Beyond language teaching towards language advising

Marina Mozzon-McPherson & Roel Vismans

Language centres with self-study facilities are a unique resource for language learning and teaching. They exist in many Higher Education institutions. Typically, language centres are well resourced with plenty of materials and hardware. However, some of them remain underused. During the 1995-96 teaching quality assessment of languages in England and Northern Ireland it emerged that a language centre functioned optimally if it had dedicated staff in place to advise students about ways of improving their language learning and of exploiting the facilities of the language centre to the full.

Such 'language advisers' represent a new profession. Through action research and debate their roles and functions are gradually crystallising. A philosophical impetus for language advising is provided by the growing literature on autonomous learning. The continuing growth in student numbers, accompanied by a diminishing unit of resource, provides the economic backdrop to their existence. The advance of new technologies crops up as a further argument for language advising. Much depends on the circumstances specific to individual institutions.

This book aims to provide an insight into the emerging profession of language advisers. It will be of interest to language teachers, managers of language centres, applied linguists and other language professionals.

Contents

Part 1: Defining the field
Language advising: towards a new discursive world

Part 2: Advising and the profession
Disseminating the practice of advising | Using counselling skills for advising | The adviser at work | Expectations and assumptions in a self-directed language-learning programme | Perceptions of the role and functions of the language adviser

Part 3: Models of advising
The perceptions of advisers | Establishing a language-learning advisory service | Implementing language advising in a restricted environment | Three approaches to promoting independance in language learning in Higher Education

Part 4: Advising and learning environments
Manging and supporting language learners in open and distance learning environments | Learning support systems and learning environments | Advising by email

Part 5: Advising, learning and teaching
The learner | The role of the language adviser in supporting the language learner with dyslexia | Setting up a credit-rated tandem scheme | The double decker learning bus | Integrating advising into teaching

2001 | 231pp | ISBN-13: 978-1-902031-81-1 | ISBN-10: 1-902031-81-4 | £15 | Order this title online