The language centre as a laboratory for innovation
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Sabina Schaffner
Abstract
This paper discusses the potential of language centres in higher education as laboratories for innovation. Despite their hybrid character as central service providers that are also defined by their teaching, their positioning at the academic periphery, and the lack of a mandate to do academic research, language centres still have an obligation to conduct research as a means of promoting innovation. The design-based research (DBR) approach in learning and teaching, in which teaching stakeholders examine learning processes in real situation, offers a suitable opportunity for language centres to overcome the restrictions placed upon them. DBR can be done using existing resources and the innovation potential of a language centre’s teaching staff. The leadership and management of the language centre must be made responsible for providing and/or enabling the necessary structural, material, and cultural conditions for such research. This paper discusses the DBR approach at language centres in higher education and its impact on leadership. It then gives two examples of the successful implementation of DBR at the Language Center of UZH and ETH Zurich.
References
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© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Celebrating CercleS: introductory notes to 30 years of professional activity in the field of language learning and teaching
- Voices from current and past CercleS Presidents
- Plurilingualism, learner autonomy and constructive alignment: A vision for university language centres in the 21st century
- Recent developments concerning the use of English for teaching and research purposes
- The underlying action-oriented and task-based approach of the CEFR and its implementation in language testing and assessment at university
- The language centre as a laboratory for innovation
- The development of a Language Centre. An example of best practice in a historical perspective
- Voices from European Language Centres and beyond
- Academic, cultural and social growth through the language of websites: A challenge for European University Language Centres
- An evaluation of culture teaching and learning in a Uniwide Language Program: Teachers and students’ perspectives
- Learner autonomy, self-regulation skills and self-efficacy beliefs – How can students’ academic writing skills be supported?
- Enhancing assessment in the recognition of prior learning with digitalisation
- The university language centre as an open-badge issuer: New directions in ESP assessment and accreditation
- Cognitive test anxiety in high-stakes oral examinations: Face-to-face or computer-based?
- Exploring the relationship between motivations, emotions and pragmatic marker use in English-medium instruction learners
- Raciolinguistic ideology in first-year university (non)heritage Chinese classes
- Reports
- Taking research from periphery to core in a Caribbean Language Centre
- Integrating entrepreneurial working life skills with foreign language teaching – two cases from the University of Oulu
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Celebrating CercleS: introductory notes to 30 years of professional activity in the field of language learning and teaching
- Voices from current and past CercleS Presidents
- Plurilingualism, learner autonomy and constructive alignment: A vision for university language centres in the 21st century
- Recent developments concerning the use of English for teaching and research purposes
- The underlying action-oriented and task-based approach of the CEFR and its implementation in language testing and assessment at university
- The language centre as a laboratory for innovation
- The development of a Language Centre. An example of best practice in a historical perspective
- Voices from European Language Centres and beyond
- Academic, cultural and social growth through the language of websites: A challenge for European University Language Centres
- An evaluation of culture teaching and learning in a Uniwide Language Program: Teachers and students’ perspectives
- Learner autonomy, self-regulation skills and self-efficacy beliefs – How can students’ academic writing skills be supported?
- Enhancing assessment in the recognition of prior learning with digitalisation
- The university language centre as an open-badge issuer: New directions in ESP assessment and accreditation
- Cognitive test anxiety in high-stakes oral examinations: Face-to-face or computer-based?
- Exploring the relationship between motivations, emotions and pragmatic marker use in English-medium instruction learners
- Raciolinguistic ideology in first-year university (non)heritage Chinese classes
- Reports
- Taking research from periphery to core in a Caribbean Language Centre
- Integrating entrepreneurial working life skills with foreign language teaching – two cases from the University of Oulu
