Managing or Juggling

Diane Schmitt

Nottingham Language Centre

Nottingham Trent University

English Language Teaching and Modern Languages in HE Cultural Divide Complementarity Marriage of Convenience

French Staff and their research interests French language and linguistics: structure and

sociology of modern French, language teaching methodology

France in the world, with particular reference to Africa and Europe; the idea of the republic in France; eighteenth century literature and philosophy, French revolution; culture and politics

History of twentieth century France, particularly cultural history of the interwar period and the Second World War

Nineteenth century literature, especially short fiction (Mérimée and Maupassant); narative analysis; fin-de-siècle culture

English Language Staff and their Research Interests Applied linguistics; second language writing; error

analysis; discourse analysis Applied linguistics, self-directed language learning;

self-assessment; English Language Teaching; English for specific purposes, especially English for academic purposes

The communicative role of gesture in ELT; culture in language teaching; materials development and production; video in language teaching

Mid-twentieth century drama, especially Christopher Fry, T.S. Eliot, Arnold Wesker and John Arden; Autobiography; Charlotte Bronte

A Traditional View of Difference EFL MFL

 Cash Cow Academic Subject

 Students with a deficit Students with value-added

 Multi-lingual Groups Monolingual Groups

Intensive Few contact hours

Trained NS Untrained NS and NNS

Expendable Staff Contracted Staff

 In-sessional Support University Language Prog

 External Exams Internal Assessment

External Accreditation HEFCE validation

Market-oriented Sector-led

Research poor?? Research rich??

 

Government Imperatives

Blair Initiative - 1999 Set a prime objective of

increasing international student numbers by 50,000 in Higher Education over the base year of 1996/97

6-19 Green Paper Introduction of MFL at

primary school level Language at Key Stage

4 no longer compulsory Disappointing take-up at

A-level

Shared ChallengesStudent Profiles International students are no longer an elite group The range of student proficiency has expanded for

both EFL and MFL Are we all facing a deficit view of language or skill  Staffing  In both cases staff flexibility is paramount - goodwill

must be maintained Staff development may be required Contractual issues – equality issues, employment

legislation

Income Generation Understanding the state of the current market Developing new markets Selling what people want to buy, rather than what we

want to offer Setting clear targets and assessing whether and why

we have or haven’t met them Understanding how your university handles

commercial business

Potential Areas of Synergy

Methodology Teaching lower level learners Intensive teaching Content-based methodologies Fast-track acquisition

Language Teacher Education Undergraduate programmes New MFL staff MAs in MFL

Assessment & Benchmarking Staff development Linking to the Common European

Framework