The primary objective was to provide Slavic-speaking students with a freely accessible online learning path tailored to their needs for studying abroad in Romance-speaking countries, such as Italy or Portugal. The Italian and Portuguese Academic MOOCs help learners to develop the necessary competences and skills, as well as strategies that make them aware of how to acquire new languages and how to learn effectively in the academic context. Supporting student’s success in their academic path contributes to Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education), which significantly contributes to the development of the remaining objectives, especially 16 (Peace and justice). Learning a foreign language is a powerful way to develop positive values that lead to a more multicultural and peaceful society. Additionally, the project aimed to support Italian L2 and Portuguese L2 teachers by creating a repository of OERs of academic Italian and Portuguese for specific purposes. The project entailed the creation of MOOCs, OERs, and a portal for their free use, with a substantial impact expected due to the involvement of five European universities and FENICE, with extensive contacts and exchange agreements with various countries.
In Europe’s mosaic of languages, the Slavic and Romance languages belong to the most widely represented groups. Thanks to the Erasmus program, thousands of Slavic-speaking students decide to undertake part of their studies in Romance-speaking countries, such as Italy or Portugal. Having a B1/B2 level of competence required for mobility may not be sufficient to successfully complete the course of study and to fully integrate into the academic context. The language of academic communication has its own characteristics and requires particular skills. Unlike for other languages, not much work has been done in the context of producing innovative and open access quality pedagogical resources and materials for teaching Italian and Portuguese for academic purposes. The project offers to mobility students a freely accessible online learning path considering their specific needs for studying abroad. On the other side, Italian and Portuguese language teachers in Slavic-speaking countries need specific tools to facilitate learning of academic language and to teach learners strategies that help them to develop autonomy. The project is also intended as a support to them, as it provides a repertoire of OERs useful for learning.