PORTFOLIO – A NEW METHOD OF TEACHING
ENGLISH TO ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS
Gordana Vuković-Nikolić, PhD, assistant professor+
Department of Architecture, University of Belgrade, Faculty of
Architecture, Kralja Aleksandra 73, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
E-Mail: gorsekul@arh.bg.ac.rs,
http://prometheus.arh.bg.ac.rs/code/navigate.asp?Id=2338&nId=102
The setting of the method
• The paper describes how the new method
called Portfolio was introduced and
applied in teaching language subjects at
Belgrade University Faculty of Architecture
(AFUB).
• It is the oldest and most-respected
institution for studying architecture in
Serbia.
The Bologna reform
• The introduction and implementation of the
method coincided with the Bologna reform
of Serbian academic education, which was
introduced at AFUB in 2006.
• Now the Bologna reform is over at AFUB
and they are starting a new reform there,
so it is maybe a right time to consider
changes in the realm of language subjects
as well.
Language of profession
• The new language teaching method was
an attempt to synchronize language
teaching methodology with that of other
subjects in the architecture curriculum in
the so called non-philological academic
setting, where English is taught and learnt
as the language of profession.
Why to change the previous
methodology of teaching?
• The leading idea for the change of methodology
was the experience with previously used
methodologies and awareness that If language
subjects were taught in the traditional manner
(rooted in students' memory and listening
abilities) the learning process could end up in a
black space, become a non-transparent area for
attaining knowledge for the particular group of
learners, since those studying architecture are
mostly accustomed to seeing rather than
hearing as they perceive and recognize things in
the world.
Inductive approach
• The method comprised a set of procedures
modeled after methodologies observed to have
been used by teachers of the main-core
curriculum, to which students are accustomed.
In that particular context.
• Students acquired data mostly using their visual
and creative abilities, addressing their more
developed associative potentials.
• The development and implementation of the
Portfolio method was primarily based on the
author’s experience as a teacher and researcher
in that academic context.
Practical nature of the method
• This new way of language teaching and learning was
believed to be easier, more functional, and more
attractive.
• Foreign language teaching was turned into a practical
tool complementary to the rest of the curriculum,
primarily in accordance with those subjects dealing with
architectural design, which were more visual and taught
through spatial concepts.
• Verbally oriented parts of the school curriculum, such as
language subjects, were believed to be based
progressively on already developed visual abilities of
students, as for all other architectural subjects.
BASED MOSTLY ON SEEING
• The primary idea was that language
subjects at an architecture university
school should be taught differently from
other schools since the students studying
architecture are different from other
students. Those studying architecture are
mostly accustomed to seeing rather than
hearing as they perceive and recognize
things in the world.
The development and implementation
lasted for 15 years
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A brief retrospective is provided of the steps taken to
implement the method, its description, and actions
taken during a painful 15 year-long process of
changing things in the realm of language education
dealing with architecture, as well as its outcome and
implications for the future.
The evolution of the method is described, together with
its modifications constantly adapted to observed
conditions, and how the described procedure was
proven and justified.
PhD thesis as a trigger
• The theoretical background of the whole
endevour was mostly rooted in the PhD thesis
of mine based on the theory and methodology of
discourse of a textbook for learning a foreign
language in a professional setting, being the
trigger for practical activity to follow in the realm
of educational practice.
• The title of the thesis which was done from 2001
to 2006 is The discourse of the textbook for
foreign language of profession, methodological
and theoretical aspects, Faculty of Philology,
Belgrade, Serbia
NAME
The name Portfolio Method is a label for a specific educational process
involving changes of attitudes and behaviour in the specific context
of non-philological language education in Serbia, a kind of reference
to attempted creative participation in the educational process of
teaching a foreing language as a language of profession.
The name Portfolio describes academic paper and digital folders as
collective physical and virtual envelopes for all the work produced in
the process of learning, a kind of shelter for the students output as
well as a tracking device kept by the teacher during the process of
learning and teaching.
The second word method is used to denote an attempt, approach, way,
fashion or mode of how things can be done in the particular context
described.
The paper is not an instruction but
description of a process
Since both have been performed in an orderly and
systematic manner as a novel way of conducting
language teaching in specified conditions, in
accordance with a definite established logical
and systematic plan, the name method is used.
It is here referred to as method but it is more the
result of a process of change in the established
language education setting, undertaken before.
Such a name is given to make the structure
visible, vital, and more easily dissected,
described and explained.
This paper is not aimed to predict
By some it can be viewed as a set of instructions,
how things can be done in the future, but this
paper deals with the method more in a
retrospective than prospective way.
The other mentioned perspective of looking into
the future is to be accounted for by those who
find this account feasible and practical for their
own professional settings.
TIMELINE
IN SEVEN STAGES
• A brief account of steps taken in
introducing and implementing the method
at AFUB from 2004 to 2015 in seven
stages is given below.
Stage 1.The initiation of the PhD thesis and post at
AFUB in 2001 by the author of the article
• My reasearch on the thesis named 'The discourse of a foreignlanguage for professional-purpose textbook – theoretical and
methodological aspects' was approved from Belgrade Univesity
School of Philology and started in 2001.
• It initiated serious research on theory and methodology of discourse
in a specific professional setting, being a trigger for changes in my
teaching practice to follow later.
• The initiation of the work on my PhD thesis coincided with my new
professional engagement as a lecturer of English at AFUB, after 20
years spent previously at various other posts offered to those who
study language as profession.
• The work on my thesis contributed to my ever-present effort to
connect practical activities at the workplace and research on topics
which might optimize the teaching process.
The beginning in the worst of all
circumstances
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The language teaching situation at that time was described in the thesis and
several papers being submitted at various conferences at the time.
What was written described almost impossible conditions for both activities
of research and teaching. At AFUB I was the only teacher for the subject
called English, taught for 2 years or 4 semesters within 3rd and 4th years of
basic academic studies, i.e. to 240 active students in the 3rd year and about
200 in the fourth (and who knows how many passive students) without the
help of any assistants.
Such a teaching situation was usually the case at most other faculties in
Serbia at the time.
I was also simultaneously working on my time-consuming PhD thesis .
So looking back at that period, I myself stay puzzled at how well all that
turned out, teaching and investigating and finishing my thesis on a topic
based on a large-scale corpus approach, the whole work having a
pronounced experimental nature.
The conditions were equally bad for all other teachers at
non-philological faculties in Serbia
• But my experience was similar to that of many English teachers all
over Serbia, who experienced hard times as non-philological
university teachers.
• Somehow, the perception of such teachers among authorities on
pedagogical matters in Serbia emerged as conductors of a kind of
decorative unproductive activity, of something not expected to really
improve the knowledge of learners, but more to register the
knowledge level attained at the outset of the courses.
• The outcome of such a perception was too many students, lack of
teachers, and discriminatory legislation, seggregating the teachers
of language at non-philological faculties, thus not giving them the
chances to be promoted like their colleagues.
• This is not the place to further elaborate on the sad teaching
situation I found myself in at that time, as it was described at other
places, but it has always been unfavourable compared to teachers
of other subjects at university and it is almost the same today.
How to stay motivated
• However, this account is intended to be
encouraging and motivating for those who
listen or read. Maybe it is a gender related
problem since most teachers of language
are female and Serbian society is
extremely patriarchal. But this is only a
passing remark, not the subject of this
overview shown here which can be
debated elsewhere.
Stage 2. The probation period at AFUB for the Bologna reform from
2004-2005
• Before the Bologna reform was actually
introduced, a probation period from 2004 to
2005 was carried out. The change in all subjects
started and the sketch of a new curriculum was
tried out.
• The measures taken in the field of language
education in that period were described in detail
in the doctoral thesis in the part called The
experiment in teaching at the Architectural
Faculty, p. 394-408 and Students of
Architectural Faculty as the contextual factor of
the discourse of FLPPT (413-437).
How to turn profession into art
• It turned the course of teaching to taskbased activity and making the new
curriculum and materials fit the concept of
elective subjects to emerge when the
reform be actually applied.
• The new concept of teaching tried to take
into account a shift of the curriculum from
the area of humanistic and social subjects
to the area of art.
An architect Jan Kaplicky and his
role
• I announced that change of content in teaching English
subjects at a language conference in Montenegro with a
paper on the creative nature of the textbook for foreign
language of profession.
• The new teaching process in the language field tried to
connect itself to the pedagogical process in the maincore architecture curriculum through a series of my
papers on Jan Kaplicky, Check architect showing the
possibility of treating language subjects in the similar
methodological manner as those belonging to the maincore architectural design.
The method was tested not only for English but for other
foreign languages
• An attempt was also made to integrate the teaching of
English with that of other foreign languages, especially
the the teaching of Russian in the same academic
context, and an outline of a possible common curriculum
for English and Russian in the architecture academic
setting was proposed in my article on professional
discourses in contact.
• The factors of importance related to gender were
elaborated in the paper on the role of gender in teaching
English to architecture students, specifying the unique
traits of the learners at a faculty of architecture being
different from other learners.
Stage 3. The implementation of the Bologna Reform from 2006 and the
introduction of English for architects as three new electives, replacing
English from the previous period
• The old subject called English, lasting for four
semesters, was replaced by three new electives
called English for Architects 1, 2, 3.
• A serious effort was invested into their attractive
presentation on the faculty website, as the
success of the course was conditioned by the
number of students interested and enrolling
each year, and an interesting curriculum and
teaching materials were prepared.
Revolving nature of the method
• Because of the elective nature of the subjects,
competing with all the other subjects of the
school curriculum, a kind of constantly enhanced
revolving nature of subjects was introduced, with
constant efforts to improve them each year.
• That made the whole procedure extremely
exhausting for the teacher, being constantly in
transition and with little chance to rest and leave
things unchanged.
Threefold structure - descriptive,
narrative, argumentative
• The materials gathered from the probation period, the
texts collected by students, Power Point Presentations
by which they passed the final exam, and other related
data were used to make new subjects different and
innovative.
• The subjects were stratified functionally, according to the
type of architectural discourse being presented. English
1 dealt mostly with descriptive texts, English 2 with
narrative, and English 3 with argumentative.
• All three were contextually dependant; for example in
the English 1 contents were connected to the actual
faculty building the students attended, its facade,
interiors and construction, journals and books students
used, their travels etc.
How the profiles of the language
subjects were developed
• English 2 was nicknamed Storytelling and was mostly
based on texts from the past belonging to so-called
narrative discourse.
• It comprised stories from the history of architecture and
civilization. English 3, Debate and argumentation, was
based on discursive texts debating topics from
architecture, making students discuss interesting issues,
thus developing their rhetorical abilities in that area.
• The new language subjects were successfully introduced
and implemented and the whole process of that period
was described in papers on the methodology of teaching
English in the reformed curriculum of the Faculty of
architecture.
Stage 4. Introduction of a new language elective Creative Writing and
publishing a new book for the subject
• An attempt was made to integrate all language
instruction into a unified set of language
subjects, to form a kind of language module in
the curriculum of architecture education.
• The new subject called Creative Writing was
introduced in 2008.
• Its main objective was to promote the creative
potential of students through language study,
starting with Serbian as mother tongue for most
part and using other foreign languages, not only
English.
To motivate was the first goal of
teaching
• The development of students motivation
for the study of architecture was set as the
main goal and learning a foreign language
only as secondary.
• Its new phase was initiated when the
book Creative Writing appeared, which
facilitated the teaching process and made
it recognizable and attractive.
Stage 5. Introduction of a new elective Linguistics for Architects and
the new book with the same name.
• Creative writing was designed as a subject
to elaborate the creative potential of
students, making them write and speak
freely in a kind of kindergarten setting, so
a new subject at doctoral studies called
Linguistics for Architects tried to provide a
slightly different approach to language
study more appropriate for that level of
architecture studies.
Starting language of instruction
varies according to the context
• The language of teaching waa also Serbian, but
the topics were theoretical, dealing mostly with
different aspects of word study.
• When the new book Linguistics for Architects
appeared in 2013 it meant a new phase in the
development of the subject, the goal and
methodology of teaching, its curriculum and the
results of the previous students becoming more
transparent.
Stage 6. The RIBA accrediation process at AFUB
• The most respected professional
association in the field of architecture in
the world called RIBA started its
accreditation process for the studies of
architecture at AFUB in 2014.
• It demanded strict control mechanisms
being introduced, which caused a real
earthquake in teaching most subjects.
How the method predicted the
future
• Luckily, it perfectly suited the previously
introduced and described changes in language
subjects, as for all subjects a portfolio of work
was demanded, which had already been done
within language teaching context.
• So it did not made any significant change in the
teaching process in the realm of language
teaching at AFUB, except that students were
obliged to submit a copy of the portfolio they had
already submitted to their English teacher.
Stage 7. A new reform of architecture education being initiated at AFUB
from 2015 and a novel concept of e-teacher being introduced by the
pedagogical authorities of the Government of Serbia.
• Awareness has grown that the results of
the Bologna reform are not adequate to
expectations, and changes are suggested,
especially as the number of students
enrolled at AFUB drastically decreased in
the last few years.
• The entrance exam was changed in 2014
and a new reform of education was
implemented in September 2015.
E-teacher
• The period ahead will demand new solutions for
already applied procedures and solutions in all
subjects together with language ones, but it
belongs to the future and will not be discussed
any further here.
• The Ministry of Education introduced a new
real-time recording system for teaching practice
at AFUB in 2015, so called e-teacher, and the
results of that endeavour will become more
transparent in time.
DIFFERENCES FROM PREVIOUSLY USED METHODOLOGY
• Before the introduction of the Bologna reform,
English was taught in a traditional manner in a
large lecture theatre in front of hundreds of
students who typically listened to lectures on a
topic from the valid textbook for the time.
• Many students first came into contact with the
subject at the exam, being written (in the form of
test) and oral (as a conversation with a teacher
on chosen topics).
Changed ambience is crucial
• After elective subjects were introduced
and the new method applied, the
ambience for the subject completely
changed.
• Teaching was transferred to a specially
designed lecture area equipped with
audio-visual equipment, vividly decorated
and transformed into a supportive learning
space.
Task-based curriculum
• The task-based curriculum kept students
constantly alert, obliging them to come to
lectures, to prepare for topics, take part in
the discussions, do homework, come to
consultations and make considerable
efforts to research through the Internet and
other digital tools outside the classroom.
Gradual and harmonious
development
• All teaching turned into a process that was
gradual and developed harmoniously,
compared to the previous period when
students mostly started studying seriously
when lectures had already been finished.
• The changes introduced concerned
several aspects on which I wrote
extensively in papers for conferences or in
published books.
Aspects which were changed
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goals of teaching
role of the teacher
role of students
type of curriculum
teaching materials
digital media use in teaching and learning
students’ tasks
grading procedures
Goals, roles, teaching materials
• The goals of teaching were changed to develop the
creative potential of students by using linguistic means.
• The role of the teacher changed from expositor into
mediator.
• The role of students became more active and their
participation constant throughout the whole period of
instruction and exam periods, less oriented towards the
final result and more to the process itself.
• Teaching materials were changed into mostly visual
mapping devices, altered each year to take into account
what students of previous years had done.
Internet, grading, freedom of choice
• Digital presentations and the Internet became
important teaching and learning source, used in
all phases of the teaching and learning process.
• The grading approach was changed, being
mostly based on the continual assessment
during the whole teaching/learning process, and
only to a less degree on the final exam.
• Students were made active participants, urged
to choose paths they wanted to follow, the
subject leading them to different grades.
THE INTENTION OF THE PRESENTER
• It is highly unlikely that the conditions present during the
whole process at AFUB will be repeated, but that
experience can still serve as a powerful reminder of how
things can be changed for the better, even in the worst of
all circumstances.
• It may help others better to handle situations resembling
my own, if such is possible.
• I have recorded all that happened through the period
described in dozens of various types of texts, manuals,
textbooks, e-books and other digital data, as well as in
papers such as this one being presented at this
conference.
• All that extensive material is easily accessible through
digital means.
Time-saving approach and easy
access in all activities
• If the name of the author (Gordana VukovicNikolic) is typed in a simple Google search, most
of the articles, even some books like English
Grammar and a glossary of veterinary terms of
mine, together with the summary and contents of
my PhD thesis and numerous articles can be
recovered complete, so those interested can
read more about the experience being described
and get their own picture on the matter.
In vivo experiment
• All that has been going on for the last 15
years has been a kind of in vivo
experiment for all those that participated
(the teacher and the students).
The example is to be a source for
debate
• Although the whole endeavour was not meant to
be an experiment, it turned out to be one in
retrospective, as always happens with new
things being introduced.
• This paper does not claim that the author is
certain that everything she undertook was well
done, but provides data and a kind of a model to
others of how things can be done in the area
described, to serve as a source for debate.
It is not an instruction how to do
things
• It is not a set of instructions on how to
teach English in an academic nonphilological context, but is a useful
experience, which hopefully may inspire
others to change their own ways of looking
at their present professional teaching
situations and change the rather gloomy
perspective in that area that still prevails
today.
How to introduce new ideas into teaching
methodologies?
• I do feel that the outcome of my
endeavour, lasting for more than a
decade, together with experience gained
at other posts, can be useful to others at
this conference in their practice of
teaching English introducing, I believe a
new perspective to rather rigid field of
foreign language teaching that mostly
prevails today in Serbia.