The project is proposed in accordance with document Education and Training in Europe 2020 which highlights that “ Foreign languages skills can enhance the employability of young people”. This initiative totally fits the target groups of our project which are primary and secondary students. Moreover, the recommendations outlined in Rethinking Education include new criteria of learning foreign languages that are based on a dual approach. Teaching and learning foreign languages may be achieved with the help of innovative methods, including Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) where non-language subjects are taught through the medium of a foreign language. The main objectives of the project are: 1. Setting up essential components of good CLIL practice in the classroom by face-to-face observations 2. Preparing Modular e-trainings course for European CLIL teachers 3. Providing countries with none or less CLIL experience with the essential training and learning opportunities so that they can commence implementing this approach in their schools 4. Training teachers from the project partner countries on CLIL 5. Setting up an open database of class recordings and other teaching and methodological materials for CLIL teachers 6. Collecting research data and conducting comparative analysis of CLIL practice 7. Providing Universities and other public bodies dealing with educational research the results and main conclusions of this project as a possible basis for future research on the topic. Except the coordinating country (Slovakia, UKF university), there will be another 5 coooperating countries (Spain, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovak university STU). The project consists of partners from various educational levels - university, educational institutions, and representatives of primary and secondary education. It is the unique partnership of people from theoretical/ implemention institutions on one hand, and on the other one educational institutions where developed issues are applied and evaluated. From other point of view, the strategic partnership involves countries with a vast CLIL experience and also coutries with none or less experience in implementation of CLIL methodology. All partners will be actively involved in activities which will include: observation classes, preparing video recordings of CLIL classes, preparing Modular e-training course, Open CLIL Database and finally, the university partners will prepare Research data collection and comparative analysis. Moreover, the project is planning to establish a pilot training for teachers from participating countries, which will be provided by CLIL experts. The content of the course will be supported by prepared Modular e-training course with aim to offer it later to wider CLIL community to achieve CLIL competences. A project results will make a major contribution in several levels: - to develop positive attitude towards innovative methods within a foreign language teaching, - to implement foreign languages to non-language subjects , - to increase levels of employability and mobility of young people, and poor language skills, - to enhance the mobility opportunities and recognition of the competencies of young people throughout Europe in the global marketplace. Furthermore, participants will be able to offer an innovative course to their colleagues, widening their educational offering, increasing their penetration to the market and improving their expertise and reputation. They will have the opportunity to apply educational/training practices based on learning outcomes, both in the level of teaching and assessment. This way they will gain experience in order to transform their education system towards practises more suitable for recognition in the EU frameworks. The main outcome of the project will be a new CLIL web platform addressing major needs of the target audiences of all the institutions involved. By including it to their curriculum they will enrich their educational offerings, addressing the local needs and expectations in an attractive and personalized way. The people who will participate and be involved in the project work will enrich their professional profile adding several competencies concerning multilingual and multicultural course development and teaching along with cooperation and management in a transnational environment. Additionally, they will gain a deep understanding about the competencies recognition system of EU, which will greatly benefit themselves and their students.
The project was proposed in accordance with Education and Training in Europe 2020 document highlighting that “Foreign languages skills can enhance the employability of young people”. This initiative totally fitted the target groups of our project which were primary and secondary students. Moreover, the recommendations outlined in „Rethinking Education“ included new criteria of learning foreign languages based on a dual approach. Teaching and learning foreign languages may be achieved with the help of innovative methods, including Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) where non-language subjects are taught through the medium of a foreign language. The main objectives of the project were: 1. Setting up essential components of good CLIL practice in the classroom by face-to-face observations. 2. Preparing Modular e-trainings course for European CLIL teachers. 3. Providing countries with none or less CLIL experience with essential training and learning opportunities so that they can commence implementing this approach in their schools. 4. Training teachers from the project partner countries on CLIL. 5. Setting up an open database of class recordings and other teaching and methodological materials for CLIL teachers. 6. Collecting research data and conducting comparative analysis of CLIL practice. 7. Providing Universities and other public bodies dealing with educational research with the results and main conclusions of the project as a possible basis for future research on the topic. Except the coordinating country (Slovakia, UKF University), there were another 5 cooperating countries (Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy which fully substituted a former partner from Spain and Slovak University of Technology – STU). The project consisted of partners from various educational levels - university, educational institutions, and representatives of primary and secondary education. It was the unique partnership of people from theoretical/ implementation institutions on one hand, and educational institutions where developed issues are applied and evaluated on the other one. From other point of view, the strategic partnership involved countries with a vast CLIL experience and also countries with none or less experience in implementing CLIL methodology. All partners were actively involved in activities which included: observation classes, preparing video recordings of CLIL classes, preparing Modular e-training course, Open CLIL Database and finally, the university partners prepared Research data collection and comparative analysis (the second intellectual output that was not approved in the project proposal). The project coordinator, together with the other university partner from Slovakia and partially from Italy, developed and implemented the pilot training for the CLIL methodology for teachers within the partnership. The content of the pilot training was discussed by several stakeholders on a project website (www.educlil.eu), with a view to offer it to the public interested in this type of language learning in order to acquire adequate competencies in the CLIL methodology. The project achieved significant benefits and impacts at several levels: - to develop positive attitude towards innovative methods within a foreign language teaching, - to implement foreign languages to non-language subjects , - to increase levels of employability and mobility of young people, and poor language skills, - to apply CLIL methodology with the immigrants arriving to the partners´ countries aimed at achieving adequate language skills. It is another added value of the project we did not expect when preparing the project proposal. It was delighted information for us from the Swedish partner when they highlighted this specific application of CLIL, - to disseminate the CLIL course to the colleagues from partners´ institutions to ensure not only its dissemination, but each partner institution also broadened their offer in learning foreign languages. This could gradually increase the students' skills in the subsequent application to the labour market.