Act Communicate and Transcend Erasmus Project

Project Title

Act Communicate and Transcend

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Partnerships for Creativity

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Teaching and learning of foreign languages; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

ACT – Act Communicate & Transcend is a project that is in complete harmony with the European Council’s recommendation on a comprehensive approach to teaching and learning of languages issued in 2018 which states that «multilingual competence is at the heart of the vision of a European Education Area.» It answers Erasmus+ call to support art, cultural and education sectors in addressing challenges caused by COVID-19.

The latest surveys on accomplishments of English language learners as well as a comparative analysis of languages in education and training across the EU have revealed that “most Member States face challenges in ensuring appropriate learning outcomes in the field of languages” as stated in the aforementioned document. This clearly indicates the necessity to bring a change into the curricula and provide an innovative tool that will be directed at improving English language speaking skills. We believe that bringing drama-based activities into the classrooms across Europe will increase the level of students’ motivation, interest, engagement, and most importantly, facilitate their learning process as well as improve their speaking skills.

We have brought together 8 partners from 6 different countries and employed 12 ESL teachers to bring this project to life and carry it out for 24 months. Our multicultural and diverse cross-sectoral cooperation includes a theatre company, a directorate, a university, two NGOs, an adult education center, and a foreign language school.

The aims of our project are
to assist the progress of learning English as a foreign language, in particular speaking skills, by developing a speaking assessment rubric, a set of training materials, a drama-based activity book, and, finally, an e-learning platform which will unite all previously mentioned intellectual outputs and be made available for use both for teachers and their students even after the project is finalized,
to develop new and innovative teaching methods and implement these directly into practice as well as professional development through project work.

Our target groups involve primary and secondary English language teachers from 6 countries, namely Croatia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, and the UK. Their involvement in the project is crucial as they will be implementing the developed activities and be actively involved throughout the project. Having been involved in the project, the teachers will gain an in-depth knowledge of drama-based speaking activities, improve their pedagogical skills, develop their language and cultural understanding as well as make their teaching more fun.

The project will produce a number of outcomes. Three LTT events are going to take place in order to bring together representatives of all partner organizations and 12 ESL teachers. They are planned and designed to produce a number of intellectual outputs that will provide
– a deeper understanding of drama and its benefits in the classroom
– a unique drama-based speaking assessment rubric
– drama-based activity book
– knowledge regarding e-learning platform

Two multiplier events are going to take place in order to further disseminate results, share experiences, present intellectual outputs, and increase the visibility of the e-learning platform. It will be possible to follow the project’s life and development through a website set up solely for that purpose but also through newsletters, blogs, and social media platforms used by each project partner.

The results of the ACT project will make a contribution to sharing and exchanging knowledge on examples of good practice across different sectors, stimulate innovation and creativity and enhance European integrity while at the same time optimizing EU policies in school education. ACT will bring about long-term benefits and allow for further discovering foreign cultures and social inclusion, which is a priority nowadays.

Our e-learning platform will be safe-guarding all the elements brought together during the project’s development stages and will be available long after the project ends. Its drama-based speaking activities, speaking assessment rubric, video tutorials, activity book available for download will allow for further development of these activities as each teacher and student is going to add a little bit of their own identity, imagination, and creativity into each of these activities making them always different, new and innovative.

During these pandemic times, it is crucial that we focus on the most endangered sectors of our society, informal and non-formal learning activities by adding a creative, artistic element to language learning thus increasing language competences and creating more favorable opportunities for employment, studying abroad, and allowing a sense of European identity to develop further. When Winston Churchill was asked to cut arts funding in favor of the war effort, he simply replied, “Then what are we fighting for?”

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 213306 Eur

Project Coordinator

Ustanova za obrazovanje odraslih Maksima & Country: HR

Project Partners

• COMUNE DI CORIGLIANO ROSSANO
• NATSIONALNA SHKOLA PO MENIDZHMANT
• Necmettin Erbakan Üniversitesi
• TEATAR TIRENA
• CONLAN SCHOOL LIMITED
• KONYA IL MILLI EGITIM MUDURLUGU
• Asociatia pentru Educatie si Formare