It is widely acknowledged that language proficiency is key for a common understanding between the EU citizens and for the practice of shared cultural values. However, recent studies demonstrate that we still have a long way to go until ICT gets truly integrated into the work of the European foreign language teachers. According to surveys, the availability of ICT facilities in the foreign language classrooms of European schools is extremely low. But even a greater barrier to spreading the best practices in technology-assisted language learning is the level of teachers’ digital literacy, which is a challenge for Higher Education. Above 70 percent of the language teachers in Europe do not consider themselves 'digitally confident’ or able to teach their students using ICT instruments effectively. In order to improve the uptake of ICT tools in foreign language teaching, the educators’ digital skills need to be regularly upgraded. Moreover, there needs to be a clear distinction between the ICT skills that teachers use in regular classrooms and those that are required for teaching languages online, as online tutoring becomes increasingly popular. This new educational reality requires novel pedagogies and open learning environments, open educational resources, and open adult training environments. In this context, DC4LT project aims at improving digital literacy and empowering language teachers of all levels (HE, VET, Schools, AE, private language institutions, entrepreneurs) to use ICT instruments in their practice. To achieve this goal, the project will explore how teachers are prepared to the integration of information technologies in their pedagogical work, what skills they need in order to better support their online courses, and in what ways they can help their students' in the language learning process. Then, based on the collected primary data, the consortium will develop a self-sustained Open Internet Community of Practice for language teachers / online tutors, which will help to continuously enhance their digital competences as well as their knowledge of the design and delivery of online and blended courses. Large numbers of language teachers will be invited to participate in the DC4LT training workshops and provided with an opportunity to collaborate with peers in an interactive educational process, spreading the excellence. This will allow many European language teachers improve the efficiency of their teaching practice, secure better employment and entrepreneurship opportunities, and offer their services to more students via ICT instruments. It is envisaged that more than 1500 language teachers/trainers from all levels of education institutions from public and private sector across Europe will initially benefit from the activities of the DC4LT project. The DC4LT project will be carried out by an international consortium composed of five partners: the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NO), University of Macedonia (GR), PIXEL (IT), Cyprus University of Technology (CY) and ITMO University (RU). All partners have a vast experience in technology-assisted language learning, development of open educational resources, learning analytics tools, mobile adaptive / personalized and collaborative learning and assessment. The partners will implement the project in four macro-phases: (1) Preparation, including setup and a pre-study, (2) Development of methods and content, applying expertise and pre-study results, (3) Delivering training and updating content based on the feedback and (4) Sustainability and finalization. Within the lifetime of 36 months, the project will develop and offer to the European Higher Education and other stakeholders the following tools and services: Analytical Report "User needs and SOTA in e-language teaching" Digital Competence Assessment Framework and Tool for language teachers Training Methodology for online and blended language learning Interactive eBook “Modernising and Opening up Language Education” e-Toolkit for Digital Competences, OERs and OEPs OPEN Community of Practice DC4LT platform Series of DC4LT Webinars The results of the project will be delivered at three teacher training workshops and through a series of webinars, as well as widely disseminated via the project website, social media, one European, one international and three local multiplier events and multiple other means. Reaching the ambitious objectives of the project will have a strong impact on the quality of language teaching in European Higher Education and other sectors. The impact of the project will be strengthened by delivering a replicable model of the training program for digital competences and by targeting the multipliers of knowledge.
The Digital Competences for Language Teachers (DC4LT) project established a strategic partnership for digital skills in language teaching. DC4LT was implemented by five organizations to transform their broad experience in language learning and digital technologies into new knowledge, resources, and a training offer for language teachers and teacher trainers. DC4LT worked towards the goal of improving digital literacy and empowering language teachers of all levels. To achieve this goal, the project explored the perspective of language teachers on digital competences through two rounds of online surveys, one pre-pandemic in 2019 and one in 2021. To complement these data, the project conducted a policy review and a job market study that revealed the views of policymakers and employers of language teachers. The results are presented in the report “Digital Competences in Language Education: Teachers' Perspectives, Employers' Expectations, and Policy Reflections”. To facilitate language teachers to become professional online and blended tutors or teacher trainers, the project organized two series of webinars. Each of the series contained 12 webinars on altogether 15 topics, covering the theory of digital competences for language teachers, teacher training models and methodologies in computer-assisted language learning, open educational resources and practices, and a variety of technology-driven hands-on workshops. Each workshop is published as an open educational resource and as part of the DC4LT video collection which contains 31 videos. The webinar series were supported by educational materials in a learning management system Google Classroom which also allowed for interaction between the participants. A Discord server has been initiated and developed to provide additional support to the new community. These spaces have been used by the participants of webinar series but also were made open and triggered an inception of a community of practice for language teachers interested in developing their digital skills or sharing their expertise with others. To further assist language teachers in understanding and using digital technologies, the project developed two resources. First, we developed a guide on how to work with online and blended methodologies, open educational resources, and open educational practices. The guide includes (a) an overview of training methodologies for language learning in face-to-face, online, and blended formats and (b) a framework model for teacher training developed based on the experience from two series of webinars. These results are included in the “Language Teacher Trainer Guide on Digital Competences: Practical instructions and advice on how to organize digital competence training for language teachers”. Second, we developed a toolkit for language teachers that includes a set of 20 technologies commonly used in language learning, each supplied with tools, resources, and the most common practices in training the basic language skills of speaking, writing, listening, and reading. These results are included in the “Technologies, Resources, and Practices for Language Teachers: a Toolkit”. The project communicated with several target groups. In particular, our survey reached language teachers in two iterations with each over 200 complete responses. In our job market study, we attracted four external experts who contributed to the data collection in five additional countries. Our first teacher training webinar series received 206 registrations, with 25 active participants. The second series received 169 registrations with 27 active participants. Our community spaces reached 181 members on Google Classroom and 57 on Discord. On social media, the project created a base of followers and subscribers: 276 on Twitter, 518 on Facebook, and 50 on YouTube. We conducted four public events that reached participants internationally. The Digital Future of Language Education Forum was held in 2019 in Brussels and reached 28 participants, including EU policy makers. DC4LT organized special sessions at the Innovation in Language Learning conference online in 2020, with 24 participants and hybrid in 2021 with 28 participants. The Digital Language Teaching Global Webinar was held online and included three keynotes, an expert panel discussion, presentations of the major project results, and practical workshops by invited speakers. The event was attended by 102 external participants. DC4LT impact is strongest at the global level, while also providing benefits to society on local, regional and national levels. Through intensive international and inter-disciplinary cooperation, the project has triggered processes and produced results that are likely to be useful and developed further. The future work includes sustaining the teacher community by joining and further integrating the DC4LT community to other related groups and communities and by cooperation in improving and updating the open educational resources.