Fanfiction for the Teaching and Application of Languages through E-Stories Erasmus Project

Project Title

Fanfiction for the Teaching and Application of Languages through E-Stories

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 school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

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

FanTALES stands for multilingual and interactive digital storytelling in the language classroom, done by fans of popular media, for a more inclusive world.

Storytelling can help foster empathy and understanding of context and culture, which are critical in a pluricultural world. In online spaces (the so-called ‘digital wilds’), communities of people from different backgrounds and cultures tell stories to each other, discuss their stories and give each other feedback. A first example of such digital storytelling is fanfiction writing, a form of creative writing done by fans of popular media, which transforms stories in some way (for example, by changing the gender of a main character). A second example is interactive fiction, a non-linear type of story where the reader makes choices that can influence the story. At the same time, the internet is multilingual: it is a place where languages mingle, and where language users can draw on their full repertoire of languages to communicate with each other and to build their identities. So, in the digital wilds, storytelling practices promote plurilingual competence, tolerance, and intercultural dialogue, and thereby fit in well with the educational agenda of Europe. However, these practices are only slowly finding their way into formal language education.

To bridge the gap between language, literary, and cultural learning inside and outside of formal language education, FanTALES leveraged practices from fanfiction, interactive fiction, and multilingualism to develop materials that support digital transformative storytelling in the European language classroom. The project mainly addressed adolescent language learners in school contexts (14-18 years old) and their teachers (student teachers and practicing teachers). Teacher trainers, researchers and secondary school teachers developed materials for teaching and learning, and evaluated these with at least 2300 students in Belgium, Sweden and Germany, with a view to creating impact on:
– language learning in secondary schools, particularly in terms of modernizing the teaching of literature and related creative forms of linguistic and cultural expression;
– the new media literacy of adolescent and young adult language learners, and their teachers;
– the attractiveness of teacher education for languages and the profession of language teaching more generally;
– the promotion of intercultural dialogue in a multilingual context.

The materials for teaching and learning are designed to help develop skills in reading, creative writing, (intercultural) communication and dialogue, and ICT skills, and are grounded in communicative language teaching approaches. They are available in English, German, Swedish and Dutch, and comprise:
(1) Learning through doing modules to familiarize language teachers and their students with fanfiction, interactive fiction, and multilingual storytelling practices.
(2) Interactive storytelling tutorials to prepare students for making interactive fiction with Twine. The tutorials are based on source texts popular with our student population (for example, the Harry Potter stories), and also incorporate elements of multilingual storytelling.
(3) Prompts and assessment tools that teachers and students can combine and use as a basis for creating multilingual interactive storytelling tasks based on fanfiction. The 32 generic prompts are exemplified by sample instructions for specific storytelling tasks.
(4) An online platform for digital storytelling that incorporates the prompts and assessment tools, and an inventory of 99 source texts popular in Sweden, Belgium (Flanders), and Germany, annotated for use in the classroom. The platform supports collaborative writing of linear stories as well as interactive fiction in Twine, and is open (teachers and students can add new content).
(5) A storytelling kit that contains cards with our interactive storytelling tutorials and storytelling prompts (both linked to our online platform), as well as a set of dice that supports activities contained in our modules and tutorials. The box is perfect for learning in groups.
(6) A practical handbook and recorded teacher training seminar that prepares teachers for using FanTALES materials in their classroom.

The project team has released all materials for teaching and learning for other schools and teacher training institutions in the form of open educational resources. Adaptation and sharing are encouraged. Access to all materials on the project website and to the online storytelling platform is free of charge.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 296401,75 Eur

Project Coordinator

KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN & Country: BE

Project Partners

• JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE-UNIVERSITATFRANKFURT AM MAIN
• Georg-Forster-Gesamtschule Woerrstadt
• Lunds dans- och musikalgymnasium
• Guldensporencollege 7
• Sint-Jozefscollege
• MALMO UNIVERSITET