The partnership is formed of three schools, in England, Italy and Sweden. Our main project objective is to embed cultural learning within English lessons. A large number of migrants have moved/continue to move to Europe from other parts of the world, including to the areas represented by our project partners. They are from all age groups and socioeconomic backgrounds. Many come with little or no prior knowledge of European languages. Very few have jobs when they arrive in Europe and many are refugees or economic migrants who hope to find work. However, most additionally also have no experience of European culture and their knowledge is limited to unrealistic portrayals in films and on television. The most important starting point is for them to learn the local language in their new home country. In addition many, including students at our partner schools, also learn English as it is a core part of their curriculum. Cultural - as well as language - integration is a necessity for them to thrive in their new homes. Without it, arrivals can become alienated, frustrated and in some cases even prone to extremism. They can struggle with everyday social situations and be ill-prepared for professional life. This is true of many of the large number of migrant students who come to study at the 3 vocational schools in Italy, Sweden and the UK, which make up our project partnership. Our objective, therefore, is to create a comprehensive range of English language lesson resources that meet this need and which will be used by the 3 partner institutions in this project, as well as potentially by colleges and schools across the EU, which are supporting new arrivals to learn English and other European languages. While there are a number of existing websites with resources for English lessons. Our project is innovative in that all of the project resources will embed cultural integration into the English language learning. We want these resources to be useful to teachers across Europe and they will benefit from the perspectives of the 3 different countries producing them. This is important as migrants often arrive in one part of Europe but ultimately settle in another and is why migrant arrivals across the EU often learn English as well as a local language, even on arriving in non-English speaking regions. Our main target group is 16-19 year olds, but the resources will also be relevant for adults. By the end of our collaboration, we will have produced a total of 100 sets of resources for English lessons. Each lesson will come as a single, downloadable pack. Each will include a lesson plan and materials which can be customized for individual groups or used as they are. Teachers will not have to go to several different places for text/audio/student worksheets as is often the case with existing resources. These resources will be the product of research by experienced English teachers (seconded into the part time project teaching posts) from our partnership into specific situations where migrants sometimes feel socially excluded or frustrated and which hold them back from full social and economic participation. We will consider how best to impart life and cultural awareness skills through lessons which also meet the criteria for reading, writing, listening or grammar lessons in English. We will evaluate them during our collaboration by testing lessons with students and other teachers to ensure they meet the need of the end users we hope to reach. Once completed, we will publish them to the project webpage, with links on all partners’ websites, for the free access of others and plan to disseminate them through our range of contacts at other schools and colleges and through professional English teaching networks such as NATECLA and to potential users in all European countries. We expect our project outcomes to give students the maximum possible benefit from their English lessons by combining language learning with skills which are essential for their social and economic inclusion in Europe. It will allow schools to make the most of their time with students, as separate sessions for cultural skills will no longer be required and it will reduce problems within the school caused by cultural misunderstandings. Although aimed at migrants, much of the content will also be highly relevant for European teenagers, for example, life at work and how to conduct appropriate conversations. Our target group of student users already studying in Europe are disadvantaged by their lack of language and cultural skills and in many cases are new arrivals. They therefore have fewer opportunities to participate in social situations and lack the soft skills necessary to prepare for work in the future. The outcomes of our project should allow schools like ours to assist them to fully integrate and contribute more comprehensively as citizens of Europe.
The partnership was formed of three schools, in England, Italy and Sweden. Unfortunately the original Swedish partner had to withdraw and was replaced. Our main project objective was to embed cultural learning within English lessons, in which we succeeded. A large number of migrants have moved/continue to move to Europe from other parts of the world, including to the areas represented by our project partners. They are from all age groups and socioeconomic backgrounds. Many come with little or no prior knowledge of European languages. Very few have jobs when they arrive in Europe and many are refugees or economic migrants who hope to find work. However, most additionally also have no experience of European culture and their knowledge is limited to unrealistic portrayals in films and on television. The most important starting point is for them to learn the local language in their new home country. In addition many, including students at our partner schools, also learn English as it is a core part of their curriculum. Cultural - as well as language - integration is a necessity for them to thrive in their new homes. Without it, arrivals can become alienated, frustrated and in some cases even prone to extremism. They can struggle with everyday social situations and be ill-prepared for professional life. This is true of many of the large number of migrant students who come to study at the 3 vocational schools in Italy, Sweden and the UK, which make up our project partnership. Our objective, therefore, was to create a comprehensive range of English language lesson resources that meet this need and which will be used by the 3 partner institutions in this project, as well as potentially by colleges and schools across the EU, which are supporting new arrivals to learn English and other European languages. We have completed these resources. While there are a number of existing websites with resources for English lessons. Our project is innovative in that all of the project resources will embed cultural integration into the English language learning. We wanted these resources to be useful to teachers across Europe and they will benefit from the perspectives of the 3 different countries producing them. This is important as migrants often arrive in one part of Europe but ultimately settle in another and is why migrant arrivals across the EU often learn English as well as a local language, even on arriving in non-English speaking regions. Our main target group is 16-19 year olds, but the resources will also be relevant for adults. We have produced a total of 100 sets of resources for English lessons. Each lesson comes as a downloadable pack. Each includes a lesson plan and materials which can be customized for individual groups or used as they are. Teachers will not have to go to several different places for text/audio/student worksheets as is often the case with existing resources. These resources are the product of research by experienced English teachers and teacher trainers from our partnership into specific situations where migrants sometimes feel socially excluded or frustrated and which hold them back from full social and economic participation. We considered how best to impart life and cultural awareness skills through lessons which also meet the criteria for reading, writing, listening or grammar lessons in English. We evaluated them during our collaboration by testing lessons with students and other teachers to ensure they meet the need of the end users we hope to reach. The resources are now available on a project website https://www.erasmusintegrationproject.com/ and have been disseminated through our range of contacts at other schools and colleges and through professional networks such as the AOC and to potential users in all European countries via social media and emails. We expect our project outcomes to give students the maximum possible benefit from their English lessons by combining language learning with skills which are essential for their social and economic inclusion in Europe. It will allow schools to make the most of their time with students, as separate sessions for cultural skills will no longer be required and it will reduce problems within the school caused by cultural misunderstandings. Although aimed at migrants, much of the content will also be highly relevant for European teenagers, for example, life at work, tolerance and equality and how to conduct appropriate conversations. The lessons will allow schools like ours to assist them to fully integrate and contribute more comprehensively as citizens of Europe. The final categories selected after research includes culture, problem solving, diversity, wellbeing, relationships, keeping safe, the environment and work.