Second European Language Council Conference

[ Conference Reports ]

University of Jyv�skyl�, Finland

1-3 July 1999

by Graham Davies, President of EUROCALL

The 1999 European Language Council (ELC) conference took place at the University of Jyv�skyla, Finland, one of the most pleasant university campuses I have ever visited - an idyllic setting if you like lakes and forests. This was the second conference organised by the ELC, the first having taken place at the Universit� Charles de Gaulle Lille III in July 1997.

The conference was wide-ranging, addressing the following key issues in language learning and teaching in higher education in Europe:

1. Quality Management

2. Mobility

3. Information and Communications Technologies (ICT)

4. Language Teacher Training and Bilingual Education

5. Testing: Language Assessment in Higher Education

6. Translation and Interpreting

7. Clinical Linguistics

Delegates were invited to participate in a series of four workshops devoted to one of these topics. The remaining time was devoted to plenary sessions.

The opening keynote was given by Chris Candlin (City University of Hong Kong) and centred on Quality Management, one of the main topics of the conference. I cannot being both sceptical and cynical about the value of quality management in higher education, having experienced at first hand the disastrous effects of bringing in the 'bean counters', but I found Chris Candlin's talk useful and informative. One of his anecdotes about an official asking, in all seriousness, how big a room for language teaching should be reminded me of a similar occurrence in my earlier life as a director of a language centre.

The second keynote focused on the problems of translating and interpreting in the European Union, and was delivered in French by three representatives of European Commission departments. My French listening skills are less than impressive and I may have missed some important points, but I have to admit that I did not learn anything new from these presentations. For example, it is a well-known fact that as the EU expands the number of language pairs goes up geometrically, with the result that the volume of required translators and interpreters increases dramatically too, with EU taxpayers having to foot the bill - a problem to which there appears to be no simple solution.

I attended all four workshops of the ICT group, which were co-ordinated by Angela Chambers, University of Limerick, who also heads the New Technologies group of the Thematic Network Project in the Area of Languages See the New Technologies website for further information: http://www.let.rug.nl/projects/tnp-ntll. The workshops took place over two days of the conference, each lasting one and a half hours. The following four ICT workshops took place:

1. Web-based learning environments

The speaker in this session was Debra Marsh (University of Hull), who gave a presentation entitled Language learning over the Internet; the potential and the limitations. The Merlin project, which is based at the University of Hull, was demonstrated as an example of a Web-based language learning environment. I had had opportunities to look at this project before, but I was interested to hear Debra make a number of points that I had not heard before in connection with the Merlin project, namely:

� Students prefer to use a book for reading materials and exercises (no surprise!).

� Students dropped out of Merlin-based courses mainly for two reasons: (a) they could not manage their study time, (b) they could not manage an independent learning environment.

� There was no significant difference in the gender and age of students following Merlin-based courses.

The discussion focused on a number of issues relating to new learning environments, in particular the need to create materials that are different from those that would be offered in the traditional classroom, and the need for adequate student support infrastructures.

2. Linking theory and research to practice

The two speakers in this session focused on areas of research which are particularly relevant for current practical developments. The first speaker, Jean-Claude Bertin (Universit� du Havre), planned to speak in French, giving his presentation the title Multim�dias de langue et niveau de comp�tence de l'apprenant. He switched to English at the last minute, however, talking about his research into what he calls 'didactic ergonomics'. A survey that he had conducted at the Universit� du Havre revealed a correlation between levels of linguistic competence and learner expectations in terms of guidance/autonomy, demonstrating the necessity for an authoring tool that enables learning materials to be adapted to learner's expectations. He has already developed such a tool, which is now known as Learning Labs. The second speaker, Marina Mozzon-McPherson (University of Hull), gave a presentation entitled Strategies for Managing an Independent Learning Environment (SMILE). SMILE is a UK-based project that has been focusing on ways in which learner autonomy can be encouraged in a self-access environment enhanced by new technologies. Marina pointed out that it was essential to train people to manage and direct such centres and to raise their professional status. The ensuing discussion raised a number of questions regarding the role of a so-called 'language adviser', i.e. a person who does not teach in the classroom but manages the learning environment and offers guidance to learners and teachers.

3. Bridging the gap between Human Language Technologies and language learning

This workshop, chaired by myself, centred on different ways in which Human Language Technologies can make a valuable contribution to CALL software development projects. I began by defining Human Language Technologies (HLT), which since January 1999 is the EC's official term for what used to be known as Language Engineering. I opened the session by demonstrating the HLT website at http://www.linglink.lu, paving the way for the presentation by Mathias Schulze (UMIST) entitled Human language technologies and language learning. His presentation covered a wide range of technologies that fall into the category of HLT, beginning with the question: Has it been or will it be possible to describe a living language adequately and comprehensively enough so that this description becomes usable in a computer application? Unlike many specialists in this area, Mathias Schulze studiously avoided describing HLT as a panacea, citing examples of HLT that work and are already widely used, e.g. spellcheckers, and referring to other areas that are still being researched, e.g. speech recognition, machine translation, corpus linguistics and parser-based proof-reading. Drawing on John Higgins' metaphor of the magister and pedagogue, Mathias argued that the computer should only play the role of a paidagogos - a knowledgeable, willing and reliable slave - and not that of a teacher, the magister.

4. Policies for future developments in ICT and language learning

In 1995 the first ELC policy statement on New Technologies was drafted. The aim of this session was to update that statement in the light of subsequent developments. The first speaker, Peppi Taalas (University of Jyv�skyl�), described the host country's policy on ICT in a presentation entitled A national policy for ICT: the case of Finland. The Finnish Ministry of Education has launched an impressive strategy for education, training and research in the information society for the period 2000-2004, with the aim of providing every Finnish citizen to acquire the skills to make use of information resources and educational services. It is a far-reaching plan that could serve as a model for other countries. The second speaker, Georgi Jetchev (University of Sofia), talked about ICT policy in an enlarged Europe, citing Vif@x as an example of a low-tech scheme for providing training materials in French. Vif@x requires the end-user to make off-air recordings of authentic TV programmes broadcast by TV5, which are then exploited by sets of supplementary materials and exercises that are emailed from the Universit� de Bordeaux II. The supplementary materials can also be faxed to the end-users. The importance of the transfer of new technologies to Central and Eastern Europe featured in the subsequent discussion.

During the course of the conference, elections were held for members of the ELC Board, a body which is similar to EUROCALL's Executive Committee. I am delighted to say that I was re-elected as a member of the Board for the period 1999-2001, and I will be representing the interests of EUROCALL members.

This second ELC Conference was much smaller than the first, but I thought the presentations in general were of a higher quality, and the atmosphere was less formal. The conference fee was modest (145 euros) and included a reception, a lake cruise (with a personal appearance by Santa Claus!), and a Nordic buffet in the most unusual of locations - a garden centre greenhouse. I look forward to the next ELC conference in 2001.

�Graham Davies

July 1999