Development of the pedagogical skills of the internship tutor in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language Erasmus Project

Project Title

Development of the pedagogical skills of the internship tutor in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language

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 adult education

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; Cooperation between educational institutions and business; Pedagogy and didactics

Project Summary

DCP_Tusele is a support system for tutors of teachers or future teachers of Spanish as a Foreign Language (ELE). The project responds to a pressing need. Never before has there been a fundamental reflection engaged by a transnational team on how to equip tutors with the skills required to guarantee effective and efficient internship practices. In the absence of this reflection, and in the absence of the project that emanates from it, tutors still have to rely again and again on their own teaching practices, without a structural framework or guidelines to guide them. Moreover, the organisation of training courses as proposed by the various national bodies for the qualification and professionalisation of tutors remains extremely variable in terms of content, duration and evaluation criteria.
With its internationally recognised experience in the field and the active collaboration between the various entities that support it, DCP_Tusele aims to increase the transparency and harmonisation of tutoring processes. A set of easy-to-use tools and devices accompanies the different stages of the course (see outputs 1 to 4) and ultimately enables each tutor to optimise their personal and socio-educational development through active lifelong learning.
Inspired by the philosophy of the European Qualifications Framework and integrating the values of unity and diversity of the European Union, the project focuses on the heritage and diversity of the Spanish language, as well as its teaching beyond the borders of Europe. It focuses on intellectual productions that are transferable not only at the European but also at the American level. At the end of the project these intellectual productions will constitute the material for the planning, reception, and evaluation of the trainees by the tutor.
DCP_Tusele is based on three pillars (intersectoral collaboration, transnational interaction, creative use of technology), whose implementation modalities are summarized below:

Intersectoral collaboration, guaranteed by:
– cooperation between the public and private sectors: the members of the partnership have been working together for a long time on joint reflection on the quality criteria in the courses and the different partners bring together different teaching contexts: regulated and non-regulated; Spanish-speaking countries or abroad; initial or continuing training. In addition, the project counts on the support of 10 prestigious associated entities that guarantee the steering and dissemination of the project’s results;
– the construction of solid bridges between theory and practice. Most of the project partners participate in training centres and have experience in the transfer of knowledge in practice;
– the conceptualization, agreed between the partners and associates, of the model of teaching competence within the framework of a traineeship.

Transnational interaction, ensured by:
– the creation of transnational and multilingual networks, both within and outside Europe, as Spanish is a world language, spoken by approximately 580 million people (Instituto Cervantes, 2019), and taught as a foreign language to 22 million learners;
– the support of an American partner, which enriches the project with its unique expertise in other educational contexts.

The creative use of technology, based on:
– the proposal of a fully online and open-access training course that facilitates more constructive and effective tutoring, as well as more rigorous and systematic evaluation of the teachers doing their internship;
– the autonomous use of modular and flexible digital supports, both theoretical and practical, according to formative itineraries that allow tutors to easily access complementary training for improvement on different supports: e-books, video capsules, evaluation grids.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 199693 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN & Country: BE

Project Partners

• Universidad de Guanajuato
• UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
• SPRACHEN- UND DOLMETSCHER-INSTITUTMUNCHEN EV
• CLIC Cadiz SL