Language for the Future

Language for the future

Language learning is in step with the changing demands of the 21st century, writes DEBBIE CORDER

It is well recognised that learning and teaching need to change to meet the demands of the 21st century. In New Zealand, this recognition is reflected in documents such as the Tertiary Education Strategy and the New Zealand Curriculum. There is increasing emphasis on life long learning, student-centred learning and development of key competencies such as learner autonomy with the learning process being controlled by the learner, who is developing and applying skills in critical thinking, effective communication skills, collaborative learning and digital knowledge.

In addition, there is increasing recognition of the impact of the global economy, and the importance of intercultural competencies, including languages, to be able to interact effectively in an increasingly multicultural and international workplace.

Developments in approaches to language learning and teaching are ensuring that they are very much in step with the demands of the 21st century. It could be said that these developments are establishing languages as having an essential role to play in the curriculum in all education sectors. Not only is there a focus on competencies for life long learning, but the increasing emphasis on intercultural communicative competence (ICC), and the integration of technology are transforming language learning and teaching.

Both ICC and technology are relevant for the needs of the 21st century workplace, and the integration of technology is keeping learning and teaching approaches in tune with the lives of learners and engaging the digital natives in our classes.

Intercultural competence

With an underlying principle of responsible and active citizenship, ICC embodies lifelong learning knowledge and skills. It is no longer sufficient to develop communicative competence in a language and acquire knowledge about a culture.

The underpinning pedagogy for ICC is experiential learning in which learners develop critical awareness of the relationship between language, society and cultural meanings, and become autonomous language users. Through an understanding of their own norms, values and social expectations, learners have their own cultural identities and beliefs challenged so they might become more open to difference, flexible, and able to reorientate themselves in relation to other cultures. Fundamental to this process is that they have an enquiring attitude, and the ability to notice, reflect, self assess and critically analyse, and draw on their prior experiences and knowledge to conceptualise new knowledge and experience.

To facilitate this learning, learners must have the opportunity for active experimentation, and to apply their new understanding of the role of language in human interactions to develop skills in interaction management. Every human encounter has intercultural implications because everyone belongs to different social groups or organisations with specific cultures. ICC however, is not limited to the target language and culture being studied, and embodies transferrable knowledge and skills to deal with ambiguity and the unfamiliar.

Technology

Fortunately there have been exciting and very timely developments in technology that are enhancing and facilitating this experiential learning process. In fact it would seem that technology has become a natural ally to language learning, enabling learning opportunities and application of language to be taken outside the classroom in the true sense of experiential learning. We can now access authentic materials, talk to native speakers of other languages, interact with them in virtual worlds, and explore cultural sites together.

I teach Japanese and intercultural competence. I first began using computer technology around 2000, when a colleague and I developed a software package to help students master kanji (Japanese characters). In a relatively short time the tools offered by technology have gone from mainly software packages on CD ROMs and emails, to a whole range of resource websites and Web 2.0 social networking tools (blogs, wikis, Skype, Twitter) and more recently web 3D virtual learning environments.

We are no longer just looking at learners interacting with computers, typically with CALL software packages to learn a language. Learners are now using computers to interact with other learners, and this opens up huge potential for the development of intercultural communicative competencies and intercultural exchanges.

Integration of technology into learning and teaching.

My approach to integrating technology into my teaching has always been research informed and had a pedagogical rationale: to resolve a learning and teaching issue, and to foster the development of learner autonomy. I ensure students have the knowledge and skills to exploit digital resources. They are exposed to authentic material, relevant tools such as online dictionaries, and are taught how to interrogate internet sites to problem solve.

I use blogs to foster student reflection and dialogue, wikis to manage group work and foster collaborative learning, Skype to bring professionals, for example translators, into the classroom, and am trialling the use of a virtual learning environment (Second Life) for out-of-class intercultural experiences and student exchanges.

The results to date are showing much deeper learning and student engagement. I am not alone in the integration of technology into learning and teaching in the language departments at AUT. The initiatives of my colleagues include podcasts, interactive online resources, and collaborative learning with students in Japan. We also have totally online courses with synchronous oral activities, something we would never have considered possible only a couple of years ago.

Professional development

Needless to say the shift to ICC and integration of technology has created a great deal of professional development activity across the education sectors, because it requires language teachers to rethink traditional learning, teaching and assessment approaches. In the school sector, there is the added motivation since learning languages is now one of the eight learning areas in the New Zealand Curriculum.

Language learning and teaching is certainly going through challenging times, but it is exciting and defining a clear role for languages in the curriculum of the 21st century.

The need to learn a language

The question has to be asked: “Is it necessary to learn a language to become interculturally competent?”

It is true that not everyone is a competent language learner but understanding the role that language plays in human interactions is an essential element in developing intercultural competence.

Learning a language even at a basic level provides the learner with a window into another culture from which they will gain a much deeper insight and understanding than would otherwise be possible.

At the very least, it could lead to understanding why miscommunication can occur, and engender respect for speakers of other languages sitting beside them in the classroom, or serving them in the local dairy, or negotiating from across the boardroom table in the workplace.

There is no knowing where career paths will take a learner. Learning a language and developing intercultural communicative competence has the added advantage of gaining lifelong autonomous strategies to learn other languages, and to interact effectively with people from different cultures and societies likely to be encountered in 21st century careers.

Debbie Corder is a member of the Ako Aotearoa Academy of Tertiary Teaching Excellence and associate head of school, international languages, at Auckland University of Technology.