Towards language-rich teacher training: Building blocks for language policy

Towards language-rich teacher training courses. Building blocks for language policy. Editors Dorothea Van Hoyweghen - Plantyn publishing house

General presentation

In order to cope with the great diversity in starting competencies, teacher training courses must not only have visual aids and suitable screening and assessment instruments. They must also make their linguistic requirements explicit and set up appropriate remedial routes. Efficient learning path guidance or tailor-made monitoring requires a thorough analysis of the starting competences, but also of the academic and professional language competences that the students must have acquired at the end of their study career.
Only a didactic approach that takes into account multiple multicultural and multimedia literacy offers an adequate answer to the current diverse influx and to the demands of our society.
Professionalisation of the corps is unavoidable if the teacher training courses want to honor the principle of 'Teach what you preach' and want to switch to language-developing education and to the use of suitable language support material.

This book:

• points to the biggest language barriers for beginning students and to the language needs experienced by teachers;
• provides a specific frame of reference to arrive at a high-quality end product;
• contains practical examples that show how similar principles can lead to different results.

The book offers a 'blended learning solution', a multimedia package with an eye for parallels and differences in the language policy of universities, colleges and CVOs. The publication presents itself as the suitable guide for the different phases that the university, the college and the CVO go through from necessary starting competence, over academic to professional language competence.

* Frank Vandenbroucke, former education minister, wrote the word beforehand (pdf)
* Description of the content with the highlights of each chapter (pdf)
* Authors: Frans Daems, Jeroen Lievens, Nora Bogaert, Tine Van Houtven, Elke Peters, Guido Cajot, Joke Vrijders, Tom Windowmans, Lieve Verheyden, Riet Jeurissen, Elly Quanten, Hilde Van den Bossche, Carine Steverlynck, Dirk Berckmoes, Hilde Rombouts , Véronique Minnebo, Jan Loosveld, Wouter Schelfhout, Roger Van den Borre, William Vroonen, José Vandekerckhove, Ingrid Evers, Piet-Hein van de Ven, Bart Van der Leeuw, Mieke Lafleur, Johanna van der Borden, Jo Van den Hauwe, Bart Horemans, An De Moor.

Review

This book is in line with the reflection on language policy in higher education that was initiated under the impulse of the previous education minister and is in fact a mature and diversified continuation of this.

Vision

The introduction by education minister Frank Vandenbroucke already clearly indicates what the structure, meaning and effectiveness of this eminently important didactic work for higher education can be. In addition to remedial approaches to language policy, the idea of language-developing teaching seems to be an innovative dominant feature in this book. The idea is launched, it is already being applied in some teacher training courses and it offers prospects for greater efficiency and more opportunities for more students in teacher training courses. It is certainly worth the effort for teacher educators to focus on taking the idea into account in their own practice and also to propagate it more broadly to future teachers.

In the first part on vision development we find it easy to read and excellently upholstered 'Every teacher is a language teacher. A frame of reference for language policy in teacher education' by Frans Daems . The concept of language policy in its narrow and broad scope is recalled and the three forms of language proficiency for higher education are given their full concept here: the starting language competence to start the studies, the academic language competence that is necessary to successfully complete the curriculum and the professional language competence that must be acquired at the end of the study to enable the prospective teacher to play his part in setting up and implementing the language policy in the school where he takes up his teaching position.

Communication teacher Jeroen Lievens uses a completely different approach in a second vision article 'Multiple literacy as the desired cornerstone of a strong, contemporary and socially inclusive university language policy. This pursuit of multiple literacy, in which students learn to deal actively and creatively with contemporary mediatized and digitized forms of communication, is groundbreaking for educational developmental learning. It will require a major shift in the thinking of average teacher educators, and the move to this multiple literacy pedagogy, if so decided, will require a special effort to master it effectively in order to put it into practice. Perhaps it is worth the effort and commitment.

Needs

The second part examines the language needs in teacher training. In each of the three contributions, it appears that language development is much more preferable than the usual practice of entry-level tests, which are intended to be remedial but which have to lose out by far against thorough needs assessments. The latter make it possible to identify the real needs and to work in a language-supporting manner for the whole of the student groups, using the appropriate material. In Language needs in teacher training of the expertise network of the KU Leuven Association , a digital survey was carried out in five universities of applied sciences to find out the needs for the starting language competence as well as for the academic and professional language competences of the aspiring teachers. This goes deeper and more concretely than in Frans Daems ' frame of reference on those three forms of language skills. This gives teacher educators a better insight into what they should include in the curriculum as language-developing data. The intention was to develop the necessary material and strategies in line with that research. We are curious about the (publication of) the results. In a third contribution Language policy from the starting blocks. A language test or a needs analysis as a starting point? Tine Van Houtven, Elke Peeters and Guido Cajot answer whether a language test or a needs analysis is the best approach. They are based on a needs analysis for reading skills in the bachelor's teacher training program and on a six-part language proficiency survey. Ordinary screening appears to be far inferior to a full needs analysis.

Fundamental to the design of a language policy in higher education as envisaged throughout the book is Nora Bogaert 's second chapter : Entry tests according to the rules of the art . In a few pages the author repeats clearly and penetratingly what the criteria are for adequate tests: they must be fair, valid and reliable. She also demonstrates the complexity of assessment design and advocates its use for language-developing teaching. Lecturer teams can find out what and how they should get it done in a short and well-arranged way.

Language Policy

In this part, three teacher training programs describe how they each organize language policy in practice in their own way. In a fourth contribution, the Education Inspectorate presents its findings on language policy in specific teacher training courses in adult education.

In Language Policy works, but not by itself , Joke Vrijders reports on the organization and the findings of the language policy at Artevelde University College Ghent at the level of the Bachelor's degree in Secondary Education for about two thousand students during the past three academic years. This ranges from screening to remedial work with self-study, language workshops with students as language coaches and tailor-made individual guidance, but also to the professionalization of teachers, who must be able to refer students, provide feedback via viewing guides and must be able to act as a model. For the professional language competence of the students, the colleagues are given the skills to teach their students to design language-oriented vocational education in order to make the students resilient to help develop a language policy at school level. This university of applied sciences works with an accompanying language policy with, among other things, broadly developed support material.

Tom Windowmans outlines the language policy at Karel de Grote University College from a different angle in From screening to tailor-made education . Here, screenings and initial assessments lead from starting competences to adapted learning routes in which individual students are assisted by a learning path counselor assisted even further by a language proficiency lecturer. Guidance tools and bodies also help to improve the students' language skills as needed. An individualized tracking sheet for oral and written language skills keeps track of progress during the learning route. All this should promote the chances of success based on increasing language proficiency.
Then three teacher training programs present their practical story with parallels and differences under the visual title Mol, owl or dragonfly… three stages in a language policy process: the Xios University of Applied Sciences in Hasselt with Riet Jeurissen and Elly Quanten (Bachelor of Primary Education), the KH Leuven with Lieven Verheyden (Bachelor of KO ), the KaHo Sint-Lieven Campus Waas with Hilde Van den Bossche (Bachelor of primary education)..
The storyline in Xios ranges from a lot of attention for language to language skills education linked to language learning strategies, to a real language policy with initially isolated initiatives from Dutch lecturers and the Dutch department to an integrated language policy for the entire training team based on a language policy plan. The story continues on with a lot of attention now being paid to the development of core learning tasks with a learning track. In doing so, the team focuses on conversations - questions, instructions, work bundles - informative texts - reports - presentations as text types, each time linked to the appropriate speech acts. For the KH Leuven , the story runs almost parallel, on the understanding that the basis of language development learning is formed by the Kijkwijzer Oral Communication and the Kijkwijzer Written Communication, which are used throughout the department. While the KH Leuven is committed to promoting academic language competence, the KaHo Sint-Lieven focuses strongly on the professional language skills of its students. The main focus is on achieving the NTU language goals. Here too, the teachers attempt to move from an integrating language policy to an integral language policy, which is not without bottlenecks and obstacles.

The three stories show how complex and dynamic a language policy system is. In the concluding part of this contribution, important conclusions are derived from that perspective that may be relevant for other teacher education programmes, policy coordinators and staff members. The factors that set a language policy system in motion are listed. The combinations of actions that advance a language policy process are indicated. The levers for language policy are certainly important in this conclusion: a well-thought-out curriculum that takes into account a language learning trajectory with a solid anchoring of the subject of communicative skills in the overall training process, an internship-oriented approach to professional language with the impact of the thirteen goals in the dozen, a solid Dutch department, the appropriate professionalization of the teachers involved, the student as a prospective teacher, the structural embedding of a language policy (coordination) assignment in the tasks of one or more teachers.

Education inspector Carine Steverlynck gives in her contribution A 'special' language power? Language policy within specific teacher training in adult education reports on the results of its research on the websites of the CVOs and via an extensive survey with a survey form. These results indicate that some 75% are concerned and committed to language policy, but that apart from some remarkably good designs, there is still little evidence of a systematic, coherent and effective language policy. It is in development in this education sector without there being any possibility of evaluation of results. The author believes that this book 'Towards language-rich teacher training courses' could therefore be particularly inspiring for those specific teacher training courses.

Language Competence

In her contribution Looking at Wise with Kijkwijzers? On an interim product of language policy , Lieve Verheyden presents the results of her critical examination of nine very different viewing guides or observation lists. From this she uses thirteen tips for an optimizing approach in the construction of Kijkwijzers and adds her own Kijkwijzer for Kijkwijzers for communicative competences , her 'checklist with which Kijkwijzers for communicative competences can be screened and adjusted'.

The title of the contribution by Hilde Rombouts and Dirk Berckmoes of the Monitoraat tailored to the University of Antwerp is striking. Academic language skills for every student. The added value of a tailor-made language monitor . On a voluntary basis and personal application, students from all faculties of the university who feel that they have specific needs with regard to language skills at a certain time of the academic year, in addition to an approach within their study programme, can request extracurricular support from the monitor. The intention “I want to become more academically proficient in language” leads to a concrete individual language counseling process with (a combination of) group lessons, individual support and guided self-study. The emphasis in this chapter is on the prominent role of the language tutor for the student involved in the presentation of three cases.
Another but particularly fascinating angle is the contribution of Véronique Minnebo , language policy coordinator in the Department of Social and Agogic Work at Plantijn Hogeschool in Antwerp . It is titled All Language Proficiency Students! Language policy, language guidance and language development teaching in a non-language-oriented education . The title implies the two forms of language policy cultivated in her department. The language policy includes language guidance for all students on the one hand and language-development teaching on the other. All the emphasis in Minnebo's chapter is on the crucial theme of language-developing teaching, in which the professionalization of other subject teachers under the supervision of the language policy coordinator receives almost all attention in this direction. Aspects of this are further training of colleagues in a few workshops, individual coaching, the availability of a materials bank for teachers and students, the development of tools, regular consultation and additionally a student tutorship for language guidance from senior students to first-year students. The expected pitfalls and stumbling blocks, as well as proposals for tackling those obstacles, appear in the decision to mainly teach in a language development manner.

The Education Inspectorate also presents its guide to language policy. Four education inspectors hand this to the teacher training colleges in their contribution Language policy in the service of the pupil. Presentation and interpretation of the Kijkwijzer Language Policy of the Education Inspectorate . It was designed for the Inspectorate itself, which conducts an investigation into the way in which compulsory education schools shape language policy. The inspectors believe that in light of the acquisition of the professional language proficiency competence of aspiring teachers, this observation model can be useful and useful. We focus on the aspects of Dutch as a subject, Dutch as a language of instruction and its use for communication.

Linguistic shapes

In a shorter contribution, José Vandekerckhove brings together some looser ideas in his chapter based on his experiences as a teacher educator slo KU Leuven and as a pedagogical supervisor in 'Teacher training: a lever for language policy in secondary education'. In the training of aspiring teachers, he finds their competence to be able to provide language-oriented vocational education during their internships and in the early period of their teaching of great importance. Vermetel is his relativization of the anchoring of the standard language in the basic competences for the teacher so.. for room for language variation, following the relativization of the meaning of the standard language in the writings of Joop van der Horst. In that context, we would like to refer from his frame of reference to Frans Daems ' nuanced vision on "Language in the classroom" on page 16 of this book.

Ingrid Evers and Piet-Hein van de Ven of Radboud University Nijmegen also make a substantial contribution to university teacher training with Language Policy . There, the subject-specific learning and language module is offered to student teachers for all school subjects. A second module is about the NT2 problem about school language and home language, language acquisition and vocabulary development, multilingualism and multiculturalism. The Subject-specific learning and language module comprises four sessions of one and a half hours. Each session starts from practical situations and has its own theme and a research assignment based on that theme. Accurate interaction analysis of transcribed classroom conversations, raising awareness of the different frames of reference among teachers and students around an assignment, the learning of subject-specific concepts and concepts, an optimized formulation of a writing task opened surprising language insights and perspectives for the lio's, which can be used in classroom interactions in senior secondary education. Because of the positive perspectives, the authors made a plea for institutionalization of the module at their own university and for generalization to other university teacher training programs aimed at all teachers of all subjects. Special appreciation was also given to LEONED 's digital knowledge platform with its Dutch Knowledge Base.

From there, in the contribution of Bart van der Leeuw, Johanna van der Borden and Mieke Lafleur Knowledge base Dutch for teacher training , we get a broad overview of contents and a clear insight into the organization of the two knowledge bases Dutch on the one hand for the teacher training college and on the other hand for the second-degree education. They date from 2009. These knowledge bases stimulate a particularly fundamental change in the approach to teacher training in the Netherlands. They are now determined to be competency-oriented. The competences to be acquired are substantiated with the current knowledge base. With this knowledge base, it is established what prospective teachers should know when they leave teacher training. The relevant professional competences must then be demonstrated and it is established whether the graduate students have the established knowledge available. The same standard is then used for all students. At Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, the knowledge base is already being used in the second-degree program in its own well-considered way as an instrument for curriculum improvement.
In line with the presentation of the knowledge base, Jo van den Hauwe makes a final contribution The significance of the Dutch Knowledge Base (pabo) for Flanders . For him, the knowledge base is about declarative knowledge in which there is no action repertoire and it therefore has mainly encyclopedic value for Flemish teacher training courses. For the development of the professional language skills of teacher training students, the author therefore wishes to have his own instrument that describes underlying knowledge. Nevertheless, he considers the Dutch Knowledge Base of Van der Leeuw ea as a valuable document for students and teacher educators in Flanders...

Node*

Curious, but meaningful and promising is Part 6 Finding Language Links . An De Moor provided this concluding sixth part. It is only available online to owners of the book. They have to surf to www.node.net - register, fill in their personal details and activate their license using the code they find at the top of page 2 of the book. Additional digital additions may be added at a later date.

Part 6 contains the following chapters
1. A learning network. Collaboration between teacher training programs in the CVs of the GO!
2. Inventory of e-platforms for teacher educators
3. Language Links.

Finally

If you place the book on your desk, you immediately see the large sphere on the front cover with many small spheres grafted onto it. It is the magnified facet eye of the dragonfly. It symbolizes the multifaceted view on language policy that this work has to offer and it refers to the image-rich presentation of the contribution of three colleges that depict their language policy with the mole, the owl and the dragonfly.

We can wholeheartedly agree with the vision on language policy and with the practical elaboration being initiated or implemented in many teacher training courses. Perhaps more emphasis could be placed on attitude formation within language policy. However difficult to grasp and realize, language-developing teaching as a consequence of the didactics of language-oriented vocational education is the dominant stimulus in this work. Acquiring functional language skills simultaneously with and anchored in the learning content can in the long run lead to a substantial improvement in quality and more chances of success for aspirants, but also more language-competent teachers in education.

The book is also pleasant to handle. It contains the necessary referenced literature. It is neatly and nicely illustrated with summarizing or explanatory tables and it is certainly nice to linger in between with the appropriate and pointed drawings of former colleague Ides Callebaut. It is also well structured in parts and chapters, each with its orienting and synthesizing lines of force for each chapter. The NTU objectives and the basic competences have been added as appendices.

We have been looking forward with great interest to the publication of 'Towards language-rich teacher training courses – BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LANGUAGE POLICY. After our careful reading, we are not disappointed. On the contrary. We now realize all too well how important language policy is in teacher training for all teachers. We now also understand how hard work is being done on this language policy in tertiary education. Rich in relevant ideas, this book reflects the diversity with which educators view and edit language policies. It is inspiring for other levels of education, but it is also an exchange of vision and ideas of teacher training programs among themselves. We would like to recommend this book to all policy makers, to all teacher educators and teachers involved in teacher education and to all students who have chosen teacher education: to read, consult and refer to the book at appropriate times, to find support in their own approach to so much that can be brought home under that language policy. We are therefore sure that it will find its way, its reading and its use in the field of teacher training in Flanders. We also recommend it for Dutch teacher educators at every level. They can also benefit greatly from it.

So many dedicated teacher educators in Flanders have made a great effort to provide their contributions in a collaborative framework directed by a coordinating editorial team and inspired and led by Dutch didactics Dorothea Van Hoyweghen. Congratulations to all on this achievement.

Ghislain Duchateau
Chairman Network Didactics Dutch

*Knooppunt is the realization of an online portal for digital learning materials. With one login and password, students and teachers can access all digital learning content that they have purchased from textbook publishers who are members of the association.
Knooppunt was started up by the educational publishers Van In and Plantyn and was taken over by the Educational and Scientific Publishers group (GEWU), a sub-section of the Flemish Publishers Association (VUV) vzw.

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