In continuous education there are GAPS when it comes to teaching or learning foreign languages. As the target in the EU is more on widely used languages, there is a gap between those and the teaching of the target LWUL (Romanian, Hungarian, Estonian, Polish, Czech and Italian), for example: less teaching resources; outdated or lack of specialised books; limited possibilities for teachers to attend lifelong learning programs in order to improve their teaching. The partnership wishes to pursue 3 OBJECTIVES in order to meet the mentioned needs: To transfer the know-how on 3 different types of ICT based methods that 3 of the partner institutions currently use in teaching; To adapt and integrate the transferred ICT based methods for teaching the target LWUL as foreign language especially at A1, A2 and B1 levels (as these levels are required mostly on the market); To create a Handbook containing the general description of the target ICT based methods, at least 90 ICT based exercises/examples for teaching the target LWUL as foreign language to adults at A1, A2 and B1 levels and a short guide on how the methods can be adapted in adult education institutions. The ICT4LWUL project’s direct TARGET GROUP consists of educators and institutions involved in continuous language education, namely Romanian, Estonian, Hungarian, Italian, Polish and Czech language providers. During training events mobilities will be organised involving the teachers of the partner institutions, while dissemination and exploitation activities will reach even more people. Learners are not direct target groups within the project, however minimum 15 people will learn each target language during pilot study courses (so 90 participants per partnership). The ACTIVITIES of the project will last for 2 years during which the 6 partner institutions will implement 6 work packages: 1. Project management and quality assurance; 2. Implementing teacher training sessions; 3. Adapt and integrate the ITC methods; 4. Implement pilot study activities; 5. Design and development of Handbook; 6. Dissemination and exploitation. Besides the milestones foreseen at each work package, a main RESULT will also be developed: the Handbook. This will contain 3 main chapters: a general description about the ICT methods targeted by the current project; exercises and examples for teaching the target LWUL as foreign language at A1-B1 levels; short description on how the methods can be integrated by teachers/other institutions in language classes. The project will have an IMPACT on the involved learners, institutions and targeted teachers. The most important long time benefits of the project include: increased quality of LWUL education, by involving more attractive teaching methods and by ensuring, that teachers are more qualified and equipped; more strategic and integrated use of ICT in language education;increased motivation for LWUL learning, as adult learners will be able to attend more attractive, efficient and innovative language courses; more importance given to teaching and learning LWUL, especially those targeted by the project (Romanian, Estonian, Hungarian, Italian, Polish and Czech).
In continuous education there are GAPS when it comes to teaching or learning foreign languages. As the target in the EU is more on widely used languages, there is a gap between those and the teaching of the target LWUL (Romanian, Hungarian, Estonian, Polish, Czech and Italian), for example: less teaching resources; outdated or lack of specialised books; limited possibilities for teachers to attend lifelong learning programs in order to improve their teaching. The partnership wished to pursue 3 OBJECTIVES in order to meet the mentioned needs: 1. To increase the knowledge about 3 different types of ICT based methods within the partnership during the lifetime of the project; 2. To empower the partner language schools and teachers to be able to adapt and integrate the transferred ICT based methods for teaching the target LWUL as a foreign language; 3. To improve the knowledge of min. 120 language teachers from outside the partnership by the creation and dissemination of a Handbook containing at least 90 LWUL teaching exercises; The ICT4LWUL project’s direct TARGET GROUP were educators and institutions involved in continuous language education, namely Romanian, Estonian, Hungarian, Italian, Polish and Czech language providers. During training events mobilities were organised involving 30 teachers of the partner institutions, while dissemination and exploitation activities reached more then 30000 people. Learners were not direct target groups within the project, however 127 people learned the 6 target languages during pilot study courses. The ACTIVITIES of the project lasted 2 years (2017-2019) during which the 6 partner institutions implemented 6 work packages: 1. Project management and quality assurance; 2. Implementing teacher training sessions; 3. Adapt and integrate the ITC methods; 4. Implement pilot study activities; 5. Design and development of Handbook; 6. Dissemination and exploitation. Besides the milestones foreseen at each work package, a main RESULT was developed: the Handbook. The Handbook was designed especially for language teachers and representatives of language schools. It is multilingual, being available in 7 different languages and it was meant to offer a support (ex. exercises, resources, instruments) for teachers of 6 different less widely used languages: Romanian, Hungarian, Estonian, Italian, Polish and Czech as a foreign language. The Handbook contains 3 main chapters: 1. an introduction section with information about the project, authors and contributors who developed the Handbook and a legend; 2. a general description about 16 different technology-based methods targeted by the current project (e-learning methods; social media & web platforms; mobile and smartphone apps); 3. exercises and examples for teaching the target less widely used languages as a foreign language at A1-B1 levels, together with a guide on how similar exercises can be developed by teachers/other institutions; The Handbook is freely available for download by accessing: https://www.blsh.ro/sdm_downloads/download-the-ict4lwul-handbook/ The project had an IMPACT on language learners, education institutions and of course teachers. The most important long time benefits of the project include: increased quality of LWUL education; more strategic and integrated use of ICT in language education;increased motivation for LWUL learning; more importance given to teaching and learning LWUL, especially those targeted by the project (Romanian, Estonian, Hungarian, Italian, Polish and Czech); raised awareness about the importance of the development of human resources.