European Patchwork- Applying CLIL Approach to Culture Swapping Erasmus Project

Project Title

European Patchwork- Applying CLIL Approach to Culture Swapping

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 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

The title of our project is European Patchwork-Applying CLIL Approach to Culture Swapping.The project was implemented with the cooperation of three countries, Hungary, Spain and Italy. The participating organizations, as they operate in a village or a small town, are similar in type, size and scope of work. We share common interests in European cultures, and all of us are committed to quality education. Our concept was that Europe includes a diverse range of cultures; every nation has its own character. There are various things that belong to our national identity, things we feel valuable in our national culture. During the project we have learnt about each other’s nations, discovered what is unique in our countries.
The education programs of our schools give high priority to foreign language education. Our main objective was to find new ways of development in this field. We used CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) approach in an innovative way outside the classroom involving our students actively. Our experience on the method was quite different, but all of the partner schools benefited from the cooperation. Our final product is a digital Illustrated Cultural Dictionary in which we summarized our learning outputs.
We accomplished three international learning, teaching and training activities, one in each country. The host country was responsible for the implementation of the activity. Each student meeting was preceeded by a preparation phase. The participants did preliminary research on the cultural characteristics of the host country and the students executed the tasks through virtual cooperation. The teachers supported the students and assisted them in preparation. We placed a special emphasis on language applying CLIL techniques.
Through cooperative project work on the spot students gained hands on experience on the culture of the host country. During this phase the students presented the results of their previous research and they extended their knowledge taking part in further activities such as making crafts, visiting attractions, eating local food. Students used language that they have learnt previously.
On each occasion we organized a special public event when each nation was represented, and anyone interested could join, such as other students, parents, local representatives. We organized the following programmes: a European talent show called E- Factor, European Expo, European Patchwork Culture Competition.
At the same time periods we organized an opening and a closing project meeting in Hungary and in Italy. Embedded the international student meeting we held a conference on CLIL in Spain. Francisco C. Jaímez Ortiz, Teacher from C.E.I.P “LA ACEÑA” elaborated “MRMIC & G.XXI”, an educational program based on CLIL and presented it in the conference.
During the cooperative activities teachers became more and more involved in CLIL method so we decided to organize additional professional programmes on the topic. There were two webinar courses of ten lessons each, one for the Italian and one for the Hungarian teachers followed by open model classes and discussion in each country. Our trainer was Francisco Jaimez who is a highly qualified expert on CLIL approach.
As a significant result of our project the language and communicative competences of the participant students have improved. We raised their cultural awareness and strengthend the sense of national identity. The students, parents and local residents even who do not benefited directly from the grant, learnt tolerance towards foreign cultures.
This year new educational programs were introduced into the school practices in Italy and Hungary involving the teachers who took part in the webinar courses. Our Spanish colleague intends to go on with teacher training programmes and write a methodology book about his own practice. All of the schools became able to offer higher quality education to the students who achieve more success in further education, and on the increasingly competitive labor market. In this way the schools got closer the parents’ requirements, and built a higher reputation in their region. The school management established new contacts and opend the possibility of further cooperation. Our results were widely disseminated in the media and professional forums so hopefully, we inspired other schools to start a European Union granted project. To learn more information about the project visit our website:
http://europeanpatchwork.weebly.com

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 104010 Eur

Project Coordinator

Felsötárkányi Általános Iskola és Alapfokú Müvészeti Iskola & Country: HU

Project Partners

• I.C.Elvira Castelfranchi
• CEIP LA ACENA