The project "Development of Competences of Spanish Language Teachers for Early Language Education in the Digital Age" (DeTELEDA) sets its priorities within the field of pedagogy and didactics, early childhood education, and quality improvement of teaching methods. In line with this, the activities of the project are geared toward improving quality of Spanish language education to young students. The rational for the project stems from theoretical and empirical research conducted in educational settings worldwide, as well as from the results of a survey conducted with Spanish language teachers of Serbia. Namely, ample research maintains that children who learn a foreign language in early childhood demonstrate a number of cognitive and developmental advantages when compared to those with no L2 exposure. These range from different cognitive benefits that are manifested not only on L1 and L2 language tests, but also in other school subjects such as mathematics, social studies, and science. By learning an L2, children also acquire different aspects of L2 culture, which promotes an attitude of openness and acceptance and prepares them for a proactive and healthy life in a multilingual and multicultural world. Consequently, it is widely accepted that foreign language learning should be introduced early on in childhood education. L2 learning at an early age differs significantly from adult foreign language learning. For children, the target language is not an object of study but a vehicular language, much like their first language – it is used as a means of communication in playful, learning activities. Naturally, this calls for a specific teaching methodology and teachers educated for working with young children. Nevertheless, foreign language teacher education administered at university centers accredited for teacher education rarely have an opportunity to provide intense formation in early childhood foreign language education since it demands a combination of diverse philological, psychological, pedagogical and other requirements. On the other hand, the need for teaching Spanish to children is evidently present both in the domain of formal, non-formal and informal education and calls for the realization of additional L2 teacher education in line with the state-of-the-art trends in the field. As a response to the perceived need, this projects units teacher educators and Spanish language teachers from three countries and with diverse backgrounds to fulfil the following objectives: to improve Spanish language teachers' competences for teaching Spanish to young children and to develop their digital competences in order for them to be able to respond to the needs of the contemporary education. With these goals in mind, the project team will create a training program for Spanish language teachers that will focus on developing specific knowledge and skills for teaching young children. The participants will develop competences for teaching Spanish language to young students and they will also increase their knowledge of digital resources in L2 education so that they may adapt them to the needs of this specific target group of young learners. In addition to broadening their theoretical understanding of early childhood foreign language education, the participants will also be equipped with concrete tools and solutions that may be readily implemented in their teaching practice. The project will produce a corpus of teaching resources as well as teaching guidelines that will include a concise elaboration of relevant didactic principles, typology of activities, and illustrative examples for teaching Spanish as a foreign language to young children. The guidelines will be published at the project website and at the educational Moodle platform in order to enable further dissemination of project results. Thus, all interested parties will be able to access and apply proposed training programs, guidelines, and teaching materials for the development of teachers' competences for teaching Spanish as a foreign language at an early age. Four multiplier events and a number of other activities will be organized by the project team in an attempt to spread information about the project, disseminate its results, and promote tighter collaboration among different stakeholders. Last but not least, it is our valued goal to strengthen the professional community of in-service and pre-service Spanish language teachers from Serbia and Slovenia, but also to involve a wider community of Spanish as L2 teachers through different platforms of online communication and collaboration. The project website and the Moodle platform will be maintained and renewed even after the project's completion in order to provide a virtual hub for teachers' continuous education and collaboration.
The project DeTELEDA sets its priorities within the field of pedagogy and didactics, early childhood education, and quality improvement of teaching methods. In line with this, the activities of the project are geared toward improving quality of Spanish language education to young students. This projects units teacher educators and Spanish language teachers from three countries and with diverse backgrounds to fulfil the following objectives: to improve Spanish language teachers' competences for teaching Spanish to young children and to develop their digital competences in order for them to be able to respond to the needs of the contemporary education. With these goals in mind, the project team created a training program for Spanish language teachers focused on developing specific knowledge and skills for teaching young children. The participants will develop competences for teaching Spanish language to young students and they will also increase their knowledge of digital resources in L2 education so that they may adapt them to the needs of this specific target group of young learners. In addition to broadening their theoretical understanding of early childhood foreign language education, the participants will also be equipped with concrete tools and solutions that may be readily implemented in their teaching practice. The project has produced a corpus of teaching resources as well as teaching guidelines that includes a concise elaboration of relevant didactic principles, typology of activities, and illustrative examples for teaching Spanish as a foreign language to young children. The guidelines is published at the project website and at the educational Moodle platform in order to enable further dissemination of project results. Thus, all interested parties will be able to access and apply proposed training programs, guidelines, and teaching materials for the development of teachers' competences for teaching Spanish as a foreign language at an early age. Last but not least, it is our valued goal to strengthen the professional community of in-service and pre-service Spanish language teachers from Serbia and Slovenia, but also to involve a wider community of Spanish as L2 teachers through different platforms of online communication and collaboration. The project website and the Moodle platform had been maintained and renewed even after the project's completion in order to provide a virtual hub for teachers' continuous education and collaboration.
Although we have been able to maintain the quality of our actions, last years have supposed an extra burden on us due to the temporal and emotional pressure, and the lack of resources and skills that the pandemic has evidenced in practically all educational environments, which are defined by the need for two-way, direct and meaningful communication channels. The impossibility of maintaining normality in our face-to-face classes, as well as the periods of uncertainty and fear, have ended up making a dent in education, especially in the formal education sector. One of our key factors in overcoming this situation is the continuous assessment of our needs and processes. A high level of self-knowledge at the professional level is fundamental in our organization. We applied for this project in order to increase competences of the project participants and wider professional community in the domain of teaching Spanish as a foreign language to young children. These are related to the knowledge and skills for implementing appropriate teaching methods and digital tools when teaching young children. Considering the results of the survey, conducted among Spanish language teachers, the numbers and percentange, showed us the growing interest for Spanish language education at an early age, and the current and previous projects conducted by the project team that are complementary to this one, we find that the training, website, guidelines, teaching resources, and the digital platform are more than necessary for teaching Spanish in primary schools and private academies of the Spanish language. The rational for the project stems from theoretical and empirical research conducted in educational settings worldwide, as well as from the results of a survey conducted with Spanish language teachers of Serbia. Namely, ample research maintains that children who learn a foreign language in early childhood demonstrate a number of cognitive and developmental advantages when compared to those with no L2 exposure. These range from different cognitive benefits that are manifested not only on L1 and L2 language tests, but also in other school subjects such as mathematics, social studies, and science. By learning an L2, children also acquire different aspects of L2 culture, which promotes an attitude of openness and acceptance and prepares them for a proactive and healthy life in a multilingual and multicultural world. Consequently, it is widely accepted that foreign language learning should be introduced early on in childhood education. Since the teaching of Spanish is more widespread in secondary schools in Serbia and Slovenia, we wanted to motivate, address and develop the teaching of Spanish in primary schools. Also university programmes of Hispanic Philology do not address enough the early teaching of Spanish.