ABSTRACT
In recent years, tandem counselling has undergone a major transformation: While it was compulsory and directive in an initial stage, after a transitional phase, counselling turned to be non-directive and absolutely voluntary. However, the intensive German-Spanish tandem courses between the Universities of Oviedo and Bochum have shown that not many participants may take advantage of a voluntary tandem counselling, which is described on the basis of a new theory on autonomy and reciprocity in language learning and tandem. The initial hypothesis is that tandem learners want counselling on specific topics, but decline the offer of voluntary tandem counselling. The here presented triangulation case study (questionnaire, interviews, daily reports) tries to throw light on the question of how this is possible, and intends to find a practical solution for this problem. It was carried out among the students of the tandem intensive exchange course (Oviedo, August 2016; Bochum, July 2017) and proved that most students would have liked to get counselling on certain aspects. The solution presented at the end is to introduce a questionnaire previous to the counselling as a “declaration of intent” to find out which possible topics students are interested in, as a basis for the voluntary counselling.
