Teaching Innovation and Educational Research

• Institution: Catalan state public high school

• Course: 2nd of Baccalaureate (WEB)*

• Subject: English

• Predominant methodology: Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT)

• Language of Instruction: English (except for very punctual practical clarifications)

*WEB: it is one of the paths that students can follow, which aims to intensify the exposure that students have to English by conducting extra subjects in English and working with an extended curriculum. The final goal is to achieve a C1 CEFR level by the end of their studies.

"A critical incident is any unplanned event that occurs during class. It has been suggested that if trainee teachers formally reflect on these critical incidents, it may be possible for them to uncover new understandings of the teaching and learning process" (Farrell, 2008: 3).

The case here presented has to do with the use of L1 in discussions between learners. Students are asked to use the Target Language in the English lessons, even between them. In one of the lessons, students were working on the topic The Languages of Europe (Learning unit designed for the master’s degree practicum) and were asked to reflect and discuss some questions and to prepare to share their opinion with the rest of the class. Students were arranged in groups, as usual. Some of them were using English, and others were using their L1, in this case, Catalan. Then, the main teacher called their attention because they were not using English.

The reaction and the words of the teacher denoted the importance and priority that was given to the use of English. I reckon that this situation occurred because of the level of English the students are expected to achieve in the WEB group. As the students aim to prepare themselves for the C1 CEFR level, the tendency is that the more English the better.

It is found important to highlight that the centre has a very innovative plurilingual project. "Treball Interdisciplinari de Llengües" aims to advance towards an integrated treatment of languages.

References:

Farrell, T. S. (2008). Critical incidents in ELT initial teacher training. ELT Journal, 62 (1), 3-10.

In order to propose an adequate research question (or define the aim of the dissertation), it is crucial to have a very clear topic and narrow it down to an appropriate scope. It is important to fulfil the requested word limit but also to have enough length to develop strong arguments for the thesis.

I recognised that this was one of the issues that we had discussed recurrently in some of the master’s degree subjects, especially when dealing with plurilingualism and pluriculturalism. It was one of the topics that caught my attention, so I decided to read about it, and, having discovered it was a topic also present in the Catalan curriculum for ESO and Baccalaureat, I decided to tackle it in my final dissertation.

The following chart helps to organize the ideas to develop an appropriate research question/aim:

Piccardo E., North B., Goodier T.(2019), Broadening the Scope of Language Education: Mediation, Plurilingualism, and Collaborative Learning: the CEFR Companion Volume, Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, v.15, n.1, 17-36. ISSN: 1826-6223, e-ISSN:1971-8829 DOI: 10.20368/1971-8829/1612

The first article here presented explores the concept of mediation, included in the CEFR 2001 version and its implications in language education. The authors go over the approach of the documents published by the Council of Europe concerning language teaching and learning. The focus is on considering the student or user of the target language as the main agent in their learning process. It also presents a new vision of the concept of language. The authors state that it is important to shift towards understanding languages as dynamic entities instead of pure and static. This helps us conceive language as an action rather than a code, which goes in line with the action-oriented approach of the CEFR.

Howell, P. (2017). Cross-Language Mediation in Foreign Language Teaching. Hiroshima studies in language and language education, 147-155.

In his article, Howell (2017) presents us with the theoretical framework to understand the concept of cross-language mediation. The author deals with the rooted idea of considering native speakers of English as the reference for learners and users. The literature on English Language Teaching (ELT) is dominated by authors belonging to British, North American and Australasian backgrounds, which contributes to the proliferation of the 'native-speakerism' ideology. By presenting us with the concept of cross-language mediation, Howell (2017) aims to counterbalance the situation and "mitigate this bias" as he posits. His statements are based on the context of Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Japan., a situation to which he makes constant reference. The author then develops a series of proposals to implement activities dealing with linguistic mediation in the classroom and also adds a section dealing with the assessment of these. In the end, the article recognises cross-language practices to be adequately integrated with the global reality of the English language.

To develop the final thesis' innovative proposal, the first part will consist of a review of all the literature that is available on the topic

It is important to reflect on the possible flaws that our research can have in order to anticipate errors or possible contradictions, and either try to find a solution or recognise the limitations that the study might have. The following chart helps organise visually the validity and reliability of our thesis: