PRACTICAL RESOURCES AND SOME TAKEAWAYS FROM THE PLURIMOBIL TRAINING EVENT Pille Põiklik

PRACTICAL RESOURCES AND SOME TAKEAWAYS FROM THE PLURIMOBIL TRAINING EVENT

Pille Põiklik Language Policy Department, Ministry of Education and Research

In 2020, Estonia has welcomed two European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) 1 training events that support language teachers and language education. In February, we welcomed the PluriMobil seminar in Tallinn and in March, the RELANG event in Tartu. RELANG (offered in cooperation with the European Commission) helps countries better link their teaching and testing practices to the Common European Framework of Reference. PluriMobil focuses on helping teachers support students in their mobility. Since PluriMobil involves practical materials that are more directly applicable in the classroom, the following takes a look at what it offers to teachers. The PluriMobil (Plurilingual and Intercultural Learning through Mobility) seminar was led by Kristin Brogan (Ireland) and Chantal Muller (Belgium), two members of the PluriMobil team. They were joined by 24 teachers, teacher trainers and others working in language education. PluriMobil is an ECML project which has developed materials that help teachers support students before, during and after mobility. Students have many opportunities to spend time abroad and these experiences need framing and reflection to best contribute to their developing skills. Mobility experiences are made more valuable for students if teachers can assist them in the process. Mobility is a great opportunity not just to put one’s foreign language skills to the test but also to specifically develop skills of intercultural communication. The latter needs conscious effort, starting with introducing it as a concept and providing students with the necessary language to talk about the various aspects of culture and communication they might pay attention to, focus on in some detail and later reflect on. PluriMobil materials offer five sets of lesson plans (for primary school, basic school, upper secondary school, vocational secondary school and teacher education) as well as a handbook and a quick start guide for their use. All materials are freely available on the project website (https://plurimobil.ecml. at). The lesson plans include ready-made resources that can be used in classrooms and, if needed, easily altered for specific contexts. They address all stages of mobility: they can be used to prepare for mobility, to record the experiences while on mobility, and to reflect on what has been observed and learnt afterwards. To prepare students for thinking and speaking/writing about identities and cultures as well as communication between them, the necessary first step is to have them explore their own identities and cultures. Learning about others always also means learning about ourselves. For this, tasks involving the tip of the ice berg or figures to explore one’s multiple identities can be used (Figures 1 and 2).

While students are in mobility (which can also involve extended contacts with visitors here at home or virtual mobility), they could use different learning diaries to track their experiences. One example can

1 The European Centre for Modern Languages is an organisation under the Council of Europe. The centre has 33 members, including Estonia (since March 1995). The centre works at the intersection of language policy and its practice, developing resources for more efficient language education.

Figure 1. Lesson plan “The Visible, The Less Visible, The Invisible” 2

Figure 2. Lesson plan “My Multiple Identity” 3

be found in the PluriMobil materials for lower secondary school: the lesson plan “My Learning Diary” (Table 1).

Subject area/topic

Signs

False friends

Idioms

Classroom language

Examples found before the mobility activity No smoking! Danger, keep out! Staff only! Actually Pension Novel ‘learn something by heart’ ‘be on cloud nine’ ‘Sit down!’ ‘Open your workbook’ ‘Listen and repeat’ Table 1. Lesson plan “My Learning Diary” 4

Examples found during the mobility activity

Many of the PluriMobil lesson plans can be used in all three stages: the materials include instructions on how to adapt them to before, during or after periods, many handouts are already set up for all three stages, such as the goal-setting handouts to map students’ plans for the entire mobility arc (e.g., “The European Language Portfolio: How Do I Learn and How Do I Want to Learn?” in Lesson Plans for Lower Secondary School, p 42).

In some regards, the decisive element of mobility is the follow-up. The benefit of having gained international experiences and practiced intercultural communication can be greatly enhanced if the experiences are reflected upon. PluriMobil offers its own lesson plans for this, but also draws upon a number of existing resources well suited for this. One such material is the European Language Portfolio (ELP), which has also been adopted to our context. 5 The ELP can be used in all stages of mobility and the PluriMobil materials make use of this resource as well.

2 Lesson Plans for Upper Secondary School – General, p 7, https://plurimobil.ecml.at/Portals/37/LP_UPPER%20 SECONDARY%20GENERAL%20FINAL.pdf 3 Lesson Plans for Upper Secondary School – General, p 13, https://plurimobil.ecml.at/Portals/37/LP_UPPER%20 SECONDARY%20GENERAL%20FINAL.pdf 4 Lesson Plans for Lower Secondary School, p 45, https://plurimobil.ecml.at/Portals/37/basic/PluriMobil-lesson-plan-lowersecondary-EN.pdf 5 Euroopa keelemapp, https://oppekava.innove.ee/pohiharidus/voorkeeled/keelemapp/ (printed copies available from the Ministry of Education and Research).

There is also the Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters 6 (AIE), another Council of Europe tool. AIE invites students to choose one particular encounter they had with someone from another country/ cultural background and explore its various aspects. AIE invites students to reflect on the encounter in a very detailed manner, write down their own thoughts and feelings and reflect on those of the other participant/participants. It then directs them to analyse similarities and differences that they noticed and to also analyse if and how they modified their own language or style of communication in the course of the encounter.

Although the materials are mainly developed to be used with students, one set is also for use in teacher education. 7 These make use of some of the same tasks that would be used with students but also add some that have to do with analysing the differences of educational systems or recording one’s development as a language teacher. These materials also refer to EPOSTL, the European portfolio for student teachers of languages. 8

PluriMobil offers a wealth of practical resources to learn and talk about different cultures, identities and communication in a foreign language and with people from different backgrounds. Still, one key message of the PluriMobil seminar was to keep in mind that the goal of mobility and reflection is not to underline differences between people/languages/cultures but to also stress the similarities that connect people of different languages and cultures.

At the time of writing this short overview, thoughts of (physical) mobility seem impractical perhaps. However, guiding students to think about their own identities and culture and to foster an open mind towards other cultures and languages is always worthwhile, so I hope there is something to explore and use for all of you in the PluriMobil materials.

EATE CONGRATULATES

Pilvi Rajamäe, lecturer at the University of Tartu, on her 60th birthday, which was on 28 February. Pilvi teaches British literature and history and a variety of courses related to culture and art. She has been an active presenter at EATE events. In recent times, she has been engaged in researching history of teaching English at the University of Tartu.

6 Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters, https://www.coe.int/en/web/autobiography-intercultural-encounters/ autobiography-of-intercultural-encounters 7 Lesson Plans for Student Teachers, https://plurimobil.ecml.at/Portals/37/Documents/LP_STUDENT_TEACHER_FINAL.pdf 8 European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages. A Reflection Tool for Language Teacher Education, http://archive. ecml.at/mtp2/fte/pdf/C3_Epostl_E.pdf