Enhancing language skills and environmental awareness in youth Erasmus Project

Project Title

Enhancing language skills and environmental awareness in youth

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Environment and climate change; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

Foreign language learning is at its lowest level in many European schools today, which has also been observed in the two partner schools in Spain and Sweden, IES Abastos, Valencia and De Geergymnasiet, Norrköping that offer language profiles for upper secondary students. The teachers from the participating schools in Norrköping and Valencia share the conviction that language learning is essential to connect people and cultures by promoting mutual understanding and a shared sense of European identity. Furthermore, based on previously student exchanges, the schools have experiences that language studies reinforce the learning in other subjects and is highly motivating for overall goal achievement.

The KA2-project “Enhancing language skills and environmental awareness in youth” aims to improve students language skills and increase the popularity of language studies in the partner schools. Although the project will target many aspects of language learning the specific objectives are to:

– Provide students with a deeper understanding of how culture impacts language in different countries
– Strengthen the intercultural skills of students which includes the skills of collaborating across the country boarders
– Increase students motivation to study foreign languages
– attract more students that want to study a second and third language
– develop the competencies of language teaching among school staff
– raise the awareness about environmental and climate change-challenges
– increase the European dimension in the schools

Over the course of 2 years more than 200 students aged 16-17 and 30 teachers will have actively participated in the planned learning teaching and training activities. The activities are planned to enhance the virtual and physical exchange between students in the way that students will have to use their language skills in to practice and as a result improve their learning outcomes in English and Spanish. By focusing on the environment as an overarching theme, students will get an insight in how sustainability is promoted in Norrköping and in Valencia. All activities involving students will be based on the pedagogical methods of inductive (discovery) learning, a pragmatic approach where language needs to be put int practice and context and on feedback through assessment and evaluation. This means that the activities prior to and during the transnational exchanges will give students new perspective about climate change challenges in a broader cultural context and at the same experience of transnational collaboration in a a world where challenges can only be solved on a global level.

The students are expected to have enriched their language skills in Spanish and English and at the same time to have broadened their horizons in relation to culture differences and the way culture impacts language. The chosen topic sustainability and environmental goals, will enable changes in the individuals that participate in the project. Teachers involved in the project will have strengthen the profiles in their teaching by learning from each other method of teaching foreign language and by establishing networks of professional exchange between the teachers at both schools. Dissemination will happen on both partner and local level and involve many students and staff from both schools. In this way the project is expected to serve as a vehicle to boost all our students motivation to study foreign languages as well as attract more students that want to study a second and third language. The fact that the project will be made visible in all communication channels within each schools reach also means that the European dimension in the schools will be promoted and that both schools will develop their capacity for transnational, European collaboration.

In a longer term perspective the project is expected to elevate the status of language teaching and learning and increase the number of students that want to learn an additional foreign language in upper secondary schools. The project contributes to the promotion of multilingualism (on of the key competences pointed out by the European Commission) and has the potential to lead to behavioral changes among youth as awareness of the environmental and climate goals and the measurements taken in the different countries in this area.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 63584 Eur

Project Coordinator

De Geergymnasiet & Country: SE

Project Partners

• IES ABASTOS