Durch der-die-das mit viel Spass – App for learning German articles and declinations Erasmus Project

Project Title

Durch der-die-das mit viel Spass – App for learning German articles and declinations

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Open and distance learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The project focuses on German as an important European language, with an increasing demand in particular within Eastern and Southern European countries for learning and teaching the language due to its vital economic importance as well as because of a high number of migrants from those countries to Austria and Germany. It is based on the existing free e-learning website for learning the German language – deutsch.info, which was developed during three previous projects 2011-2018. The website is currently available in 19 languages, has a total of 520.000 registered users and 150.000 Facebook fans. The users can access all materials free of charge:
– Courses A1, A2, B1 and B2 with a total of 31 topics, consisting of 129 lessons, including interactive exercises;
– Grammar section;
– Media library, linked to built in dictionaries and a tool for morphological analysis;
– Practical information for migrants about Austria and Germany;
– Teachers’ portal with didactic preparation;
– Multilingual forums and applications for social media.

Based on learners’ feedback we have identified a need to provide materials for extensive practicing of articles and declination, mainly for learners at a beginner level (A1-A2) as well as those transitioning to the lower intermediate level B1. Therefore, the goal of the project is to develop an application for smartphones and tablets for that purpose. The content of the app will be based on a list of 1000 most frequent nouns in the German language. All nouns will be translated into languages of the users in order to make sure that users first learn the word, in case they do not already know it. For each noun learners will not only learn/practice the gender and nominative form, but there will be several common combinations with other words (prepositions, verbs), and the noun will be practiced in different cases in combination with definite and indefinite articles. At higher competency levels it can be practiced with adjectives for additional practicing of the declination of adjectives in combination with articles. If only 10 different combinations with other words will be created per word, 10.000 different exercises will be available in the application.

The final product of the project will therefore be an application with the following features:
– Pictures, colours and sounds will be used in order to create additional associations for remembering genders of nouns;
– Words with articles will be taught in i.e. 50-words-blocks, based on the frequency of words, in a way that learners can learn the most important (frequent) words firstly;
– Articles will be taught in different phrases and word combinations, in combination with most commonly used prepositions, verbs and adjectives for the given noun;
– The app-algorithm will use spaced repetition, which is a proven learning technique that incorporates increasing intervals of time between subsequent review of previously learned material in order to exploit the psychological spacing effect. Every word will be repeated in defined intervals and in most varied combinations. The program will record mistakes and adapt following repetitions to every individual user. The program will show the right answer and will repeat exercises on that word again and again, until the user stops making mistakes;
– The algorithm of the app will adapt the tasks individually for each user;
– The learning programme will be created in the form of a game in order to make the learning experience more interesting;
– The application will be programmed for offline use and it will be updated online.

For persons intending to move to or participate in mobility actions in Austria and Germany, but also for those learning German in their own countries for any other reason, such a free learning opportunity is very important. This is emphasised by the current user statistics of deutsch.info with more than 520.000 registered users only 5,5 years after the launch of the platform. Thus the project promotes access to new language learning resources and develops and disseminates new language learning materials and OER. After the project life-cycle the app will be offered in 22 languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, English, Esperanto, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Persian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese of the learners and will add an important learning opportunity, not only for those learners, who have registered on deutsch.info, but also for any other learners.

We expect the following impact: Improved access to learning the German language for prosperous migrants and migrants, but also for persons learning the German language for any other reason, working in tourism and health sectors in other European countries etc.

Project Website

http://www.deutsch.info/derdiedas

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 171303 Eur

Project Coordinator

Österreich Institut GmbH & Country: AT

Project Partners

• SINIRLI SORUMLU BILIMSEL ARASTIRMA VE UYGULAMA EGITIM KOOPERATIFI
• STUDIO GAUS GMBH
• E@I
• Fundatia Centrul Educational Spektrum
• Inter-kulturo mednarodni kulturno izobraževalni center d.o.o.