Intercomprehension and collaborative learning to interact in a plurilingual academic environment
-
Luisa Bavieri
and
Roberta Gulinelli
Abstract
The report presents the results of an experimentation of an intercomprehension (IC) workshop, delivered in blended mode for Italian and Brazilian PhD students, and activated at the Language Center of the University of Ferrara during the academic year 2021–22. The general objective was for participants to learn a methodology that enables understanding of scientific specialized texts in their original language and encourages plurilingual academic interaction in technical-scientific contexts where English is widely used. Since the creation of a collaborative class and the development of socio-affective strategies were particularly important in this context, the two aspects that were primarily observed were the interaction dynamics aimed at text comprehension and the degree of peer collaboration. Data were obtained from direct observation, which included: 1. the degree of interaction among peers with the same L1, 2. the degree of interaction among peers with different L1, 3. the degree of interaction related to different text types. The analysis shows a higher number of interactions among peers with different L1 and a high degree of interaction in the transposition of the specialized texts, whose content familiarity facilitated learners’ comprehension. These results support the adoption of an IC approach in plurilingual academic contexts.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Integration, collaboration, friendship as core messages for younger generations
- Research Articles
- Research practice and culture in European universities’ Language Centres. Results of a survey in CercleS member institutions
- Language practices in the work communities of Finnish Language Centres
- Fostering transparency: a critical introduction of generative AI in students’ assignments
- Expert versus novice academic writing: a Multi-Dimensional analysis of professional and learner texts in different disciplines
- Raising language awareness to foster self-efficacy in pre-professional writers of English as a Foreign Language: a case study of Czech students of Electrical Engineering and Informatics
- Does an autonomising scheme contribute to changing university students’ representations of language learning?
- Investigating the relationship between self-regulated learning and language proficiency among EFL students in Vietnam
- Students’ perspectives on Facebook and Instagram ELT opportunities: a comparative study
- Designing a scenario-based learning framework for a university-level Arabic language course
- Washback effects of the Portuguese CAPLE exams from Chinese university students and teachers’ perspectives: a mixed-methods study
- Students’ perception of the impact of (meta)linguistic knowledge on learning German
- Language policy in Higher Education of Georgia
- Activity Reports
- Intercomprehension and collaborative learning to interact in a plurilingual academic environment
- Teaching presentation skills through popular science: an opportunity for a collaborative and transversal approach to ESP teaching
- Japanese kana alphabet retention through handwritten reflection cards
- Decolonising the curriculum in Japanese language education in the UK and Europe
