LIFT program brings bonus to language study
By Shelly Simonds For ANU lecturers Tony Liddicoat and Louise Jansen, conducting intensive training courses for ACT teachers has an unexpected bonus. Not only has the program been boosting the skills of ACT teachers, it has serviced the academic community by providing a wealth of research into language teaching methods. Teachers enrolled in the Language in Service for Teachers (LIFT) program learn the latest methods in language teaching at intensive weekend training courses run by Dr Liddicoat, of Linguistics in the Faculty of Arts, and Dr Jansen, of Modern European Languages also in the Faculties. Teachers then conduct research of their own, applying an aspect of the course to their teaching and then write a paper on the results. These papers provide immediate feedback on the effectiveness of some of the latest teaching methods when applied to the local classroom, Dr Jansen said. This kind of research is rare. It's hard for teachers to do their own research outside an accredited course. LIFT provides the forum for them to do so," she said. So valuable are the small research projects which result from each training course, they are being compiled in a book, Lifting Practice, published next month. The LIFT program, founded in 1993, is funded by the ACT Department of Education, Employment and Youth Affairs, to provide professional development for local teachers. Weekend modules keep teachers abreast of the latest teaching trends in grammar, oral and listening skills, cultural studies, and computers. "What's been very exciting for us is that the level of funding provides the opportunity to bring the cream of the crop in each area to the ANU. Most modules feature at least one top specialist from Australia and one from abroad," Dr Jansen said. The result is that many tertiary teachers join the courses. The University benefits as academics have the opportunity to liaise with top experts from around the world. LIFT also provides networking opportunities for teachers from a range of schools including primary, secondary, parochial, and also from public institutions such as the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. "Because the program is well established and highly regarded we now have branched out into speciality areas," Dr Jansen said. Last year LIFT provided a special course for Italian teachers sponsored by the Italian Embassy incorporating creative exercises like Comedia del Arte theatre into teaching. Some of the most advanced research into teaching methods is conducted in languages and this underscores the value of language teaching at the ANU, Dr Jansen said. "Historians don't focus their research on how to teach history better, they research history, this is the same for most other disciplines," she said.   This year LIFT will present three modules: one by Dr Liddicoat on integrating culture into language teaching; another by Prof Diane Larsen-Freeman, internationally renown specialist in language-teacher education from Vermont, USA; and a module, yet to be confirmed, by Prof Emerita Evelyn Hatch of UCLA in California.   "The response is so good every year we get nervous thinking: can we live up to last year? You have to have a flop sometime. But so far we haven't."