Dive into language and culture with all senses Erasmus Project

Project Title

Dive into language and culture with all senses

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 Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Integration of refugees; Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

“MAS(S)KE – Dive into language and culture with all senses” was both title and topic of each of all in all six short time exchange meetings of students during the project.
Around 105 students of the three partner institutions, Berufskolleg Königstraße in Gelsenkirchen (Germany), 73. SU ″Vladislav Gramatik“ in Sofia (Bulgaria), and Escola Secundária com 3° ciclo do Ensino Básico de Felgueiras in Felgueiras (Portugal), took part in those exchange meetings and benefited from the events intended to approach multiple senses at places outside the foreign language classroom. Thus, an open and innovative way of teaching and acquiring the German language was provided for all those participating in the project.
All participants from the three partner institutions had in common that they had learned German as a foreign or as a second language. The individual prerequesites differed among the groups of students. The participants from Germany had been living in German for a maximum of two years and had been learning German since the time of their arrival in Germany only when they joined the project. In so called “International classes” which they attended, a majority of those participants had become acquainted with a fixed daily routine for the first time in their lives. Some of the students still struggled with adapting to that daily routine. On the opposite, the Bulgarian as well as the Portuguese participants had had a long experience in learning German as a foreign language in their home countries. However, most of them had not had the chance to meet native speakers of German before; in the project MAS(S)KE that was clearly a point the benefited from.
Apart from the students taking part in the exchange meetings, all in all approximately one hundred more students were involved in the project by preparing and evaluating the exchange meetings. Especially through the presentations of the project’s results, an opportunity was given to that group of students to discover the German language a little closer than it is possible in the regular classroom.
Some content of the project programme is listed here: writing of a project song and performing it on several events throughout the course of the project; writing a theatre play and acting it out on stage in front of a real audience; events with a culinary or a sportive background, and a project week devoted to fine arts all were intended to provide the participants with a good dive into the German language – and succeeded in doing so.
During the last meeting of the project, the “suitcase” with the outcomes of the project activities was finally packed. Students who took part in this procedure not only checked out whether the digitalized and the analogue material was complete, but they also went through the complete project process again in quick motion. That served as a mirror for them in which they could discover their own individual learning progress from the beginning of the project until its end.
Apart from learning the German language, the participants had an insight into different life realities and thus were supported in developing an understanding or more understanding for different situations of/in life. The students from Germany which were still trained in following their daily school routine, showed a high level of responsibility in the project and showed up regularly. Truancy was fought effectively not only for the course of the project, as the continuity in attending lessons seems to stay on with those students.
Everybody’s motivation to learn the German language was tempted more effectively by getting the chance to discover the language with all senses than it would have been possible in the regular classroom settings.
Social integration for the participants of the project was promoted, as all participants had the chance to join cultural events. Many of the participating students got into contact with theatre for the first time of their lives; thanks to the fact that the students themselves became actors and actresses in their play instead of simply consuming a ready play, it was possible that this formerly strange world of theatre became part of the natural surrounding.
The project covered all aspects of a modern approach to language learning, as well as European awareness, responsibilities, and personal development of the participants.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 90020 Eur

Project Coordinator

Berufskolleg Königstrasse der Stadt Gelsenkirchen & Country: DE

Project Partners

• 73. SU “Vladislav Gramatik”
• Escola Secundária com 3º ciclo do Ensino Básico de Felgueiras