Horses for Courses Fitting square pegs in square holes

September 2005 – the context The arrangements between universities are not always clear Students cannot always access courses they wish to – unrealistic expectations English and American Studies allow very few Erasmus students on their programmes Level of English can be inadequate Many E.S. at the ULC registration exercise

Our response To create more bespoke courses for E.S. We already had: credit-rated - Tandem (more of which later) Ethnography for International Students EAP course And generally – Cambridge Preparation classes (fee-paying) In-sessional Classes (but for non EU students)

New courses developed Creative Writing Business English British Society seen through Film – a course for international students, with language support

Questionnaire When in doubt, devise a questionnaire Results were not very surprising – but some useful information came through New courses suggested – Media Studies (television, press) British Cultural Studies And one important point made – no ‘Erasmus ghetto’.

Tandem Learning – how we differ… Credit – rated Very large programme (1 st semester 180 students) French, German, Spanish, Italian Target Population – E.S., LEAP students but increasingly specialist language students Enquiry based element in second semester Consistently excellent student feedback

Benefits of Tandem Learning One to one peer tuition Promotes independent learning Electronic component (part of U of M 2015 agenda) Most importantly for E.S., integration into British student society

Other Forms of Tandem Learning L. Pal – for Arabic, Chinese and Japanese students of English and their English partners An asymmetrical scheme V-pal – an MSN/Skype Tandem for Italian, German and Japanese Electronic Tandem project with Barcelona (September 2006)

Integration of Foreign Students Tension between students attending bespoke courses and their being part of the wider educational community It was ever thus – even in the 60s, with few foreign students on European campuses, they tended to congregate Our own students abroad often experience the same isolation and indifference Tandem programmes make a huge contribution Integration of non UK native English speakers in British culture classes is another way forward Ethnography classes also helpful

Multilingual FL classrooms Increasingly diverse MFL courses – we can no longer presume homogeneity Invitation to target language teaching Encouragement to adopt international standards, criteria, examinations – such as the CEF; DALF; GI examinations; DELE Awareness of cultural issues that we perhaps were less open to in the past A need to understand how speakers of other languages address the TL – their needs & problems

In conclusion We have discussed some of the challenges There are enormous benefits also - Diversity is fun! – for teachers & students Our foreign students bring qualities some of our own students lack (work ethic, desire to communicate, maturity) Most important of all: tolerance, understanding, perhaps even friendship, between people of very different backgrounds