The project Pragmatic Competence from a Multilingual Perspective (PRACOMUL) aims to create an accessible, innovative digital platform which will enable language students to acquire and practice pragmatic and intercultural competences in Spanish as a second language from a multilingual perspective. The PRACOMUL platform will be based upon a collaborative learning process in an international environment. First, language learners with different linguistic backgrounds and from different countries will engage in online discussions arranged via the platform. This collection of short dialogues will be analysed to understand different learners’ needs and based on the results the virtual teaching modules will be elaborated. After this first step, all participants will pass through the virtual teaching tutorials, which will provide explanations on how discourse is used, on how discourse is interpreted and which particular discourse markers contribute to cohesive and appropriate discourse and how they do so. These online video tutorials will also provide examples of oral discourse by native speakers. Then, in the post-instruction phase, the same learners will participate again and do a similar online discussion activity. The results of the pre-teaching and post-teaching recordings will be analysed and reported on in international conferences and publications. Furthermore, the platform will contribute to the creation of virtual international environment which will enable innovative ways for language teaching taking into account, so called, virtual mobility. The platform does not only target students, L2 language learners, but will also be addressed to language teachers who will be invited to incorporate the platform activities in their lessons. For the language learners, participation in this project means practising their pragmalinguistic skills, and, next to this, extending their intercultural knowledge and digital skills. For the language teachers interested in bringing the platform to the classroom practice, it means involving their students in an innovative learning environment opening up the classroom walls towards the world. With the teachers’ guidelines they will receive suggestions on how to maximise benefits for their students. Finally, the platform will offer a rich database on oral productions of second language learners, thus researchers will also be allowed (upon simple registration) to use the database for their research. Concerning the languages in the project, we explicitly did not focus on English, because of its overall presence in existing language tools and research studies. Another, also frequently learnt L2, Spanish, has been chosen as target language. Next to this, we also wanted to focus on the multilingual perspective and work with students with different mother tongues. In the piloting phase, we will start with students whose mother tongues are Dutch, Italian and Slovene, so three European languages from a different language category (Germanic, Romance and Slavic). Nevertheless, we intend to develop a universal innovative digital practice and learning methodology which will be available for students with other native languages and can be broadened to other second languages in a further stage (French, German, English, etc.). By the end of the project, the platform will be launched open access, increasing the impact and providing sustainability at an international level. So, the PRACOMUL platform will be open to all second language learners. Important for the visibility of the project will be the communication via the multiplier events (the international workshop on e-Learning, the summer school on “Pragmatic Competence and E-learning” and finally the international conference on “The acquisition of pragmatic competence from a multilingual perspective”) and many other channels (conference presentations, international peer-reviewed publications, reports and presentations with a didactic audience, social media, etc.), targeting not only the language learners, but also the teachers and the scientific community.
With the project we wanted to add innovative dimensions to second language acquisition, by bringing together students with different backgrounds in a virtual international environment and by seeking active collaboration between those students who take part in authentic interactions across the borders of their classroom and across the borders of their country learning how to communicate in a pragmatically appropriate way. With the PRACOMUL-platform an accessible innovative tool is provided for language students to acquire pragmalinguistic competence and to engage in collaborative learning in an international environment at home. Next to the language learners we also targeted the language teachers by offering them guidelines on how to implement the platform in their classroom and with the participants’ data compiled during the project a corpus has been created and data can be used by researchers interested in investigating L2 Spanish oral productions.
The primary objective of this project was to create an online platform for acquiring pragmatic competence. Pragmatic competence, while an essential component of effective communication, is often overlooked in traditional L2 teaching methods. The PRACOMUL platform offers an innovative and inclusive digital practice focusing on developing pragmatic competence in Spanish as an L2. The platform connects learners from diverse linguistic backgrounds by facilitating interactions between students across different universities and countries. Recordings of the virtual exchanges are analysed by researchers and the results used to develop innovative teaching modules made available on the platform. The platform fosters internationalization and intercultural skills, all within a digital framework. In addition to language learning and pragmatic competence, participants also develop an enhanced skillset including digital competences, collaborative skills and intercultural understanding. In sum, we intended to create, with the PRACOMUL-platform, an innovative dimension to L2 acquisition by providing an avenue for language learners to acquire pragmalinguistic competence through collaborative learning and authentic interactions beyond borders.