The project “Experience Italy and Austria First-Hand” was commonly initiated by the Tourism School Bad Hofgastein and the I.P.S.S.A.R. Pietro D’Abano. The focus is on a student exchange program between the aforementioned schools, which both pursue an education in general and technical schooling for practicing elevated professions in all economic fields, especially in those of tourism and leisure industry. The visit to Abano Terme, Italy, is scheduled to take place at the beginning of the next school year 2018/19. The students will not only be involved in the daily school routine, but will also visit touristic establishments and cultural facilities. Participating in the language week is supposed to motivate students to apply their foreign language knowledge in and outside of the scholastic context. The student exchange program serves both the acquisition of linguistic and comprehensive intercultural competences, which is ensured by the sharing of students’ everyday lives. The strategic partnership between the schools facilitates a direct analysis of different cultures and both their similarities and differences; by doing so, intercultural communication skills are improved. This permits students to understand different mindsets and to value this as personal gain. Trends in the touristic offer, activities and products of different touristic service providers, cultural and linguistic variety, as well as needs and culture-specific behavior of guests, teenagers’ everyday realities in different countries, and developments in the social and economic field are part of the key topics of language teaching in the fourth year of learning. These are addressed by excursions to touristically popular cities, hotels and establishments, whereby a direct on-site insight is provided. An additional aspect of foreign language education, which is established through a practical project day, lies in the coordination of projects and instructions on work processes. For the practice day, students plan and conduct an Austro-Italian evening, where they cook for and host their guests. The role of the language mediator is particularly boosted during this day, since students have to mediate between interlocutors who do not directly understand each other. Tourism schools feel it their duty to provide students with innovative learning materials. Part of these constitutes the integration of e-learning, which is supported by offering eTwinning. Twinspace is used for the project in order to provide access to innovative learning to students outside of the classroom and to make numerous communication paths available. Students do not only communicate in written form, but also exchange pictures and videos, chat and hold video and audio conferences. By doing so, students experience directly, which possibilities today’s technology and globalization offer and simultaneously learn how to actively make use of them. The third pillar of the project and, at the same time, educational mandate of tourism schools, is the direct intercultural exchange and involved understanding of different cultures and ways of living. Apart from essential cultural cornerstones of the respective regions, which are transmitted to the students, they are enabled to directly experience the living environment of fellow European Union citizens of the same age. Ultimately, the project serves not only the purpose of the students’ linguistic advancement, but also the responsible dealing with people, with the own and the other culture. At the end of the day, the skill at responding to personal, professional and social challenges in an open, flexible and creative way, and to arrange them actively, is promoted.
The project “Experience Italy and Austria First-Hand” was commonly initiated by the Tourism School Bad Hofgastein and the I.P.S.S.A.R. Pietro D’Abano. The focus was on a student exchange program between the aforementioned schools, which both pursue an education in general and technical schooling for practicing elevated professions in all economic fields, especially in those of tourism and leisure industry. The visit to Abano Terme, Italy, was scheduled to take place at the beginning of the next school year 2018/19. The students wern't only involved in the daily school routine, but also visited touristic establishments and cultural facilities. Participating in the language week was supposed to motivate students to apply their foreign language knowledge in and outside of the scholastic context. The student exchange program served both the acquisition of linguistic and comprehensive intercultural competences, which was ensured by the sharing of students’ everyday lives. The strategic partnership between the schools facilitates a direct analysis of different cultures and both their similarities and differences; by doing so, intercultural communication skills were improved. This permited students to understand different mindsets and to value this as personal gain. Trends in the touristic offer, activities and products of different touristic service providers, cultural and linguistic variety, as well as needs and culture-specific behavior of guests, teenagers’ everyday realities in different countries, and developments in the social and economic field were key topics of language teaching in the fourth year of learning. These were addressed by excursions to touristically popular cities, hotels and establishments, whereby a direct on-site insight was provided. An additional aspect of foreign language education, which was established through a practical project day, lay in the coordination of projects and instructions on work processes. For the practice day, students planned and conducted an Austro-Italian evening, where they cooked for and hosted their guests. The role of the language mediator was particularly boosted during this day, since students had to mediate between interlocutors who did not directly understand each other. Tourism schools feel it their duty to provide students with innovative learning materials. Part of these constitutes the integration of e-learning, which was supported by offering eTwinning. Twinspace was used for the project in order to provide access to innovative learning to students outside of the classroom and to make numerous communication paths available. The third pillar of the project and, at the same time, educational mandate of tourism schools, is the direct intercultural exchange and involved understanding of different cultures and ways of living. Apart from essential cultural cornerstones of the respective regions, which were transmitted to the students, they were enabled to directly experience the living environment of fellow European Union citizens of the same age. Ultimately, the project served not only the purpose of the students’ linguistic advancement, but also the responsible dealing with people, with the own and the other culture. At the end of the day, the skill at responding to personal, professional and social challenges in an open, flexible and creative way, and to arrange them actively, was promoted.