A Global Virtual Village for Languages and Art (ARTinLAN) is an Erasmus+ project that offers an innovative and promising methodology to teach foreign languages to young pupils (aged 6-11) through art. Arts integration is based on a thoughtful and well-reasoned look at a substantial body of research that shows strong positive relationships between arts involvement and academic gain. A plethora of studies taken on by research organisations, college professors and school districts themselves over the past decade have revealed the power of art to inspire, motivate and educate today’s students (See https://www.onlinecolleges.net/10-salient-studies-on-the-arts-in-education/ for a review).

The first intellectual output of the project is ARTinLAN Activity Set, which includes activities to develop A1 and A2 level CEFR competences in five language skills (listening, reading, spoken interaction, spoken production, and writing) that foreign language teachers find relatively difficult to teach young pupils. The relatively difficult competences to teach were identified based on the results of a questionnaire filled out by 54 teachers from six different countries in Europe. The ARTinLAN Activity Set comprises 30 activities in which different forms of art, namely visual arts, dance, music, arts and crafts, creative writing, theatre/drama, and children’s literature, are exploited. The activities address both native pupils who are learning a foreign language and refugee and migrant pupils who are learning the official language of the country as a foreign language.

We hope you will enjoy your participation in the project and that the activity set will inspire you in your teaching!

Greetings from the ARTinLAN partners!