The Guides
The Langsnap Guides are a collection of teaching materials presented as nine taught workshops. The workshops can be delivered as a one-off event or be part of a larger course. Each workshop is supported by its own set of downloadable materials which consists of a ready-to-use Power Point presentation, with instructions and suggestions for the facilitator; printable hand-outs (when relevant) and suggestions for follow-up activities or autonomous learning mini-projects.
Topics to be covered in the Guides:
- Workshop 1: Being an International Student ← ready to download now!
- Workshop 2: Challenges for the Teaching Assistant ← ready to download now!
- Workshop 3: Improving your languages abroad.
- Workshop 4: Beyond Tourism: Dealing with expectations and cultural differences
- Workshop 5: Maintaining your languages
- Workshop 6: The World is your Office: Work Placements Abroad
- Workshops 7 & 8: Making the most of your past-time activities: Networking Abroad
The guides have emerged precisely from prolonged conversations with students; the themes the guides cover, their structure and learning outcomes have all emerged from qualitative data collected from 2011 to 2013 for the LANGSNAP project, aimed at improving our understanding of the challenges our students face when they opt to study in another country.
Multimedia has been integrated in some sessions, and students are introduced to useful websites, groups in the social media or applications they may find helpful, but the workshops themselves are rather low-tech, so any tutor who is not particularly keen on technology, can still benefit from the materials. On the other hand, tutors who strongly believe that our guidance as facilitators is unnecessary in this world of endless resources, may still want to explore the various independent projects which range from organising a tea party to more technological possibilities such as creating blogs, infographics or videos.