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Study visit group report

Group NoTitle of the

visitSocial Dimension of Language Learning 192-ES

Topic Language Teaching & LearningCity, country Barcelona – Catalunya/SpainType of visit General Education

Dates of visit 19th March – 23rd MarchGroup

reporterSarah Jane Rose

Dear participants,

The purpose of a study visit is to generate an exchange of experience and good practice between the country you visit and the countries you all come from. Thus, participating in a study visit can be an exciting experience and an important learning tool for you.

During the visit you are invited to prepare a group report summarising your discussions and learning. This will help Cedefop disseminate what you have learnt to others, who share your interest but did not participate in this particular study visit.

On the first day of the visit, you are to select a reporter who will be responsible for preparing the final report and submitting it to Cedefop. Everybody should contribute to the report by sharing their views, knowledge, and practices in their respective countries. Please start working on the report from the first day of the visit.

You will, of course, be taking your own notes during presentations and field visits; but the group report should highlight the result of the group’s reflections on what was seen and learnt during the entire visit and the different perspectives brought by the different countries and participants. The report should NOT read as a travel diary, describing every day and every session or visit.

Cedefop will publish extracts of your reports on its website and make them available to experts in education and vocational training. When writing the report, please keep this readership in mind: make your report clear, interesting, and detailed enough to be useful to colleagues throughout Europe.

By attaching any photos to the report, you agree to Cedefop’s right to use them in its publications on study visits and on its website.

Please prepare the report in the working language of the group.

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Please do not include the programme or list of participants.

The reporter should submit the report to Cedefop (studyvisits@cedefop.europa.eu) within ONE month of the visit.

I FINDINGSThis section summarises the findings of the group while visiting host institutions, discussing issues with the hosts and within the group. You will be reflecting on what you learnt every day. But to put them together and give an overall picture, you need to devote a special session to prepare the final report on the last day of the visit.

In this section, it is important that you describe not only things you learnt about the host country but also what you learnt about the countries represented by group members.

1. One of the objectives of the study visits programme is to exchange examples of good practice among hosts and participants. Cedefop will select well-described projects/programmes/initiatives and disseminate them to former participants and a wider public, including potential partners for future projects. Therefore it is important that you identify and describe all aspects that, in your view, make these projects/programmes/initiatives successful and worth exploring.

Many of us were drawn to this diverse capital because of the richness of the culture and languages used. In Catalunya the vast majority of pupils are bilingual, Catalan is their mother tongue and Castilian (Spanish) is also spoken. In addition pupils are also taught at least one foreign language from a young age, add the influx of community languages and you have a melting pot of diversity. 12 different European countries were represented by 16 participants from all sectors of education, primary, secondary, further and higher education.

See grid below for details of good practice.

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Describe each of the good practices you learnt about during the visit (both from the hosts and from one another) indicating the following:

title of the project/program

me/initiative

country name of the institution that

implements it (if possible, provide

a website)

contact person (if possible) who presented the

programme to the group

whom the project/ programme/

initiative addresses

what features of the project/programme/initiative make it an

example of good practice

English DaySharing to Learn

Art & CraftsEuromania

ScratchEnglish Day

Catalunya Escola MontserratSant Just Desvern

Mirella All students InteractiveHands on activities in target language

CreativeInclusive

Programme “DYS” for

students in Secondary

schools (dyslexia in Language

courses)

French Community of

Belgium

Ministry of Education (FWB)

Fabienne Denayer Children with special needs

Social dimension and Language learning

Reading Project“The seagull and

the cat”(supported by UE

through FSE)

Italy IV Circolo didattico “A. Di

Giovanni” AGRIGENTO

www.quartocircoloagrigento.it

Alfio RussoPrincipal of the

school

Pupils of primary school

Parents of pupilsLaboratories focused on the Key competences required by the UE- competence in mother tongue- learning to learn- digital competence- sense of initiative and

entrepreneurship- social and civic competences- cultural awareness and

expression

Priorities of Romania School County Laura Nadaban Teachers

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Romanian Ministry of Education

Inspectorates - Teaching focused on key competences

- Language policies- ICT - Inclusion- Entrepreneurship

Focus on French Educational

System

France Rectorat/inspection

académique

Olivier MasséJacqueline Sacareau

Inspector (secondary school)

Primary school teacher adviser (for foreign languages)

- Language policies/when, what languages/how/where

- ICT - first level second level - disabled pupils

Student Inclusion

Poland The University of Warsaw

Jacek Romaniuk Students at the University of

Warsaw1. Each collective ruling body is to

consist of 20% of students 2. Office for Persons with Disabilities at the University of Warsaw http://www.bon.uw.edu.pl/en/univ4all/index.html

Inclusion of students into collective ruling bodies at the university;

taking care of special needs students and students with disabilities

Use of ICT for Foreign Language

Teaching

Turkey Ministry of National

Education,Samsun Anatolian High

school

Murat Yavuz Pupils of primary, secondary,high schoolteachers

-ICT-Language policies

-Fatih Project (sponsored by the government)

-How to use ICT(computer boards and e-tabs) for language learning for all pupils

of all schools in Turkey

Languages of Schooling

Italian and Italian L2

Italy Ministry of education,

University and Research

Angiolina Ponziano

Inspector of Ministry of Education

Initial and continuous training

headmaster , teachers

Support for Italian and children from migrant background primary and lower secondary school , Minority languages and bilingualism (French & German)

Nursery and Catalunya Ministry of Joana Vidal Nursery and

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Primary schools initiatives

Education Catalunya

Primary (elementary)

schools

-Programme focusing on the oral skills in the foreign language

-Activities where children are involved (projects-films-reports –blogs etc)

- exchange programmes , visits abroad, contacts with natives:

-Progressive Immersion from Nursery schools to Secondary schools

(Continuum)

Improving languages and

key competences in projects and

“learning by doing”

Italy Deutsches Schulamt

Autonome Provinz Bozen/Bolzano

Walter Markus Hilber

Pupils of lower and upper secondary

schools

School partnerships:Training on a high level of

communication in foreign languages, exchange of traditions, culture, history,

geography

Practising foreign languages in commercial schools with training firms

(obligatory), working together with sponsors of the real market, exchange

of experience, international competitions on the fairs; focusing on

key competences (especially entrepreneurship)

Euromania

Catalunya Comprodon Joan Vila Language learners Working on many languages focusing on similarities

Celebrate language days

* You can describe as many good practices as you find necessary. You can add rows to the table.

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2. The study visits programme aims to promote and support policy development and cooperation in lifelong learning. That is why it is important to know what you learnt about such policies and their implementation during your visit. You are invited to describe your findings concerning the following:

2.1 APPROACHES TAKEN BY PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES (BOTH HOST AND PARTICIPANTS’) REGARDING THE THEME OF THE VISIT. ARE THERE ANY SIMILAR APPROACHES/MEASURES IN PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES? WHAT ASPECTS ARE SIMILAR AND WHY? WHAT ASPECTS ARE DIFFERENT AND WHY?

In some countries the concept of sharing to learn is implemented in school life.

There is no Euromania but it is substituted by other projects for example E-twinning, Comenius and cross border cooperation.

Welcoming classes are organised in countries with large numbers of immigrants, for example Norway, Belgium, Spain, UK and France and we feel it is a good way to involve a child in regular school life. In Hungary such classes are organised for children with speaking and learning difficulties.

The National Reading Plan here is implemented with the aim of enhancing the reading skill and promoting reading for pleasure, it is a cross curricular strategy involving activities organised by local authorities.

2.2 CHALLENGES FACED BY PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES (INCLUDING HOST) IN THEIR EFFORTS TO IMPLEMENT POLICIES RELATED TO THE THEME OF THE VISIT. WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES? ARE THEY COMMON CHALLENGES? IF SO, WHY? IF NOT, WHY NOT?

Challenges:

How to create an interactive community (social cohesion) How to become an active citizen in plurilingual Catalunya: for

both Spanish people (Catalan and Castilian speakers) and immigrants, by maintaining the language and the culture of each one, protect and preserve.

How to incorporate additional foreign languages in the curriculum in order to enrich the European dimension of future citizens.

The realities are somewhat different in the participating countries, we could speak of a more multilingual situation (with a few exceptions) due to historical heritage and everyday reality.

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2.3 NAME AND DESCRIBE EFFECTIVE AND INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS YOU HAVE IDENTIFIED THAT PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES (BOTH HOST AND PARTICIPANTS) APPLY TO ADDRESS THE CHALLENGES MENTIONED IN QUESTION 2.2. PLEASE MENTION SPECIFIC COUNTRY EXAMPLES.

The National Reading Plan – A project that promotes the implementation of key competences in the mother tongue and in foreign languages, and increases the level of literacy among the learners. Effective in boosting students´ cultural awareness and expression however it must be developed in such a way as to not hinder speaking skills.

Welcoming classes/Inclusion programme – A project aimed at personalising the curriculum and adopting flexible ways to improve individual skills of the learners.

Promoting community languages – Project that takes into account the existence of numerous ethnic minorities in Catalunya aimed at retaining their unique language and culture. At the same time the project makes them a basis on which competences in foreign languages are built and developed.

2.4 ASSESSMENT OF THE TRANSFERABILITY OF POLICIES AND PRACTICES. COULD ANY EXAMPLES OF GOOD PRACTICE PRESENTED IN THIS REPORT BE APPLIED AND TRANSFERRED TO OTHER COUNTRIES? IF SO, WHY? IF NOT, WHY NOT?

CLIL – Content and Language Integrated Learning

One example we all agreed is good practice was CLIL, this project though still in its infancy, in some countries, is gaining popularity. Using immersion methodology CLIL is particularly effective when started at an early age and have the opportunity to continue with other curriculum subjects. Not only does CLIL improve student’s linguistic competence but simultaneously improves verbal and non-verbal reasoning, creativity, cognitive processing and autonomy. We saw evidence of the learner voice in the form of written comments, these reflected its benefits. On the other hand the degree of success relies heavily on the competence of the teacher in the target language. Therefore we foresee issues in other European countries because the standardisation of teaching qualifications is not always regulated.On balance we conclude that CLIL is an excellent programme to foster continuous professional development and increases the learner’s mobility and employment opportunities throughout Europe.

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3. Creating networks of experts, building partnerships for future projects is another important objective of the study visit programme.

Please state whether and which ideas for future cooperation have evolved during meetings and discussions.

Jacqueline Sacareau spoke to Joana Vidal regarding a link between her schools and rural schools in here. In addition there are future plans to initiate an exchange between classes of primary schools with Alfio Russo.

Dr Margit Engelmann spoke to Nuria Batlle, they decided that when she returns with her students they will visit Institut Montserrat and lessons.

Laura Nadaban will be working with two other participants fostering an educational exchange between Samsun and Schulsprengel Ritten, Klobenstein/Collalbo (headmaster Walter Markus Hilber).

Jacek Romaniuk and Sarah Rose discussed a possible exchange.

Angiolina Ponziano spoke to Joana to suggest a link on the ministerial website at project languages of schooling-. www.istruzione.it.