SALIS Lecturers win the 2009 European Award for Languages
29 September 2009

On Friday 25 September 2009, Juliette Péchenart, Veronica Crosbie and Claude Ducloud from SALIS received the European Award for Languages - The Language Label for their /Critical Peer Pedagogy for Language Learners /Project.

The event, which took place in Farmleigh House in Dublin, coincided with the European Day of Languages.

The Award was established by the European Commission (http://ec.europa.eu/education/language/label/index.cfm) to promote linguistic diversity and lifelong learning throughout Europe. It celebrates innovative, effective and replicable language learning initiatives in each of the member states of the EU.

Professor David Crystal presented the Awards following a keynote lecture where he discussed the ramifications of multilingualism in 21^st century societies.

The *Critical Peer Pedagogy Project* *for Language Learners* was developed and implemented by colleagues in Dublin City University to create an innovative and stimulating environment for language learners of ESOL and French at third level. Using a methodology based on the following three key approaches, peer teaching, content & language integrated learning (CLIL), and critical pedagogy, students are encouraged to develop a critical awareness of globalisation as a political, social and economic phenomenon and in so doing are made responsible for a complete teaching task from beginning to end. This involves selecting a topic of interest to the class, researching the topic, devising suitable class activities, managing class delivery, encouraging class participation, and critically evaluating their own performance and that of their peers. Students comment that, although they find this approach challenging, they feel a deep sense of achievement and are motivated by the responsibility they are entrusted with.

The aims of the critical peer pedagogy project are: to meet the needs of students of mixed nationalities with a broad range of specialisms but registered for the same module; to foster intercultural awareness; to encourage students’ participation, autonomy, responsibility, originality, imagination and reflective practice; to give students the opportunity to present a complex topic in a critical and interactive manner to a specialised audience with a good degree of fluency; to allow students to evaluate their work and performance and those of their peers; to enhance students' reflective and critical thinking through the writing of peer teaching reports and on-line reflective journals; to further develop the students’ ability to apply a range of transferable skills such as time management, team work, project management and oral presentation skills.

The fact that this project is based on peer interaction, content learning and critical reflection means that in essence it can be adapted to a diverse range of sectors, including adult and vocational education. The resources are not necessarily technology dependent and the content can be changed to reflect the individual institutional and curriculum context. It can therefore be adapted to many different environments. The critical pedagogy dimension is also one that can, and ideally should, be incorporated in different programmes.

For further details on the Awards, please go to the Léargas website.