Foreign language skills are becoming more important than ever. Today’s pupils are going to compete in an even more globalised world and cultural as well as language skills are going to be indispensable for a competitive society. The need to learn several languages, including the LWUL’s, has been confirmed by all surveys and research related to the ET 2020 strategy. The goal of our project is to offer a “Multilingualism Accelerator” which will enable children to become multilingual faster and to be confident in their language abilities. Therefore we are building on the idea that learning a model language (in our case Esperanto) can boost the language learning skills of children and adds additional advantages as well. Several studies have shown that learning the model language Esperanto for one year increases the speed of learning of the next language by 30%! The reason is that such a model-language is very easy, it has no exceptions and it functions as a logical construct, which enables children to play with it and easily understand the underlying linguistic principles by deconstructing and rebuilding words and sentences. Thus it motivates them much more than other languages could. They develop language awareness, which helps them in a wide range of fields, connected with languages. Studies have for example shown that learning Esperanto for one year increases language awareness in the mother tongue significantly. For many languages it also fosters literacy in the mother tongue, because it is much easier to read and write, then say English or French. An additional bonus for small children is the increased numeracy, because of the counting system in Esperanto. Teachers have observed that children help themselves in Mathematics classes with Esperanto, because it provides a clear picture of the numbers (similar to addition and multiplication). Learning Esperanto in class can also provide a great opportunity to learn about other cultures because classes can connect via internet or mobility mechanisms and communicate in a common language on an equal basis. Learning an easy model-language provides a successful inclusive experience for all children, because all can feel language learning success, not just the “talented” few. Most important of all, learning a simple model language, before learning other foreign languages equips children with a sense of achievement and self-esteem. The results of the project will contribute to a number of priorities and topics but based on the research we expect an even broader positive effect on the learners. The concrete results of the project will be: 1. Proapedeutic materials for multilingualism acceleration in paper and electronic form: modules for 32 block-hours will be developed and materials in paper and electronic form will be produced (including a special program for automatic creation of teaching sentences) - the modules will be based on the newest research on morpheme frequency, in which findings suggest, that only 230 morphemes cover 90% of the language corpus and thus this small number enables the understanding of the language structure and logic. 2. A didactic methodology with step-by-step instructions for teachers: practical information (background information, step-by-step instructions, etc.) for teachers to enable self-guided use. 3. Online Tutorials for teachers to learn about the approach and learn basic Esperanto, needed for using the modules in classes 4. A portal for teachers with relevant materials to implement the program in classrooms: the website will include Information for teachers about the advantages of learning a model-language prior to foreign languages, Modules with downloadable materials and didactic methodology for using the materials in classrooms, Information for pupils, Materials for pupils for self-learning purposes in form of games or animations, Links to EU projects and other relevant sites, A forum to exchange experiences and approaches. Our partnership is comprised of three schools, two faculties, an organization involved in multilingual research and education, an NGO active in the promotion of multilingualism, a publisher and a programming company. We are combining knowledge and experience of partners, who have developed materials which are quite unique and expect new and innovative approaches, which will benefit the project and our target groups.
The Multilingualism Accelerator is a curriculum which enables children to learn foreign languages faster and to become more confident in their language-learning abilities. It was based on the propedeutical idea, i.e. that learning a model language, in this case basic Esperanto, if it is limited to the 300 most frequently-used morphemes, can boost children’s language learning skills. Several studies have shown that learning the model language Esperanto for one year may increase the speed of subsequent language learning by up to 30%. The reason is that such a model language is very easy, has no exceptions and functions logically. It enables children to easily understand the underlying linguistic principles by taking apart and rebuilding words and sentences. It is thus far more effective than other languages, burdened by many exceptions to rules, in motivating students. They learn by autonomously constructing their own sentences. Through this course, children playfully learn the basics of an analytical language, and this gives them clear ideas about how languages are organized. Children understand grammatical terms such as plural, the basic two cases (nominative and accusative), how to create sentences, and acquire the ability to create many new words from the basic roots and affixes present in every language. This gives learners a clear view of the structure of languages in general, known as meta-linguistic knowledge. Perhaps the most revolutionary feature of the Multilingualism Accelerator is that it can be taught by language teachers who have no previous knowledge of Esperanto. The materials contain the minimal knowledge of Esperanto, which can be easily learned by experienced language teachers, who learn while preparing for the lessons. On the Multilingualism Acclerator platform https://lernu.net/instruado didactic material for 60 school hours (or 30 block hours) is available in 10 languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, French, English, Esperanto, German, Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Slovene and Spanish. The material is divided into six lessons. Each lesson contains the following materials: - Didactic methodology, which is easy to follow for language teachers; - Ready-to-print work sheets with attractively and colorfully illustrated exercises, dialogs and texts; - Direct links to grammatical explanations in order to provide teachers with no prior knowledge of Esperanto with additional information, when preparing for classes; - E-learning exercises for individual use by pupils; - Audio material. The use of the Multilingualism Accelerator approach for two years by five teachers in three primary schools in three EU Member States has been remarkably successful. Surveys among pupils, teachers and parents showed their enthusiasm for the Multilingualism Accelerator course. Children, aged 8-9 years, enjoyed the course (2 hours per week) and the teachers found it not only interesting, but also very useful. Two tests at the end of the school year evaluated recognition of elementary grammatical notions in the native language and the meta linguistic knowledge of the pupils. The tests were completed by the pupils who learned Esperanto and a control group of equal size and same previous language learning experience, who did not. They showed that the children who participated in Multilingualism Accelerator classes had considerably higher scores than those who didn't. However, a larger sample would have to be tested in the future to make scientifically relevant claims. Another very important result of the project is the computer program for creating sentences, which was used to develop e-learning exercises on the platform. The idea of the computer program was to develop a tool for generating sentences which include only morphemes used in lessons. It can either generate sentences from scratch or determine the acceptability of a given input sentence. In a CALL context, the system works with a lesson-/level-constrained vocabulary and could in the future be integrated into e.g. substitution table or slot filler exercises. It could also be adapted to be used by teachers to generate exercises or by students who can write sentences on the computer and the computer could give feedback if the sentence is grammatically correct and meaningful. As such the program is completely innovative and unique and might also be implemented in other CALL contexts in the future. The partnership of 9 organisations from 6 countries consisted of three schools, two universities, one education NGO and one private company active in the field of education, one education and media company and a publisher.