Introduction to the interview
with Gabriela Casandra Hurghis
by Antoinette Camilleri Grima
|
Gabriela Casandra Hurghis |
|
|
Gabriela Casandra
Hurghis is Head teacher of Colegiul National "Unirea"
Brasov, Romania. The National College "Unirea"
is situated in the historical centre of the city
of Brasov and dates back to 1897 when it was inaugurated
as the Civil School for girls. Today it caters
for about 900 students aged 11-19. The students"
profiles are mainly in the humanities, but there
are also classes for Mathematics and Information
Technology. |
The humanities section consists of bilingual and intensive
English, French, and Spanish classes and in 2006-2007
German will also be included.
In this interview, Gabriela Casandra Hurghis explains
some of the ways in which this school has made important
strides in motivating learners to learn foreign languages
largely through project work and autonomous methods
(ProiectBilingvXIF2005final.exe).
Hurghis has a significant contribution to make in illustrating
how a number of suggestions provided in the Guide
for the improvement of language education are translated
into daily practice in a whole-school context.
This interview focuses on the following:
- The diversification of material for language learning
(Guide, section 6.5.1): "Unirea"
students are encouraged to work on projects linked
to their community resources. The activities
which take place outside the school premises are meant
to support the development of linguistic, social and
cultural competences, all of which have become indispensable
in today"s enlarged Europe;
- Longitudinal co-ordination of language provision
(Guide, section 6.3) (Guide_ACG.ppt).
Students at "Unirea" proove they have acquired
cross-curricular competences by obtaining certificates
(Diplome Approfondi de la Langue Française,
levels B1, B2) and by continuing their education in
francophone universities. "Unirea"
students create their own "education programme"
on the basis of their personal wishes and competences.
It is interesting to note that this school has also
incorporated the services of the French Embassy and
of an organisation for retired teachers.
- Decompartmentalising language education (Guide,
section 6.4). At "Unirea" teachers are
encouraged to adopt a multidisciplinary approach to
language education, and to work in teams.
The National College "Unirea" (www.cnunirea.ro)
was awarded the title of "European School"
in recognition of its multilingual education, for its
numerous school exchanges with similar institutions
all over Europe, as well as for its general orientation
towards international co-operation. |
Diversifying Language Learning Material
A. Camilleri Grima interviews Gabriela
Casandra Hurghis
Question: First of all can you give
us some background information about the education system
in Romania?
Hurghis: Education in Romania is free
and compulsory for children between the ages of 6/7 and 14/15.
Most children choose to continue their education beyond the
compulsory school age which offers them a general type of
education. There are two ways of continuing Secondary level
education. The Lower Level (ages 14/15 to 16/17) comprises
professional schools and is compulsory for those students
who have not obtained the required grade for entry into the
Higher Level. The latter type of school (ages 16/17 to 18/19),
and the Baccalaureate, are the entry points to the institutes
of higher education. The National College "Unirea"
is a high school based on a general and theoretical education
with special focus on the study of foreign languages.
Question: Does your school, therefore,
follow a different curriculum from other high schools? Who
decides the curriculum?
Hurghis: In Romania there are two types
of curriculum: a national one, compulsory for all students,
and a regional one, which is drawn up by the schools themselves
according to their specific needs and their profile. The curriculum
consists of a description of content and examples of activities.
At the end of high school students are expected to have mastered
certain competences which are assessed by national examinations.
Question: What about the study of foreign
languages?
Hurghis: Romanian students are obliged
to study two foreign languages, starting with one foreign
language in third grade, at the age of 8. They then
take up a second one in fifth grade, at the age of 11.
Question: What does the curriculum say
about foreign language learning?
Hurghis: It is possible for a school
to establish bilingual classes as a way of teaching a foreign
language. In this case students have five class hours
per week in which one of the foreign languages is taught alongside
History, Geography and Civilisation courses which are taught
in that language. Alternatively, the students can choose
to follow an intensive language course of four class hours
per week in a chosen foreign language plus Civilisation courses
in that language. Thus, students following the bilingual
programme receive more hours in the foreign language as well
as using the foreign language as a medium of instruction.
According to the regional curriculum, the school may increase
the number of these hours and of courses by 1 or 2 hours per
week. The study of other subjects through the foreign
language is allowed on condition that qualified teachers are
available. These classes are also divided into smaller
groups of students.
Question: Are your students admitted
on the basis of special qualifications in languages?
Hurghis: In order to be admitted
to our school, the students must take an entrance exam consisting
of the Romanian Language, Mathematics, and Geography/History.
The average mark obtained at this exam has a decisive role
in establishing their place. Moreover, in order to be admitted
to a foreign language bilingual or intensive class, they must
take a special advanced test in both the written and oral
modes.
Question: What have you done in recent
years to diversify the language curriculum? What concrete
measures have you taken to improve teaching provision?
Hurghis: For the past sixteen
years, the National College "Unirea" has been
engaged in exchange programmes with similar institutions in
Norway, France, Ireland and Italy. Within the framework
of a Comenius project, our school worked together with schools
in The Netherlands and France on the importance of water.
Furthermore, thanks to Socrates exchanges, our foreign language
teachers have taken in-service courses within the further
education project in several European countries. Similarly,
foreign language assistants are annually present at "Unirea",
intensively collaborating with our teachers and students.
Diversifying the offer of foreign languages signaled an important
step to a plurilingual education programme. In the beginning,
bilingual classes in English and French were set up.
In 2005-2006 Spanish was introduced both as a bilingual stream,
and as a foreign language for the second graders who also
learn English and French. In 2006-2007 a German bilingual
class will be introduced.
Question: I can imagine that students
find it interesting and motivating to work with, and to meet,
other youngsters from different countries. Which international
project are you most happy about?
Hurghis: Among the projects our school
is proud of there is the contest Join Multimedia, an annual
Europe-wide student competition organised by the Siemens Company
which is open to students aged between 12 and 21. Romania
participated for the first time in 2005 with teams from Brasov,
Medias and Bucharest. Students could choose to work
either within a school team or as part of a cross-border team.
At our school, teacher Doina Vasilovici worked with two teams
of 17 year old students from the Maths-Computing class in
11th grade. One team was made up of four students and
another team of six students. The topics chosen were
"Dream Job" and "Light moves the World"
respectively. After working on the project both at school
and at home, the students produced two CDs, an on-line presentation
(100 MBS storage capacity), and a three-page write up.
These projects were awarded diplomas and prizes. In
2006 one five-student team worked on the production of a CD
about "Our Region", Brasov city and its surroundings.
Amongst other things, the students took pictures of strange
places and architectural details. In both competitions
the requirements were clear: to produce original texts, original
sound tracks and images. The students worked very well
in teams: sharing ideas and creatively generating data in
an atmosphere of enthusiasm.
Question: This sounds interesting in
terms of diversifying learning material, considering that
it is done in a foreign language, for foreign consumption,
and for a definite purpose. Have you carried out any other
international projects?
Hurghis: There is L"histoire de
P"tit Louis. This project was created by two French
students at the Sorbonne who invited students from Eastern
European countries to meet each other through their imaginative
project which consists in writing a chapter for a story.
The purpose is to arouse the students" curiosity and
motivation to discover their European neighbours and find
out about their national cultures, and to find out about what
is different and what is in common between them. The
first chapter of the story was written by the French students,
and the teams from the different countries were in charge
of continuing the story. The students were coordinated by
our teacher Delia Antonescu. (http://ptitlouisseposa.free.fr).
Question: This sounds like a very original
project. It is based on creative writing. Have you participated
in any project where the focus was on non-language content?
Hurghis: A teacher of economics,
M. Laurentiu Luca, led a sociological research project which
lead to a publication. The students sought to answer
the question: "What do Romanian adolescents expect from
today"s society?" The publication contains
the results of questionnaires and an interpretation of those
results.
Question: In what other ways do your
students experience a diversification of learning material?
Hurghis: The diversification of material,
and teaching/learning methodology, forms part of a larger
project initiated by the French Embassy and the Romanian Ministry
of Education.. In fact we are proud to say that our
school was among the first in Romania to set up bilingual
classes for French in 1990. We now belong to a
group of fifteen high schools in Romania carrying out this
project aimed at reorganising the French bilingual studies
and teaching French by using it as a "tool" rather
than as an end in itself. As part of this, students
are guided by their teachers to choose a topic for a project
which takes up a certain amount of work and commitment inside
and outside school. Due to the fact that Brasov is a
tourist city situated in an important historical region of
Romania, the students opt for topics related to tourism and
national heritage. Thus, we first produced a tourist leaflet
of the surroundings of Brasov. In the second year we achieved
a leaflet of Brasov and a CD - Rom.
Question: Can you explain to us how the work is actually
carried out?
Hurghis: First of all we form a team
of teachers of French together with teachers of non-language
subjects that are taught in French, such as Geography, History,
Computing and Physics. Forty class hours per year are
reserved for this project, but the students are expected to
carry out extra research, to study documents and other sources
of information outside school. Each student has a special
notebook in which they write information related to the tasks,
describe the different problems they meet on the way, and
give an account of the stages of the project. The student
may write down about any aspect related to the project as
it unfolds. This notebook is the student"s personal
document.
Question: This sounds like autonomous
learning. Which stages do the students and the teachers go
through from the beginning to the end of the project?
Hurghis: As a first step, teams
of teachers are set up and care is taken to approach the chosen
themes from a multidisciplinary perspective. The rationale
of the project is explained to students who are also informed
about how it will develop and what they are expected to do.
As a second step, tasks are allotted to each teacher on the
basis of the forty class hours dedicated to the project.
Students at this stage brainstorm for ideas on the theme.
The third phase is the longest one. At this stage students
work in groups, establish their tasks and carry out the research
work. In the meantime, teachers counsel and supervise
students as they work on the material that they research and
generate themselves. The training team holds a meeting
at least once a month. Step four is the completion and publication
stage.
Question: You have mentioned that work
is carried out outside the school premises. Can you explain
more?
Hurghis: For instance, for the project
on tourism, the students went to the Archives, the City Hall
and some museums. Students are sometimes accompanied
by teachers but they can also go on their own. At one
point the students themselves acted as guides to the French
teachers who were visiting our school in order to share their
experience of projects in which they were participating.
I would like to mention that every year the project teams
benefit from the support and guidance of the French Embassy
in Bucharest which, along with the Board of Education, has
ensured several training courses for members of the teams;
the AGIR association also took part in the project through
its members who are retired teachers ..\Tools\RoadMap_ACG.doc;
..\Tools\Road Map_results.doc).
Question: I mentioned autonomous learning
earlier on. Key features of autonomous learning are
materials and activities. How have you diversified these
aspects?
Hurghis: Among the material used
are magazines, newspapers, bilingual story books in Romanian
and French; the Internet; and cameras. Activities include:
visits to the school library, the Centre of Information and
Documentation, the French Alliance in Brasov and city libraries;
the identification of useful sites on the Internet; visits
to museums; visits in Brasov and the surroundings; visits
to the Association for the Environment Protection, the City
Hall, the Forest Protection Association, the Statistics Institute,
the Water Company and Ana Electronics Company.
Question: What, in your experience,
are the advantages of working with students in this way?
Hurghis: Among the advantages
I would list: the multidisciplinary approach which correlates
the project to the school curriculum in different subjects;
the experience that students obtain in carrying out research
work; their increased experience in using computers; learning
how to design questionnaires; working in a team composed of
both teachers and students; content learning such as information
about the protection of the environment.
Question: And what difficulties do you
face?
Hurghis: There are problems like when
the IT classrooms are not available; the fact that despite
our efforts, we have not yet managed to include all the students
in the project, and to make sure that each of them carry an
equal share of responsibility; and the lack of cooperation
from some Institutions.
Question: Embarking on a bilingual teaching
programme has meant a lot more than teaching a non-language
subject through a foreign language for your school.
What lessons have you learned from this experience that can
be of benefit to others?
Hurghis: The bilingual project
represents an important event in the life of our school for
several reasons. As I have tried to explain to you, it has
created the proper framework for a coherent multidisciplinary
activity targeting several objectives. It has also contributed
greatly to team formation and team building which has resulted
in stronger relationships among teachers of different subjects.
These projects help students develop their self-confidence
and stimulate them further to take part in other projects.
Finally, our way of working has helped our students develop
skills and abilities that they find useful both in their social
life and in their professional careers (resource
1 Romania gastronomy.ppt; resource
2 Romania_touristic_information.wmv; resource
3 Romania_historical_monuments.wmv).
Thank you and Keep it Up! |