Bellaterra Journal of Teaching & Learning Language & Literature

Foreign Language Teaching in Poland - Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. An Interview with Professor Hanna Komorowska

Violetta Borecka — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Hanna Komorowska, full professor of applied linguistics and language teaching, University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, works in the field of pre- and in-service teacher education. As head of the curriculum development centre, she built a team which designed the first set of communicative syllabus documents for second and foreign languages taught in the Polish school system. After the fall of communism, she was heading the Expert Committee for foreign language teaching and teacher education reform in Poland. Former vice-President of Warsaw University, the Polish delegate for the Modern Languages Project Group of the Council of Europe, member of the EU High Level Group on Multilingualism, consultant to the European Centre of Modern Languages in Graz, co-author of the European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages she now serves as president of the Polish edition of the European Language Label and the Training and Consultancy expert of the ECML.

The analysis of scholars’ English language needs

Katarzyna Morena — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The English language has become widespread as the lingua franca of higher education. It is also a key means of university internationalizing, academic and student mobility, and for individual researchers, a tool to establish their scholarly reputation. The study aims to determine faculty English language needs such as: a) reasons for knowing English, b) the level of L2 skills according to CEFR, and c) language competences for the future. The results show that participants need to know English to communicate effectively in professional contexts, to publish but also read journals, and to write reviews. The overall level of the English language skills varies between B1 and B2, and speaking and writing are considered important competences. The study confirms the need to enhance the faculty’s productive skills to meet high demands for publications in foreign journals and enable international scientific collaboration, and academic mobility, all of which require high language proficiency.

Webquest for Academic Purposes — a Strategy for Developing Students’ EAP Skills

Magdalena Łubiarz, Agnieszka Kościńska — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has profoundly affected the educational sector, prompting rapid and unforeseen changes that have significantly altered both the working environments of educators and students and the methodologies for knowledge dissemination and acquisition. In response, language educators have increasingly explored pedagogical strategies that actively involve students in content creation. Consequently, various tasks incorporating project-based learning and other student-engagement techniques have been integrated as standard components of language instruction.

This article seeks to examine the potential benefits of implementing a WebQuest within an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course. It presents an in-depth analysis of a study conducted with participants of an academic language course, focusing on the efficacy of WebQuests in enhancing specific EAP skills.

Students’ personality types and their choices concerning writing in English as a foreign language

Anna Szuchalska — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The article attempts to present the results of a pilot study conducted in January – June 2020 among Polish high school students. The main aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between students’ personality type and their choices concerning writing in English as a foreign language. The study consisted of two stages – in the first stage students took an online personality test (MBTI), in the second – they filled in a questionnaire to express their views concerning writing skill.

The first, theoretical, part of the article depicts different definitions of personality from the perspective of psychological types and psychological traits and summarises basic information connected with writing skill. In the second part the results of the study are presented and some conclusions are drawn, focusing on what implications the knowledge of students’ personality types can have on teaching writing.

Book Review. The L1 as a consciousness-raising tool in learning L2 grammar, by Aleksandra Wach, 2019

Martyna Awier — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Cross-Linguistic Lacunarity: Integration of Theoretical Linguo-Cultural Knowledge and L2 & C2 Competence Development

Joanna Szerszunowicz — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Learning a foreign language involves not only being faced with another language, but also with a different culture. Therefore, adopting a linguo-cultural perspective is a prerequisite to proper developing a learner’s competence foreign language (L2) and foreign culture (C2). The L2 and C2 aspects not represented in one’s own language (L1) and one’s own culture (C1) create the sphere of lacunarity (linguistic and cultural gaps) in L2 learners, observed on various planes, e.g. in lexis, syntax, genres, gestures etc. From a teaching perspective, the introduction of the notion of lacunae increases the learner’s linguo-cultural awareness, preparing the student to expect lacunae in L2 and C2 and to be conscious of gaps in L1 and C1 from the perspective of L2 and C2 users. The presentation of the notion of lacunarity broadens learners’ theoretical knowledge with vital practical implications since it enables students to develop strategies how to deal with lacunae.

Editor’s note: Foreign Language Education in Poland

Violetta Borecka — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The aim of this monograph is to acquaint and interest the reader with some of the vast array of issues concerning foreign language education in Poland. There are a few contextual historical factors which have had a great impact on the country's educational priorities in relation to foreign languages. Nowadays learning an L2 (usually English) is compulsory from the first grade of primary education. Current methodological trends in Poland are similar to general tendencies in Europe and contemporary research on foreign language education draws from different fields including sociolinguistics, neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, computer-oriented studies, and others.