How can young non-readers be encouraged to develop their desire to read and learn through intercomprehension and other pluralistic approaches in a plurilingual context? By implementing this cross-sectoral project, the partnership of the Lectŭrĭo+ wants to answer this central and new issue. To reach this goal, school, academic and vocational and training sectors are engaged in a partnership which involves an association, two vocational training schools and five universities, some of which already participate in a network of schools: all of them have a solid experience in the field of plurilingualism in education. The geographical location of the project partners is perfectly in line with the chosen theme, since they are mostly located in cross-border, island or rural plurilingual regions, and their networks branch out into Reunion and Guyana, also crossing the Principality of Andorra. The wide variety of languages used in these regions - each of them having a different sociolinguistic status- is an extremely rich resource for exploiting the subject. As well, the educational systems are very diverse and they care differently for the main target audience - children aged 3 to 6- so that the project itself will be enriched by differences as well as cultural diversity. But this audience of very young children, not yet readers or at the very beginning of writing, is not the only target audience. Another public is the pupils of vocational schools who intend to intervene in the socio-educational field and especially with children from 3 to 6 year old. In addition to these two basic groups, attention will be given to students who are in need of special education and who are over 6 years of age. But of course, all actors in the education of young children are among the target groups, beginning with teachers and trainers, and not forgetting the families themselves. Based on a report by the OECD (2012) and on other similar studies, the partnership has identified the needs for comprehensive social care in education, and is committed to an attractive and collaborative “Family Learning" system (Learning in Family). In this context, students in vocational education will improve their basic language skills in a feedback loop. While benefiting from the received attention, students with special educational needs will bring advantage to the project and, in turn, to all students. A particular effort will be made to promote the interactivity among the sectors and among the target groups. Hence, the partnership has the intention of achieving these needs by setting realistic targets. All the goals will tend to improve basic skills for early written text comprehension, and they will also aim toward making plurilingualism a lever to promote empowerment and motivation. Free educational resources in the school subjects “de l’eveil” (i.e. of the awareness: history, geography, handicrafts, drawing and music) and in the field of training for vocational school education will be open to the public. All of them will be grounded in a global approach and anchored in the digital era. In a bottom-up approach and following the initiative of the educational community, this innovative partnership project involves many researchers in the didactics of pluralingualism and is committed to open practice. Choosing such a young audience is innovative; as is the cross-fertilization approach between the school and socio-educational sectors and families. The Lectŭrĭo project relies on the positive effects of the dissemination of pedagogical tools and practices, and in the long term it aims to prevent the early exit from school. It will enable a network of schools involved in these collaborative and holistic approaches. Thus, the project will survive because it will have established a practice of sharing between the actors of the project through a network of lasting exchanges and regular online training.
Lectŭrĭo in Latin means "I feel like reading". This is why the project name Lectŭrĭo+ was chosen. How can we help very young children, who are not yet readers, to get into the written world ? How can we encourage this very young audience to develop a desire to read and to learn? Through the Lectŭrĭo+ project we seeked to convince people that this can be achieved by combining stories for kids with multilingualism issues. From September 2017 to November 2019, the seven project partners and their eleven associate partners pursued this idea with conviction. They proposed a set of open educational and training resources. Every resource created within the framework of the Lectŭrĭo+ project is available on the public web site of the project. The resources are designed to be enriched continuously. The Lectŭrĭo+ project brought together three different types of organizations. Coordinated by an association, Apicad, the project was carried out with as well the school sector (represented by a vocational high school, the Lycée Le Mas Blanc), as the university sector (represented by five universities). Some of these were already working with a network of schools, and all have more or less a vast experience with issues of plurilingualism in the field of education : the universities of Barcelona, Corsica, Rome 3, Salento, and Saarland. The partnership had four countries involved : Germany, Spain, France and Italy. Their partner organisations were mainly located in regions where several languages are in use, in cross-border regions, as well as in island or rural plurilingual regions. The associated partners extended the area of influence to also include Romania and, on the American continent, Argentina. In these regions, a wide range of languages with all possible status are in use, and constitute a very rich environment for doing research on this topic. Not only the education systems are diverse, but the different forms of care of the main target audience, children between three and six years of age, are also rich thanks to their differences. This audience of very young children, who do not yet read or are at the very beginning of writing, is not the only target audience. Another target group is schoolchildren in agricultural vocational education who’s career plan is to work in the socio-educational field, and particularly with children between three and six years of age. In addition to these two basic groups, attention has also been paid to pupils with so-called special educational needs - even if they are over 6 - in order to respond to dyslexic disorders. It then remains evident that all the actors being involved in the education of young children are among the target audiences. This starts with teachers and other professionals in contact with the very young public in the exercise of their profession, without fundamentally forgetting the families themselves. The Lectŭrĭo+ partnership had beforehand identified the need for comprehensive social care in education, and particularly in the education of the very young. For this reason they wanted to respond to these needs by setting realistic and concrete objectives. This is why, in addition to resources and training, the partnership has committed itself to design a system for learning in a family context, involving the school as well. The description of this system is part of the available documents on the project’s web site. In the field of multilingualism, the associated didactics, and the teaching techniques already in place, very little work had been done for a very young audience and dyslexic children. The Lectŭrĭo+ project has produced in two Pluralistic Approaches (intercomprehension and language awareness) and has digitally transposed the "Story Bags", from which it has drawn much inspiration. It was able to benefit from the long experience of the italian Valle d'Aosta region, an associate partner. The "Story Bags" are a pedagogical technique based on short bilingual texts. It is therefore innovative to have chosen this type of public, in the same way as the approach of cross-fertilisation between school and socio-educational sectors and families also is innovative. The Lectŭrĭo+ project focuses on the positive effects of disseminating educational resources and practices. In the long run it aims to combat school failure and early drop-out. It enables to set up a network of schools being engaged in these approaches. The Lectŭrĭo+ project will continue and last. In fact, it has set up a sharing practice between the project actors through a sustainable exchange network and regular, hybrid or online training sessions. All the achievements of the project can be improved but also complemented by new ones over time. The project's coordinating organisation is committed to this approach. The "corpus of tales" already reaches hundreds of web pages, and the created resources based on the emblematic tale « Thomas and the watermelon » invite to be creative.