CENTRE FOR LANGUAGE IN EDUCATION

Japanese Scholars Visit CLE

Three scholars from Tohoku University (Japan) visited the Centre for Language in Education (CLE) on March 21, 2019 to know more about the formal and informal support the Centre offered to encourage students’ learning of English in the University.

During their stay, the three professors held meetings with CLE’s faculty, toured the Arthur Samy Language Learning Centre (ASLLC), met with International Tutors and students.  “It was actually a very fruitful and valuable visit for us, and thanks to this opportunity we have learned important ideas on how you offer learning support to your students, which has also given us a lot of suggestions and hints for our future challenges”, said Professor Hiroyuki Eto, who is a Professor of English and Linguistics at Tohoku University (Japan) and is responsible for general English education for undergraduate students.

Professor Eto and his colleagues, Professor Nagano and Professor Kitahara spent a Thursday afternoon meeting our faculty, International Tutors and students. They said they were impressed to see what our faculty had done to promote the learning of English and the successful implementation of the International Tutors Scheme.

CLE has devoted significant effort in promoting the use of technologies and innovations in English learning. In the meeting, CLE staff briefed the scholars about our latest developments in these areas:

1.  Using a flipped learning mode to encourage students’ self-learning (presented by Ms. Desiree Mao)

A flipped learning mode was adopted by Ms Mao in her teaching of the course CLE0235 for Early Childhood Education students. In the meeting, Ms. MAO presented her successful application of a flipped classroom approach in the curriculum design and teaching of the course. To achieve maximal learning outcomes, she produced pre-lecture videos and quizzes for teaching content delivery and mastery-checking while delivering project-based interactive activities in class for students to consolidate their learning. This flipped classroom-based approach enhanced students’ autonomy in learning and creative thinking.

2.  Using VBLC to facilitate online interaction (presented by Ms. Shirley Chan)

Video-based Learning Community (VBLC) is a platform developed by our University for students and staff to share digital videos with an aim of enhancing teaching and learning. Ms Chan tried adding a video peer evaluation task to the course, Speaking Skills for English Language Tests, with the aid of VBLC, which equipped learners with evaluative skills for analyzing performance and striking for self-enhancement. Ms Chan disseminated how self-learning took place in the course through a comprehensive peer feedback task. She shared the challenges on the coordination as well as the execution of this new task and the insights and encouraging outcomes supported by the end-of-course evaluation from students.

3.  Video feedback to support autonomous language learning (presented by Dr. Ivan Chong)

Dr Chong introduced the affordances of an online video conferencing tool, GoToMeeting, which he had used to conduct one-on-one language advising sessions with students. He illustrated how he structured a 30-minute language advising session on GoToMeeting. He positioned “language advising” as a form of “informal language learning” that functions as a bridge between “formal language learning” (e.g. an English course) and “non-formal learning” (e.g. watching an English movie). According to Dr Chong, language advising can help develop learner autonomy through the incorporation of informative, interactive, and actionable feedback.

“It is our greatest pleasure to get acquainted with you, your colleagues, staff members, and students and have a chance to know much about the center and its significant activities,” Professor Eto said at the end of the visit. The two parties agreed to maintain the momentum in academic exchange and to further strengthen the friendly and multifaceted partnership between the two universities.

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