Exploring Informal Learning
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The workshop Talking Foreign is an informal, motivational and playful way of improving the performance in a second or foreign language. Focusing on the structures and conditions that make the learning of the first language possible the workshop allows to discover, explore and experience language as a binding element.
Informal learning is a very wide concept and very often refers to natural situations, e.g. in families, neighbourhoods, in hobbies, sports, leisure activities, etc. Very often informal learning happens not through teaching but through moderation, is interactive and requires a group situation. In the workshop Talking Foreign we have embedded the elements of informal learning in the structure of a game.
The aim is not on efficiency and performance but on the personal development. It has nevertheless elements that allow the individual to measure and perfect his abilities. This might imply the use of components that are instinctual and competitive. Therefore the specific structure of Talking Foreign is a game and it is set to work in a very specific area of the informal learning scenario.
The creation of any group implies a tight organisation and binding rules that increase the artificiality of the group (bringing it closer to the formal structure). In this situation it is important to rely on the motivation of the participants. To evaluate their motivation is our main concern for the Talking Foreign Workshop.
Therefore we consider the common interest as the principal point of the group as well as the respect for the individuality for every group member as a condition for sharing and to support a creative approach.
Though the process of informal learning is by its very nature diffuse, the evaluation and the gains should be concrete and measurable. In the second part of the workshop Talking Foreign the participants will already have increased their ability to respond, to express themselves with spontaneity and to overcome their fears that any group situation will produce. They will be acting creatively. For this new situation we provide evaluation elements that in principle are personal and encompass the creative support of the group. This implies that every form of critique has to reaffirm the positive elements.