Friendship through language and culture – A bilingual exchange Erasmus Project

Project Title

Friendship through language and culture – A bilingual exchange

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 : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage

Project Summary

Context

After perceiving with despair, the growing winds of nationalism, intolerance and hatred throughout Europe and the rest of the world, the initiators of this Erasmus+ project wanted to create a stronger feeling of a European unity among our students. Instead of feeling like Swedish or Spanish citizens we wanted them to feel like Europeans.

To achieve this, we emphasized the importance of learning about our common European heritage. By studying our local heritage together, we wanted our students to come closer and to build bridges of understanding, tolerance and friendship across the national borders. Furthermore, we wanted them to develop an intercultural competence by experiencing the everyday life of the students in the exchange country. Therefore, we let the students stay in local families during the mobilities. Since communication is an essential prerequisite for understanding and tolerance, language became an important aspect of the project as well.

Objectives

-To improve the intercultural competence of our students. We wanted them to see differences and similarities between our cultures and our ways of living.
– To improve their knowledge of our common European cultural heritage.
-To create bonds of friendship between the students so friendship becomes the beginning of tolerance, unity and understanding.
-To develop the students’ language competence and to increase their motivation to language studies.

Activities

The activities started when the school year started. Swedish and Spanish students were matched and paired. The students were given assignments before, during and after the mobilities. These assignments could be, for example, writing e-mails about themselves, producing videos about their cultural heritage and about their ways of living or preparing presentations in English and Spanish before the mobilities. They also presented their experiences from the mobilities to other classes. In November the first mobility took place in Spain. The teachers and students in Spain had set up a schedule for the visit related to different aspects of their cultural heritage. During the first mobility the Spanish students guided their Swedish peers through the local cultural heritage of Málaga and nearby places. The Swedish students stayed in the Spanish students’ families which gave them the chance to experience the Spanish culture and everyday life. Besides, learning about the Spanish cultural heritage they also attended regular classes along with their Spanish peers. During the second mobility in April the Swedish students gave presentations about important places as the students experienced the local cultural heritage of Strängnäs together. The students were given daily tasks to be carried out together in mixed groups and displayed on a web page during the final day of the mobility. The second mobility basically followed the same structure as the first including family stays, presentations and class visits.

Results

-The students have developed their intercultural competence as they have experienced the differences between our ways of living. The students pointed out differences when it comes to eating hours, sleeping hours and differences in social behavior.
-Students have improved their knowledge, both when it comes to their own local cultural heritage and the cultural heritage of the country that they visited.
-The project has created a network of friendship ties between Spanish and Swedish students, and a common feeling of belonging together as Europeans. Several students explain that they have made friends for life. An additional unexpected aspect that was especially pleasant to see was the friendship that developed between one of the Spanish boys, who has the Asperger syndrome and the Swedish boy who he was paired with.
-The Spanish students have improved their English, and the Swedish students have improved their spoken Spanish language competence. The project has motivated the students to study language and to learn about another country.

Expected long term benefits

-The students have developed their intercultural competence and established a connection with another country which will be valuable for them in the future, whether it will be while traveling, studying or working abroad. The project has also increased their motivation for further language studies.
-The students have created bonds of friendship across borders which will enrich their lives and offer them great opportunities in the future. For some students it has also opened their mindset and enabled them to become open minded European citizens.
-A link has been created between Europaskolan and IES Bezmiliana which will most likely result in cooperation of some kind in the future.
– Europaskolan has gained valuable experience of the whole process from application to implementation and reporting which might lead to more Erasmus+ projects in the future.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 30260 Eur

Project Coordinator

Europaskolan Strängnäs AB & Country: SE

Project Partners

• IES BEZMILIANA