subjects in English
33%
Yes, a large number of
subjects in English
21%
Yes, some subjects in
English as well as
complete
undergraduate/
postgraduate courses
39%
No, no subjects are
offered in English
7%
Is your university currently offering subjects which are taught through English?
9. 0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00% 30.00% 35.00% 40.00%
1
2
3
4
5
How important
is the issue of training teachers to teach
in English at your university?
('1'='not important at all, '5'='very important'.)
10. Issues and Concerns related to EMI
Issues of concern related to EMI Example comments from respondents
Level of Teachers’ competence in English (22 mentions) Teaching through English needs a high command of English -
there are teachers who need training to obtain this high
command.
Level of Students’ competence in English (16 mentions) Probably the main issue is the level of English our students
bring to the University. This makes it harder for them to
follow classes in English.
Lack of training and support for teachers in EMI (10 mentions) The university administration officially supports
internationalization. But there is little financial or didactic
support…
Threat to local language and culture (6 mentions) One of the key missions of the University consists in
preserving the local language; teaching through (obviously
imperfect) English might represent a threat to the richness of
the local culture.
Drop in standards of teaching when in English (6 mentions) Some argue that the quality of teaching through a language
other than their mother tongue will be severely affected.
11. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
General communicative skills
Microteaching
Methodology of Bilingual Education
Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency
What elements do your training courses include?
13. • Are teachers required to certify or accredit their methodological skills in EMI?
• Yes: 40% - No: 60%
Approach to certifying teachers to teach through English Example comments from respondents
Only Teachers’ linguistic competence is evaluated Se evalúa la capacidad lingüística, no la metodológica [Linguistic
competence is evaluated, but not methodological competence]
Participation in non-compulsory or non-evaluated
methodology courses
The teachers are offered a CLIL course, but it is not compulsory
Linguistic and teaching methodology are evaluated They have to undergo a practical and theoretical evaluation
assessmet so as to demostrate their ability and capacity to teach
the subjects of their fields
Evaluation of teachers’ previous experience and
qualifications
Teachers who apply to take part in the plurilingual development
programme must submit detailed information about their
teaching and academic experience in a foreign language
Evaluation by students attending classes A través de una plataforma virtual en donde los profesores son
evaluados por los alumnos. [Teachers are evaluated by their
students in an online platform]
14. Conclusions from the survey (1)
• A need for greater attention to the whole issue of training teaching staff
in EMI
• Many different approaches to EMI training: The majority of institutions
provide training in communicative skills, almost half of the programmes
omit bilingual teaching methodology completely.
– Teaching subjects through English is much more than simply translating
class content into a second language (Cots, 2013; Dafouz et al, 2007)
– Teachers should not be expected to work out the skills of teaching
through English intuitively.
– Dearden: “We may ask how students are supposed to understand lectures and
classes if the EMI teacher does not help with their knowledge of English by
paraphrasing, by teaching subject-specific vocabulary and technical terms”
(2015: 28).
15. Conclusions from the survey (2)
• English-level required:
• Remarkable the lack of consensus about the minimum level of English for
EMI: Minimum level ranges from B2 (43%) to C2 (13%)
• Need for common guidelines across the whole European Higher Education
Area
• Halbach and Lázaro (2015) question whether a B2 level is sufficient to teach
class at university level
• Significant differences in accreditation processes:
• Many institutions do not have any formal accreditation process:
– Some rely on evidence of teachers’ communicative competence
– Others require that teaching and linguistic competence be
demonstrated through the completion of a formal evaluation process.
• Research needed in developing descriptors of what teaching in English
should involve
16. Training & Accreditation at the University of León
• Training:
– 30 hour EMI course at the University
of León (methodology + language)
– Two-week intensive EMI course at
Dublin City University
(http://www.english.dcu.ie/third-
level)
• Accreditation:
– C1 level in English
– Completion of training courses
– Evaluated class
18. • Coleman, James A. 2006. “English-medium teaching in European Higher
Education.” Language Teaching 39 (1): 1–14.
• Dearden, J. 2015. “English as a medium of instruction – a growing global
phenomenon.” Available online here:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/education/ihe/knowledge-centre/english-language-
higher-education/report-english-medium-instruction
• Halbach, A. & Lázaro, A. 2015. “La acreditación del nivel de lengua inglesa en las
universidades españolas: Actualización 2015.” Available online here:
http://www.britishcouncil.es/sites/britishcouncil.es/files/british-council-la-
acreditacion-del-nivel-de-lengua-inglesa.pdf
• Wächter, B. and Maiworm, F. 2008. “English-Taught Programmes in European
Higher Education. The state of play in 2014”. Bonn: Lemmens. Available online
here:
http://www.lemmens.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Verlag/Buecher/ACA_Download
_PDFs/2014_English_Taught.pdf
19. Thank you!
Read more about the survey:
• Contact: robert.odowd@unileon.es
• See this presentation again: http://www.slideshare.net/dfmro
• Read and download the survey report:
• https://unileon.academia.edu/RobertODowd