WEEK 3. WEB TECH ENHANCED  AUDITORY SKILLS.

If in the previous weeks we have been confronted with studying works, articles by relevant great theoreticians in the domain of psychology, education science and the already professional bloggers, this week was important for having gotten acquainted with in-the-field practitioners, the best ones, the most committed, enthusiastic and indeed emeritus tutors.

The word/concept of the week is more than ever RELEVANCE.

First, the concept arose regarding the aural: pronunciation /listening skills development. The conclusion was that it is determinant for first and foremost teachers (noblesse oblige) to have native-like pronunciation of the language whose promoter we are; it is a lifelong process of acquiring and maintaining a decent level, just like in the professional sport - regular training is a condition for staying fit. We have been pointed to excellent on-line resources and possibilities that are modern, always updated and suitable for all needs, purposes, levels of proficiency. 

Regarding developing good pronunciation/audition skills for students, it turns out is not less negligible; the earlier the learner starts to study a foreign language – the better. In addition the personal motivation counts, whether the learner has an instrumental need for the language – for increasing his employability chances, it could be indispensible for pursuing a future career; or the driver is personal development needs, for being an all-rounded personality, for communication, as his mark of personal success and achievement. I know people that are strict and exigent with themselves, who break the stereotypes about a sort of self-sufficiency, complacency and self-pride at having attained a certain level or arrived somewhere high in a career, who always dare for more, for better and are very successful in general. They deserve admiration – the fighters and winners.

Relevance is all about Delicious as well, the social bookmarking the purposeful gleaning, selection, categorization and storing of Internet resources, sites, freeware, shareware URL-based. Now I was simply regretting I have not done this before. All that is relevant for personal development, for a professional, a researcher is safe-kept in a self-tailored, self-built golden DB; a mutual exchange is possible with notification and permission in a highly organized and highly civilized, our web.

Moreover the Delicious structured organization is a valuable time-saver, we exclude to the maximum distractors when we need to quickly find a resource and use it - a golden shortcut.

From the European leaders of teaching in-the-field practitioners, I have thoroughly studied three projects: Pagila Camelia’s and Nadina Nicolichi’s from Romania and Joanna Zubel’s from Cracow Poland. Here, honestly, the age range of groups who participated in the experiment was irrelevant!

The volume and level of complexity of work done, the variety of activities undertaken by Camelia’s 13 years learners is absolutely awesome. Camelia said the level of her learners’ English proficiency is intermediate, which I suppose would be equivalent or even superior to the level of English speaking proficiency of Joanna’s university students, or Nadina’s college students, not to mention my students here included too. The same goes for the digital literacy, Camelia’s digital natives would outrun again in Internet navigation and usage skills Joanna’s university students, as their establishment’s technical endowment is scarce, and the management resistance or unwillingness to implement the technological opportunities in the educational process deprives learners of developing such skills. Me, here included, I caught myself on the idea that I would not give the students the task of telling directions, giving instructions for space orientation by using Google maps because I do not know myself this, (I need directions myself!); Romania’s 13 years olds did such tasks 4 years ago!!!

It is about setting priorities, it is about a true professional dedication, breaking personal prejudices and ethnical group, nationality’s stereotypes, it’s about perseverance and letting the ambiance noise behind the noise cancellation headset in order to focus on the objective!

This week I have participated in an internal, institutional didactic staff’s forum, a regular seminar within the Germanic Philology Chair one can see some photos and flick through my presentation [*].