Globalization in Foreign Language Teaching: Establishing Transatlantic Links in Higher Education

1
Globalization in Foreign Language Teaching
Establishing Transatlantic Links in Higher
Education
2
CONTENTS

• Introduction
• Differences b/w higher education foreign language
  teaching trends in Europe and North America
• Transatlantic similarities in higher education
  Foreign language teaching
• Conclusion

3
INTRODUCTION

• This article makes an explicit comparison between
  the reconfiguration of tertiary language
  education in Europe, the USA and Canada. It
  argues that, despite certain minor differences
  between continents, the same trends are operative
  across the Atlantic. It then examines each of
  them , illustrating how similar forces are at
  work in shaping higher education teaching, how
  analogous policy frameworks are being employed to
  channel them and how parallel challenges and
  responses can be detected transatlantically.
• It is an increasingly acknowledged fact that we
  are currently living in a time of immense
  upheaval in higher education worldwide. A series
  of forces- among them, globalization, technology
  and competition are reconfiguring higher
  education across continents and calling for an
  immediate response.
• 
  ( Green et al., 2002)

4
Differences b/w HEFLT trends in Europe and North
America

• The most prominent differences are based on
• The origin of each continents higher education
  movement
• Foreign language policy
• Structure of foreign language departments

5

• THE ORIGIN OF EACH CONTINENTS
  HE MOVEMENT
  
  The push for the construction of European Higher
• Education Area (EHEA) has being driven primarily
  by Europe's desire to become the most competitive
  and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world.
• The Modern Language Associations (MLA) appeal
  for transformation was motivated by the sense of
  crisis around North Americas so-called language
  deficit after the events of 9/11.
• The USAs inability to communicate with and
  understand other parts of the world and the
  shortage of qualified language teachers led to
  an acute awareness of need to revamp language
  curricula and restructure language departments.

6
Foreign language policies of both continents.

• In the USA a greater variety of foreign languages
  taught, with Spanish, German and French at the
  forefront. Pratt et al., 2008)
• In Europe, the main foreign language is English.

7
Structure of foreign language departments.

• In the USA the governance structure of language
  departments creates a divide between language
  instructors in non-tenure-track positions and
  tenure-track literature professors which empowers
  the latter group, relegating the former to a
  secondary position.
• In Europe, there is a clear trend for language
  teaching, and in particular practical,
  skills-related language teaching, to be conducted
  by staff with a different status to that of
  mainstream content lecturers(Tudor,2006)

8
TRANSATLANTIC SIMILARITIES IN HEFLT

• Similarities at this juncture embark upon the
  following
• Same forces
• Similar challenges
• Practical identical responses

9
The forces of change in Europe And North American
HE

• The three main forces for change that are
  reshaping higher education in both Europe and
  North America are
• Globalization
• Technology
• Competition
• (Green et
  al.,2002)

10
GLOBALISATION

• Higher education is globalizing in the sense that
  globalization effect changes in the conditions in
  which language learning and language teaching
  take place.
• Globalization is attracting the students from
  across the world and in exchanging ideas
  internationally.
• Globalization is acquiring new dimension in the
  21st century, whereby the Uppsala
  internationalization model of business can now
  be also applied to higher education.
• Globalization is precipitating five main
  transformations in post secondary education in
  Europe, North America and Asia. These include
  universalization, feminisation,specialisation,priv
  atisation and geographic mobility.
• Globalization increased competition across
  national boundaries. As a result, students on
  both sides of the Atlantic need to acquire the
  knowledge and skills to tackle the challenge
  posed by this unstoppable trend.

11
TECHNOLOGY

• (Green et al.2002) described technology as the
  single greatest force for change in higher
  education, is exerting a notable effect on
  tertiary education through distributed learning.
• It allows students to study at their own pace,
  increases access to education, paves the way
  towards lifelong learning and favours the
  development of teaching partnerships across
  institutions and countries.
• The impact of technology is also being felt
  particularly on pedagogical aspects, bringing
  innovation to the foreground and enhancing
  creativity and participation in the learning
  process.aa

12
COMPETITION

• HEIs compete for students across boarders,
  teachers require an excellent preparation, and
  prestige and quality are essential, with general
  assessment measures and agencies being set in
  place to guarantee the excellence of the
  education provided.

13
POLICY FRAMEWORKS ON BOTH CONTINENTS

• Europe and both North America have created
  specific policy frameworks to guide action and
  channel change. the framework, in the case of
  Europe, is clear the European Higher Education
  Area. The latter is serving as a powerful lever
  for change in language teaching in higher
  education, and has being pushed forward via a set
  of conversations, declarations and communiqués.
• The case of North America has not being as clear.
  In fact, it has being that what separates Europe
  from Canada and the USA is a policy framework
  that promotes change and guides action.
• 
  (Green et al., 2002)

14
ALLIANCES,INTEGRATION AND COLLABORATION

• alliances,intergration of language teaching and
  research These policy frame works share a common
  advocacy of instructional, and collaboration
  within and across departments.
• Collaboration is also essential to establish a
  comparable system of credits for the recognition
  of degrees to arrive at a set of mutually shared
  criteria for quality assessment and to develop
  modules, courses, curricula, integration study
  programs and joint degrees at all levels.
• At institutional level, there is agreement on
  both sides of the Atlantic on the necessity to
  integrate the teaching and research missions.

15
THE MOVE TOWARDS INTERNATIONALISATION

• The process of internalization has been fuelled
  in the USA by the events of September 11th, while
  in Europe the driving force behind it has been
  primarily the imperative need for a mobile and
  multilingual work force. As a result, there are
  urgent calls on both sides of the Atlantic to
  facilitate periods of study abroad and to
  eliminate all possible obstacle to them.

16
FORMULATING NEW PLANS AND REDESIGNING CURRICULA

• In the USA and Canada, transforming the curricula
  of language programmes is one of the two key
  issues of the MLAs reports.
• In Europe, the same sense of urgency pervades the
  current revamping of language programmes to adapt
  to the Bologna process.

17
Developing competences link to the labour market
explicit

• The developing competencies involves formulating
  objectives in terms of competencies, introducing
  considerable pedagogical innovation. (study plans
  meet the requirement of employers in order to
  facilitate graduates access to the labour
  market).
• In USA and Canada, the MLA committee acknowledges
  the significant value of producing graduates
  who are better prepared to meet a range of
  identified national or societal needs.
• Practical training and internships equally being
  fostered in the new plans of study, via
  specific-and often compulsory-subjects which are,
  in many cases, the students first incursion into
  the labour market and which provide them with
  professional orientation while studying their
  degree and allow more personalised itineraries in
  the European Diploma Supplement.

18
Pedagogical innovation in language teaching

• The importance of introducing innovative teaching
  methods is explicitly mentioned in the Glasgow
  Declaration and entire projects have been set up
  at the pan-European level to exchange information
  about good practices that motivate language
  learners.
• These new methods include case studies,PBL,POL
  and co-operative learning, among other
  approaches, and essentially aim at developing
  self-directed learning, critical thinking skills
  and greater independence, involvement and
  participation on the part of the student, who now
  takes center stage.

19
Linking content and language learning

• This is what both Europe and North America
  maintain when stressing that the content and
  language divide should be overcome.
• In practice, this means teaching languages,
  culture and literature as a whole, transcending
  the language/content division- language is
  learned as content and vice versa- and increasing
  collaboration among teachers and across
  disciplines.
• Important parallelisms and advances in over
  coming the content-language divide can be
  discerned in the new higher education panorama in
  both Europe and North America.

20
CONCLUSION

• In a nut shell, comparing global continental
  movements in Europe, the USA and Cana