A Focus Group is a gathering of informed individuals or experts who wish to share their point of view and experience on a topic or problem in a specific area.
CercleS decided to set up focus groups in order to promote more active participation among its members as well as to pull together the competences available within our individual institutions, and by doing so:
CercleS members are thus invited to express their interest and commitment in working in any of the activities listed below:
FG Associate Members
So far, Associate Members have not played a central
role in CercleS and do not always feel they are a part of our confederation at
the same level as full members. In some cases they are not in a position to
create a National Association. With this focus group we would like to invite
Associate Members to become more active in CercleS by discussing their specific
problems, their needs and their potential, sharing with us their experience and
competencies.
FG coordinator and contact person: Olga Filipchuk -
filipchuk_o@mail.ru
FG Autonomy
Since CercleS was established in 1990, language centres have offered their
learners various ways of improving their language skills. They are often
innovative places where new pedagogical approaches and devices for language
learning are proposed.
Among the different learning possibilities offered to students in language
centres, some aim at facilitating the development of learner autonomy. Some
language centres indeed offer tools such as self-access centres, and language
advising facilities that enable learners to take more control of their learning
to support autonomization.
The purpose of this focus group is to investigate the relationships between
learner autonomy and language centres. It will also try to clarify the concept
of autonomy, which, although widely used in language learning publications
these last 30 years is complex and open to various interpretations.
This focus group will collaborate e.g. with Focus Group 4 (Innovation) and 6
(ELP / CEFR).
FG Conference and Event Management
This focus group will develop guidelines for the
organisation of CercleS conferences and events, i.e. develop a framework for
CercleS conferences, CercleS seminars and workshops, and events organised in
co-operation with CercleS. This comprises structural and budgeting aspects, the
use of languages, the question of follow-up activities, etc.
FG coordinator and contact person: María del Carmen Arau Ribeiro - maricarmen@ipg.pt
Guidelines for the organisation of CercleS conferences and events
FG CLIL in Higher Education
This focus group aims to bridge the learning experience in CLIL up through
higher education (HE) so that content and language integrated learning is not
limited to English-medium instruction. With cutting edge research that draws
upon the potential of technology for terminology-based growth and advances in
classroom management and scaffolding that places the learner at the center, the
FG examines how to deal effectively with staff training and certification for
HE teachers who have not previously trained to teach through another language,
administrative objectives for internationalization, and the roles that language
centers can play.
This focus group will collaborate with Focus Groups 1 (Language Policy) and
4 (Innovation).
FG Language Policy
This focus group covers a wide variety of themes and
leaves room for various activities and initiatives. The group may discuss and
analyse the following questions:
What language policies have universities in Europe
adopted so far? What form should or could a suitable university language policy
take?
Is there a need for language centres to have a
language policy? Do the individual National Associations have their own clearly
defined language policy?
FG Language Testing and Assessment
Several National Associations have set up their own
language testing network or system, or are in the process of setting them up.
However, cross-border co-operation is still at an initial stage. This focus
group will analyse the models available within our National Associations (and
outside), analyse their strengths and weaknesses, perhaps develop ideas for new
models, seeking to promote harmonisation and / or mutual recognition through
agreements at bilateral or multilateral levels.
FG LSP
Over the past few years, a
number of individual initiatives have led to the organisation of several
Languages for Specific Purposes-related events across Europe, demonstrating the
growing interest for the subject. This Focus Group aims to federate and sustain
those efforts in order to establish and develop a dynamic network of LSP
practitioners, representing the broadest possible range of languages and
disciplines.
Our objectives are:
- to provide and foster a forum for reflection,
informed by theory and/or classroom practice;
- to support colleagues new to LSP;
- to encourage colleagues working in LSP to
disseminate their work (for example in the form of conference papers or
publications based on the above);
- to identify areas for collaboration such as
resource creation/sharing, exchange of best practice or cross-border projects;
- to organise and/or support LSP-dedicated
events;
- to maintain regular communication on all of the
above with the members of the Focus Group
FG coordinators and contact persons: Benoît
Guilbaud - B.Guilbaud@sussex.ac.uk and
David Tual - dhpt2@cam.ac.uk
FG Management and Leadership
The focus group aims at creating a low threshold
network for directors for sharing challenges, questions and by doing this
provides collegial support in management and leadership. Expected results are
an intranet for directors to exchange experiences, workshops and webinars for
directors and a mentoring system for new directors.
The CERCLES Coaching & Mentoring Network is now
available and details can be found in the Documents section of this website for
the Focus Group, including the types of coaching & mentoring that are
available, and contact details for volunteer coaches/mentors.Other experienced
CERCLES member Directors are encouraged also to participate, and anyone willing
to join the Coaching & Mentoring Network as a volunteer should contact the
FG Co-ordinator.
FG Multilingualism
In many ways it seems obvious that university
language centres and departments are multilingual institutions par excellence:
they bring together speakers of different languages, work to increase individual
speakers’ ability to use more languages, while many members of staff are
experts on how languages and their speakers relate to one another. And yet, it
is not at all clear how language centres could best develop this potential to
facilitate and manage their own institutional multilingualism, while also
contributing to inclusive and progressive language policies at their own
universities and beyond.
Two seemingly contradictory trends can be
observed in the multilingual landscape of higher education in Europe today. On
the one hand, internationalisation has led to an increasingly rapid process of
"Anglicisation” in which English is being institutionalised as a common
(second) medium of instruction at many European universities. This follows on
from its establishment as the unrivalled lingua franca of academic research and
publishing over the last 40 years or so. On the other hand,
internationalisation and increased mobility also mean that more and more multilingual
and multicultural students and staff arrive at our universities. Many issues
and questions related to how language centres should react and could possible
guide and influence these processes remain open, for example: the issue of acknowledging and certifying individual
multilingual repertoires, the positive use of students’ and teachers’ multilingual
skills in the language teaching classroom, the maintenance of academic
knowledge and skills in languages other than English, or the question of how to
relate meaningfully to multilingual communities outside of our universities.
The Cercles Focus Group on multilingualism would
like to function as a platform for the exchange of ideas for colleagues who are
interested in finding, researching and documenting institutional responses to the
sociolinguistic changes and challenges affecting higher education. The first
aim would be to develop a consultation paper with a work programme focusing on
the situation and issues within higher education as well as wider linguistic
developments in our societies.
FG Teacher Training, Teacher Education, Staff Exchange
This focus group will develop models and modules for professional
development activities and staff exchanges within the CercleS network. It will
identify areas in which training is required. It will also identify how the
individual member associations can best benefit from competencies available in
other member associations and thus lead to mutual exchange.
FG coordinator and contact person: Helena Šajgalíková - helena.sajgalikova@euba.sk
FG Translation
Many University Language Centres have started to
provide translation services both to their own university and to external
clients. The contexts in which they operate vary considerably. Some Language
Centres have a dedicated translation unit. This is in some cases organised like
a small business and outsources jobs to freelancers when need arises. Other
Language Centres (perhaps the majority) provide translation services on a more
loosely organized basis and rely on internal staff for the most part. Whatever
their organization, in providing translation services Language Centres face
some common challenges and the Translation Focus Group of CercleS is interested
in finding ways of sharing ideas and expertise.
This is not an exhaustive list and there are many other activities CercleS could focus on. Ideas and suggestions are very welcome.
If you are interested in joining a CercleS Focus Group or suggesting a new, please contact the General Secretariat at generalsecretariat@cercles.orgor the relevant FG coordinator.
