According to EU educational policy studies and reports, there is an urgent need to support teachers in addressing and building upon the linguistic diversity found in today’s classrooms across Europe. In this respect, special emphasis is placed on the role of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) in empowering teachers to integrate languages of international communication in multilingual classrooms, so as to help their learners, including learners from migrant backgrounds, develop skills which are crucial for social inclusion and employability in the current globalised and highly demanding world. As is highlighted, English language teachers (ELTs), in particular, should acknowledge the role of English as a lingua franca (ELF), i.e. as the most frequently employed means of international and intercultural communication in Europe and beyond. Integrating ELF in multilingual classrooms necessarily requires the development of a new set of competences for ELTs, who, as research shows, have not yet incorporated in their teaching an awareness of this role of English, let alone an awareness of the relevance of ELF to multilingualism or to social inclusion and employability. A key reason for this is that ELF-related issues are not sufficiently covered in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) or CPD programmes across Europe. Consisting of a network of experts from five increasingly multilingual European countries (Greece, Turkey, Italy, Portugal, Norway) who specialize in teacher education and ELF, the ‘English as a Lingua Franca Practices for Inclusive Multilingual Classrooms (ENRICH)’ project aims at developing an innovative, effective, efficient and sustainable CPD infrastructure which will equip in-service ELTs with the necessary competences for integrating ELF in multilingual classrooms. These include: a) up-to-date knowledge and awareness of the nature and role of ELF (E of ENRICH); b) collaboration and critical thinking skills through networking (N) focusing on multilingualism and ELF; c) skills for planning, managing and coordinating teaching which integrates ELF in multilingual classrooms involving especially learners from migrant backgrounds, such as refugees (R); skills for using innovative (I) language teaching practices (translanguaging, CLIL, TBL, ICT) and appropriate cultural content (C) related to the European Cultural Heritage, so as to develop the learners’ ELF-related communicative (e.g. mediation, negotiation) and other transversal skills (e.g. cultural awareness) necessary for employability and social inclusion in today’s world. To this end, ENRICH aims at employing a high-quality (H) CPD methodology by integrating competence-oriented tasks, mentoring, collaborative, reflective and ICT-based learning, and, when appropriate, by linking CPD to ITE, as regards ELF-related issues not sufficiently covered therein, to ensure the provision of more localised, relevant and effective professional development for teachers. The ENRICH CPD endeavour will be carried out within a time period of 36 months as follows. At first, a Needs Analysis survey will be carried out to identify: a) the training needs of in-service ELTs with respect to multilingualism, ELF and teaching young and adolescent learners in multilingual classrooms, including migrants, and b) the needs and wants of these learners, as regards learning and using English. Based on the findings, as well as on a comprehensive literature review on relevant issues, a CPD course will be developed, piloted and implemented across the partner countries. This course will adopt a blended learning (face-to-face and online) approach and will focus on the teacher competences mentioned above. During its implementation phase, the ENRICH partners will act as mentors of the participating ELTs (approx. 15-30 from each partner country), who, as part of the course, will also be engaged in designing, teaching and evaluating original lessons in their own classrooms. Finally, a Handbook will be created, containing, among others, the CPD materials, good practices from the ELTs’ classrooms, and key information aiming at fostering the transferability and multiplication prospects of the project and informing educational policy and research. Other equally important aspects include: a) the development of the project’s website, b) evaluation and quality assurance and c) dissemination, exploitation and sustainability. The main deliverables (Needs Analysis, CPD course, Handbook) will be disseminated through multiplier events in the partner countries, as well as through a final conference, addressing the main target groups of ENRICH: a) ELTs, b) teacher educators, c) educational policymakers, d) experts and researchers in the areas of multilingualism and ELF. Due to the innovative nature of ENRICH and its high potential in breaking new ground in teacher education focusing on multilingualism and ELF, the impact on all of these groups is expected to be more than significant.
According to EU educational policy studies, there has been an urgent need to support teachers in addressing the linguistic diversity found in today’s classrooms in Europe. In this respect, special emphasis is placed on the role of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) in empowering teachers to integrate languages of international communication in multilingual classrooms, so as to help their learners, including migrants, develop skills which are crucial for social inclusion and employability in the current globalised world. As is highlighted, English language teachers (ELTs), in particular, should acknowledge the role of English as a lingua franca (ELF), i.e., as the most frequently employed means of international and intercultural communication. Integrating ELF in multilingual classrooms necessarily requires the development of a new set of competences for ELTs, who, as research shows, have not yet integrated in their teaching an awareness of this role of English, including its relevance to multilingualism, social inclusion and employability. A key reason for this is that ELF-related issues are not sufficiently integrated in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) or CPD programmes across Europe. Consisting of a network of experts from five increasingly multilingual countries (Greece, Turkey, Italy, Portugal, Norway) who specialize in teacher education and ELF, the ENRICH Project developed an innovative, effective and sustainable CPD infrastructure to equip ELTs with the necessary competences for integrating ELF in multilingual classrooms. These include: a) up-to-date knowledge of the nature and role of ELF (E of ENRICH); b) collaboration and critical thinking skills through networking (N); c) skills for planning, managing and coordinating teaching which integrates ELF in multilingual classrooms involving especially migrant learners, such as refugees (R); skills for using innovative (I) teaching practices (e.g., translanguaging, CLIL, TBL, ICT) and appropriate cultural content (C) related to the European Cultural Heritage, so as to develop the learners’ ELF-related communicative (e.g. mediation, negotiation) and other transversal skills (e.g. cultural awareness) necessary for employability and social inclusion in today’s world. To this end, ENRICH employed a high-quality (H) CPD methodology by integrating competence-oriented tasks, mentoring, collaborative, reflective and ICT-based learning, and, when appropriate, by linking CPD to ITE, as regards ELF-related issues not sufficiently covered therein. The ENRICH CPD endeavour was carried out within 40 months as follows. At first, a Needs Analysis study was conducted to identify: a) the CPD needs of ELTs with respect to the role of multilingualism and ELF in multilingual classrooms and b) the needs and requirements of young and adolescent learners, as regards learning and using English. 620 ELTs, 505 adolescents and 90 young learners took part in this study, which confirmed and further strengthened the initial hypothesis that ELF is not integrated in multilingual classrooms, even though learners frequently use it in their everyday life. Based on the findings, an online CPD Course with 30 Sections in total was developed, piloted by 21 ELTs and implemented, with 249 participants from the partner countries and beyond. During its implementation, the ENRICH partners acted as mentors of the participating ELTs, who, as part of the Course, also designed, taught and evaluated original lessons in their classrooms. Finally, a Handbook was developed, piloted by 32 external evaluators and published in a printed and digital format. Among others, it contains the CPD Sections, good practices from the ELTs’ classrooms, and key information aiming at fostering the transferability and multiplication prospects of the project and informing future policy and research. The CPD Course and the Handbook are freely available at the project portal (http://enrichproject.eu/) which also provides all necessary information about the project. Due to the innovative nature of ENRICH, various dissemination and exploitation activities took place, addressing all the main target groups of the project: a) ELTs, b) teacher educators, c) educational policymakers and d) researchers in the areas of multilingualism and ELF. Such activities included, e.g., 61 conference presentations, 2 Webinars, 17 YouTube videos and 36 public announcements. Most importantly, six very successful Multiplier Events were conducted, including a major international conference, which attracted over 1,200 live participants altogether from all over the world. It is estimated that, during its implementation, about 175,000 people in total benefited from ENRICH, and, as a range of evaluation and quality assurance activities indicated, the impact on them was deep and long-lasting. This conclusion further highlights the significance of ENRICH as a high-quality project breaking new ground in the fields of multilingualism and ELF.