Conference:
ECER 2005
Format:
Paper
Session Information
Session 3, Cultural Contexts of Computer-Aided Language Learning
Papers
Time:
2005-09-08
09:00-10:30
Room:
Arts G108A
Chair:
Anna Chronaki
Contribution
In numerous scientific research resources the XXI century is titled as the age of transformations. The globalization, economical internationalization became the inevitable reality to the postmodern personality who has to live while forming the new "shared culture" and European mentality (Hargreaves, 1999). The "shared culture" and new European mentality are based on collaboration and cooperation that influence the relationship among the European countries. This new quality of relationship emphasizes the current value system, the realization of which is impossible without communication in a foreign (English) language. Verbal communication is one of the most widely argued scientific issues (Osgood, Schramm, 1954; Dance, 1967; Tubs, 1970; Persing, 1984; Steers, 1984; McQuail, Windahl, 1993; Samovar, Porter, Jain, 1981; Veckiene, Chreptaviciene, Sokoloviene, Grebliauskiene, 1999). They argue that the emancipated verbal communication enabling democratic discussion may be defined as free, topic orientated, argumentative, stylistically, grammatically correct, true to the facts, rich in the usage of the expressional means and stylistic devices. Research problem. As Lithuanian society lives in the time of transformations, characterized by changes in the political, economical, social tendencies influenced by globalization processes, fluency in foreign languages in the context of the inevitable twenty first century multi cultural environment is the main target of every teacher and the student. Dewey (1933), Dunne (1994), G. Cohen (1986), Sharan (1994), Kagan (1985) point out that learning is made especially attractive when students face problem-social context, and their responsibility is to solve these problems successfully. For this reason the paradigm of problem based learning is getting more and more important. From this context there comes out the key research issue of the paper: can problem based learning model provide the conditions for the emancipation of the verbal communication in English in a multicultural context? The above mentioned methodological and research issues let us formulate the hypothesis stating that: The realization of problem based learning model provides the preconditions for the emancipation of the oral verbal communication in English, which helps to develop professional skills too. The main objectives of the paper are: " to present the contemporary concept of emancipation; " to identify the structure, elements and models of problem-based learning; " to lay out the methodological background for the problem based learning model, directed towards the emancipation of English verbal communication in a multicultural context. The interlinks between problem based learning and emancipation of the English verbal communication processes in a multicultural context have been researched by phenomenographic methodological principles. The main stress is laid on the qualitative content analysis (Mayring, 2000), which is based on systematic realization of these steps -1) multiple reading of the text; 2) identification of manifest categories and subcategories and their substantiation, based on extracted evidence from the text; 3) interpretation of the categories with subcategories included. Categories and subcategories are interpreted according to Betti (1962) interpretation canons: hermeneutic autonomy, stressing the primary immanentic meaning of the text; the relationship between universal meaning and personal interior reasoning; subjective understanding of the world and hermeneutic coincidence of the primary and received meaning. Case-based study of problem-based learning is realized in Kaunas University of Technology International Studies Centre. The group consisting of the students from Palestine, Italy, and Lithuania was peculiar for its multicultural climate and different command of the Spoken English. The analysis of students' reflective records pointed out that problem-based learning model helps the students of different cultures to combine the development of their abilities of the interpretative English spoken communication and professional skills. Key words: emancipation, multi cultural context, emancipated spoken English, problem based learning.
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