Coordination of Language Teaching in Switzerland Current Status – Developments – Future Prospects
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Studies + Reports | 34E COORDINATION OF LANGUAGE TEACHING IN SWITZERLAND Current Status – Developments – Future Prospects Sandra Hutterli (Editor) | Bern 2012 2 COORDINATION OF LANGUAGE TEACHING IN SWITZERLAND Current Status – Developments – Future Prospects Sandra Hutterli (Editor) | 2012 The opinions and conclusions contained in the EDK’s series «Studies + Reports» are those of specialists and are not necessarily those of the EDK. 1 Studies + Reports | 34E Glossary | Terms central to the field of language teaching have been assembled in a five-language glossary (see annex 1). However, in the interest of readability, these terms are not indicated in the text. Compulsory eleven-year education | The numbering of school years conforms to the system given in the Harmos Agreement (art. 6). For cantons that follow this system, pre-school is compulsory (from the age of four) and lasts two years, which brings the number of compulsory school years to eleven. According to this system, the first year of primary school becomes the third school year, the second becomes the fourth, and so on. This does not mean that school-based learning begins in pre-school. The two years of compulsory pre-school do however contribute to the development of the child’s competences, especially in the language of schooling. Authors: Sandra Hutterli (Editor) | Daniel Coste | Daniel Elmiger | Brigit Eriksson | Peter Lenz | Daniel Stotz | Susanne Wokusch | Daniela Zappatore Special contributions: Gian Peder Gregori | Brigitte Jörimann | Rosanna Margonis-Pasinetti | Basil Schader | Gé Stoks | Martine Wirthner Specialist revisors: Raphael Berthele | Daniel Coste | Gabriela Fuchs | Thomas Lindauer | Georges Lüdi | Olivier Maradan | Waldemar Martyniuk Participants in the development and implementation of the project: • Coordination Group for Language Teaching (KOGS) • Professional Group Foreign Languages of COHEP Editor: Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK) Title of the German edition: Koordination des Sprachenunterrichts. Aktueller Stand – Entwicklungen – Ausblick Title of the French edition: Coordination de l’enseignement des langues en Suisse. Etat des lieux – développements – perspectives Order a publication: Generalsekretariat EDK, Haus der Kantone, Speichergasse 6, Postfach 660, 3000 Bern 7 © 2012, General Secretariat EDK Printed by: Ediprim AG, Biel Status of text: January 2011 2 CONTENts PREFACE 5 1 INTRODUCTION 7 1.1 Context 7 1.2 The objectives and structure of the report 12 1.3 Target groups 13 1.4 Acknowledgements 13 2 LANGUage POLICY AND LANGUage LEARNING IN EUROPE AND IN SWITZERLAND 15 2.1 Switzerland and languages – general observations 15 2.2 Europe and languages 17 2.3 Recontextualisation 23 2.4 Summary 28 3 LANGUage COMPETENCE AND LANGUage LEARNING 30 3.1 Models of competence and Educational Standards 31 3.2 Action- and competence-based language learning 41 3.3 Coordinated learning of several languages to achieve plurilingual competence 49 3.4 Summary 56 4 TOWARDS A PLURILINGUAL APPROach TO LANGUage TeachiNG 61 4.1 A holistic approach of language teaching: multilingually oriented language teaching methodology / integrated language teaching methodology 62 4.2 Language and content – language and culture 75 4.3 The language of schooling – essential to integration 89 4.4 Languages of origin / of migration 98 4.5 Foreign language learning within the general context of compulsory education 103 4.6 Horizontal and vertical coherence in language teaching 112 4.7 Summary 123 5 THE COHERENCE OF NATIONAL EDUcaTIONAL STANdards, CURRICULA, assessMENT INSTRUMENTS AND Teacher TRAINING 127 5.1 Curricula, Educational Standards and Education Monitoring 129 5.2 The current evolution of curricula in Switzerland 130 5.3 Initial and continuing teacher training 137 5.4 Assessment instruments 140 5.5 International language diplomas 146 5.6 Summary 153 6 SUMMARY AND perspecTIVes 156 6.1 The main lines of coordination 156 6.2 Success factors 163 6.3 The outlook 167 3 ANNEX 171 A1: Glossary of language teaching 172 A2: The EDK’s language activities 194 A3: Collaboration and cooperations 199 A4: Overview of some current studies on language learning financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) 202 A5: Overview of current instruments, as of January 2011 206 A6: Overview of current projects, as of January 2011 211 A7: Bibliography 213 4 PREFACE Language teaching constitutes the main disciplin- but had a lasting influence on teaching policy and ary area in the Swiss education system on which political debates. the EDK has logically and for historical reasons a major influence. Shortly thereafter, the 2001 European Year of Languages saw two decades of evolving teach- On the basis of the School Agreement of 29 Oc- ing methodology set down in a Common European tober 1970, the EDK on 30 October 1975 adopt- Framework of Reference for Languages (learning, ed recommendations and decisions regarding teaching, assessing) which would rapidly trigger the introduction, reform and coordination of the and stimulate the creation of teaching and as- teaching of the second national language to all sessment concepts, throughout Europe and be- pupils during their compulsory schooling. It took yond, in a deliberately multilingual and intercul- a number of years to put these into practice in all tural approach. the cantons – i.e. lay the groundwork in view of bringing second national language teaching for- After an unsuccessful attempt in 2001, on 25 ward to the 5th or 4th year of primary school. For March 2004 the EDK finally unanimously adopt- twenty-five years the Commission Langue 2 sup- ed a Strategy of Language Teaching and an am- ported this coordination effort. bitious medium-term working programme that established a common national framework and, During this time, Switzerland also became a reso- ultimately, better regional coordination. This de- lutely multilingual country as the number of chil- cision, both bold and consensual, prompted di- dren from migrant backgrounds in its classrooms verse reactions. Since then, our strategy has been increased dramatically. Recommendations con- confirmed on several occasions by popular vote cerning the schooling of foreign language chil- at the cantonal level and, in 2007, was included in dren were published for the first time in 1972 and the Intercantonal Agreement on the Harmonisa- updated several times, most recently in 1991, to tion of Compulsory Education and backed by the supplement the directives aimed at fostering and Swiss Parliament’s adoption of the Federal Act promoting the multilingualism that is becoming on the National Languages and Understanding an ever more important aspect of Swiss society. between the Linguistic Communities (LangA). Re- These were followed in 1985 by recommendations gional conferences, the education departments concerning the introduction of Italian language of the cantons, universities and Universities of and civilisation in the upper secondary schools Teacher Education, and professional and cultural and student and teacher exchanges in Switzer- associations have since been closely involved in land; the definition of common meeting points at the implementation of these decisions and rec- the pivotal stage between compulsory and post- ommendations. compulsory schooling (1986); and finally a dec- laration on the promotion of bilingual teaching It is against this background, and at a time when (1995). expectations for educational competences (the language of schooling and foreign languages) During the 1990s, when the EDK was about to cel- are for the first time being jointly determined by ebrate its hundredth anniversary (1997), the ques- means of national Educational Standards, that a tion of the third language – English in this case summary report has been drafted which presents – in the context of compulsory schooling became the changes that have been made to date, current increasingly pressing. A group of experts was giv- priorities, challenges, problems to be solved, and en the task of putting forward coherent proposals, avenues to be explored. The publications Studies and in 1998 it produced a General Concept of Lan- + Reports of the EDK are distinctive in that they guage Teaching that was never officially adopted have been drafted by specialists – they are not 5 political texts. A number of specialists working in the Universities of Teacher Education and edu- cation and methodology services of the different linguistic regions, led by the General Secretariat, have managed to give a concrete overview and a selection of current methodological approaches with a view to implementing the EDK’s strategy. Recognised specialists both Swiss and foreign have also read and commented on the texts. It was a momentous task and we take the opportu- nity to thank the coordinator, the authors, and the specialists who have given their time. One of the salient messages of this effort is that language learning cannot be compartmental- ised; it fulfills the different needs of different in- dividuals according to the use that they make of language and the competences they acquire for that purpose. This is referred to by specialists as «functional plurilingualism». This is exactly what the EDK’s Strategy of Language Teaching is aim- ing for. It does not rely solely on language teach- ers but on the school system as a whole, as well as on the extracurricular opportunities and sup- port provided by families, training institutions, the media and community associations, and indeed on Switzerland’s