This paper elaborates on the notion of language awareness among multilingual students. In the first part the author presents the results of a research study whose objective was to assess if multilingual students are aware that the languages they speak and study (English and German) interact constantly and if they recognize the phenomenon of the positive and negative transfer. The subjects were students of Applied Linguistics at the universities of Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk and Poznań in Poland. The second part of the article is an attempt to connect theory and practice. It contains some suggestions how to improve multilingual foreign language teaching. A comparison and discussion of grammar structures aims to promote language awareness among students of foreign languages.
The paper deals with the issue of the interaction of languages in a multilingual person. First, it is related to an error analysis of the word order in German which investigates the influence of English as the first foreign language with the bounded word order on German as the second foreign language with the relative bounded word order in the group of Polish high school students. Afterwards, the basic structures of German, English and Polish word order are compared to show the topological relationship between the languages.
This paper relates to the concept of didactics of multilingualism. Thedidactics of multilingualism is geared towards promoting the languageawareness of pupils and showing that knowing more languages makesthe learning process more efficient. This can be realized by comparinggrammar structures, comparing vocabulary, discussing sociocultural aspectsor taking advantage of the intercomprehension. The aspect of thenegative transfer should be also captured by showing the interferencefields and discussing the interference errors. The didactics of multilingualismshould be understood as a continuous process that begins with theacquisition of the mother tongue and goes further over the acquiring thefirst foreign language and the next foreign language. Following this, thedidactics of multilingualism should involve tasks for teachers of the Polishlanguage and teachers of the first, second and next foreign languages.
The following paper addresses online learning in the Covid-19 pandemic and focuses on foreign language learning in the context of foreign language courses in higher education. The aim of the study is to investigate e-courses which the pandemic caused to become a substitute for face-to-face courses. Interviews were conducted with students from the University of Gdańsk and the Academy of Music in Gdańsk to find out their opinions. The research findings showed that organisation-related aspects, such as time saved, convenience or the ability to work professionally and study at the same time, were recognised as positives of online learning, while the actual educational goals, such as effectiveness, motivation and group collaboration, were seen rather as negatives of the situation. The work of teachers and their commitment were viewed positively. We did not recognise any major differences between online teaching and face-to-face interaction in this respect.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.