General Recommendations
- It is recommended that work towards the further development of Speech and
Language Therapy as a recognised academic discipline should continue. It is
important to recognise its multidisciplinary links and to encourage
theoretical developments and research in both the art of clinical practice
and the science of intervention. (CD 1)
- It is recommended that courses in phonetics should be an essential element
in SLT education, and that they should incorporate a direct clinical focus.
A thorough understanding of speech production is seen as a prerequisite for
good practice in SLT. (CD 2)
- An expansion of the role of methods and tools of SLE in education and in
clinical practice is recommended, even if SLT educators are unfamiliar with
SLE and somewhat sceptical about the its importance. Development of deeper
knowledge of SLE, and collaboration between SLE and SLT should be considered
at Master's degree level. (CD 3)
- Collaboration between those working in CAL and in SLT for production of
materials is strongly recommened. The use of CAL offers exciting
possibilities and is viewed positively overall, but its exploitation in SLT
education needs care and selectivity. (CD 4)
- It is recommended that the use of the internet for education in various
areas of SLT should be facilitated for the benefit of clinicians, students
and teachers. The need for observance of professional ethics must be
emphasised. (CD 5)
- It is recommended that teaching and learning strategies that facilitate
the application of theory to therapy should be developed and exploited, and
that the development of the professional skills that lead to the generation
of reflective practitioners should be facilitated. Incorporating
pre-clinical subjects (anatomy, physiology, linguistics, phonetics etc) in
the new pedagogical methods used in SLT education would have major
advantages for student therapists. (CD 6)
- It is recommended that the use of Internet as a part of study programmes
in SLT (as in Recommendations 4 and 5 above) is implemented initially on an
experimental level, with its effectiveness to be fully evaluated over time.
(CD 9)
- It is recommended that exploitation of the Internet/WWW should be used to
facilitate the application of theory to practice, and to help bridge the gap
between research and clinical teaching in SLT. (CD 10)
- It is recommended that a standard approach to the use of IPA phonetic
conventions for transcribing normal and disordered speech should be adopted
across Europe and that this should be a core component of educational
courses. Further consideration might be given to the definition of minimum
standards in phonetics which could be recognised across Europe for all
students of S<. (CD 11)
- Old barriers between the humanities and science/engineering must be
lowered. (CL 8)
- The summer schools and courses organized by ELSNET, FOLLI and others need
to continue. (CL 13)
- We recommend that reforms in CL education not be limited to the level of
higher education. It is necessary to initiate wide preparatory measures at
other levels of education. Awareness raising and competence raising measures
in secondary education can for instance take the form of job orientation
with respect to the language industries and the integration of NLP tools in
grammar teaching and foreign language teaching. (CL 22)
- We recommend that traineeship (internship) should be part of NEL students'
curricula. (NEL 6)
- We recommend that academia take industrial needs of recruitment into
account (with consequences for curricula, job profiles and life-long
learning). (NEL 7)
- We recommend that the need of students for inexpensive learning
environments, including hardware (e.g. multilingual keyboards) and software,
be acknowledged (NEL 9)
- We recommend international funding schemes for creating NEL teaching and
learning materials, such as handbooks, CD-ROMs, Web materials, ODL
broadcast, multifunctional model and practice corpora, etc., in close
cooperation between the EU and non-European countries, ensuring that all
prospective users of the products are considered (NEL 10)
- We recommend the creation of an international forum dedicated to NEL
computing, where teachers and students can meet and exchange information,
experiences, etc. (NEL 11)
- We recommend awareness actions to make students and prospective students
aware of the offers in NEL (in particular new job profiles) including
computer applications in NEL. Those awareness actions could be carried out
through Web dissemination, associations, contacts with the media, local
student advisers, etc. The target groups to be informed are both secondary
school and university students. (NEL 13)
- Lifelong learning needs to take place. resources (PHON 5)
- Old barriers between the humanities and science/engineering must be
lowered. (PHON 6)
- To improve and to strength the links between industry (research and
development laboratories) and universities in the area of SLE. (SLE 2)
- The definition of a coherent system for acquisition of competencies and
skills through dedicated training models addressed to various job profiles
and to expected changes in the SLE market. (SLE 3)
- Continuous interdisciplinary professional development for teaching staff
in speech technology in the context of life long learning and modern
teaching methodologies. (SLE 6)
- For universities in Central and Eastern Europe it is imperative to
strength the links with similar institutions from EU in order to set up new
curricula, to retrain the staff and to develop the educational and research
infrastructure according to well recognized standards. (SLE 8)
- More phonetics and computational linguistics in technical university
education could better prepare students for the professional jobs in SLE
(SLE 13)
Specific Recommendations
- It is recommended to improve and to strengthen the links between industry
(research and development laboratories) and universities in the area of SLE.
(SLE 2)
- Work towards the further development of Speech and Language Therapy as a
recognised academic discipline should continue. (CD 1)
- Theoretical developments and research should be encouraged in both the art
of clinical practice and the science of intervention. (CD 1)
- Development of deeper knowledge of SLE, and collaboration between SLE and
SLT should be considered at Master's degree level. (CD 3)
- It is recommended that a standard approach to the use of IPA phonetic
conventions for transcribing normal and disordered speech should be adopted
across Europe and that this should be a core component of educational
courses. (CD 11)
- It is recommended that trainee-ship (internship) should be part of NEL
students' curricula. (NEL 6)
Responsible author: Tom Bronsted, 16th October 2000
Tom Bronsted, 16th October 2000.
Recommendations on Competencies for employment
Based on the work done by
the Socrates TNP on Language and Speech during the years 1997-2000, the JEWELS
project has made a number of recommendations. These are classified under the
headings of:
Tom Bronsted, 16th October 2000.