Riassunto esame Lingua e traduzione inglese 1, docente Christiansen, libro consigliato English Next, Graddol

END OF LOCK STEP EDUCATION

In relation to language learning, the expectation that all learners in a class

will be at the same level of proficiency is giving way to approaches which

allow more personalised learning.

The globalisation of universities

One of the most important drivers of global English has been the

globalisation of universities, which compete at a global level.

The ranking of the world's university shows a domination by American and

other English-speaking universities. Around two-thirds of the world's top

100 university are in English-speaking countries. This is one reason why

English is used increasingly as the medium of education in university

across the world. Academics desire to gain international experience early

in their careers. English as the global academic language facilitates the

international mobility of young researchers.

THE BOLOGNA PROCESS

The "Bologna Process" was an agreement signed originally in 1999, now

involving 45 countries, that is intended to facilitate greater movement of

students within Europe and to make European higher education more

attractive to students from other countries.

THE WRONG KIND OF GRADUATES

Universities play a key role in developing knowledge economies;

international surveys of the attractiveness of a country as an outsourcing

destination routinely assess the quality and number of local graduates.

International student mobility

Between 2 and 3 million students each year travel to another country to

study, mostly to only a few destinations. The USA and the UK together

account for over a third of all international students in the world. MESDCs

(major English-speaking countries) attract so many students (around 46%)

because their universities dominate the international league tables;

English-speaking countries have the most entrepreneurial universities,

who seek income by marketing their courses to overseas students; and

English itself is seen as a key educational investment. The global total of

international students may be growing more slowly than expected and

competition for those students is increasing faster.

NEW COMPETITORS

The MESDCs face three new kinds of competition:

In some key source countries, there has been rapid expansion of

1. universities, coupled with educational reform, which has improved

quality;

These countries (like China) improve their education systems and

2. economies, they make their local and regional options available to

attract those students who might otherwise have travelled to MESDCs;

3. More countries in Europe (like Germany) and in Asia are attracting

international students by offering courses taught through the medium of

English.

Transnational education

In the 1990s, technology was expected to solve the world's education

problems and allow English-speaking universities to extend their influence

throughout the world. Virtual universities became flavour of the day. Many

ambitious projects were established involving prestigious brands on both

the commercial and academic sides: Harcourt, New Corporation, Disney

and Dow Jones etc.... In the UK many universities, like the UK eUniversity,

conceived as a marketplace and technology platform for online degrees

accredited by individual institutions. It was only one of several such

investments and failures in English-speaking countries.

THE GREAT ELEARNING FIASCO

Those seeking an international education want a prestigious source which

will serve them well in the job market. Promoters of the new initiatives

were widely optimistic, but their business plans required huge initial

investment and would work only on a massive scale. The success of

eLearning depends more on how human relationships are managed and

more on learning how traditional pedagogical values can be adapted in

the new context.

FOREIGN CAMPUSES AND JOINT VENTURES

American, Australian and British universities now compete for

international students in their home countries. The UK's University of

Nottingham opened two Asian campuses in September 2005. The new

overseas campuses are likely to attract students from elsewhere in the

region, thus helping to provide an international intellectual environment.

Which model?

"English as a Foreign Language" has been a dominant one in the second

half of the 20 century. The proliferation of acronyms in ELT reflect this

th

diversity of models. A model of English is a complex framework, which

includes issues of methodology and variety, but goes beyond these to

include other dimensions of the context and practice of learning English.

The appropriateness of content clearly depends on the age of the learner

and whether English is to be used primarily as a language of international

communication or for survival communication with native speakers. There

is a great deal of debate about the best methods and approaches for

teaching English. But much of this debate is cast within only two models:

the teaching of English as a foreign language (ELF) and the teaching of

English as a second language (ESL).

THE EFL TRADITION

EFL tends to highlight the importance of learning about the culture and

society of native speakers; it stresses the centrality of methodology in

discussions of effective learning; and emphasises the importance of

emulating native speaker language behaviour.

EFL approaches like one who struggles to attain acceptance by the target

community. The target language is always someone else's mother tongue.

DESIGNED TO PRODUCE FAILURE

Modern foreign languages have traditionally belonged to the secondary

school curriculum. They have focused on such things as grammatical

accuracy, native speaker-like pronunciation, and literature. Few EFL

learners will be perfect. EFL has become technologized, and has been

transformed over the years by communicative methods, these have led

only to a modest improvement in attainment by learners. The model may

even have historically evolved to produce perceived failure. In recent

years, several development in the practice of ELT have started to take ELT

in new directions, like the European "language portfolio" attempts to

record a learner's experience and achievement in non-traditional ways.

ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

One of the defining features of teaching English as a second language is

that it recognises the role of English as a second language in the society

in which it is taught. There have been two major strands of development

in ESL, both dating from the 19th century:

The first kind of ESL arose from the needs of the British Empire to

o teach local people sufficient English to allow the administration of

large areas of the world with a relatively small number of British civil

servants and troops. The imperial strategy typically involved the

identification of an existing social elite who would be offered a

curriculum designed to cultivate language skills and a taste for

British culture and values. Literature became an important strand in

such a curriculum and literary canon was created which taught Christian

values through English poetry and prose.

In postcolonial context today, the use of English is

 proving surprisingly difficult to broaden the social base of

English speaking even where English is used as the language

of the educated middle classes.

In colonial times many local varieties of English emerged

 from contact with local languages and have developed

literatures and grammar books and dictionaries.

In ESL countries the ecology of English is a multilingual one

 where English is associated with particular domains, functions

and social elites. Knowledge of code-switching norms is an

essential part of communicative competence in such

societies.

A different approach to ESL arose in the USA, Canada, Australia

o and New Zealand. In the UK, ESL didn't become fully instutionalised until

the 1960s. ESL is often nowadays referred to as ESOL (English for

Speakers of Other Languages). In such communities standard English is

only one of the varieties of English (such as Indian or Jamaican English)

which learners need to command. There the communicative competence

required by an ESL learner includes a knowledge of the community norms

of code-switching. Translation and interpreting are important skills for ESL

users. Where ESL is taught to immigrants entering English-speaking

countries it isn't surprising that a key component in the curriculum is

often "citizenship".

GLOBAL ENGLISH NEW APPROACHES

EFL and ESL represent the twin traditions in ELT, both with roots in the 19th

century. In the last few years pedagogic practises have rapidly evolved to

meet the needs of the rather different world in which global English is learned

and used.

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL)

CLIL is an approach to bilingual education in which both curriculum

content and English are taught together. It differs from the simple English-

medium education because it is a means of teaching curriculum subjects

through the medium of a language still being learned, providing the

necessary language support alongside the subject specialism. CLIL can

also be as a means of teaching English through study of a specialist

content. CLIL arose from curriculum innovations in Finland (in the mid

1990s) and it has adopted in many European countries, connected with

English. CLIL is compatible with the idea of JIT education ('just in time'

learning) and is regarded as the ultimate communicative methodology.

CLIL, in secondary schools, relies on basic skills in English being already

taught at primary level. English teachers have to work closely with subject

teachers to ensure that language development is appropriately catered for

and this implies making sufficient non-contact time available for planning

and review. English teachers may largely lose their 'subject' and may take

on a wider support and remedial role. When English is developed within a

CLIL programme, assessment of English proficiency is made partly

through subject assessment.

English as a lingua franca (ELF)

Proponents of teaching English as a lingua franca (ELF) suggest that the

way English is taught and assessed should reflect the needs and

aspirations of the ever-growing number of non-native speakers who use

English to communicate with other non-natives. Proponents of ELF have

already given some indications of how they think conventional approaches

to EFL should be changed. Within ELF, intelligibility is of primary

importance. Such an approach is allowing researchers to identify a 'Lingua

Franca Core' (LFC) which provides guiding principles in creating syllabuses

and assessment materials. ELF focuses also on pragmatic strategies

required in intercultural communication. It may be that elements of an ELF

syllabus could usefully be taught within a mother tongue curriculum.

English for young learners (EYL)

Across the wor