Young Apprentices Need Language Learning Support – developing a multilingual app for vocational training situations with augmented reality Erasmus Project

Project Title

Young Apprentices Need Language Learning Support – developing a multilingual app for vocational training situations with augmented reality

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 : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Migrants’ issues; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The YouALLS-project will design job-related language-sensitive learning scenarios for job entrants in the fields of catering, construction, nursing, metal work, and motor mechanics. These scenarios for the vocational classroom will be based on materials carefully designed following the didactical principles of language sensitivity. The materials and scenarios will refer to and integrate a picture dictionary app with augmented reality, developed in the project. The app will cover, among others, the following languages: Polish, Romanian, Arabic, and Dari.

Context:
Far too many young learners across Europe have problems learning a job and finishing a professional training course or an apprenticeship. Statistics show that dropout numbers are high, and young learners quit their training without a proper certificate and without the qualifications and skills needed to successfully enter the labour market. Youth unemployment in some European countries remains on an unacceptably high level.
When analysing the reasons, relevant stakeholders like chambers of trade and commerce, employees, teachers and learners report that these learners lack, among other things, the necessary job-related language skills.
The YouALLS-project assumes that there is not enough awareness for the difference between everyday language, professional and job-related language, language in the classroom vs. language at the workplace, and general language usage in vocational subjects.

Objectives:
1. Raise language-awareness among those involved with creating materials, training courses and exams for young learners in occupational areas that attract young learners who seem to have severe language problems, e.g. jobs that attract youngsters with a migration background: The five occupational fields identified in a needs analysis in all participating countries are: catering, construction, nursing, metal motor mechanics.
2.Develop an app that works as a dictionary which combines pictures of basic job-related materials and situations with the corresponding technical term in the languages available among the project partners, i.e. Turkish, German, Swedish, English, French, Spanish and available among their institutional networks established when schooling learners with a migration background, e.g. Polish, Romanian, Arabic and Dari.
The app will have a dictionary mode (with approx. 200 basic terms for each occupational field) and an augmented-reality mode where a camera can scan single words, text and pictures of job-related materials leading to the relevant term in the user’s pre-selected language.
3. Develop job-related basic (not advanced) training situations and lesson plans for the vocational classroom, both developed according to the didactical principles of language awareness. One central tool in these learning environments will be the project’s dictionary app. Each project partner will develop one training situation for each occupational field in their mother tongue.

Project partners:
Partners from Turkey (Istanbul University-Cerraphasa), Sweden (Falun Borlänge Regionen), and Germany (Seminar für Ausbildung und Fortbildung der Lehrkräfte Karlsruhe (Berufliche Schulen), i.e. Institute for initial and in-service teacher training for vocational schools) have worked together before in an Erasmus-project on refugee teaching (www.yourni.eu). The idea for the new YouALLS-project goes back to a common needs analysis and was jointly developed. Partners’ strengths and needs led to the various roles that partners will fill within the project. A steering group, representing each country, will monitor all project steps and guarantee the flow of the project according to the application. Two associate partners from Turkey and Germany will give additional support and input.

Activities:
An initial expert meeting will lay down the didactical and technical requirements of the dicionary app and initiate a process of selecting job-related terminology to be contained in the app.
A group of technicians will program the app, and all project partners will provide relevant testing situations.
Vocational and language experts in each partner country fill the app’s database with relevant terminology.
Teaching experts from all partner countries will come together in order to develop authentic training situations for learners in initial vocational situations, referring to the project’s app.
On a national level, multiplier events will be offered to disseminate and discuss the project’s outputs and integrate relevant feedback.

Expected results and long-term benefit:
The free dictionary app will be made available through various channels, and it will be open source in
order to allow further development and adaptation according to the users’ needs, e.g. further
languages and extended vocabulary. Training situations will serve as best practice examples in
training institutions and teacher training courses.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 175333 Eur

Project Coordinator

Seminar für Ausbildung und Fortbildung der Lehrkräfte Karlsruhe (Berufliche Schulen) & Country: DE

Project Partners

• ISTANBUL UNIVERSITESI – CERRAHPASA
• Falun Borlänge Regionen AB