Improving Communicative Competence in Foreign Languages from a Distance Erasmus Project

Project Title

Improving Communicative Competence in Foreign Languages from a Distance

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 Digital Education Readiness

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

Millions of people desire to learn a foreign language or feel that they need to in order to find work or integrate into a new society; in fact, the Council of the EU lists multilingualism as one of its key competencies. However, it is often the case that even learners who have been studying a language for years still have trouble understanding and being understood by native speakers of the target language due to a lack of strong communication skills in their second language (L2). A lack of communicative ability in a foreign language can also cause the learner to be perceived negatively by the community, which would then hinder that person’s level of integration. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the number of adults seeking to boost their employability to skyrocket; thousands of individuals are now looking to hone their language skills through freely-accessible, online means.

Though it is difficult to learn communication skills in a time like this with such limited human interaction, it is not impossible by any means. The concept of “formulaic language” in linguistics is a familiar but underused concept in L2 teaching that can increase communication skills, yet research shows a distinct lack of teaching materials that focus on this aspect of language. Formulaic language is, simply put, co-occurring strings of words used in recurring situations; idioms, collocations, multi-word verbs, and more fall into this category. The teaching of formulaic language has been proven to increase learners’ acquisition of grammar, fluency, and even cultural awareness.

Our project aims to compensate for this lack of formulaic language-based teaching materials by creating a handbook for teachers, an app for learners that uses all authentic sources from target languages, and an OER for teachers which provides practical teaching materials for formulaic language.

The objectives of the projects are as follows:
-To create a set of easily accessible teaching and learning materials that support communication skills in a foreign language
-To promote the uptake of an effective teaching methodology across Europe in a digitally innovative way
-To upskill foreign language teachers in providing formulaic language-based lessons for their students

These will be accomplished through the production of three outputs:
1. Guide on teaching communication through formulaic language
2. Language learning app that uses authentic sources to teach formulaic language
3. OER for teachers where they can find practical lessons and materials on teaching formulaic language
All Intellectual Outputs will be created in 6 languages: English, Spanish, Latvian, Italian, Russian, and German. The outputs will go through pilot testing/feedback sessions to ensure top quality results.

The direct target group of the project is foreign language teachers of VET providers, with the indirect group being adult foreign language learners. Associated partners will be VET/language teaching organisations at local, regional, national, and European levels.

The expected impact of the project on all participants in a general sense is increased awareness of the usefulness of teaching and learning formulaic language to improve communicative competence amongst target groups and stakeholders. More specifically, the direct target group (foreign language teachers)’s expected impact will also be heightened awareness of the role formulaic language plays in second language acquisition, practical knowledge of how to teach formulaic language to improve students’ overall communicative competence, and greater access to teaching materials that focus on specific types of formulaic language through the OER (IO3). The indirect target group (foreign language learners)’s expected impact can be summarised as: improved communicative competence, increased awareness of formulaic language and its usefulness in language acquisition, both in and outside of the classroom, increased cultural awareness associated with learning the target language through authentic materials, and greater access to high-quality language learning opportunities.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 158415 Eur

Project Coordinator

Eurospeak Language Schools Ltd & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Innovation Frontiers IKE
• Castilla Languages SL
• VALODU MAPE SIA
• Amaita Intercultura