Last week saw the Education Quality Week at the Jagiellonian University. The quality of language teaching and its assessment is among the most vital and relevant topics in this area.
Here is an interview with Richard Rossner, the Chair of EAQUALS (Evaluation & Accreditation of Quality in Language Services) - an international association of institutions and organisations that aims to promote high quality of language education. Mr Rossner was one of key participants of the 24th International Conference of International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language in Poland (IATEFL Poland), which was held at the Jagiellonian University in September 2015.
This is the 24th IATEFL conference in Poland. What has changed in foreign language teaching and its quality assessment during these 24 years?
I have been involved in language teaching nearly twice as many years, and in fact EAQUALS, which I represent – the acronym stands for evaluation and accreditation of quality in language services - is the same age as IATEFL Poland, so we have a 25th anniversary next year as well. I think a lot has changed, but some things have remained the same. For example, information technology is now playing a larger role, as is distance learning. Many people are learning languages or teaching languages or even doing teacher training online, as opposed to face-to-face (or doing some face-to-face and some online). Aside from that, educational materials for language education, and particularly English language education, have developed and continue to grow in number. The publishers would say they have also increased in quality and diversity. But I think the main difference is that, while earlier on English was an additional language that people wanted to learn, it has now become more than that – a sort of passport, or a necessity for people who want to make progress in their work or in their studies. So people are not learning a language, they are actually equipping themselves with what they see as a ‘basic skill' for other aspects of their lives. Maybe that has always been the case, but these days, I think, people are much more conscious of it. There is an emphasis in this conference on English for business purposes, life skills, the relationship of learning English to work and the workplace, and various other areas. So that is quite a big change. And another change is the increase in English as a medium of instruction, in other words, using English not in order to teach English, but in order to teach other subjects at a university level. And the Jagiellonian University can serve as an example: you are now running courses in English for people from various parts of the world as well as from Poland. This is true not just in higher education but also in school education, where there is a type of English language teaching which is called content and language integrated learning (CLIL for short), where secondary school students, but sometimes also primary school students, are doing some other subjects from their curriculum in English, and they are learning English as they are learning that other subject. That is something that has developed quite a lot over the last 25 years.
while earlier on English was an additional language that people wanted to learn, it has now become more than that – a sort of passport, or a necessity for people who want to make progress in their work or in their studies
How have these changes affected quality assessment in language education?
I think in a way they have made it more complex and difficult. To give you an example, with this integration of online learning and face-to-face learning, EAQUALS is developing its accreditation system so that we can also evaluate the quality of online provision that is done alongside face-to-face work in the classroom. Another complicated area is curriculum. We have to look in much more detail at how the curriculum relates to learning outcomes which are part of students' professional development or their educational development, so that they can do other things as a result of learning a language like English. We need to consider how their language learning relates to other learning and impacts on the general ability of students and professional people to manage well in their future lives, whether in work or in study, or in developing skills which are relevant to them. That is of importance to society, not just to an individual.
What should be the main goals and principles of teaching foreign languages to students within the framework of university classes?
I think it does vary somewhat from faculty to faculty, and it is very important these days, at least in European universities, that there is the opportunity for all students to learn other languages. I believe firmly that learning not just one foreign language but two or three gives additional advantages, including cognitive advantages, to learners and to university students. Increasingly, particularly at higher levels, students need to be able to work productively and professionally in English: for example, they need to be able to make presentations effectively in English as well as in their own language. They also need to be able to read and do research in English, even if at a relatively straightforward level because that will in the end save them time. And that requires additional skills, for example, the ability to actually make sure that you are reading the right things and then make notes and make reference to that into your work. In addition, you may need to be able to participate in meetings with native speakers of the language, in this case English, because when you are involved in exchanges, like the Erasmus exchange, that involves working and communicating, not just socially but within the area of the subject that is being studied, with colleagues from a different language background. And obviously the medium for that tends to be English.
Should English be taught as a language related to some specific culture (e.g. British or American), or rather as an international language (lingua franca), separated from its cultural roots?
I do not particularly believe in English as a lingua franca, but I do believe that English is not a property of one nation or culture, certainly not the property of native speakers of English, because native speakers of English are in a minority compared to all the users of English: there are about three times more people using English as non-native-speakers as there are native speakers of English. And therefore, to relate the language closely to any culture when there are so many cultures using English seems wrong. If I were a secondary school teacher or even a primary school teacher, which I am not anymore, I would be seeking to expose students to English, especially spoken English, from a variety of different cultures: American, Australian, African, European or Indian. And that seems the right way to go. The other thing that we can say about English is that non-native speakers have the right to use English the way they want and need to use English. And if that means they do not necessarily respect every grammatical rule, do not necessarily always choose the right word, or pronounce words and sentences the way native speakers do, does that affect communication negatively or not? That depends on the situation, but very often it does not. So that argument about English as a lingua franca is quite a useful one. How accurate do people need to be? Is it more important to be accurate, or to be an effective communicator, even if you are not always accurate? And if you are an effective communicator, does it matter whether your accent is British, American, Indian, African, Latin American or Polish? It probably does not, at least in my experience.
if you are an effective communicator, does it matter whether your accent is British, American, Indian, African, Latin American or Polish? It probably does not
Is there anything special about IATEFL conferences which makes them stand out from other, similar meetings?
There are two important differences. As we have heard, there are 22 nationalities represented and so there is professional exchange taking place between people from different cultures, and I hope that they listen to and communicate effectively with one another. And secondly, more importantly, thinking of the large majority of Polish delegates in the case of this conference, there are people from all kinds of backgrounds: some of them working in the university sector, some in the professional training sector, some in secondary schools, primary education, even kindergartens, some textbook writers, some managers, and so on. So putting those people together, getting them to think about what is common to their situation and what is different, how they can, perhaps, learn from each other, and not remain in their boxes, but think beyond their box is pretty important. It is very valuable for people to think about situations different from their own situation, which is not easy to do if you are in a classroom day after day.
Is it about learning good practice from each other?
Good practice can exist in any part of the profession where there is a community of practice, including in any institution where several teachers are working in a team. IATEFL conferences are about enabling these communities of practice really to work well and to exchange as you put it, best practice.
Do you have any message for our students regarding learning foreign languages?
The first thing is: please continue to do it as enthusiastically as - and, if possible, more enthusiastically than – you are already doing it, because there is no doubt in my mind (although I am British and most British people, as you know, do not bother to learn languages) that there is a great benefit in learning languages from a personal, professional and intercultural point of view. If at the Jagiellonian University there are chances to improve your ability to use English and other foreign languages for your study and for your future work as well as for your social interactions, this can only benefit you in a longer term.
It seems that more and more parents see English as a basic skill, like using a computer or learning mathematics.
What would be very interesting to see as time goes on is whether or not English becomes a sort of life skill, in that sense different from other languages. It seems that more and more parents see English as a basic skill, like using a computer or learning mathematics. Is that also true in the university sector? Is it a competence that university students must have as, I think, you at the Jagiellonian University seem to believe? I applaud the Jagiellonian University for all the investment and effort that you have put into that work, particularly in the Language Centre, but in other parts of the University as well.
Photo: Richard Rossner during the 24th IATEFL Poland Conference (Anna Wojnar)
Interview by: Joanna Chodór and Kamil Jodłowiec, JU Department of Communications and Marketing
