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Language Learning in Higher Education

Journal of the European Confederation of Language Centres in Higher Education (CercleS)

Editor-in-Chief: Szczuka-Dorna, Liliana / O’Rourke, Breffni

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Integrated learner support through language advising: Initial experiences and considerations at Padova University Language Centre

Mariana Bisset / Barbara Gödeke
Published Online: 2015-10-02 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2015-0020

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Abstract

The Language Centre at the University of Padova provides language courses for students of all disciplines and with a wide range of needs. Over the years, the number of students having to deal with a language requirement has increased exponentially, while the teaching personnel and general resources have struggled to keep up. Catering to all of the various needs, expectations, time commitments and background experience of the students poses quite a challenge. Fostering autonomy in learners by helping them to develop skills related to self-management, self-monitoring and self-assessment (Benson 2001) makes the challenge easier to face, both in practical terms as a way of “easing the strain” on the teaching potential of the institution, and, for the learners themselves, by enabling them to take their learning onto a more meaningful and long-term level (Holec 1981; Little 1995). To this end, the Language Centre aims to build up a Language Advising Service. As part of this service, language advisors would be available to support learners and help them to build awareness and make informed decisions about their own learning (Gremmo 1995). Three of the Language Centre’s language teachers (English, German and Spanish) participated in an online course provided by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México for language advisors in self-access centres. In this article we briefly describe our experience and the immediate effects of the training course on our work both in and outside the classroom, providing support and guidance for students. We also discuss some of the benefits and challenges of setting up a language advising service in our university context.

Keywords: learner autonomy; language advisor; self-access centre; individual learning process; distance learning; motivation; language centre

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About the article

Mariana Bisset and Barbara Gödeke

Mariana Bisset is an English language teacher and Barbara Gödeke is a German language teacher at the University of Padova Language Centre. They teach students in their first year of the modern languages degree course and provide online courses for students of all faculties who must fulfil the obligatory university language requirement. They are also involved in other Language Centre projects such as testing, creating online materials for language learning and, most recently, integrating a self-access centre for users of the language centre.

Published Online: 2015-10-02

Published in Print: 2015-10-01

Citation Information: Language Learning in Higher Education, Volume 5, Issue 2, Pages 423–440, ISSN (Online) 2191-6128, ISSN (Print) 2191-611X, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2015-0020.

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