"DECLAME'FLE - Development of a FFL (French as a Foreign Language, FLE, in French) Collaborative Space: Literature, Learning, Migration, Exile" In the current context of increased migration, FFL (French as a foreign language) teachers need to take the reality of these societal transformations into account in order to fully participate in the construction of an inclusive and pluralistic society. The transnational European cooperation project, "DECLAME'FLE - Development of a FFL (French as a Foreign Language, FLE, in French) Collaborative Space: Literature, Learning, Migration, Exile" seeks to meet the challenge of intercultural dialogue by drawing on contemporary literature on migration and exile (French acronym: LIME) and to offer new open educational resources (OER) to teachers and trainers of French as a foreign language in initial or continuing education. For the three European partners of this project (France, Slovakia, Poland), LIME offers a forum for mediation and the exchange of human experiences and constitutes the foundation for education in contemporary debates. A new approach to literature in FFL didactics calls for innovative teacher training: DECLAME'FLE's mission is to provide a digital collaborative space designed as a toolbox comprising methodological, didactic and pedagogical tools that are modular and co-constructed by the community (corpus of contemporary works, pedagogical scenarios, innovative collaborative workshop support sheets, skills map, enriched manuals, interactive watch and glossary). Revisiting the didactics of literature (including both corpora and learning methodologies) to achieve a more efficient learning of a foreign language also requires new pedagogical teaching methods, in both face-to-face and distance learning – using ICTE and virtual classes, running collaborative and participatory workshops (in Hackathon or kick-off format ) – , representing a range of new innovative models created by participants, illustrated and available on the DECLAME' FLE platform. The innovation here lies both in the resources produced and in the collaborative pedagogical mechanisms implemented to create the resources in question. In DECLAME'FLE, all the actors (university students, external professionals) share their experiences, collaborate among peers, and participate collegially in a new production. The project taps into collective intelligence, sharing and shifting the teaching posture (from direct transmission to the co-construction of knowledge and skills). The proposed measures are part of a truly transductive European strategy: none of the elements can exist without the others and each partner is therefore essential to the project as a whole. At the end of the project, the DECLAME'FLE Collaborative Space will allow all audiences to have access to the OER and adjust them in order to achieve their own pedagogical or learning objectives. To carry out these actions successfully, to encourage productive dialogue on a European scale and to create the conditions for a sustainable exploitation of the results, the structuring of a DECLAME' FLE network on a European and international scale will complete the system so that other users (teachers, trainers, heads of language training institutions) can exploit it and adapt it according to their own objectives and according to their needs. In the long term, the European transnational project DECLAME'FLE will have promoted: - the revisiting of FFL didactics in its curricula and university training - the co-construction of new OER knowledge and resources, both didactic and pedagogical - new pedagogical, transnational, collaborative and participatory practices - the development of new advanced ICT and digital skills. The Collaborative space DECLAME'FLE will allow: - the circulation of European open educational resources (OER) for the didactics of French as a foreign language and LIME - re-appropriation and transfer - the sharing of experiences, good pedagogical practices and the synergy of skills - the development of a European and international network of strategic actors for the transfer of the project’s OER. With its corpora, its free pedagogical resources and its examples of actions carried out in transnational, inclusive and pluralistic collaboration, DECLAME'FLE, constitutes an efficient solution to the construction of an integrated European education.
The general objectives of the DECLAME'FLE project can be summarized according to three main principles: 1) to promote intra-community mobility of students and trainers from the three partner universities during intensive work sessions (one session per semester); 2) to innovate and engage in common and collaborative productions; 3) to increase digital skills and offer the community a collaborative digital space on the literature of migration and exile (LIME). Axis 1) has largely suffered from the health situation, imposing almost exclusively virtual mobilities of students and trainers, except for the initial one (October 2019) and for the final seminar (June 2022); nonetheless, the commitment to the co-creation of a collaborative space has not wavered and the transition to the imposed "all virtual" has also proved beneficial and has fostered new dynamics. Certainly, all the participants "grew" in digital skills and the situation allowed to measure the impact of different digital devices on teaching-learning and the commitment of students as well as trainers.
In responding to the KA2 call for proposals, the consortium was reflecting on the co-construction of an inclusive and plural European society based on the development of an intercultural dialogue supported by the literature of migration and exile (LIME). Moreover, in the current context of increasing migration, the training of teachers of French as a foreign language (FLE) must take into account this reality and integrate these societal transformations in order to fully participate in the construction of an inclusive and plural society. It is through the literature of migration and exile that this project intends to take up the challenge and provide tools for reflection and work within the framework of training in teaching French as a foreign language. For the three European partners (France, Slovakia, Poland), the LIME is the place of mediation and confrontation of human experiences and thus constitutes an essential base supporting education to contemporary debates. Relying on the LIME thus allowed the consortium to offer a new approach to the didactics of literature in FLE, a didactic approach that is at once societal, digital and innovative.