This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

OVERVIEW

The project “LINGO+” is incepted according to the Council of Europe’s policy to promote plurilingualism, linguistic diversity and language learning in the field of education. Linguistic diversity is also enshrined in Article 22 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

The European context is extremely significant, with three alphabets and 24 official languages, and some 60 other languages spoken in particular regions or by specific groups. Teachers are crucial to the implementation and success of the policy.

Current (initial and in-service) teacher training practices often do not correspond at all, or only partially, to the plurilingual and intercultural approach. Generally, they remain enclosed in monolingual traditions; only very rarely are the boundaries between disciplines (in the case of both languages and other subjects) overstepped. According to the policy it is necessary to define clear objectives and create innovative but pragmatic training approaches, building on what already exists.

The educational project “LINGO+” intends to bridge the gap between schools and teaching in multilingual and multicultural settings creating a set of tools and teaching materials addressed to:

1. teachers of foreign languages, as they are on the front line in teaching one or more languages;

2. teachers of other subjects that would like to teach in other languages (e.g. CLIL);

3. students of all ages, even if we believe our tools will be especially (but not only) implemented by high-schools.

The main objectives of our project are:

1. facilitating the acquisition of linguistic and intercultural abilities;

2. promoting coordination of lessons, with a view to greater coherence and synergy between the learning of foreign, regional, minority and classical languages, the language(s) of schooling, and also the language dimension of all subjects;

3. supporting teachers to acquire the principals of multilingualism and intercultural awareness and learn how to incorporate them in their daily routine;

4. developing both dimensions of language (linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic knowledge, skills and existential competences) and cultural (knowledge, skills and existential competencies relevant to social groups who speak a given language and their cultures) competencies;

5. develop multilingualism competencies emphasising their social role in terms of employability, social relations and tolerance towards other cultures.

The results of the project will be:

1. a Methodological Guide for a role-model bilingual and plurilingual education for teachers with a repository of the best bilingual and plurilingual existing teaching practices.

2. development of educational tools and designed game-based and project-based activities that could be used in a classroom;

3. development of a platform with video courses for teachers combining classes about bilingualism and plurilingualism together with cultural intelligence, intercultural communication, and multicultural education providing teachers with knowledge, skills and existential competencies relevant to an understanding of other cultures and cultural diversity, prompting reflective and critical thinking about one’s own culture;

4. development of an online self-assessment questionnaire, with pre-recorded recommendations, an online tutorial explaining how to use the repository, video courses and developed tools and games.

The methodology practiced for process and product incorporates three key features:

1. a coverage, ensuring that all participants in the project and beyond have formal and effective access to all information and material;

2. transferability, securing the reproducibility of the process and results to more spheres other than language teaching;

3. transparency, ensuring access to user-friendly information, who, how, when and what was done at any time of the project development and beyond.

At a local and regional level, we aim to have an impact on schools and teachers close to our headquarters and that we may reach during the implementation/testing phases.

The impact will be also monitored in the longer term by monitoring the following numbers:

1. development of skills of at least 5000 professionals (language teachers at schools and graduates of linguistics departments) towards bilingual/plurilingual teaching.

2. empowerment and inspiration of 2000 students and young people to learn languages and support their bilingual and plurilingual status within the duration of the project. Taking into account all our national and international networks together, we aim to disseminate the project to at least 10.000 people.

Coordinator: Amolingua Ltd, the UK

Partners:

• Euphoria Net Srl, Italy

• KRYSTAL MICROSOFT ACADEMY LTD, the UK

• Cooperativa de Formação e Animação Cultural crl, Portugal

• İstanbul Avrupa Araştırmaları Derneği (IAAD), Turkey

• Budapest Metropolitan University, Hungary

Erasmus+ results platform

Website (soon to be released)

Facebook

Linkedin

Under development