The TEMPLATE project aims at strengthening the professional competence profile of pre- and in-service teachers who want to fully implement the recommendations of the Council of Europe for the use of plurilingual approaches in (foreign) language education. Teachers have to face the increasing need to cope with the changing landscape of the teaching profession for plurilingual education and the management of technology mediated teaching practices: on the one hand they have to teach in classes where there are different L1s, on the other hand they are required to integrate those languages in a plurilingual approach and make use of technology where and when it can potentially add value. In order to fulfill these requirements teachers need a specific training in comprehensive approaches that take into account different aspects related to their profession in the 21st century. The main target group of the project are teachers involved in FL teaching, CLIL activities and project-based learning. They will be involved in a training that integrates the pedagogical aspects with the content knowledge and the digital tools (TPACK model) that might be effectively applied in class in an innovative framework that will set the bar high in terms of innovative practices and teacher training programmes across Europe The activities proposed through an internet platform and a set of webinars will strengthen the profile of the teaching profession enhancing the teachers’ pre- and in-service education and professional development; they will support teachers in developing innovative teaching methods, especially to promote competence-oriented teaching and learning in FL and CLIL education; they will enhance the teachers’ digital literacy and promote the use of ICT (with particular reference to Computer-Assisted Language Learning CALL) as a good practice to approach plurilingualism. Furthermore, the findings of related SLA research will be made accessible to teachers by promoting researcher-teacher collaboration and teacher-research, and by involving teacher-educators. This approach will bridge the gap between research on the acquisition, learning and teaching of plurilingualism and the actual teaching practice. The project will involve the following participants: - local schools and collaboration with regional school offices - in-service teachers (involved in teacher design teams) - pre-service teachers (university students designing tasks as part of their course activities or as key content of their final thesis/course project) - teachers to be involved in the webinars and dissemination activities (FL teachers, CLIL teachers, L1 teachers working in plurilingual contexts) - other stakeholders such as MFL expert colleagues (DaF, FLE, ELE, Italian as L2) will also be involved in the design of the training courses and in the dissemination activities for specific target groups A set of more practical modules will integrate the theoretical framework, focusing on specific situations and learning/teaching plurilingual contexts (CLIL related projects, MALL and ICT tools, project-based teaching/learning) with case studies implemented by the teachers involved in the project that will be discussed and presented as part of the training. After the webinars and the activities proposed on the project interactive platform, teachers participating in the training will be challenged and coached to put theory into practice, applying the methodologies and tools they have been presented to their very own situations and they submit a report with materials and results of their case studies to the project partners to receive feedback and as part of their 'teacher as researcher' development. TEMPLATE open educational resources will be freely available on the project website so that a greater number of teachers, teacher trainers and researchers will be able to benefit directly from project results. It is expected that teacher educators all over the world will be able to use the professional development modules to educate pre-service and in-service teachers on the effective use of technologies for the implementation of plurilingual-inspired foreign language education.
The project's main aim was to advance language teacher education and foster plurilingualism in the EU through digital technology integration, teacher collaboration, and best practices in language education. It recognized the evolving nature of language learning and technology's potential for personalized and effective education. Objectives: Enhancing Plurilingualism: The project aimed to enhance plurilingualism by preparing MFL student teachers and upskilling in-service teachers in integrating multiple languages within an individual's linguistic repertoire. Integrating Digital Technologies: It sought to integrate specific digital technologies into language education. Creating a Professional Learning Community: The project established a European professional learning community, engaging teachers and learners in the development and implementation of technology-enhanced plurilingual tasks for sustainable use. Addressing the Multilingual Education Gap: The project recognized the oversight of cultural and linguistic knowledge in European educational systems. It aimed to equip teachers with the necessary competences to successfully implement plurilingual approaches and provide support in this context.
The project wanted to support language teacher education in the EU in preparing modern foreign language (MFL) student teachers and upskilling in-service teachers on enhancing their approach to plurilingualism by using specific digital technologies for customised content production, activities support, and facilitation. While the potential and contribution of plurilingualism in education is recognised by language acquisition researchers, educational systems in EU typically ignore the prior cultural and linguistic knowledge of plurilingual learners. Teachers struggle in actively integrating plurilingual activities in their classrooms, where, with the increase of the diversity of home languages in classrooms, the situation gets even more challenging. A complementary focus was on ICTs. Research has shown that technologies can function as enablers in plurilingual contexts by bringing diverse L1s into the classroom, supporting learning activities for a wide range of languages. Therefore, this project aimed to address the need for a specific training in plurilingual approaches by promoting the use of specific digital tools in different contexts which- reports show- are unfamiliar or underused by teachers involved in language teaching.