European Commission - SOCRATES Programme
European Commission - SOCRATES Programme
Action Lingua 1 - Contract n° 89735–CP–1–2001–1–BG–LINGUA–L1
The overall objective of the project is to raise citizens' awareness of the advantages of lifelong learning of foreign language by motivating and practically engaging a certain group of society in particular retired people or parents looking their young children in learning foreign languages. Countries such as Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Spain share the same type of large variations of language skills and abilities to hold conservation in a foreign language between different groups of society. Retired people are much less likely, if at all, to speak foreign languages. Retired people and people above 50 are the least likely to speak a foreign language due to similar reasons in these countries. There is also a specific social feature that these countries share: it is a tradition in the family that grandparents look after their grandchildren and lots of them do help in their learning activities as well.
In an age of dynamic development of information and communication technologies and growing gap between generations due to that factor that may be one of the rare opportunities for grandparents to join their grandchildren in studying. Children acquire the attitudes of their families and when parents consider the extra lessons (not included in the compulsory school curricula) in foreign language as just spending more time with somebody else in charge of them, it is natural that the children will also stress on its entertainment side. Knowing very little about the process of language learning and never being engaged in one, grandparents are not able to effectively join and control their grandchildren's progress. As a result of the project grandparents will be motivated to undertake foreign language learning being aware of the advantages of the process and provided with information how to learn languages at this age and how to enrich the awareness of a foreign culture through language learning. Organizing competitions and other activities (language clubs, weekend language parties, etc.) along with their grandparents may effectively influence the children’s attitudes towards foreign language learning. The process of engaging them in foreign language learning with an emphasis on the cultural similarities and differences may also provide practical examples for developing social skills such as respect for others, tolerance and understanding of other cultures and traditions.
The main activities of the project will be targeted at grandparents of children of the age between 6 – 12. The methods used will be mainly two types: - face-to-face activities such as language clubs, weekend meetings and parties, discussions, etc.; - brochures, leaflets distributed through their grandchildren or in other ways Special attention should be paid to those who think language learning is not for their age. The target group should be subdivided using various criteria: people who learned a foreign language at some time of their life ; people who have never learned a foreign language; people who have some experience with a foreign language (being abroad, having relatives, children or friends abroad, interest to a particular foreign country, etc.)
There are three lines of producing outcomes in view of the objectives of the project concerning: participants in the foreign languages training process (grandparents and young children), the institutions providing foreign language teaching for children, and young children foreign language teachers.
Institutions providing foreign language teaching for young children: based on surveys and analysis of the situation in the corresponding countries they can develop common strategies and methods for motivating grandparents to join their grandchildren in foreign language learning (FLL). Each of the partnership organisations has experience in working with parents and good practices can be promoted and trailed jointly. It is of great importance to create the local networks for the project implementation and its multinational character can additionally motivate retired people to join realising that this is not only a situation in their own but in other countries as well. Disseminating comparative analyses and spreading information about the project objectives will also raise the awareness of the benefits of FLL. It will help retired people understand that it is not only a personal problem of the individual but also a task for European institutions, multinational partnerships, etc. Seminars and training modules for the young children teachers will be produced to emphasise on the need to engage parents and grandparents in FLL. Grandparents included in the project will benefit in being provided the opportunity to join a real FLL process, but also in the opportunity to meet grandparents of other countries working under the project. Grandparents will realise that learning a foreign language can be enjoyable and can bring positive benefits in their life: contacts with people of the same age group and in similar situation looking after their grandchildren, attending social events together with their grandchildren, establishing closer interfamily relations, travelling, knowledge and understanding of foreign cultures, contacts with people abroad, etc. They will be aware that there are opportunities to join activities directed at foreign language learning in their region and they can share this information with their friends, neighbours, relations, etc.
The target languages are English and French but the third phase of the project includes special emphasis on the national languages of the partnership countries (Italian, Spanish, Greek and Bulgarian). The winners in the regional or national competitions will be prepared for their visits to the partner countries, additional lessons will be provided so as to be able to hold an everyday conversation in the national language of the country they will visit. Brochures and a simplified guide how to survive in everyday situation will be produced as a joint work of the partnership institutions providing cultural, geographical, language and other interesting information for the countries of the partnership institutions.
The project is undertaken as a multinational partnership including institutions from 4 European countries: Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Spain:
Znanie Association - Centre for Foreign Languages Education – Sofia, Bulgaria - a service-providing Ltd, specialized in out-of-school foreign language education for children of age 5 - 16. In the Center there are 15 foreign language teachers, who deliver courses for more than 350 children.
Western Greece & Epirus UETP – Patras, Greece – a non-profit organization, providing various kind of education courses for adults.
Sistemas Técnicos de Enseñanza Consultores – STEC - Málaga, Spain - a non-profit organization developing Educative Research, International Cooperation Projects, Training, VET’s, Support SMEs and Social Partners and also encouraging and promoting corporate community involvement and development in Spain.
Federazione Nazionale Insegnanti Centro di iniziativa per l’Europa – FENICE –Naples, Italy – a teacher’s association who support all those initiatives which favour the integration of the intellectual resources of schools in the cultural growth of society, promote and plan initiatives, training projects, refresher courses, the cultural improvement of teachers as well as research and experimentation in the teaching field, and take part in research and development of technologies aiming at making learning easier, education and vocational training more easily available thanks to the modern means of communication.
This partnership brings together organizations and supports their practical initiatives to encourage retired people to learn and be engaged in activities which require speaking a foreign language. They are all organisations that have experience in FLT, in working with young children and also experience in working with teacher or retired people.
The project is planned for three years starting on 1/10/2001 and its activities are divided into four stages relevant to the objectives set by the partnership institutions. The first stage is planned as a pre-phase dealing with the organizational side of the project, setting the partnership and management of the project phases. Three main stages of the project implementation follow:
Creating local networks and developing strategies for motivating and engaging grandparents to join their grandchildren in foreign language learning;
Implementing of the activities of motivating grandparents to join their grandchildren in foreign language learning;
Competitions and visit exchanges