What is Mediation in Language Learning and Teaching and How Does It Manifest?
The MiLLaT poster was presented by Michaela Konarkowa and Sarka Kadlecova at Cercles Conference, Brno, September 10, 2020.
The Czech partner disseminated the MiLLaT Project internationally via publishing and presenting MiLLaT poster during the Cercles Conference in Brno in September 2020. The target group included the colleagues from Czechia, Slovakia as well as representatives of foreign language centres in Fribourg i. e. educators working at all levels.
Cercles brings together 350 Language Centres, Departments, Institutes, Faculties or Schools in Higher Education whose main responsibility is the teaching of languages, which makes it an ideal target audience for our project.
MiLLaT Webinar
Mediation in Language Learning and Teaching
Webinars “Mediation in Language Learning and Teaching”, organised by Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania, were held on the 8-9th of December 2020. The two-day event was targeted at higher and secondary education teachers. Its main objective was to provide training on innovative mediation activities or strategies and disseminate the intellectual outputs of the MiLLat project. About 70 teachers and university lecturers from Poland, the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia participated in the event which was organised online. Among the webinar participants, there were teachers from secondary schools, gymnasiums, state colleges and universities.
On the 8th of December, an honourable guest and the moderator of the webinar, Enrica Piccardo, professor of Applied Linguistics and Language Education at University of Toronto, Canada, delivered a webinar titled “The new CEFR descriptors for mediation and the dynamic nature of language learning: from the conceptualization to the class”. Enrica Piccardo has extensive experience in language education research, teacher development and teaching of multiple languages. She is also the co-author of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, Companion Volume, which introduces the new descriptors for mediation in language education. Daiva Pundziuviene, chair of EFL department at Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania, presented a short overview of the intellectual outputs of the MiLLat project.
On the 9th of December, Kris Peters, professor and chair of the Department of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and executive board member of the European Language Council, delivered a presentation titled “The place and importance of mediation in language teaching and learning”. After the presentation, the participants were actively engaged in the webinar delivered by Robert King, who teaches at the University of Birmingham and is a Senior Content Developer for Pearson ELT. The webinar participants mutually agreed that mediation can bring more empathy, tolerance and flexibility to the classroom and help students’ develop their socio-emotional and communication skills. The takeaway message of the webinars was that a language teacher does not only develop language learners’ linguistic competence but also teaches them to respect human values and be less self-centred.
More about MiLLat webinars: uki.vdu.lt/seminaras
About MiLLat webinars on Vytautas Magnus University website:
About MiLLat webinars on VMU Institute of Foreign Languages website and social media:
- http://uki.vdu.lt/uki-kviete-dalyvauti-seminaruose-apie-mediacija-mokant-is-kalbu/
- https://www.facebook.com/vdu.uki
The Place and Importance of Mediation in Language Learning and Teaching (Online presentation at Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania for the Erasmus+ funded project MiLLaT – Mediation in Language Learning and Teaching, Dec. 9 2020), Kris Peeters, University of Antwerp | click here
Call for papers!
International Scientific Conference SUSTAINABLE MULTILINGUALISM 2021
The Institute of Foreign Languages of Vytautas Magnus University and Language Teachers’ Association of Lithuania would like to invite you to the SUSTAINABLE MULTILINGUALISM 2021 conference, which will be held in Kaunas, Lithuania.
For more information visit: sustainablemultilingualism.com
The Lithuanian MiLLat team delivered a poster presentation entitled ‘The Role of Linguistic and Cultural Mediation in Learning the Host Country’s Language’ at an online international conference Sustainable Multilingualism 2021 on 4-5 June 2021. The authors of the poster: Almantė Meškauskienė, Daiva Pundziuvienė, Jūratė Matulionienė and Teresė Ringailienė. You can find the poster here.
A member of the Lithuanian MiLLat team, Rima Sabaliauskienė, delivered a presentation entitled ‘The Application of Mediation Activities in Learning / Teaching Languages at A1/A2 levels’ at an online international conference Sustainable Multilingualism 2021 on 4 June 2021.
The Helsinki Team ran a workshop on mediation at the 29th Communication Skills Workshop, which was held online on 9 April 2021. The theme of the CSW was “Motivation and Engagement in Language Teaching and Learning”, and their workshop was entitled “Making mediation more visible in language teaching”. The authors were Roy Siddall, Mika Aromäki, Gráinne Hiney, Tuula Lehtonen, Kari Pitkänen, Nina Wallden, Cintia Widmann Etchemaite. In this workshop, they considered how some common tasks in language courses, such as summarising a text in writing, could be introduced to students in an engaging way as mediation activities that bear relevance to real-life communication. In addition, they explored ways for students to peer or self-evaluate the effectiveness of their mediation and understand what is important for effective mediation, so that they can become aware of individual strengths and weaknesses or development needs as mediators. By raising awareness among students of what mediation is and why it is relevant, language teachers could increase motivation towards and engagement with mediation-related activities.
Making mediation more visible in language teaching | presentation | pdf
The 1st International MiLLaT Conference ‘Mediation in Language Learning and Teaching’, 9th of September, 2021
The conference was organised by the Centre for Foreign Language Teaching of the University of Warsaw, the leader of the MiLLaT project. It was held under the honorary patronage of the Polish Association of Modern Languages (PTN) and the European Language Council.
The primary goal of this conference was to create a forum for discussions and to broaden the current perspectives on mediation, multilingualism, language learning, teaching, and developing modern materials and tools among language teachers, teacher trainers and educators. This one-day online event was targeted at higher and secondary education teachers and was aimed at disseminating the MiLLaT project activities and outputs. Over 300 participants from 35 countries showed their interest and registered for the conference.
The detailed Programme of the Conference (in English and Polish) can be found in the electronic version (PDF) on the MiLLaT website. The Programme includes the links to the bios and abstracts of all the presenters. The Programme had a wide range of inspiring paper presentations, digital posters and workshops from experienced language teachers, teacher trainers and educators.
The MiLLat Conference met with great interest and attracted quite a few researchers and foreign language teachers willing to present their ideas and share their experiences internationally. The event allowed the participants to consider the different views and challenges of embedding and utilising the concept of mediation in foreign language teaching in various countries, for example, in Croatia, Finland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, etc. It revealed the need to share lessons learned from online language learning and teaching through Covid-19 from the multinational perspective.
Moreover, the MiLLaT Conference was an online event due to the pandemic, but this way we managed to reach some teachers for whom participation in such events is usually difficult if not possible – namely teachers from small towns or villages, who need to travel long distances and bear high costs of getting to the event venue. The event helped us to disseminate the MiLLaT project activities and outputs among teachers working in primary, secondary and tertiary education. We got very positive feedback from the participants. Here are a few examples of post-event feedback.
‘It was a great eye-opening experience for me to learn so many ways of approaching this concept of “mediation”.’ (Yoko, New Zealand)
‘Serdecznie dziękuje za możliwość udziału w Państwa konferencji. Ciekawe wystąpienia i dzięki nim inspiracje na przyszłość.’ (Marzanna, Poland)
‘I’d also like to thank you for the opportunity to attend. It was indeed very informative and interesting and provided me with plenty of insight and inspiration!’ (Lina, the UK)
‘Congratulations to the committee and to all the participants.’ (María Magdalena, Mexico)
‘It was a pleasure to attend the conference. I hope that in the future I will have the opportunity to attend other interesting conferences.’ (Gesjana, Albania)
‘Thank you for the experience and guidelines, thank you for the certificate!’ (Dania, Romania)
6th Saarbrücken International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching
online
27 – 29 October 2021
Sylwia Kossakowska-Pisarek (University of Warsaw, Poland):
Mediation Activities and Strategies in Academic Learning (Abstract)