The project focuses on German, which has a vital economic importance with significant trading partners and with an increasing demand within EU countries for learning and teaching the language. It is based on the existing free e-learning website for learning German deutsch.info, which was developed as LLP KA2 project 2011-2013. The website is available in 13 languages and users can access all following materials free of charge: - Courses A1, A2 and partially B1 with a total of 15 topics, consisting of several lessons each, including interactive exercises; - Grammar section; - Media library, linked to in-built dictionaries and morphological analyser, with 263 materials at the moment; - Practical information for migrants about Austria and Germany; - Multilingual forums and applications for social media. The goal of the project is to extend the free online portal for learning German language (to A1, A2 and B1 levels and a partial B2 level, focusing on situations important for migrants within the scope of B1 and B2 levels), for learning about Austria, Germany and their cultures as well as offering helpful information about practical issues when working and living there. For workers and for students intending to move to those countries, such a learning opportunity is very important and this is emphasised by the current user statistics of deutsch.info with 28,000 registered users only 6 months after the launch, 37,000 page views and 3,500 visits by 2,300 users PER DAY. Thus the project promotes access to new language learning resources and develops and disseminates new language learning materials and OER. It will have new interactive and engaging exercises, reading materials, audio and video tools, competitions, etc. and will be offered in 16 languages (cs, de, en, eo, es, fr, gr, hr, it, lt, pl, ro, ru, sk, sl, tr), instead of 13 at the moment. The project also aims at informing about administrative and practical issues in Austria and Germany, as well as offering all kinds of helpful model documents, e.g. model letters for different purposes as well as model administrative forms to help migrants. Such online portal mainly targets workers and students who want to move or already live in Austria or Germany, but also school pupils, people who need German for work, people living in border areas, tourists and interested others. We envision the following impact: - Improved access to learning German language for prosperous migrants and migrants; - Practical help for migrants to deal with every day issues and to adapt to the host society.
Since 2011, the language learning platform deutsch.info has been developed within different partnerships and funding programs by the European Commission. Steady exchange and communication within the partnerships, allocation of resources and competencies of participating institutions lead to the last version of the deutsch.info portal, which was extended by new content in the sections courses, grammar and useful information as well as by new language versions and a new design and interface. The project was elaborated by 10 European institutions from 8 European countries. 2015 the platform was labelled as “best educational website of the year” in a people's chice award and a closer look into statistics shows the ongoing success of deutsch.info: more than 450.000 registered users worldwide are using the platform constantly. The website records over 8000 visits daily, with maximal peaks of over 18.000 visits, per day! In average over 7500 registered users daily are learning online. In social media deutsch.info is one of the most popular German language sites and has over 100.000 Facebook followers. (Data from Sep. 2017) deutsch.info is a free platform for learning German, focusing on self-learners and providing the possibility to train and enhance one’s vocabulary and grammar skills as well as reading and listening competencies by providing full online courses on the levels A1-B2. All content is available in 19 languages and learners have the choice to see translations of texts, words and exercises into their chosen language. This way motivation of self-learners on a basic level is preserved and they are given assistance in the learning process. The modern platform was conceptualized and programmed using the newest technical features and methods and is compatible with all gadgets and operating systems. deutsch.info offers four courses on levels A1, A2, B1, B2, based on the European Framework for Languages. The focus on beginner’s level (A1) and on moderate advanced level (A2) lies on everyday language, that allows for first communication in different surroundings. The advanced B2 course covers situations, that are of special interest for migrants and people living and working in Germany and Austria. It transfers learners into fictional situations dealing with administrative issues, job interviews and visits of authorities. The B2 course goes one step further and trains rather professional vocabulary that should help in getting along in professional situations like in the job, at the university or other formal contexts as well as train to understand authentic and difficult newspaper articles. The texts and exercises of all courses incorporate specifics of life in Germany and Austria and moreover deal with different varieties of the German language as spoken in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in order to be as authentic as possible. The courses comprise 31 topics, 129 lessons and over 1187 learning units. The courses were elaborated by professionals and tested directly with the target group in different European countries, in order to guarantee the quality and the correspondence of courses and levels as well as the relevance of topics and subjects covered for an international learner's audience. Moreover, the platform provides a media library with authentic audio, video and text files, a broad grammar section with rules and examples and additional practical information about living and working in Germany and Austria. A special feature is the quiz section, where learners can test their general knowledge, based on questions from official naturalisation tests from Germany and Austria. In order to increase the learning effect, test are not only showing rights and wrongs but are providing additional explanations for every question. The tests are available in 15 languages at the moment. The main target group of deutsch.info are people that are learning German or wanting to improve their skills, workers, students and pupils already living there or planning to do so, as well as migrants, refugees, inhabitants of border regions, tourists etc.