Teachers’ beliefs about cross-linguistic mediation tasks : an empirical study within the framework of the METLA project

Abstract

Cross-linguistic mediation, a term which appeared in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) in 2001, knows a new momentum after the recent publication of the CEFR Companion Volume with new descriptors about mediation in 2020. And yet more than 20 years after the introduction of language mediation, little is still known about how teachers and students view mediation in the classroom, how mediation tasks can be developed, and the role of mediation in foreign language learning and performance. With regards to teachers’ beliefs about crosslinguistic mediation, the few available studies seem to indicate that, even if teachers acknowledge its relevance and value in principle, they still find it hard to design, use and/or evaluate mediation tasks in the classroom. This is mostly owed to a pervasive monolingual mindset framing the foreign language classroom, and a persistent concern with correction and accuracy (Gerwers 2020; Melo-Pfeifer & Helmchen 2022). The METLA (Mediation in Teaching, Learning and Assessment) project was inspired by the existing need to assist practitioners in their teaching and assessment of crosslinguistic mediation. Grosso modo, we can understand cross-linguistic mediation as a social activity which facilitates interaction between people who are having difficulty in understanding one another because they do not speak the same language. Currently carried out within the framework of the new program of the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML 2020-2023), the project focuses on the notion of crosslinguistic mediation within the field of foreign language teaching. The METLA project presents empirically developed material which reflects the views and approaches of experts in the field of foreign language didactics and echoes the practices of foreign language teachers, ultimately the main users of the METLA tasks. In this paper, we present the results of our study, where we focus on teachers’ beliefs about METLA cross-linguistic mediation tasks. Teachers of foreign languages from around Europe were called to pilot a specific number of such tasks in their classroom context and to evaluate their effectiveness. An online questionnaire was produced in order for the teachers to provide feedback on the tasks in terms of content, effectiveness and layout. The study is of relevance to language teacher education especially within the framework of pluralistic approaches to teaching and learning, and to language policy implementation, by providing us with indicators about teachers’ willingness to integrate cross-linguistic mediation activities in their practices.