Call for Papers

Call for papers: 39th annual APLIUT Conference

IUT Paris Diderot and Paris Descartes, 8-10 June 2017

“Body and voice in teaching and learning languages for specific and academic purposes”

During its last conference, the APLIUT invited the participants to explore games and playing roles in the teaching and learning of languages for specific and academic purposes. This theme enabled participants to think not only about the mind, but also the body. And it is the body, something which is both immediate and yet often ignored, which the APLIUT wishes to foreground in its 2017 conference.

Let us imagine a class of language students…

Axis 1: In the beginning there was chattering, background noise. Then silence…

What causes this silence? Culture? Boredom? The students’ fear? The teacher’s fear? What is this silence and what is it for? Perhaps this space allows us to breathe, to move towards the other so that silence becomes performative (Rousseaux, 2003). The teacher’s silence becomes a teaching tool, a way of leading each student to his or her own realisation. Whatever the method, the Silent Way for Gattegno, mental gestures for Antoine de la Garanderie or multiple intelligences for Gardner, the idea is the same: to give students a space in which to express themselves and the freedom to take responsibility for their own learning.

Axis 2: And the body spoke with its own language, without words or sentences…

And what if the teacher is silent, “professional gestures are at the very centre of what will be conceived and constructed together” (Boncourt, 2013) in the space and time of the class? Through his or her professional and pedagogical gestures, teachers give “body to their class” (Tellier, 2014). The body has its own language: professional, personal and cultural. The teaching and learning of a language and culture implies an understanding of the otherness of the target language, but also of its nonverbal components. Whether it is body language or the embodiment of language, the body is the medium in teaching and learning.

Axis 3: And then the voice and the body become communication in movement

“Let us not forget that it is he or she who ‘speaks’ and ‘acts’ that learns the most” (LaniBayle, 2009). But is this person not usually the teacher? What can we do to put learners in situations where their bodies and voices can come together in movement to achieve learning goals? “Body, speech, texts, cultures and culture” (Pierra, 2011) all merge together. This is what theatre can accomplish: putting oneself in another body and using another language to feel and become different, to become closer to the other (Demougin, 2008).

And so the class opens onto the world.

These are some of the questions and themes which language learning specialists, psycholinguists, and teachers and researchers from other fields will be able to explore by sharing the results of their research and their practical teaching experience.

References:

-Boncourt, Martine. 2013. L’Autorité à l’école, mode d’emploi. ESF Editeur.

-Françoise Demougin, « La didactique des langues - cultures à la croisée des méthodes », Tréma [En ligne], 30 | 2008, mis en ligne le 01 novembre 2010. http://trema.revues.org/427

-Garanderie, Antoine de la. 1980. Les Profils pédagogiques : Discerner les aptitudes scolaires. Le Centurion.

-Gardner, Howard. 1983. Frames of Mind: the Theory of Multiple Intelligence. Basic Books.

-Gattegno, Caleb. 1963. Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools: The Silent Way (1st ed.). Reading, UK: Educational Explorers. Retrieved October 10, 2011.

-Martine Lani-Bayle, « A l’écoute du silence ». 2009. www.PedagoPsy.eu.

-Gisèle Pierra, « Pratique théâtrale en F.L.E. : spécificités d’une recherche action en didactique ». 2011. Synergies Chine, N°6, Revue du Gerflint, uploaded: September 23, 2011. http://gerflint.fr/Base/Chine6/pierra.pdf -

Philippe Rousseaux, « Fonction du silence en pédagogie : une dimension performative », Éduquer [En ligne], 5 | 2e trimestre 2003, uploaded October 15, 2008. http://rechercheseducations.revues.org/211.

-Tellier, Marion, Cadet, Lucile (dir.). 2014. Le Corps et la voix de l’enseignant : théorie et pratique. Editions maison des langues.

Proposals must be submitted by returning the form below before January 15 2017 to joelle.farigoux[at]unilim.fr

Proposals will be studied anonymously by the reading committee and a decision will be made before April 10, 2017.

Proposals for articles resulting from papers given may be submitted for publication in the June 2018 edition of the journal Recherche et pratiques pédagogiques en langues de spécialité. These proposals will also be anonymous and undergo the usual double blind peer review before being accepted for publication. 

Download the Call for Papers and Form