Abstract Summary
In the «fide» system, the teachers are asked to negotiate the course contents with their participant groups, responding to their current language needs. The approach is scenario-based, and one of the teachers’ resources is a database of about 120 scenarios with detailed competence descriptors.
Abstract :
Aiming to improve quality and efficiency of language teaching to adult migrants, in 2009 the Institute of Multilingualism in Freiburg, on behalf of the Swiss Confederation, developed an Outline Curriculum for the Linguistic Development of Migrants (Lenz et al. 2009). On this basis, a large-scale needs analysis was carried out to identify the most frequent contact situations between migrants, local structures and the local population. These were then described as «scenarios» and performance descriptors were developed for the levels A1, A2 and B1. Acknowledging the fact that migrants are confronted with rather complex situations right from the beginning of their stay in Switzerland, the single scenarios are not linked to a certain language level, but one of the focuses was laid on adequate compensation strategies. The roughly 120 scenario descriptions, as well as instruments and sample materials illustrating the didactic approach, are available to the interested public (www.fide-info.ch).
The Swiss language learning system fide does not define a syllabus or a compulsory curriculum. The teachers are asked to negotiate the course programme with their participant groups and respond to their current needs. The teaching is scenario-based (an approach based on TBLT); the teachers and learners, when tackling a new scenario, would define where to put the learning focus. The implementation of the fide system was accompanied by teacher training measures. All the same, some teachers find the step from a topical or functional approach and a grammar-based progression to an open scenario-based curriculum a huge challenge.
The contribution will focus on 1) the process of needs analysis underlying the scenario database, 2) the content and structure of the scenario database, 3) the process of co-constructing-the learning programme in the classroom.
