Teachers' Day 2011

For the university:

The University President Prof. Dr. Volker Linneweber

For the Ministry of Education:

Superintendent of Schools Saarland Joachim Mohr

For the department:

Prof. Astrid M. Fellner

Wolfgang Hallet (Gießen)

Mediating between languages and cultures. The manifold processes and competences of interlingual communication.

Developing and using rating scales to assess performance on mediation tasks

This workshop explores ways in which teachers can frame the rating process and the application of rating scales based on an understanding of the social mechanisms governing communication and on the quality criteria for language testing. The aim is to provide teachers with a framework that can support them in making reflective, confident judgments and in giving learners helpful feedback on their performances on a specific task. Drawing from socioliterate theory and from the literature on language testing, scales used to rate performance on mediation tasks will be analysed as to identify possible problems they pose for the rating process and ways of addressing these.

Dictionary skills for active use: How production dictionaries help in developing writing and speaking skills.

This workshop will look at the use of production dictionaries in mediation tasks in the classroom and for exams. Most students are aware of traditional reference ('look up') dictionaries, but how can we train learners to use a different kind of dictionary to develop a rich vocabulary for writing and speaking?  We will examine how production dictionaries work, and suggest some activities that teachers can use with their classes.

Mediation is not translation.

The film „Lost in translation“ starring Bill Murray and Scarlet Johansson through its title explains a lot of the problems which occur when mediating between two languages and cultures.
So instead of translating you need to mediate between the cultures. Therefore appropriate tasks and materials are needed in the classroom.
This workshop offers a look at different materials and tasks which are available in textbooks and will show ways of adapting them using different cooperative learning techniques.

Wolfgang Hallet (Gießen)

Constructing tasks for interlingual mediation

Der Workshop befasst sich mit verschiedenen mehrsprachigen
Kommunikationssituationen, die Sprachmittlungsakte erfordern. Die
Teilnehmer/innen diskutierten die jeweils erforderliche Art der
Sprachmittlung, betten die Sprachmittlung in thematische und in
Sprachlernkontexte ein, ordnen sie Klassenstufen oder Lernjahren zu und erstellen  Aufgaben, die Sprachmittlungsakte initiieren.

"Who is s/he? What did s/he say?" Small Talk in Alltagssituationen für den Unterrricht aufbereitet.

Not everybody speaks English so very well—aber muss er das, damit man ihn versteht? Get to know some (native) English speakers from all over the world—straight from my hometown. Real people talking about their lives—or anything else?

Mediation in the classroom: Socio-cultural subtleties and knowing your audience

Mediation means different things to different teachers and learners in the foreign language classroom.  In our workshop, we will take a look at a handful of tasks one can use in mediation classes, focusing on socio-cultural subtleties of everyday situations.  Workshop participants will discuss the utility of various teaching ideas, paying particular attention to the needs of their learners.  Examples from school exams (including those from Berufsbildende Schulen) will be used, as will a variety of written texts and audio/visual media.

Mediation in the facebook era