European Arts and Traditions in Italian Language Learning Erasmus Project

Project Title

European Arts and Traditions in Italian Language Learning

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 higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

The aim of the present project is to create an innovative teaching method for Italian as a foreign language. Why a European partnership is here necessary? We do not juxtapose language and cultural competences, but rather interconnect the two dimensions to stimulate and motivate the learners. At the same time the importance of the intercultural, mutual learning in a fast growing European community seems important as well especially in the education of students who we defined as future “cultural promoters”.
On the basis of the learners’ linguistic level, we will develop a wide selection of didactic material based on cultural utterances that has an artistic value.
Multimedia and e-learning platform will be the main tool. We plan the online learning and accompanied by a programme of seminars to be realized in the five countries of the project. During these meetings the proposed topics will raise a critical awareness of the reciprocal influences between Italy and other European and Mediterranean cultures.
The target group is broad: at least 200 students (40 for each university) of different types of university degrees, concerning cultural heritage, tourism, literary studies, etc., learners of Italian as a foreign language, will be prepared to become “cultural promoters” such as tourist guides, employees in museums, libraries and other cultural institutions involved in the valorisation of cultural heritage; we also include future teachers, educators, researchers and policy-makers involved in relations among the countries of the target cultural areas. The students will be assisted by at least 25 university teachers and researchers (5 for each participating university) prepared during a preliminary training event and formed constantly during the meetings.
Language as a means of communication requires an interlocutory context. During the realization of our project the learners will have moments of direct interaction, in which Italian will be the most natural way of communicating.
The direct involvement of the learners through questionnaires and activity preparation will motivate a comparative approach to both language and culture (e.g. to search common elements between Italian and the language and culture of their territory of origin). The groups of participants will be asked to complete research tasks which will meet their motivational/professional needs and critical abilities. These short studies shall further raise awareness to the reciprocal links of their cultural tradition to that of Italy. The widening will be achieved through discussions about the European cultural heritage of the four involved countries which represent four important cultural areas of Europe and of the Mediterranean Basin: Slavic, Baltic, Greek and Romance. The project will enhance the sense of belonging to a community characterized by a great linguistic variety and a dense network of internal references by discovering that cultural exchange goes beyond national borders.
A new, motivational method of teaching will be elaborated by the project team in an interdisciplinary way, involving competences of the linguists, historians, and ethno-philologists, anthopologists and sociologists.
The learning process will be optimized by using new technologies and multimedia – all the learning documents will be made available and accessible online under a Creative Commons license; the accreditation of the platform Epale will be asked. The bibliographical references of the learning units will also include existing electronic archives.
The devices offered by the multimedia and European platforms will also help to analyse and evaluate the process of foreign language acquisition and the work of the project team. The recordings of the seminars and guided tours will be shared online, together with transcriptions of the lectures. This will support the learning process, allowing and encouraging a larger use of the digital platform. In the course of the seminars, guidelines for the implementation of the method will be produced.
The following objectives are to be achieved:
– improve, develop and test a method of intercultural foreign language teaching for adults;
– improve the linguistic skills of the participants and enhance the lifelong learning;
– offer to the participants a selection of best practices for the teaching of Italian as foreign language;
– promote the common European roots (artistic relations among the regional communities, historical lexicography and grammar);
– promote the multiculturalism and the sense of the European belonging;
– improve the use of new technologies;
– strengthen the links between the participating organisations, EU institutions, cultural and administrative bodies at local and regional level.
Possible follow-ups are: increase the awareness of the common, European values at both local and international level; creation of an international network of contacts; spread the elaborated method through new agreements of the partners.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 396119 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIWERSYTET WROCLAWSKI & Country: PL

Project Partners

• VILNIAUS UNIVERSITETAS
• UNIVERSITY OF MACEDONIA
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI GENOVA
• PIXEL – ASSOCIAZIONE CULTURALE
• UNIVERZITA PALACKEHO V OLOMOUCI