The Lotte-Westerkappeln comprehensive school, together with the IES Monastil, has decided to develop the topic of "communication" as a common project idea for the Erasmus + program, since, in times of increasing populism, it is important to convey the significance of the European idea to pupils in order to promote a tolerant and peaceful coexistence. "One can not not communicate." - This statement by Paul Watzlawick illustrates the omnipresence of communication and characterizes it as a primitive human trait. For this reason, the topic offers numerous points of contact to investigate similarities and differences between Spanish and German communication and thereby contribute to intercultural understanding. We want to approach the subject in different ways and to shed light on this from a linguistic, historical and political perspective in order to provide pupils with tools for social participation in a common Europe. In this way, the pupils should be supported in being able to participate in an European society as responsible citizens. The target groups of the project are pupils of the 9th and 10th grades of the Gesamtschule Lotte-Westerkappeln, as well as the pupils of the corresponding grades of the IES Monastil. In addition, the entire school community or the community of Westerkappeln should be informed about the project development and results, so as to reach as many people as possible. The project will be treated as a cross-curricular subject in the subjects Spanish, German and Social Studies. In German lessons we want to deal with different communication theories, such as the four-ear model by Paul Watzlawick, to get to know the different meanings of a message. In the sense of a production-oriented teaching, the students should develop various communication models and present their results on posters or similar visul aids. In addition, we would like to engage in Spanish lessons with the cultural characteristics of the Spanish facial expressions and gestures and compare them to the German body language. For this, the pupils should create photos with certain non-verbal messages (for example: yes / no / good / bad, etc.) and compare them with the photos of the Spanish students to the same messages in order to then face them 1: 1. In Social Studies we will speak about the power of language and demagogic. The comparison of speeches by Hitler and Franco should make the pupils aware of how powerful language can influence people, particularly if it is skillfully used, and what dangers are involved. At this Point, it is also useful to have a look at the current political situation and to expose some political speeches in their populism. In this way, the pupils should also be made aware of the relevance of the topic for their own living environment in order to motivate them for political and social engagement. We would like to hold two project meetings, during which the pupils will work project-related. The achievement of the project goals is ensured by the constant exchange between the participants during the project processing. In addition, the production-oriented approach of working through each sub-topic ensures that the achievement of goals can be demonstrated by tangible visual results. In addition, at the beginning and at the end of the project, we would like to have a questionnaire filled in on the topics that are relevant to us, in order to be able to specifically examine the students' knowledge growth. The individual processing steps as well as the results of the project are to be documented in the form of a "project diary", which after the end of the project can be an example for the application for further projects. The project diary should accurately document the individual steps of the project, including the application, the individual project results (possibly photographed), photos of the mobilities, the names of the participants, press articles, the student questionnaires and the final evaluation. In addition, the contact between the two schools should continue and, if possible, new projects should be worked on together. Furthermore, the information on the school website will of course be preserved in order to make it accessible to interested parties. The skills learned in the project (analysis of verbal and non-verbal communication, intercultural knowledge, socio-political competences) will also be useful to students in their educational, professional and personal development.
The project "Understanding communication means understanding ourselves" (or "Communication matters" in English) was developed jointly by the Lotte-Westerkappeln Comprehensive School and the IES Monastil in Elda, Spain, as part of the Erasmus+ programme in 2019-2020. Two German and four Spanish teachers were in charge of the project, as well as 18 German and 18 Spanish pupils from grades 9 and 10. The aim was to examine the topic from a linguistic, historical and political perspective in order to provide the pupils with tools for social participation in a common Europe. In this way, the students should be supported in participating as responsible citizens in a European society. In addition, the similarities and differences between Spanish and German communication should be explored in order to contribute to intercultural understanding. Reflecting on one's own language behaviour was to offer the pupils very individual assistance in their personal development. The development of the project began with Franziska Sandhaus' visit to Elda as part of a short-term training course on the topic of "eTwinning", as the Spanish partner school already had a lot of experience with this medium and this could thus also be made useful for the German school. The first project day continued with a questionnaire to determine the level of knowledge on the topic of "communication", followed by theoretical and practical work on the topic. The focus was on working out the communication theories of Paul Watzlawick and Friedemann Schulz von Thun. The knowledge was recorded on posters and through PowerPoint presentations so that it could be presented to the Spanish pupils during their visit to Germany. At the same time, the Spanish pupils analysed important historical speeches, created photos of typical Spanish gestures and facial expressions and produced a communication memory. During the Spanish visit to Germany, the pupils presented their results to each other, the photo wall for the assembly hall in Westerkappeln was created together and the pupils got to know each other better through warm-up games and were able to expand their intercultural and foreign language skills. During the guided tours through the old towns of Münster and Osnabrück, the pupils were able to learn about the historical dimension of communication. The personal exchange between the pupils intensified the contact and some of them still have it today. On our 2nd project day, an external speaker trained the pupils on the topic of "Rhetoric". All the pupils gave a short presentation which was recorded on video and later analysed by the speaker. Unfortunately, the planned return visit to Spain could not take place due to the start of the Corona pandemic. The realisation of the other goals set, such as the analysis of historical and current political speeches, could also unfortunately not be achieved due to homeschooling and the upcoming final exams of the 10th grade. Due to the many production-oriented approaches in working on the individual sub-topics, many results could be visually documented. These include, for example, the photo wall on Spanish and German gestures and facial expressions, the Power Point presentations, the museum wall on the important historical speeches as well as the final newspaper documenting the Spanish students' visit to Germany. The questionnaire at the beginning and end of the project demonstrated the students' growth in knowledge on the topic of "communication". The created "project diary" serves as an example for applying for further projects. The expected long-term benefit of the project is on the one hand that the pupils were able to acquire important competences for their further academic, professional and personal development (theoretical and intercultural knowledge, socio-political competences). The information on the school homepage will be kept in order to make it accessible to interested parties, as will the project diary. The cooperation between the Lotte-Westerkappeln Comprehensive School and the IES Monastil has proven to be very profitable and should definitely be continued. Real friendships have developed between the Spanish and German students and since the return visit to Spain could not take place due to the Corona pandemic, some students are already planning to fly to Spain privately to visit their host students.