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The Language Center in coronavirus times: new forms of learning
Learning languages in the virtual classroom: the University of Basel’s Language Center has moved the greater part of its programs online. The changes have been challenging – but the instructors are discovering new ways of teaching languages. There are changes in the management as well: Dr. Barbara Berzel will take over as head of the Language Center in mid-September.
07 September 2020
Valérie Blondel, coordinator and course instructor for French, looks back on those days in March as a particularly stressful time: suffering from coronavirus herself with a high fever and headache, she had to work with her colleagues to reorganize the Language Center’s course program. As elsewhere in the university, online teaching via Zoom was introduced in a matter of days: “Most of our language students were committed to the new way of working,” says Blondel. The number of cancellations was very low.
Better and more efficient online courses
The abrupt switch to online required the teaching staff to adapt their methods and, importantly, master the technology involved: “The new forms of teaching took some getting used to,” confirm the Spanish instructors Leticia Noser and Arisleidy Salgueiro, but they soon learned various techniques to help bring computer-delivered teaching to life. For example, learning effects can be reinforced through Zoom features such as Screen Sharing, Chat, Whiteboard and Video: “The experience has shown us how to make our courses better and more efficient.”
The course instructors point out that the teaching staff have also learned how to incorporate interaction and communication skills, group work and one-to-one support in their digital teaching. Although the intensive courses were planned as classroom events, the courses starting in the new semester from September 21 (registration until September 13) will be virtual. The plan, however, is for every language course to include two to three classroom sessions, providing space allows and distancing can be observed. The placement tests and writing assistance will take place online until further notice.
Distance learning less popular
Many language students are not keen on the idea of courses delivered via distance learning alone. According to the course instructors, many feel the need for classroom teaching and direct social contact – after all, we learn languages in order to communicate with others. The feeling of being part of a group is also motivating. However, Blondel, an experienced instructor in French, finds it difficult to wear a mask and observe distancing rules in class. She suggests that in the post-coronavirus age, the university might consider offering three versions of the language courses – a classroom course, an online course and a hybrid of the two forms, each organized and structured very differently.
New head of the Language Center at the University of Basel
Dr. Barbara Berzel will take over as head of the University of Basel’s Language Center on 15 September. She was head of the foundation course for international students at the University of Greifswald from 2013 to 2020, preparing international candidates to study at a German university.
Berzel studied German and Romance language and literature, and civil law at Freiburg im Breisgau and Rennes. Between 2002 and 2008, she was a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) lecturer at École normale supérieure in Paris, and was also responsible for coordinating the DAAD language instructors program in France. She then taught in Freiburg at the university’s France Center, at the University of Education and at the Goethe Institute. In 2011, she obtained a doctorate from the University of Freiburg for her work on French collaboration authors.
