Our project is developing a language course as a cultural and historical game. In terms of priorities it is focused on 4 areas, bridging them together and supporting each other. The 1st area is European culture. The purpose of the project is to make participants aware of how difficult it was for Europeans to come together, join their cultures and build a unified Europe. We want to show participants that we have a common history, we had to face huge problems and conflicts but we have managed and created unified Europe which brings us many advantages. It is very important to stress it nowadays as there are many tendences to make Europe weaker and distabilise EU, there are many efforts to persuade people that it pays off to leave EU (e.g. Brexit). The 2nd area is language learning as languages are crucial for our mutual understanding and the language skills in the project countries are not very high. The 3rd area is innovation and creativity. The language course will have a new form of a game which is unusual and it will motivate students to participate and experience language learning in a totally different way: they will be playing a game and meanwhile they will have to practice and learn the language and think about cultural aspects. The 4th area is digitalisation and on-line learning. The resulting course will have a full on-line version, which will help on-line language learning to become more advanced and attractive. The objective of this project is to develop a language course of English (in face2face and online versions) based on a cultural game supporting awareness about our European culture and unity to prevent break of European values and unity. The game would be based on a strong story. The participants would choose characters (like in a video game) and the characters would come from different European countries. They would have a time machine sending them to different history periods in Europe and they would have to solve tasks in particular historical situations. The situations and tasks to be fulfilled in these situations would always be linked to the present day, having its aim and a clear message for nowadays. The game tasks would make the participants think about the historical experience, influence on present day and value our European cultures and what we, as Europeans, have created. The course will be developed for 4 language levels (A1, A2, B1 and B2) and each of 4 levels will be divided into 10 historical and cultural situations. The historical situations will show the course participants how difficult it was to reach European unity and they will deliver a message of that historical episode for nowadays. Each historical situation will be for 3 lessons per 90 minutes, so each language level will include 10 x 3 = 30 lessons per 90 minutes + individual work for participants. As we will develop the course for 4 language levels, the total number of lessons will be 4 x 30 = 120 lessons per 90 minutes + individual work for participants. Outcomes of the project: - Course curriculum – overall game rules, structure of the whole game, aims and messages of each historical situation and also individual episodes and tasks - Teaching materials placed on a digital platform for the course in two versions – face2face and online, always for 4 language levels (A1, A2, B1, B2). - On-line version would offer all materials in one platform. The materials for face2face version could also be downloaded from this platform. - Testing – trial for each language level - Guide for teachers The project will by carried out by 3 partners: a language school from the Czech Republic as the project coordinator, a language school form Italy as a partner responsible for development of contents and Polish University as a technological partner responsible for digitalisation of all teaching materials. The project will include 3 project meetings, one joint staff training for teachers developing intellectual outputs, and multiplier events to disseminate this project. The result will be an innovative language course of English in a form a cultural game, which will have a big impact on participating organisations as they will be able to enhance their offer of courses with this innovative, fully on-line course. The participants in the course will be attracted by the game to learn and practise the language in a course which is also fun and entertainment. And teachers working on development will have a unique opportunity to develop a highly creative course. The course is very inclusive: as it is a language course (not a history or political course) it will reach a broader audience because much more people are interested in studying a language than history. Few adults join voluntarily a history/cultural course but many adults join a language course. So the course will teach language through culture and at the same time culture through language.
The aims of the course were: 1. Acknowledge the importance of Europe's unity learning through the main characters that have played a decisive role in Europe's creation. 2. Increase European Awareness and support the European integrity and to prevent a risk of exsist from EU. 3. Make the participants think on a European level, not just within one nation borders. The course stress difficult ways in history - leading to Eu unification. 4. Improve all 4 English skills (listening, writing, speaking and reading) in a creative way and at the same time rediscover our own history through the most decisive characters that had led us to the current European Union. 5. Improve and practise their foreign language skills, like vocabulary, phrases, grammar but also general skills like communications skills, critical thinking, team work, communication, creativity (21st century skills). 6. Make participants think about European history and cultures and make a link to nowadays culture and creativity, prosperity. 7. In terms of creativity the course would include tasks relating to various arts fields, like theatre, painting, music etc. 8. Offer a new, entertaining way of learning based on experience and game. The participants would benefit from a natural way of learning in situations and benefit from fun and game setting.
Europe speaks many languages and some nations still have serious language barriers. Czech Republic, Italy and Poland surely belong to these nations where language skills are not the best. It is clear that we as Europeans have to be able to communicate among each other if we want to contnue in our unity. So it is essential that our inhabitants speak at least English. Despite a lot of efforts, the Czech , Polish and Italian inhabitants still do not have strong language skills. E.g. accoridng to a study of the Czech Statistical Office (2016), 42 % of young adults aged 18 - 24 years, have no or very little knowledge of a foreign language and 40 % have only middle knowledge of a foreign language. In our institutions we often meet people who have been trying to learn English for years and they fail. In such a process they lose their motivation to go into the process of a language learning again. This project offers them a new, attractive way of learning, increasing their motivation to learn because the course is based not only on learning but especially on experience and fun. The process of learning is totally different from what they know from their previous expericen e.g. from school. Such a course also helps our institutions to make our offer more attractive and interesting as we are seriously hit by the covid crises and need to prepare interesting educational programmes to attract students. We see that Eurosceptism is rising: 16% of votes in Europe went to far-right Eurosceptic parties in 2019 and the vote share of Eurosceptic parties has more than doubled in two decades (The Guardian, March 2020). Therefore we see a need to show people the value of the European unity. We can use our main field (languages and technology) to support the European awarness and make participants realize what is behind unified Europe and that we should not lose what we have achieved. The example of Brexit is a real warning that there is a risk of exits and we should try to prevent it. A very important way of prevention is education and opening eyes for our inhabitants. This course is a unique way how to do it. Inclusion is a big topic in Europe nowadays and this course is a part of inclusion: joining language learning with European awareness in a very creative and digital way.