Springer Competency-based Language Teaching in Higher Education: 14 (Educational Linguistics, 14)

Providing practical guidelines for developing and evaluating the ‘competencies’ at the heart of new language teaching standards in tertiary education, this book includes data from prominent European research projects and fills a major gap in the literature. From the Back Cover Spanning the divide between the theory and praxis of competency-based teaching in tertiary language education, this volume contains invaluable practical guidance for the post-secondary sector on how to approach, teach, and assess competencies in Bologna-adapted systems of study. It presents the latest results of prominent European research projects, programs of pedagogical innovation, and thematically linked academic networks. Responding to a profound need for a volume addressing the practical aspects of the newly designed language degrees now being rolled out across Europe, this essential contribution pools the insights of a prestigious set of scholars, practitioners, and policy makers from diverse parts of Europe and the US. It will inform crucial decisions about instituting and evaluating competencies in a new generation of language studies programmes. "This volume offers a diversity of perspectives with contributions from both European and North American experts. Although the primary focus of the volume is on Europe, with an explicit  goal of bridging the gap between the theory and practice of competency-based teaching in the context of the creation of the European Higher education Area (EHEA) and the implementation of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), its implications for language education clearly transcend geographic boundaries. The concept of competencies is closely linked to a learner-centered, meaning-based model of learning in which learner autonomy plays a central role and which emphasizes lifelong learning. In bringing together current research perspectives from both sides of the Atlantic, the volume successfully underscores the shared challenges of transforming language education in a globalized, postmodern world." Nelleke Van Deusen-Scholl, Director of the Center for Language Study , Yale College, USA