MINUTES

The Conference was opened by Professor Dr.H.Gossow, Associate Dean for International Studies at BOKU who pointed out that BOKU had come to consider language training as a vital element of the regular study programme over the last few years. In particular one-way mobilities in the SOCRATES exchange programme were highly due to deficiencies in language competence and the knowledge of foreign languages was therefore an essential component of every graduate's educational profile.

Dr. Simon Heath, coordinator of AFANet, the European network for agriculture, forestry, aquaculture and the environment, gave a presentation of the structure, goals and future perspectives of the network. He pointed out that one of the major goals of AFANet was the analysis of the current situation of higher agricultural education as well as the design of new concepts adapting to the changed situation. In particular, he mentioned a general change of pace and a change of orientation as major factors on the way to an adaptation of curricula. Issues like sustainability, ethics, the impact of food protection or the general re-orientation of EU agricultural policy had become central elements within agriculture and should be reflected in the curricula in order to help students to come to grips with a changed job situation. Due to this widening of the job market to the whole of Europe, future graduates needed to broaden their horizon, either by making use of exchange programmes or by consuming revised study programmes that familiarized them with a new, European perspective. A solid knowledge of foreign languages would be a crucial element in this process.

Dr. Irene Mueller, HERMES coordinator over the last 4 years, summarized the major goals of the network as well as the results achieved so far and pointed out that this current 4^th year of the project was dedicated to dissemination and implementation of results. Therefore, it was a main task to present all achievements of the language policy group to an interested audience at all possible occasions (ICA-Conference, IROICA Conference, Meeting of TNP "Languages", Meeting of TNP"Foodnet", CercleS conference). The HERMES Newsletter which had been published a couple of months ago, served the same purpose and was especially designed as a discussion platform for interested colleagues in the relevant field. As I. Mueller underlined, it was vital for the survival of the newsletter and of the whole project to have actively participating members. If the activities were restricted to a small core group then the project was doomed to fail in the near future.

Concerning the new SOCRATES TNP application the coordinator could not provide any official result yet - the official decision from Brussels will not be taken before early October - but according to an internal agreement among the members of the core group, HERMES would certainly try to continue it s activities, no matter what the outcome of the application would be.

Etain Casey gave an overview about the main elements of the new proposal, pointing out that the major focus would be on professional development of language teachers, including IT-training, accompanied by research measures on a better interaction between language teachers and academic staff creating synergy for both sides. In total, the new application in the field of language training contains 5 work packages.

During the following introduction round the participants described the highly diverse working conditions they were involved in. They generally agreed that a forum like HERMES was extremely beneficial for them in order to become familiar with new approaches towards language teaching and thus having a chance of adapting them to their special environment. It also turned out that such a meeting could be used as a forum to recruit new partners for planned projects, e.g in the field of preparation of teaching material. 

The afternoon session was started with a report on the IT Workshop that David Rees had organised at INH Angers on May 25 - 28, 2000. It was unanimously agreed that a good knowledge of computer-based language training was an essential component of present day's teaching abilities. At the same time, all participants felt that IT-based language teaching and learning could certainly not replace the "normal" type of language teaching but a combination of the two approaches would probably meet the students' needs best.

Etain Casey and Johann Fischer gave a detailed introduction into the new Professional Development Course scheduled for October 9 - 13, 2000. This course can be considered as a completely new experience because it will offer teacher training in two parallel schemes, one for English, one for German. As to the contents, it was pointed out by the trainers that everything had been revised on the basis of the questionnaires handed out before and after the last professional development course in February 1999. The registration period is still running and a few places are still available. Registrations should be sent to BOKU Vienna as soon as possible!

A considerable part of the afternoon session was dedicated to a detailed presentation of the study by Johann Fischer on "levels of language competence". In an ample survey he had investigated the situation in 13 institutions in 9 different countries. He was thus able to analyse the situation of 102 different student groups. The results show that a minimum of 100 teaching hours is the absolute minimum for any linguistic progress of the students, who in general improve their language competence only slightly during their studies (one level within the Common European Framework of Reference); the more teaching hours the students have, the more their language competence will improve. The survey also shows that there is a gap between the content of the courses (focusing on vocabulary and grammar) and what the students will need in the future (the oral skills, i.e. speaking and listening). Nearly 75% of the persons who had filled in the questionnaire are not satisfied with the situation at their institution!

In the final round of the Meeting the coordinator explained to the participants that, due to other engagements within IROICA, she would not be able to continue her function within HERMES in the future, therefore she suggested Johann Fischer as the new coordinator for the HERMES group. She thanked all the members for the interest and support they had shown during the past years. She expressed a special thank to Johann Fischer and Etain Casey who had been essential members of the strategy core group. Without their advice, help and enthusiasm, HERMES would never have reached the present stage. I. Mueller was confident that the new round starting with the new proposal would lead HERMES to an even bigger acceptance among university leaders and thus help to improve and consolidate the situation of language teachers - the constant target of HERMES since it s beginnings.

The Meeting was closed at 5. p.m.

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