Research Mentor(s)
Drickey, Kirsten
Description
Western’s Employee Language Program (ELP) offers free professional development language workshops on campus for university faculty and staff. This poster outlines the various ways that ELP workshops diverge from the traditional language classroom in order to prioritize confidence and accessibility for both program participants and classroom facilitators. Western’s ELP creates atypical classroom dynamics by placing student facilitators--undergraduate students with expertise in the target language, who are often younger and have less professional experience than participants--at the front of the classroom. This model inherently rejects associations of age and knowledge often found in academia. ELP facilitators create casual environments free of tests and graded homework and promote a theme-based model that encourages participants to navigate the world around them from the perspective of their target language. Our analysis will focus on facilitator comparisons of ELP workshops to accredited classes in the Modern and Classical Languages Department and other adult and community education models. To conclude, we present the observed outcomes of our program which demonstrate the importance of the ELP on WWU's campus.
Document Type
Event
Start Date
16-5-2018 9:00 AM
End Date
16-5-2018 12:00 PM
Department
Modern and Classical Languages
Genre/Form
student projects, posters
Subjects – Topical (LCSH)
Language and languages--Study and teaching (Higher); Continuing education; Adult education;
Subjects – Names (LCNAF)
Western Washington University
Geographic Coverage
Bellingham (Wash.)
Type
Image
Keywords
Language Pedagogy, Language Learning
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Included in
Flipping student-teacher paradigms in Western’s Employee Language Program
Western’s Employee Language Program (ELP) offers free professional development language workshops on campus for university faculty and staff. This poster outlines the various ways that ELP workshops diverge from the traditional language classroom in order to prioritize confidence and accessibility for both program participants and classroom facilitators. Western’s ELP creates atypical classroom dynamics by placing student facilitators--undergraduate students with expertise in the target language, who are often younger and have less professional experience than participants--at the front of the classroom. This model inherently rejects associations of age and knowledge often found in academia. ELP facilitators create casual environments free of tests and graded homework and promote a theme-based model that encourages participants to navigate the world around them from the perspective of their target language. Our analysis will focus on facilitator comparisons of ELP workshops to accredited classes in the Modern and Classical Languages Department and other adult and community education models. To conclude, we present the observed outcomes of our program which demonstrate the importance of the ELP on WWU's campus.