May 2007 |

February 2007 |

September 2006 |

March 2006 |

January 2006 |

June 2004 |

January 2004 |

Action Plan |

ECML
Calendar |

May 2007: TEMOLAYOLE expert meeting

The five members of the TEMOLAYOLE project expert group met on May 3rd and 4th in Thessaloniki, Greece, to coordinate work on the project's publication of selected papers submitted following the International Research Conference held at the University of Pécs, Hungary in February 2007. All 28 papers received were reviewed in detail and feedback recorded for the authors.

The papers deal with a wide range of topics on teaching modern foreign languages to young learners in a variety of educational contexts. They include in-depth classroom research studies exploring how young learners develop in their new language, some focus on their teachers and their competencies. Others discuss how special materials can be used, most importantly stories and readers. Others look into how teacher education curricula have been developed and how teachers of young learners see themselves. Some of the studies are cross-sectional, but longitudinal research is also represented among them. The languages of instruction dealt with in the papers include French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

The volume emerging from the TEMOLAYOLE project is planned to serve as a useful tool for both teachers and teacher educators, providing information on the state of the art and also on areas where more research is needed. The book, which targets both teachers and decision makers, will be available from late September 2007.

It was the last time the team will meet as part of the project and it was very gratifying to note the project's successful outcomes for the minutes! It was a most successful meeting and the team looks forward to the publication of the conference papers later in the summer and to maintaining the links created between teacher educators around Europe.

The team hard at work!

February 2007: TEMOLAYOLE conference

The TEMOLAYOLE conference - Research into Teaching Modern Languages to Young Learners - was held in Pécs, Hungary, from 1-3 February 2007. It was organized jointly by the ECML and the University of Pécs. Publications by the following publishers were exhibited at the conference venue: OUP, CUP, Pearsons and ECML. Participants were welcomed by Robert Somos, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Marianne Nikolov, coordinator of the TEMOLAYOLE project. This was followed by the opening presentation by Adrian Butler, Executive Director of the ECML, who introduced the Centre's third medium-term programme. A total of 36 presentations made during the event included two plenaries, six round tables and 11 individual papers. The conference participants came from 18 countries in Europe, the United States and Africa, making it a truly international event. They were joined by local teachers involved in the teaching of modern languages to young learners. The contributors presented in English and French, but the contributions focused also on learning and teaching of several other languages (Croatian, German, Hungarian, Irish, Spanish, Ukrainian). More information...

September 2006: TEMOLAYOLE expert meeting

The five members of the TEMOLAYOLE project expert group met on September 1st and 2nd at the University of Umeå, northern Sweden, to advance plans for the project's upcoming international conference to be held at the University of Pécs, Hungary in February 2007. The theme of the conference is research into early modern foreign language programmes and the team reviewed the numerous abstracts received to date and revised plans and procedures for the organisation of the event itself. One of the planned outcomes of the project is the publication of selected conference papers and the compilation of this was also discussed. The team looks forward to the conference and its associated publication in 2007.
Sincere thanks to Gun Lundberg for her superlative local organisation.

A photo of the team hard at work!

March 2006:TeMoLaYoLe Call for proposals

The TeMoLaYoLe Project of the European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe, Graz, Austria
and
the University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary

invite you to their joint international conference

Research into Teaching Modern Languages to Young Learners

to be held at the University of Pécs between February 1-3, 2007.

The conference aims to generate new ideas and share research into TeMoLaYoLe: the teaching of modern languages to young learners, the processes and outcomes in young learners' classrooms, the teaching and learning of modern foreign and minority languages, innovative approaches in teacher education and language curriculum.

The event will also provide an opportunity for networking for both established and novice professionals.

The organizers invite teacher educators, teachers, researchers, and all interested professionals in the field to submit proposals for round tables, papers and posters in English and other widely spoken languages. Visit conference website.

January 2006: TEMOLAYOLE network meeting

Four team members and 11 members of the TEMOLAYOLE network, representing 12 countries, met for two days at ECML on 27-28 January. The first aim of the meeting was to overview what TEMOLAYOLE members accomplished over a year, in what ways their small-scale research projects contributed to the development of a syllabus and a comprehensive bibliography for teacher education institutions offering courses to pre-service and in-service teachers of modern languages to young learners.

As the short accounts revealed, network members involved their students in a variety of activities, ranging from story-telling projects, training in non-verbal communication, and pen pal partnerships, to using portfolio evaluation to motivate learners and to promote autonomy development, surveying teacher education programs, and applying levels defined in the CEFR to classroom tasks.

The second aim was to prepare network members for the upcoming major TEMOLAYOLE event: an international conference on research into early modern foreign language programmes. The two-day programme included short presentations on how to prepare a successful conference proposal in the form of an abstract, and guidelines and ideas for developing a conference presentation with the help of PowerPoint or a handout. Three model presentations were also prepared on network members' empirical research and these were discussed in short sessions to provide feedback to all participants.

The programme finished with a feedback session. Participants raised a number of questions concerning the conference, publication of papers, deadlines, and how support would be available to attend the conference. The venue and exact dates of the conference will soon be available at this website and on-line registration is expected to start in March 2006.

June 2004: TEMOLAYOLE workshop

The central workshop of the TEMOLAYOLE project took place on the 29 June - 3 July 2004 in Graz, Austria. Full details can be found in the workshop report, which can be downloaded in pdf format in the Materials section.

the TEMOLAYOLE workshop participants

January 2004: team meeting report

The TEMOLAYOLE project team held their planning meeting at ECML in Graz on 23-24 January 2004.

The project team members present included Marianne Nikolov, Jelena Mihaljevic-Djigunovic, Gun Lundberg, Tanya Flanagan, and Niovi Antonopoulou. Team members discussed the four-year project in all possible detail and designed a most informative pre-conference questionnaire for would-be participants. By the end of the planning meeting, the programme of the 5-day workshop to be held in the summer of 2004 had also been finalized. Team members look forward to implementing all their great ideas with workshop participants interested in developing teachers of modern languages to young learners.