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CONTEXT
Language teacher education has
traditionally been focused on the didactic procedures for teaching particular
languages. However, developments in contemporary society oblige educational
institutions to face up to the challenges of plurilingualism and pluriculturalism.
Consequently, it is necessary to enrich language teacher education by
including the competences needed to promote linguistic and cultural diversity
for the construction of "democratic citizenship, social cohesion,
mutual understanding and respect".
Language and culture awareness help to promote these
aims. The recognition and acceptance of diversity leads to the development
of positive attitudes, which impel the individual to value diversity and
to act in consequence. Such a programme would enable teachers become key
social actors with a major role to play both locally as well as globally.
The materials and activities proposed for the language
teacher training kit in this project will take into account the plurilingual
approach presented in the Common European Framework for Languages
that "emphasizes the fact that an individual person's experience
of language in its cultural contexts expands, from the language of the
home to that of society at large and then to the languages of other peoples"
.
Following the Common European Framework for Languages,
one of the aims of the materials that will be produced throughout this
project will be to develop a linguistic repertory, in which all linguistic
abilities have a place. Furthermore, the materials will present a pluricultural
approach to promoting what the Framework defined as "the favourable
development of the learner's whole personality and sense of identity in
response to the enriching experience of otherness in language and culture".
A rationale and activities to promote democratic citizenship,
social cohesion, mutual understanding and respect, will be one of the
main objectives of the kit for language teacher trainers.
The LEA project is particularly relevant to the general
thematic area expressed in the ECML call for proposals of the 2nd medium-term
programme "Languages for Social Cohesion. Language Education in a
Multilingual and Multicultural Europe" because the main objectives
of the project are aimed at developing social cohesion through
language teaching/learning among teachers and consequently among their
students. This project has two main orientations: training and
awareness raising. That is to say, by means of training language
teacher trainers, the team members' main purpose is to develop plurilingual
and pluricultural competences among language teachers and consequently
among students at all levels.
This project will build on previous work done under
one of the major focuses of the first medium term programme: 1.2 Language
Awareness, Intercultural Competence, Multilingual Matters. Particularly,
it will be a follow-up, extension and development of the Ja-ling project
(ECML 1.2.1 and Socrates Jaling Comenius 95040-CP-1-2001-1-DE-COMENIUS-C21).
The present project is a clear step forward. The previous
Ja-Ling project aimed at learners as the final target group; logically,
the following phase had to be intended for language teacher educators.
Thus, dissemination of the basic assumptions of the Ja-Ling approach is
guaranteed to be larger and deeper.
AIMS
AND OBJECTIVES ______________________________
General
aims
- To raise awareness of diversity as a key element
of society
- To develop positive attitudes among language
teachers & trainees towards all other languages as well as their
speakers
- To enrich language teacher education with the
potential to exploit linguistic and cultural diversity at individual
and social levels
- To facilitate curricular changes aimed at incorporating
a plurilingual and pluricultural dimension into language classes.
Specific
objectives
-
To elaborate a questionnaire to analyse the assertions beliefs that
language teachers/trainees have with regard to plurilingualism and pluriculturalism.
The questionnaire will be on the LEA web page
-
To elaborate a basic kit for language teacher educators, taking advantage
of the experience gathered during the Ja-Ling project.
The
kit will contain:
-
a rationale
-
procedures for motivating language teachers & trainees to work
with language and culture diversity
- activities
and materials designed to train language teachers & trainees
in language and culture awareness
- sample
activities and materials, which language teachers & trainees
can use in their language classes, especially materials aimed at
incorporating a plurilingual and pluricultural dimension into the
learning of some particular languages.
-
To train the participants in the use of the kit.
-
To get participants to trial the kit in their own teaching environment.
- To
get feedback from the network members in order to improve the basic
kit.
- To
train other language teacher trainers in the use of the kit at national
level
-
To evaluate on-going processes stimulated by the project.
- To
publish the final improved version of the training kit, as well as other
outcomes of the project. The publication will be produced in electronic
and paper form.
EXPECTED
OUTCOMES ______________________________
This project is expected:
- to promote awareness for plurilingualism and
pluriculturalism among the participants.
- to provide them with instruments to introduce
plurilingualism and pluriculturalism among language teachers and learners.
These processes will be measured, respectively, by the
contribution of the participants to the improvement of the basic kit and
by a piloted questionnaire delivered to the participants and other language
teacher trainers who will take part in the project at national level.
The end product developed in this project will
be the above-mentioned improved kit, which will help to develop plurilingualism
and pluriculturalism competences among language teachers & trainees
ACTION
PLAN _______________________ ______________
2004
16-17 January
Meeting of the project team at the ECML in order to
- plan in
detail activities for 2004 and devise work breakdown structure, establishing
members' specific responsibilities
- elaborate
a questionnaire to identify language teachers/trainees' needs related
to plurilingualism and pluriculturalism
- elaborate
an outline for the LEA web page
January-June
The project team
- distributes the questionnaire to language
teachers/trainees in order to identify their needs related to plurilingualism
and pluriculturalism
- reviews materials related to language and
culture awareness, plurilingualism and pluriculturalism
- elaborates a draft outline of the basic
training kit, taking into account language teachers/trainees' needs.
25 - 26 June
Meeting of the project team in order to
- review the draft outline elaborated by the project
team members to produce the materials to be included
in the LEA's basic kit
- review materials from other projects that might
be included in the LEA's basic kit materials.
June to November
The project team
- elaborates the basic training kit materials
which will be piloted in the first international workshop (January 2005)
18 - 19 October
Meeting of the project team in Granada, Spain, in order to
- complete the final version of the basic kit materials
- prepare the first international workshop.
2005
26-29 January
4-day ECML workshop to
- present the basic kit materials
- train participants for the development of plurilingual
and pluricultural awareness in language teacher education and in the
use of the training kit to carry out training themselves.
Participants' profile:
In-service and pre-service language teacher trainers interested in plurilingualism
and pluriculturalism (including primary schoolteacher trainers) who are
- prepared and in a position to pilot the training
kit and contribute to its further development
- committed to staying involved in the subsequent phases
of the project by regular feedback on the piloting of the kit and attendance
of the network meetings
- possibly able to contribute to the final publication.
February to June
The project team and network members
- review and adapt materials from the basic kit
to their own context together with other language teacher trainers at
national level.
1-2 July
Project team and network meeting (for network members who
completed their tasks) at the ECML premises in order to
- give feedback and discuss on the adjustment of the
materials
- prepare the national training sessions.
June to January (2006)
Project team and network members
- set up and run in-service and/or pre-service language
teacher training sessions in their own countries.
2006
20-21 January
Project team and network meeting (for network members who
completed their tasks) at the ECML premises in order to
- discuss and gather contributions to the basic training
kit, after having piloted it in their own countries.
19 and 22 January
Meeting of
the project team at the ECML in order to
- analyse and assess the processes and the results
of the project
- distribute tasks for writing up the draft of the
final publication
January to September
The project team
- prepares the publication including the results
obtained in the project and the final improved language teacher training
kit.
15-16 September
Meeting of the project team in Algeciras, Spain in order to
- review and discuss the manuscript of the publication
October
Submission of the final manuscript.
2007
February
Publication of the material.
LANGUAGES
The working languages of the project are English and French. Simultaneous
interpretation will only be provided for central events (ECML workshops).
Participants are expected to speak fluent English
or French and have receptive competences in the other language.
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