 |
 |
Dear Colleagues, I agree with Michael that students have to regard using the self-access facilities as something worth their while, and making the Self-access Centre an attractive place which offers meaningful activities is certainly a good thing. It seems to me that, on the whole, those centres who have employed a language adviser in the SMILE meaning of the word are doing quite well on that front. At Greenwich we are also trying this, and our language centre manager cum language adviser, Kathryn Aldridge-Morris, has worked incredibly hard to turn the centre into a buzzing and lively place with a "European" feel. This is partly due to the fact that she employs and trains 'linguist' students to help her staff the centre. This means that students who use the centre can check on the timetable which language the individual members of staff offer, and then turn up at the appropriate time. Ad hoc conversation classes have sprung up that way. On a more general level, however, I think it is the overall policy, both within the university as well as the language department/subject group which determines the success of a self-access centre. Don't you agree that the activities the students work on while they are in the centre have got to be properly integrated into the language curriculum? We do this through a portfolio: the students put all their regular self-access work into this portfolio, and this is then assessed at several intervals during the semester, and then overall at the end. The assessment may be the 'stick' which is necessary to get the students into the centre (apart from other incentives); the 'carrot' is that they develop a certain self-discipline with increasing success in their language learning (well, most of them). As you all know, it is pretty difficult to train non-linguist language learners in the art of language learning, and the language centre plays a vital part in the students discovering for themselves what works best for them. In my opinion, a certain flexibility and variety of tasks is therefore an important part of good portfolio design. So, this was my twopennies worth of debate contribution. Any further comments from anyone? May I use this opportunity to tell you all that I am actually not working at the University of Greenwich any longer? I am sending this email from my home address as the mail facilities at my new place of work have not yet been set up properly (but I ought to be contactable by email shortly). Plese refer to my new contact details further below. Yours, und hoffentlich bis bald Brigitte Dold Diplomatic Service Language Centre The Foreign and Commonwealth Office Cromwell House Dean Stanley Street London SW1P 3JH Tel: 0171 276 6957 email: [log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%