Division des Politiques linguistiques / Language Policy Division – www.coe.int/lang

1

MIRJAM EGLI CUENAT ET KATHARINA HÖCHLE MEIERPädagogische Hochschule St. Gallen (Switzerland)

1

Supporting mobility for sustainable intercultural and plurilingual learning

PluriMobil project (ECML) and DYLAN project

Plurilingual and Intercultural Education in Vocational Education and Training Curricula Strassburg, 10-11 May 2012

Division des Politiques linguistiques / Language Policy Division – www.coe.int/lang

2

Mobility in vocational training – plurilingual and intercultural learning

• Importance of mobility in VET curricula approved by all participants to this seminar (cf. questionnaire)

• Approach of the Curricular Guide– Intercultural learning: knowing and understandig other cultures better, handling of cultural difference,

mediating between cultures, questioning the assumptions of one’s own cultural group and milieu– Plurilingual learning : enhancing communicative competence in other languages, opening to the

diversity of languages, widening the plurilingual repertoires of the learners (including the aptitude of learning to learn)

Division des Politiques linguistiques / Language Policy Division – www.coe.int/lang

3

Outline of presentation

• PluriMobil (ECML-project): Enhancing sustainable plurilingual and intercultural learning processes in mobility

• Construction of images of internships in discourse in companies in the region of the Upper Rhine (Dylan-Project)

• Adaption of PluriMobil for vocational training

Division des Politiques linguistiques / Language Policy Division – www.coe.int/lang

ECML

European Centre for Modern Languages

of the Council of Europe

in Graz

ECML programme 2012-2015Learning through languages

Promoting inclusive, plurilingual and intercultural education

http://www.ecml.at /programme

• http://plurimobil.ecml.at/

• Mobility for plurilingual and intercultural education - Tools for language teachers and teacher trainers

• First phase 2010-2011, second phase 2012-2014 • Target audience: teacher trainers, (trainee-)teachers• Ultimate beneficiaries: (trainee-) teachers, pupils -> primary

-> lower secondary

-> upper secondary (general and vocational)

PluriMobil – members• Project coordinator: Mirjam Egli Cuenat, Pädagogische Hochschule St. Gallen, PHSG,

Switzerland

• Group members: • Chantal Muller, Haute Ecole de Namur (Belgium)• Kristin Brogan, Institute of Technology Tralee (Ireland)• Anna Czura, University Wrocław Poland (Poland)

• Associated members: Barbara Wolfer (PHSG, Switzerland), Lukas Bleichenbacher (PHSG, Switzerland), Katharina Höchle (PHSG, Switzerland), Josephine Cole (UK), Anna Sczepanska (Poland)

Aims of the project

Mobility programmes need not automatically result in better intercultural or linguistic skills.

• PluriMobil = pedagogical device, enabling trainee teachers to

• fully benefit from the learning opportunities offered by mobility programmes

• integrate intercultural encounters into a sustainable learning process

• transmit their own learning experience to their future pupils

What PluriMobil principally aims at:

• The ability of the (future) teachers to learn, that is “knowing how, or being disposed, to discover ‘otherness’ – whether the other is another language, another culture, other people or new areas of knowledge” (CEFR, p.12)

• The ability to transmit this ability to their future pupils

Method

• Compilation of learning scenarios (before-during-after) based on concrete cases of mobility experiences

• Creation of materials (workshop-plans) by practitioners for practitioners

• Integration of Council of Europe tools, via a focused and structured use for monitoring mobility experiences, thus making them more available to teacher trainers and to (future) teachers as potential users

The learning scenario describes the main stages of a mobility experience:

BEFORE: the preparatory phase

DURING: the mobility experience (e.g. the period spent abroad)

AFTER: the follow-up period

In specific, it describes how certain tools of the Council of Europe, e.g. the

European language portfolio and the Autobiography of intercultural

encounters can be used for the accompaniment of mobility processes

The pedagogical scenario

Council of Europe tools included:• European Language Portfolio (ELP)• Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters (AIE)• Development and Evaluation of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICCintE)• Intercultural Competence for Professional Mobility (ICOPROMO)• Mirrors and Windows. An intercultural communication textbook. • Framework of Reference for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures

(CARAP/REPA)• European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages – A reflection tool for

language teacher education (PEPELF/EPOSTL)• others

Examples of activitiesBEFORE: Anticipating the intercultural encounter, reflecting on one’s identity (AIE), setting linguistic goals (ELP)

DURING: collecting examples of plurilingual practice (FREPA), describing environment or customs (Mirrors and windows, ICOPROMO), monitoring linguistic progress – language learning diary (ELP)

AFTER: looking back on language and intercultural learning (ELP, AIE), reflecting on how to transfer learning experience on teaching (only (trainee)-teachers)

The results of all activities are collected in a portfolio

-

Same type of scenario,

adapted to the needs of each target group

a) for the trainee teachers

b) for their future pupils

based on the principle that the trainees / teachers will be more likely to integrate

in their teaching what they have experienced themselves during their own

training (« pädagogischer Doppeldecker »).

The double scenario

Modular approach of the project2010-2011 Development of scenarios (booklet) and worksheets (website) for primary and lower secondary2012-2014 •Implementation of PluriMobil in practice, finalization of materials for primary and upper secondary•Adaption of scenarios and worksheets to needs of upper secondary, in particular vocational training on the grounds of practical experience and research.

Research example: DYLAN project

Katharina Höchle Meier (Doctoral thesis)

Construction discursive des représentations de stages professionnels dans des entreprises de la

région du Rhin supérieur

Construction of images of internships in discourse in companies in the region of the Upper Rhine

The Dylan project (2006-2011) dylan = language dynamics and management of diversity

european project: 20 research teams from 12 countries

general aim: identify the conditions under which Europe's linguistic diversity can be an asset for the development of knowledge and economy.

University of Basel‘s aim: analysing and understanding the manner in which companies organise language management

Research questions with regard to internships, plurilingualism and

intercultural learning :

What is the place of professional mobility in a company‘s „philosophy“ ?

What is the role of multilingualism in the actors‘ discourse ?

In what way does professional mobility contribute to the development of intercultural competence ?

Data collection Research fields Factory A, Bank B, Public service A + B

Methodology: qualitative approach ca. 50 semi-structured interviews with trainees, trainers and managers

Context

Southern part of the region of the Upper Rhine

trinational

trilingual

Results I

Polyphony about objectives and benefits of internships inthe actors’ discourse

within the companies

within the trainees

between companies and trainees

Results IIImpact of the mobility stay on the trainees’ social representations of themselves and the others

become more open and more flexible modify one’s attitude towards the others

„dass man mit Engländern auch Spass haben kann. ((lacht)) […] weil also vorEngland habe ich echt gedacht, uh, Engländer, ich weiss nicht, also man hört ja eigentlich in Deutschland […] immer mehr das Schlechte […] Und ich bin also positiv überrascht.“ (Jens)That you can have fun with English people ((laughter)) because before I went to England, I always thought, uh, English people, I don’t know, you always justhear the bad things in Germany […] and I really was positively surprised.

„dass es offeni fründlichi Dütschi git, eigentlich […] dass es halt doch nit immer so isch, wie me meint.“ (Aurel) That there are open-minded and kind Germans […] that it is not always as you think it to be.

Results II

Level I (basic) of the scale proposed in the INCA Portfolio of Intercultural Competence « I am already willing to interact successfully with people from other cultures […] At this stage, I am reasonably tolerant of other values, customs and practices although I may find them odd or surprising and approve or disapprove » (p. 13)

Adaption of PluriMobil for upper sec. vocational education and training (2012-2014)

-Scenarios BEFORE-DURING-AFTER based on practical experience and research such as DYLAN, at the level of (trainee) teachers and students

- Possibilities of combination with existing tools, in particular EU (e.g. Europass), and/or local/national (e.g. attestation Europro (F), “Bildungspass/Livret de formation” (CH))

- Accompanying vocational mobility for sustainable intercultural and plurilingual learning on the grounds of COE values