Innovation in Language Learning

Experiential language teaching training programs which are following the premises purported by Kolb experiential cycle (concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, active experimentation) are among of the best example of transformative learning since they provide Language teachers’ education with a multilayered process. Usually language teachers’ education happens in three different ways: within the disciplinary track of teachers’ education; with the born expertise, the made over time; and the learning in place track. These do not occur in the same sequence for everybody. Language teachers often start by learning in place and only later go back to receive a formal language pedagogical education. Thus, the common traits of thinking, knowing and reflecting essential to the professional growth process tend to drift back and forth from contingent needs to pedagogical enquiries. The nature of professional teacher training programs, especially for those who teach their own language, mirror the internal self-referential nature of what we do in the classroom. It can be a challenge and an opportunity to overcome the limitations of auto-referentiality. The reflective process included in professional development programs should also include a direct confrontation with a multitude of realities that are becoming part of our changing profession from migration to globalization. It is unsettling to forget such debate in the name of market demand. In this presentation, I will illustrate the phases of the reflective process and interface them with the corresponding inner and outer work that the FL teacher must undertake. Moreover, I will provide samples of experiential and reflective activities useful to the profession. Languages are the lifeblood of social interactions, and the language teacher can become the content and the agent of his own classroom. The tools used in the classroom can be difficult to untangle from daily social dynamics and interferences from the outside world. Experiential language teaching training programs is one of the best example of transformative training for FL instructors in a post-method era.

Keywords: Teachers Education, Training, Transformative learning;