Page 88 - Compétences plurilingues : perspectives et actions / Plurilingual competencies: perspectives and actions

A. Alchazidu: Building Presentation and Communication Skills...

As to the precise involvement of the two teachers in the seminar, it proceeded as follows.
When working with the whole class, the teachers continuously took turns and comple-
mented each other, particularly when presenting the main topic or assigning tasks. How-
ever, the main part of the seminars consisted of workshop activities, where both teach-
ers worked in parallel, each with a different group of students. The arrangement proved
to be crucial for the assessment conducted by the teacher-psychologist, who could work
with the students individually or in pairs. Such an approach was especially appreciated by
students suffering from excessive stress, nervousness, or anxiety, which was manifested,
among other things, when they had to present in front of the class and when the atten-
tion of their classmates was focused on them. Thanks to these arrangements, the teacher
psychologist could provide targeted and individualised guidance and speci ic recommen-
dations tailored to the particular needs of each student.

As an illustrative example, the workshop on cultural differences in the context of body lan-
guage and facial expressions can be mentioned. On that occasion students were given var-
ious texts, either in English or Czech, which mentioned speci ic examples of the meaning
of particular gestures and facial expressions used in different countries around the world.
Students were asked to read the text individually and then summarise the main ideas using
a language other than that of the source text.
Since the discussion on facial expressions included the re lection of different emotions, the
teacher-psychologist was able to converse with the students in a natural way also about
their own feelings, asking about how they managed their emotions in particular situations
or which moments they found particularly challenging and why. Within this conversation,
the teacher-psychologist could then sensitively provide support and give speci ic advice, e.g.
on coping with negative emotions and mindset changes.
The tandem approach to teaching adopted in this course thus allowed for the simulta-
neous addressing of a range of transversal competencies. During whole-class sessions,
teachers complemented each other in different languages, presenting topics and assign-
ing tasks, which enhanced students’ ability to adapt to different learning styles and per-
spectives, promoting lexibility and adaptability. During workshop activities, where both
teachers worked with different groups of students, individual guidance from the teacher-
psychologist provided support tailored to students’ speci ic needs, promoting individu-
alised learning and self-ef icacy. This was particularly bene icial for students experiencing
signi icant emotional strain or unease.
Regarding this complex issue, it was particularly notable how easy it was to apply the
plurilingual and pluricultural approach in this course. This should be seen in the light of
the speci ic pro ile of the students, as it quite signi icantly led to a close blending of personal
experiences. Indeed, very often students’ perspectives on different cultural expressions of
other societies passed through the ilter of their own experience as a migrant or refugee. As
students often stated, they could approach these realities from different perspectives, based
on having to deal with different culturally conditioned realities on an almost daily basis.

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