The development of basic skills is the foundation for a competent and successful knowledge society. Experts stress that the work-environment of the future will be even more multilingual then it is today and foreign language skills will be a basic prerequisite for a successful career path. Notably, the thematic working group on "Languages for jobs" of the European Strategic Framework for ET 2020 comes to the conclusion that "English is clearly an extremely important language for international exchange and is increasingly regarded as a basic skill. However, English only is not enough: It is other languages that will make the difference between mainstream and excellence and provide a competitive edge". But analysing the EC's First European Survey on Language Competences shows that the competencies in the second foreign language are extremely low through the EU. The partnership has already developed several free e-learning portals for learning foreign languages, the most popular one being deutsch.info for learning German with currently over 470.000 registered users. Additionally didactic materials were created in order to help teachers to use deutsch.info in the classroom. However, during the needs analysis it became clear, that the deutsch.info portal is not suitable for younger children and that a different approach would be needed. Therefore the idea arose to create the portal kids.deutsch.info for children to learn basic German. The portal will be contain colourful and educational content, games and videos as well as the possibility to pace the learning process according to ones needs. It will help to foster several basic and transversal skills, most obviously foreign language skills and literacy, but our approach will also benefit other skills such as computer and cultural skills. The portal is created as an educational and motivational tool to help children start the journey into learning German but also as a "resource-centre" for teachers and educators. It will be comprised of two parts, one for teachers and educators (in kindergartens, schools and language schools) and one for children and their parents. Teachers will find modules with ready to use materials for the use in classrooms/kindergartens. Children and parents will find content, which will build on the knowledge gained during classes and will enable them to continue learning at home. Modules will also include videos and games, created especially for the portal. The portal aims at helping children master the A1 level of the Common European Framework of reference for Languages as well as motivate them for further learning. Through the specific "learning to learn" competences gained in the process, by motivating children to use media for learning, children will be better equipped with skills to independently continue language learning in the future. The portal will include: - Modules for the use in kindergartens/schools - CLIL-based German language learning content - Exercises in form of different games, riddles, quizzes etc. based on the content of modules - Videos based on the content of modules - Features such as an in-built dictionary and audio versions of words, where useful The participants and main beneficiaries of our project will by children, teachers and educators in kindergartens. We expect that the project will help teachers gain: 1. New skills for successful language teaching by implementing CALL in school lessons and motivation of students to learn autonomously on the Internet and by using language-teaching games. 2. Openness to new concepts in education, especially use of ICT inside and outside of classroom We expect the following impact on children: 1. Rise of interest in learning the German language by applying CALL in classroom and at home as the use of technology is interesting and motivational. 2. Rising self-esteem of pupils concerning language learning 3. Materials for self-study: Pupils will get recommendation from their teachers how and where they can study on their own. They will get language exercises + cultural facts and knowledge.
The language learning portal deutsch.info – Deutsch für Kinder (www.deutsch.info/kids), which was developed during this project, is directed at children between 5 – 8 years and engages children to learn German playfully. It is accessible in more than 8 languages (The navigation is also available in 25 languages, the app in 18 languages). The App „Dandelin – Deutsch für Kinder“ can be downloaded and comprises videos, songs as well as interactive exercises for children to train basic German vocabulary while playing. Funny videos about the mascot Dandelin and two children introduce the topic in each part of the app (e.g., baking a cake, not being able to sleep, learning the alphabet …). With the help of the videos, it is possible to understand the story without needing a translation or reading skills. Entertaining songs, which refer to real life situations of children (e.g. I am hungry!) enlarge the vocabulary and support language acquisition of children through repetitive elements. With the interactive exercises within the app children then train the correct meaning of words and sentences. Additionally, there are 35 teaching units for kindergarten and primary schools which can be downloaded for free and comprise numerous and linguistically effective activities for the teaching of German. The mascot Dandelin plays an important part as it is involved in many activities and sometimes also gives instructions. Emphasis is put on CLIL-based language learning content as the integrative teaching of content and language skills strengthens the learning process. Each unit starts with a list of learning goals and the grammar and vocabulary that is being trained in this unit to inform teachers about the goals and topics of each unit right at the beginning. The videos as well as the songs are also accessible via the website and YouTube and can be used by the teachers either individually or in combination with the 35 teaching units. Children can also watch and hear the videos and songs autonomously on YouTube. 9 worksheets with ideas for parents to support their children’s language acquisition in their mother tongue as well as in German can be used in more than 8 different languages. The website is continuously being translated in additional 17 languages. All materials were developed by language teaching experts of the involved partner organizations and were technically implemented by an experienced web design studio. The project partners from schools and kindergarten tested the materials continuously and gave feedback via an implemented peer-review-process. All in all, 9 videos, 9 songs, more than 1000 illustrations and 18 rewards (as PDFs) were produced. The materials for parents are available in numerous language versions in the form of 225 nicely illustrated PDFs. The 35 teaching units for teachers in schools and kindergarten are also available as downloadable PDFs. The project was a logical continuation of the development of the online German language learning platform www.deutsch.info, which had been developed since 2011 with the support of different project grants by the European Commission. It was directed at adult learners as well as alphabetized children and youngsters from 6-18 years. The target group of the current project were non alphabetized preschool children as well as children at the beginning of school. Now, two months after the end of the project we already see a very promising number of users: The app was being downloaded 3500 times in different test versions. The final version is now in Google Play and Apples App Store available and was being installed on more than 1000 gadgets since the end of the project. It was rated 4.9 out of 5 (Apples App Store) and 4.8 out of 5 (Google Play). The feedback of parents and teachers during the testing of the product and during the multiplier events showed that the results of the project enjoy great popularity. In the context of German as a Foreign or Second Language the results are very innovative and are one of the few online products, which are available for non-alphabetized children. The current project is connected to the website www.deutsch.info, where almost 625.000 users have been registered during the last 10 years. This guarantees that the project site www.deutsch.info/kids will be sustainably maintained and even further developed. What’s more, the users of the already existing website will become multipliers of the new project (as many of them are teachers of German).