How to motivate students: innovation and creativity in language classes

Michel Boiron

Michel Boiron started his career as a teacher of French as a Foreign Language (FFL). He later became a teacher trainer, before joining the Centre Méditerranéen d’Etudes Françaises de Cap d’Ail as Teaching Coordinator. Following this, he has worked at the Centre d’Approches Vivantes des Langues et des Médias (CAVILAM) as Teaching Coordinator and now Chief Executive Officer. As an author, he has created a variety of teaching materials in the field of FFL, such as “Echanges” (1990), “Pont Neuf” (1996) Klett Verlag, “Documents authentiques écrits” (1998), Clé international, “Pont Neuf, entrée” (1999) and “ Label France ” (2002), Klett Verlag. He also works in cooperation with several media organisations, such as TV5 Monde or “L’espace d’apprendre”, the Institut de France’s own radio station.

Aleksandra Długosz

Aleksandra Długosz has been coordinator of the Comenius Mobility action, part of the Lifelong Learning Programme, at the Polish National Agency since 2006. She is responsible for the Comenius training course programme which allows education staff to follow a short course in another European country. She also runs the Comenius assistants’ programme which allows student teachers to spend time in another European school. When Poland joined the EU in 2004 – 2005, she worked at the Council of the European Union in Brussels as a Polish translator.

Liz Fotheringham

Liz Fotheringham started her teaching career in London over 30 years ago. A French and German specialist, she has also taught English as a foreign language. From 2007 - 2010 she was a regional subject adviser with the Association for Language Learning on the national support programme for the renewed secondary curriculum in the UK, and currently works as an independent consultant and as a trainer for Links into Languages, a UK government-funded programme of professional development for languages teachers. Liz continues to teach languages part time, including some beginners Mandarin, at a school where she was formerly Head of Languages. She has also written materials for Oxford University Press as part of their publications in support of the new examination specifications for GCSE French.

Anna Grabowska

Anna Grabowska is coordinator of the European Language Label Programme at the National Agency for Lifelong Learning in Poland. She is also responsible for organizing the European Day of Languages in collaboration with Eunice, the EC Delegation in Poland and the Warsaw City Office of Education. In 2009, she served as coordinator and translator of Polish group terminology in the SurveyLang research project on the European Indicator of Language Proficiency. From 2005 to 2010 she also worked as a teacher at the Institute of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warsaw, postgraduate classes in the for legal interpreters. In 2004-2005 she worked as a Polish interpreter at the Council of the European Union in Brussels.

Iwona Janowska

Iwona Janowska - Assistant Professor in the Centre for the Polish Language and Culture at the Jagiellonian University. She is a teacher, lecturer, and researcher in the field of language teaching. She has published many articles on teaching foreign languages in Polish and foreign periodicals and written several books for learners and for teachers, e.g. Techniques du classe (2005), Planowanie lekcji języka obcego (2010). Since 2005 she has been an examiner of the State Commission for Certification of Polish as a Foreign Language. Since 2009 she has been Secretary of the Commission. She has taken part in workshops for Polish language teachers held in England, USA, Brazil, Argentina. In co-operation with Dominika Bucko, a graduate student of the Polish Language Faculty..

Renata Klimek-Kowalska

Renata Klimek-Kowalska is the president of the Association « Europe des langues et de la culture », one of the partners of the REAL project. Her specialities are innovative approaches in foreign language teaching, and intercultural communication. She is active in the promotion of the French language in Poland, where she works with several regional, national and international stakeholders. Since 2005, she has coordinated the project “Classes francophones en Silésie”, involving more than 60 teachers of French as a foreign language. As an expert teacher trainer, she participates in the Pestalozzi Programme of the Council of Europe. Renata Klimek-Kowalska also cooperates with the National Agency of the European Commission for the promotion of the eTwinning Programme in Poland.

Anna Kozdój

Anna kozdój represents the Directorate General for Translation (DGT) in the European Commission Representation in Poland, where since 2007 she has been responsible for fostering EU multilngualism policy and promoting translation as a profession. Part of her work is to organise events promoting intercultural dialogue and cultures of Europe. In 2004-2007, she worked as a translator in DGT in Luxembourg and before (2003-2004) in the Department of International Cooperation in the Ministry of National Education. She is a graduate of the Institute of Applied Linguistics of the University of Warsaw.

Terry Lamb

Dr Terry Lamb is Director of Teaching in the School of Education at the University of Sheffield, UK. He has been President of the UK Association for Language Learning (ALL) and is currently President of FIPLV, the world federation of language teacher associations. Terry spent 16 years teaching languages in secondary schools. He has also carried out advisory work, taught English in Poland and Turkey, and has been a consultant to the Ministry of Education in Malaysia on the `Learning how to Learn´ curriculum development project. He is an official EU Expert on Intercultural Education, and has worked as a consultant to the Ministry of Youth, Education and Sport in the Czech Republic, on projects relating to the development of a European dimension in the curriculum and to the development of positive attitudes towards the Roma population. Terry plays a major role in the development of language policy nationally in the UK. In 2008 he was appointed Chair of the Languages Diploma Development Partnership by the Secretary of State for Education, Ed Balls. Terry has published widely on languages education, with a special interest in learner and teacher autonomy and multilingualism. He convenes the international Research Network in Learner Autonomy in Language Learning under the auspices of AILA (Association internationale pour la linguistique appliquée). Terry is also a member of EuroPAL, a project funded by the European.

Waldemar Martyniuk

Waldemar Martyniuk is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. He has worked as a teacher trainer, authored textbooks, curricula, and testing materials for Polish as a foreign language and has lectured in universities in Germany (Bochum, Gießen, Göttingen, Mainz, Münster), Switzerland (Basel), and in the USA (Stanford University) as visiting professor. He translated the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages into Polish (2003). Since October 2008, he has been Executive Director at the European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe, based in Graz, Austria.

Władysław T. Miodunka

Professor dr. hab. Władysław Miodunka is Professor of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at the Jagiellonian University. In 1978 he founded the Department of Applied Linguistics which began at this point to specialise in the teaching Polish as a foreign language. He has been a visiting professor at many foreign universities in the USA (Slavic Department Wayne State University, Detroit; Department of Slavic Languages, Stanford University) in Australia, Brazil (DELEM Universidade Federal do Paranà), Russia (Lomonosov University). He was the founder and the first chairman of “Bristol”, the Association of Teachers of Polish Language and Culture in the World. In the years 1991-1994 and 1995-2002 he was the chairman of Polonia Studiem Committee. Since 2003 he has been the chairman of the Polish State Committee for the Certification of Polish as a Foreign Language. He has written and edited many books, articles and textbooks on teaching Polish as a foreign language and the relations between language knowledge and national/ethnic identity.

Linda Parker

Linda Parker is Director of the Association for Language Learning (ALL), leading a small team of employed association staff based at the University of Leicester, UK. ALL acts as copilot of the REAL project and is responsible for the dissemination activity. Linda taught French in secondary, adult and higher education before moving into management and project work. Before joining ALL she was Head of Information Services at CILT, the National Centre for Languages in London . Through her work at ALL, Linda is a member of national and international groups which discuss languages education and policy, as well as being involved a number of UK and European projects. She has written on languages in adult education and is a regular speaker at training events for teachers of languages.

Anna Seretny

Anna Seretny - Assistant Professor in the Centre for the Polish Language and Culture in the World of the Jagiellonian University. She is an active language teacher, lecturer, and a researcher in the field of the applied linguistics. She has published several Polish language textbooks (Kto czyta nie błądzi, Per aspera ad astra) and the first Polish language picture dictionary. She is co-author of ABC nauczania języka polskiego jako obcego (2005) and an editor of many works devoted to Polish language didactics. Since 2004 she has been an examiner of the State Commission for Certification of Polish as a Foreign Language. In the years 2004-2008 she was the chairman of Bristol, the Association of Teachers of Polish Language and Culture. She has given many lectures and taken part in many workshops for Polish language teachers held both in Poland and abroad (in England, Germany, USA, Serbia, Lithuania).

Rainer Wicke

Rainer E. Wicke is a training coordinator at the Bundesverwaltungsamt – Zentralstelle für das Auslandsschulwesen (German Federal Administration Office – Central Office for Foreign Schools). He works there as a school inspector, teacher and trainer. He has been involved in developing curricula and material for German as a Foreign Language both in Germany and abroad (Canada and the Czech Republic). His main thematic focuses are the methodology and didactics of pupil-focused and action-based learning as well as in cross-curricular project-based approach. In addition, he is interested in intercultural civilisation and the use of literary texts in the teaching of German as a foreign language. He has published widely including Aktive Schüler lernen besser (1993), Handeln und Sprechen im Deutschunterricht (1994), Vom Text zum Projekt (1997), Grenzüberschreitungen, Der Einsatz von Musik, Fotos und Kunstbildern im Deutsch – als - Fremdspracheunterricht in Schule und Fortbildung (2000), Aktiv und Kreativ lernen (2004) und Herz oder Pistole (2007). As an author, he also took part in the creation of the textbook Wer? Wie? Was? Mega 2 (1998). For several years he has been on the editorial commitee of the journal Fremdsprache Deutsch.