When writing the project, the teachers of the Erasmus group specified the following goals: -improve the children’s language skills by increasing the number of hours of English lessons, and teaching other courses such as mathematics, art, and physical education in English. -improve the teachers’ English-speaking skills to enable them to provide a higher quality of teaching, and to enable them to communicate more confidently in foreign countries. - teach English on a daily basis in order to give students an operational command of it and use it as a learning tool. -involve students in a project that uses English as a spoken and written communication tool. - help children to use English to communicate in everyday situations that are concrete and familiar, as per the A2 level of The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. - gradually improve the children’s self-confidence when it comes to speaking English. - provide quality language and pedagogical training to future teachers to give them the skills and confidence to teach English. - learn about the culture of foreign countries.
Children in our school do not yet have a strong enough command of English to be able to take part in spontaneous and casual discussions, and they tend to rely on basic language structures and a simple vocabulary that they have studied in class. Many students are very hesitant in their speech, while others prefer to say nothing at all. In light of this, teachers have decided to help their pupils improve their level of English, while also enabling them to discover new European cultures. Moreover, some teachers involved in the Erasmus project also have very low levels of English (around A1 level), which means that they are not yet capable of delivering English courses. They therefore want to improve their language skills in order to be able to deliver a variety of courses in English, such as art, physical education, and mathematics. Finally, they also want to share teaching and learning materials that they came across in Dublin and Malta with other teachers and students.