Poster presented at ICERI 2013, Sevilia, 18-21 November, 2013

1. 6th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation, Seville – 18-20 November, 2013
EXTRACURRICULAR LANGUAGE AND CULTURE PROMOTION EVENTS
AS INFORMAL LANGUAGE LEARNING SETTINGS
Nemira Mačianskienė, Vilma Bijeikienė, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania
Introduction
Informal learning is the oldest form of learning, the
first one received in the infant’s age and lasting
throughout a person’s lifetime. However, the use of
the concept has gained momentum presumably
since its definition in the Memorandum on Lifelong
Learning [1] which provided three basic categories of
purposeful learning activity:
formal, non-formal and informal learning,
being described as a natural accompaniment to
everyday life.
According to Knowles, an organized course is
effective for ‘new learning of an intensive nature,
while a club experience provides the best
opportunity for practicing and refining the things
learned’ [2]. Studying a language as a foreign one,
i.e. in a country where the target language is not
used in daily communication and where the access
to practising the target language in naturalistic
settings and real life situations is mainly available
only through media and IT, it is important to create
such opportunities for students to interact in a faceto-face mode in informal environment.
Research aim
To investigate how extracurricular language and
culture promotion events organised at a higher
education institution and involving numbers of
students in organisation, participation and
promotion of such events can serve as settings for
informal foreign language learning.
Results
INSTRUMENTS
1. Students’ feedback after the language promotion
event filling in online evaluation in 2012 (n=180)
and 2013 (n=172);
2. Semi-structured interviews for focus groups
comprising the leaders and most active members of
different language clubs, cultural event organisers
and participants (n= 18).
PROCEDURES
1. Opportunities for informal language learning
created at VMU are described – culture events,
language promotion events, etc.;
2. Students’ opinions on the above mentioned
events are presented and the focus group responses
are analysed.
VMU Language and Culture clubs
1.
2.
3.
Diwan – club of oriental culture and the
Middle East languages Turkish, Kirgiz, Arab,
etc.
Pessoa(s) -- Portuguese language and
culture club, called after a famous
Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa.
Miguel de Cervantes Club -- devoted to
Spanish and other languages spoken in
Spain as well as the rich cultural variety of
Spain and the Spanish speaking world.
Adam Mickiewicz Polish Language and
Culture Club.
Lithuanian Sign Language and Deaf
Culture Club – in 2013 granted Kaunas
Mayor Youth Award.
z
4.
5.
Summary of focus group
feedback
First year students’ evaluation of language
promotion events during orientation week:
2012
2013
Participated in the
events
180
172
Evaluated
positively
85%
75%
In 2013, 20% evaluated the organisation of
events and their content positively, however,
did not see much impact of these events upon
their language choice or language learning at
the university and 5.2% admitted that the
participation in the events was not useful.
Spectrum of language and culture
events at VMU
Culture events for enhanced intercultural
awareness: e.g. language- and culture-related
lectures, speeches, etc.
Creative literature reading -- presentations and
interpretations: e.g. a tandem presentation of a
Norwegian novel “Ellevte roman, bok atten” by
the author Norwegian writer Dag Solstad and the
translator of the novel into Lithuanian as well as
VMU teacher of Norwegian Ugnius Mikučionis.
Meetings and collaboration with international
students: e.g. the European Day of Languages in
2012 was marked by a multilingual public lesson - the word ‘freedom’ was taught in 33 languages
to over 520 university and gymnasium students in
a square adjacent to University premises -- the
majority of ‘teachers’ were foreign students
native to the languages taught in the lesson.
Club activities make language learning more
versatile by opening access to creative language
learning as well as to the improvement of sociocultural and sociolinguistic competences.
In classrooms we learn language, while the acquisition of
culture is achieved through club activities – in terms of
culture, club activities are highly enriching.
Participation in club activities importantly allows one to learn more
about the country of the target language.
Discussions, cooperation as well as sharing common worldviews and
common interests among club members are of utmost importance and this
also helps to improve our linguistic competence.
Club activities entail language learning in a pleasant and self-motivated way
and provide us with a space for practical application of competences acquired
in classrooms.
In addition to linguistic competences, participation in club activities helps to
improve other skills such as collaborative work, establishing new contacts and
organisational skills.
From the psychological perspective engagement in organising club events
allows learners ‘to break the barrier of fear’ to communicate in the target
language .
Only a planned and multifaceted range of extracurricular activities can
lead to nurturing university graduates enriched with sustainable
plurilingual competence and necessary skills for its further dynamic
application.
Meetings with famous native speakers for
language promotion: e.g. introduction of Catalan
through the meeting with a famous Catalan
basketball coach and writer Joan Plaza.
Learning by doing -- collaborative preparation of
learning materials: e.g. 11 video shots Falo eu –
Aš kalbu“ of students’ puppet theatre in
Portuguese with Lithuanian subtitles.
Research Methodology
PARTICIPANTS
VMU students who participated in various
language- and culture-related events, organised
such events, initiated various language related
clubs and provided their opinion on the impact of
these events upon informal language learning and
the development of their communicative
competence.
References
[1] Memorandum on Lifelong Learning. 2000. Commission of
the European Communities. SEC(2000) 1832.
[2] Knowles, S. M.1950. In Smith, M. K. (2002) ‘Malcolm
Knowles, informal adult education, self-direction and
andragogy’, the encyclopedia of informal
education, www.infed.org/thinkers/et-knowl.htm
Collage by VMU student Indrė Gutauskaitė,
other pictures by VMU photographers