DiLeM – Language Teaching Principles, Practice, and Multimedia
This Axis aims to structure and develop research in language teaching in English, Spanish, German, Arabic, Chinese, and FLE. The group develops working themes in connection with the Languages for Specialists in Other Disciplines (LANSAD) sector and the research work is rooted in applied research and action research.
Three Programs are in Progress:
(1) Modelling of Teaching-learning Programs
Research 1: Grammar and Language Teaching
Research 2: Specialised Languages and LANSAD
Research 3: Tools and Methods for Language Level Assessment
(2) Formalisation of Intermediate Linguistic Systems (S.L.I )
Corpus InterLangues Project (CIL)
(3) New Teaching Devices
– European project: European Benchmarking Chinese Language (EBCL)
– Project development of the pragmalinguistic competence of Learners of Spanish as a Foreign Language (ELE)
Contacts: aura-luz.duffe@univ-rennes2.fr, christine.evain@univ-rennes2.fr
[DiLeM – PROGRAM 1]: Experiential Language Teaching and Learning
This program is based on current developments within the framework of action research projects, carried out in collaboration with language centres, LIDILE Doctoral and Master DDL students, who have made it possible to measure the impact of the setting up of immersive scenarios—such as virtual, physical, and serious games—on the dynamics of learning and co-construction of interactions in a foreign language. The first significant results of the contribution of these projects allow DiLeM to target two parallel research projects—for learners and teachers—for the next contract.
Ø Research 1: Innovative Immersive Learning Devices
This research aims to develop and assess learning processes, paths, and tools that take into account the action of the learner and their immersion in language interactions in a foreign language. Secondly, it contributes to the development of digital and multimedia tools and their reception and assimilation among foreign language learners. The Axis intends to develop and assess Open Educational Resources (OER)/Open Immersive Resources (RIL).
Ø Research 2: Innovative Teaching Devices and Community of Practice
DiLeM measures the impact of innovative physical, active, and virtual devices on the community of language teachers. The favourable reception of the pilot prototypes of innovative environments produced during this contract—escape game, physical challenge, virtual world, 360° environment—made it possible to measure the need to develop dynamics within communities of practice. The challenge here also contains the continued training of language teachers. The research aims to study new practices, whether they relate to innovative environments or innovative organisational and structural ecosystems such as distance language teaching, peer tutoring, digital workspaces, and open education.
[DiLeM- PROGRAM 2] : Teaching of non-Western Languages
This program is a continuation of DiLeM’s research in languages whose writing is distinct from the Latin alphabet.
For Chinese as a Foreign Language, during the 2022-2026 contract, the aim is to develop and experiment with teams of teachers from colleges, high schools, and universities with new learning materials for graphemes and the most frequent Chinese characters—whether for the simplified script used in the People’s Republic of China since the 1950s or for the traditional characters in use in Taiwan—research in this area is largely lacking; Le chinois…comme en Chine Vol. 3 (2021) used at the Rennes 2 Language Centre, will also be the subject of experiments with learners at advanced levels. These experiments will constitute a homogeneous and relevant corpus for DiLeM’s Interlangue Collections.
For Arabic as a Foreign Language, the project provides for a comparative study of the phonetic errors produced by learners who are prior speakers of Arabic and puts into perspective the errors of so-called “French-speaking” learners and learners called “Arabic speakers”; a remediation strategy using the verbo-tonal method will also be studied.
[DiLeM- PROGRAM 3]: Evaluation of Learning Devices and Tools
All of the programs and research developed by DiLeM will take place in Program 3, which supports two interrelated projects:
1. The analysis of interlanguage, the provision of a linguistic diagnosis, a level prediction system, and the constitution of a learner corpora called Corpus Interlangues (CIL).
2. The establishment of a system for evaluating learning devices and tools. The partnership with the University of Sherbrooke, Canada, on the grids of the analysis of pedagogical sequences, will be continued during the 2022-2027 contract. Another section will have to deal with new Open Badge-type evaluation systems and their integration into university language training modules.