The idea of acquiring several languages simultaneously is not new. However, it has been common practice in secondary education as well as in certain disciplines of Philology to acquire several mandatory foreign languages in separate, unconnected courses. Tafel et al. (2009, pp. 5-6) suggest that the institutionalization of the simultaneous acquisition process leads to richer results in acquisition and supports multilingualism. This paper introduces and evaluates a Croatian Polish taster course, looking at target-oriented materials, multilingual testing, and further challenges that the teachers encountered while preparing the taster course. After a brief illustration of the applied didactic principles of co-teaching, intercomprehension and scaffolding, as well as an overview of the course design, sample items of the multilingual mock exam and final assessment introduce the possibilities of multilingual testing. As a result, all students who sat the final exam, passed with at least a ‘good’ grade and both languages benefitted from the activation of the recently acquired knowledge in the other Slavic language. Upon students’ request, a follow-up course was offered in the next semester.

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Effective but Tedious: Co-teaching a Croatian Polish Taster Course. About Adequate Materials, Multilingual Testing, and Other Challenges

  • Melanie Alexandra Zedler

摘要

The idea of acquiring several languages simultaneously is not new. However, it has been common practice in secondary education as well as in certain disciplines of Philology to acquire several mandatory foreign languages in separate, unconnected courses. Tafel et al. (2009, pp. 5-6) suggest that the institutionalization of the simultaneous acquisition process leads to richer results in acquisition and supports multilingualism. This paper introduces and evaluates a Croatian Polish taster course, looking at target-oriented materials, multilingual testing, and further challenges that the teachers encountered while preparing the taster course. After a brief illustration of the applied didactic principles of co-teaching, intercomprehension and scaffolding, as well as an overview of the course design, sample items of the multilingual mock exam and final assessment introduce the possibilities of multilingual testing. As a result, all students who sat the final exam, passed with at least a ‘good’ grade and both languages benefitted from the activation of the recently acquired knowledge in the other Slavic language. Upon students’ request, a follow-up course was offered in the next semester.