The project focuses on Polish which has, as second largest spoken Slavic language, a growing importance for Eastern Europe but also for other European and Non-European countries. Facing the fact, that Polish minorities and diasporas are to be found all over Europe, but also overseas as in Latin or North America, that temporary and permanent migration to Poland is growing, as well as the need to foster ICT technologies and life long learning as a basic skill, the necessity of this project becomes clear: When it comes to language learning, the Eurobarometers “Europeans and their languages” (Waves 243 and 386), have repeatedly shown that the next most common methods for learning languages, after the formal education, are self-study and learning a language at home, from family members. At the same time those Eurobarometers, but also most other surveys on language learning, identify the cost of language lessons as one of the most frequently stated reasons why people do not study languages. Combining these observations, the goal of the project is to develop a free of charge, multilingual, online e-learning portal for learning the Polish language (A1 and A2 levels) as well as the grammar and authentic use of the language. The website will feature interactive instruments, as the forum, where users will have the opportunity to communicate and exchange learning habits, concepts and share other valuable information. Such a free, multilingual online learning and communication opportunity does not exist at the moment, and e-learning opportunities of this kind are almost never available in less widely used languages. Though some offers for Polish language can be found, they only comprise an overview of grammar and words and do not provide high quality pedagogical courses, that were not only developed by professional linguists but also tested with relevant target groups and adapted to their needs. The best available possibilities for learning Polish, online and free of charge, are only available in English, excluding the majority of adult learners, whose proficiency in English is not high enough for using English in order to learn another foreign language. Thus the project develops and disseminates new language learning materials, including online courses based on CEFR. It will have built in dictionaries and interactive and engaging exercises, etc. and will be developed in 8 languages + Polish: English, German, Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovene and Ukrainian. This multilingual feature will especially attract the vast majority of adult learners, whose proficiency in English is not high enough for using English in order to learn another foreign language. Polish Online will give them the opportunity to be guided with the support of their native language version. This feature will be a great opportunity for insecure languages learners and give them the opportunity to discover online language learning as an interesting and modern and not necessarily difficult learning experience. A website forum will moreover allow for sharing experience and discussing different issues with other users. The interactive and online based alignment allows to respond to a large target group of different ages, nationalities and varying level of skills. The main target audience therefore are adults, university students, professionals, school students, Polish 2nd and 3rd generations from the Polish diaspora, partners in mixed relationships, migrants coming to live and work in Poland and tourists, who are planning to visit Poland. We envision the following impact: - Improved access to learning Polish language for wide audiences from and beyond Europe through a new OER since no similar pedagogically valuable resources exist at the moment; - Available free online course that motivates and inspires by using engaging, interactive and user friendly tools and gives the opportunity to learn where- and whenever it is suitable; - Improved understanding of Poland and its culture.
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