The goals of this project were to: - give teachers the required level in relation to the qualifications of the teachers and educational staff, -democratise the teaching/learning of a foreign language as part of a dynamic and practical approach recommended by the European Framework of Reference for Languages (CECRL) or teaching a subject in a CLIL approach. -develop digital education, in particular eTwinning projects in order to encourage innovative approaches to teaching and promote regular exposure to foreign languages, -strengthen the language, didactic and pedagogical skills of teachers to gain enough confidence, -develop learners' communication skills to offer new professional perspectives and/or develop the offer of specific language courses, -promote the mobility of all teachers and pupils, -build foreign and regional languages courses from kindergarten that's why the mobility opoortunities are mainly offered to primary schools staff ( besides schools cannot legally provide Erasmus+ funding).
The Académie of La Réunion is located in an island context, geographically far from the rest of Europe. The latest statistics available (2019) confirm the trends mentioned during the application: 22.6% of the population is under 14 years old and more than half of the schools on the island are in the priority education network. With 53.1% of unemployment among young people under the age of 25, the training, employability and the mobility of young people is a public priority policy for both state services and local authorities. The national foreign languages evaluations conducted showed significant shortcomings in the acquisition of both oral and written skills. In the professional field, company managers regret the lack of language proficiency, especially English, among their employees. In terms of foreign language teaching, we can state that 7 of the 10 areas of the national strategy for language teaching/learning need to be improved in the academic context. Thoses areas concern: -working on the oral skill in a progressive and continuous way, from kindergarten to high school, -guiding students towards autonomy by using digital tools, -building bridges between the languages and the cultures, -offering shorter but more regular language courses, -increasing the exposure to foreign languages on all the student’s time (on school and extra-curricular time), -promoting the international mobility of all the pupils and the teaching teams, -supporting the training of CLIL teachers. In this context, specific training needs have been identified at several levels to support an ambitious academic strategy. A/ Needs on an academic level The academic group for foreign and regional languages, bringing together the three inspection bodies concerned and the DRAREIC, has enriched its management with a new body exclusively responsible for training human resources. To meet the requirement of professionalization, the local training offer is now built for each member of staff on an extended course including one or more periods of training or job shadowing abroad. Under the national impetus, the foreign language certification is widely proposed to primary school teachers. In addition, 4 posts have been created to support the training of primary schools teachers willing to set up CLIL projects. b/ Needs for the schools, members of the consortium The teams involved have conducted a reflection on the reform of the foreign languages and wish to work on: (1) the early and regular teaching of foreign languages (as soon as kindergarten), (2) the offer of teaching subjects through a foreign language and (3) the multiplication of European and international online exchanges ,with eTwinning projects, as well as physical mobility. To do this, the members of the consortium need to develop their networks and contacts abroad but also to increase the opportunities of linguistic and didactic training for all their staff in order to support and set up ambitious projects of schools. c/ Needs for the teaching teams Teachers express crucial linguistic and didactic needs in order to engage effectively in the achievement of academic and national objectives. In addition, European and international projects is a practice that is still only slightly widespread in primary schools. The commitment to this Erasmus+ project is a first step towards the development of skills useful for setting up cross-border school projects. As for the school directors, trainers and inspectors, they want to develop their skills in order to stimulate and build a dynamic of language teaching and international mobility. d) Needs for the pupils Foreign language learning appetite and oral skills acquisition are the most crucial needs to answer to. This can be explained by a discontinuous learning path and the use of inadequate language teaching pedagogy. This two-year Erasmus+ project gathers 3/4 of the school districts of the academy. It aims to support: -a collective commitment to the foreign language academic policy, -the linguistic and didactic development of teachers in foreign languages, - the link and continuity from the primary to the secondary schools to ensure coherence in the students' education,, -the European opening up of the schools, members of the consortium.