Developing Communicative Competence through Art Erasmus Project

Project Title

Developing Communicative Competence through Art

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: Creativity and culture; Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

The Freiherr-vom-Stein School Hünfelden has had a student exchange with the Collège Gaston Flament in Marcheprime (near Bordeaux) since September 2019. Both schools could observe a strongly decreasing number of pupils in the last years with their former exchange schools, who were willing to choose French or German as second foreign language or if they had chosen it, the willingness to participate in the existing exchange was missing. The Freiherr vom Stein School, which also has a secondary school branch, even found that more than a third of the pupils dropped out of French after eighth grade. This gave rise to the idea of making foreign languages and exchange more attractive with a project to counteract these phenomena. In cooperation with the art teachers, the French and German teachers then developed the project: Learning languages through art. In order to appeal to the students, street art was chosen, of which both cities in the immediate vicinity also have much to offer. This project pursues several goals at once. On the one hand, the schools hope to increase the pupils’ motivation to learn the respective foreign language. Through constant communication in the foreign language, the language competence in the respective foreign language should be improved. By working with contemporary art, the pupils’ interest in art in general is to be awakened and visits to museums and galleries are to be positively influenced. This project will involve 14 pupils each, together with one foreign language teacher and one art teacher from each of the two schools. The pupils will get to know each other in Paris, where they will also have their first experiences with the topic of street art. Different districts and galleries will be visited, admired and a collage will be created together. Thus Vitry-SUR-Seine, the Street Art city offers house corners, an electric pole or a lamppost, creations of all kinds. Or the centre of Paris, from the Halles district to the home of Serge Gainsbourg, where the walls of the city centre serve as a playground for artists. These visits should give the pupils a first impression and motivate them to exchange impressions and feelings with their exchange partner in the foreign language. In addition, the pupils will discover 150 works by artists in the first museum of French urban art, Art 42, accompanied by a guide. With these experiences and impressions we will continue together in Bordeaux. Here a joint tour of the city of Bordeaux will take place under the guidance of Magnetic ArtLab. The students’ attention will be drawn to fresco and graffiti. In addition, the gallery Le M.U.R will be visited with the purpose of making a video report about the street art scene in Bordeaux in French and German. This can then be shown in both countries as a result. On another day, a workshop will be held in Bègles, in a former factory, in order to design a certain part of the schoolyard with the acquired knowledge.
These findings and results will then be compared with street art in Germany. A visit to the Naxos workshops in Frankfurt is planned. There the participation in workshops will be organized. Students can work in groups with their exchange partners to spray canvases, which can be rolled up and taken along.
With the knowledge acquired there and in France, the joint design of a wall on the school grounds is on the agenda. Here too, joint communication, exchange and social skills are very important.
In order to inform the school community about what has been done, an exhibition in the school or in an extracurricular place, e.g. a savings bank or in the town hall of the community is planned.
For this purpose the pupils should design a flyer for the exhibition, which should be trilingual, in German-French-English and with photos and pictures selected by the pupils. We expect an intensive cooperation and examination of the foreign languages and an increased motivation to engage in art. We also hope for a long-term enhancement of the foreign language and the exchange.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 32693 Eur

Project Coordinator

Freiherr-vom-Stein Schule, Huenfelden & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Collège Gaston Flament