Intercultural language and culture exchange Erasmus Project

Project Title

Intercultural language and culture 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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Creativity and culture; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

The HAK HLW Reutte, Austria aims at collaborating with the Lycée Bellevue in Saintes, France within the school exchange program. The aim of this program is to improve the foreign language skills of our students and support intercultural exchange by connecting teenagers within Europe.

By the means of this exchange first of all we want to improve the foreign language skills of our students and support intercultural exchange by connecting teenagers within Europe. Besides, the exchange makes it possible to strengthen and update the foreign language skills of the accompanying teachers and to expand the horizon of our students. The fact that teachers and students get the possibility to compare the french and austrian school system during their stay abroad means a gain of advantages in regard to the developments of both schools.

The students of the HAK HLW Reutte who will participate are in the 3rd grade and they have been learning French for three years. The students of the Lycée Bellevue are also in the 3rd grade and have been learning German for at least 3 to 5 years. The participating Austrian teachers are all French teachers and the participating teachers from France are all German teachers.

During our stay abroad, we, the teachers of the HAK/ HLW Reutte and the Lycée Bellevue, have planned classroom observations in the foreign schools. Besides, the pupils attend the lessons in the respective schools and participate in cultural activities (e.g.: explore the regions, visit museums and monuments etc.). Furthermore, living in the host family including the immersion into the “savoir-vivre” of the host land will be a valuable experience for our students and last but not least we all will get the opportunity to try out the local cuisine.

Before the exchange we will organise an evaluation to find out whether the students are interested in the exchange (this has already been done) and there will be a regular networking of teachers (this has already been done). Apart from that we will try to connect the students by choosing their exchange partners.

During the exchange it is our plan to visit museums, to do some sightseeing and to discover the region together with our partners. It is also planned that our students participate in the lessons in the guest school and the teachers will observe the lessons with the aim to exchange methods with the foreign teachers.

Obviously, it is important for us to get in touch with the foreign culture and the local food. For our students it will be an unique experience to get to know the host family and their customs and traditions and they will get the chance to use the respective foreign language daily.

Afterwards, an evaluation of the language exchange program is planned, just as follow up activities in the respective foreign language lessons (e.g. write e-mails, create a blog together, record podcasts etc.) As we try to create something sustainable, we want our students to stay in contact with each other for at least until they take their A-levels. We, the teachers, will encourage our students (in the context of our lessons) to interact with the foreign students, as we believe that this will lead to more efficient, better and motivating learning.

We expect the following outcomes:
In our opinion the most important benefit of the exchange will be the improvement of language skills and the fact that we can show our students how to study languages with joy and enthusiasm. Through this extraordinary experience the students will be motivated to go to foreign countries in the future to study or to work which contributes to their personal development. Finally, we would like to mention that this exchange program allows us to connect students and teachers in between the EU.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 29170 Eur

Project Coordinator

Bundeshandelsakademie u. Bundeshandelsschule Reutte & Country: AT

Project Partners

• LYCEE BELLEVUE DE SAINTES