LinguaLingua

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Lingua

The promotion of language teaching and learning is an objective of the SOCRATES 2 programme as a whole, and of the Erasmus, Comenius and Grundtvig actions in particular.

The new Lingua Action supports these actions through measures designed to:

Encourage and support linguistic diversity throughout the Union.

Contribute to an improvement in the quality of language teaching and learning.

Promote access to lifelong language learning opportunities appropriate to each individual’s needs.

Lingua

The action is divided into two parts, corresponding to different sub-objectives.

Lingua 1 is intended to: raise citizens’ awareness of the Union’s multilingual

wealth, encourage people to learn languages throughout their lifetime, and to improve access to foreign-language learning resources across Europe.

develop and disseminate innovative techniques and good practices in language teaching. 

Lingua

Lingua 2 aims to  ensure that a sufficiently wide range of

language-learning tools is available to language learners.

Under both sub-actions, the Commission will fund projects developed by transnational partnerships composed of eligible institutions and organisations. The application procedure is the same for both sub-actions.

Which languages? Language teaching covers the teaching and learning, as

foreign languages, of all of the official Community languages as well as Irish and Luxemburgish. 

The national languages of the EFTA/EEA countries and of the pre-accession countries participating in this programme are also eligible. 

Throughout the programme, particular attention is paid to the development of skills in the less widely used and less taught official Community languages (the ‘LWULT’ languages).

Lingua Partnerships

working on Lingua projects must meet the following criteria :

Involve at least one eligible establishment/ organisation from each of at least three participating countries, including countries where the target languages are spoken.

Provide for all the participants to take an active role in pooling their expertise to design, implement and evaluate the project and ensure the wide dissemination of its products.

Bring together all the skills necessary for the performance of the tasks.

Lingua 1: Promotion of language learning

Objectives : To promote language teaching and learning, to support the

linguistic diversity of the Union, and to encourage improvements in the quality of language teaching structures and systems.

Specifically, the action is intended to: Raise citizens’ awareness of the multilingual character of the

Union and of the advantages of lifelong language learning, and to encourage them to take up language learning themselves.

Improve access to language learning resources and increase the support available for those learning languages.

Promote the dissemination of information about innovative techniques and good practices in foreign language teaching in Europe, among its target groups (especially decision-makers and key education professionals).

Lingua 1: Promotion of language learning

Projects Multinational partnerships are invited to submit projects

in one or more of the areas of activity set out below. The type of activity and the target group vary according

to the area of activity. Given the innovative nature of this Action, the types of activity listed here are for guidance only. Any activity with the potential to achieve the objectives of the relevant area will, in principle, be considered.

Lingua 1: Promotion of language learning

Lingua 1: Area 1 Raising awareness of the advantages of language

learning Motivating individuals to learn languages

(including the ability to learn how to learn languages) 

Providing information on the means and methods available (such as multilingual comprehension, partial competence )

Priority themes:

Lingua Multilingual comprehension Partial linguistic competence, such as written and oral

comprehension Survival-level linguistic competence The development of measures encouraging the acquisition of

sufficient knowledge of foreign languages to meet the requirements of particular situations and contexts, provided that these measures are not linked to a specific profession (this would fall more within the scope of the Leonardo da Vinci programme)

Analysis of the problems linked to language teaching and learning presented by further Community enlargement

Projects focussing on other themes will not, however, be excluded

Lingua 1: Target groups for activities

General public Specific groups such as parents or inhabitants of

countries/ regions where numbers of persons learning languages are low

Education professionals

Examples of types of activity and priority themes in 2001

Information campaigns Competitions Awards Labels  Studies and analyses Schemes for the recognition of language skills ).

Target groups for activities :

General public Sectors with specific access needs 

Examples of types of activity and priority themes in 2001

Networking of language resource centres, information exchange and pilot projects in the following areas:

Informing the general public about the opportunities available in resource centres

Sharing of skills, particularly in self-study and distance learning, including the organisation of pilot courses

Implementation of new initiatives, such as Language Clubs, to increase public awareness of the resources available

Training of resource centre staff Opening existing resource centres (e.g. university language

laboratories) to the public or to other target groups, and ensuring that their needs are met 

Making more language-learning resources available from local authorities, via public libraries, schools, associations, etc.

Increasing the number of languages offered; Innovative approaches providing self-study materials for secondary-

school pupils 

Lingua 1: Area 3

Exchange and dissemination amongst policy makers of information on innovative approaches and key issues in language teaching

Facilitating access to language learning. 

Target groups for activities

: Decision-makers Senior civil servants Inspectors

Examples of types of activity and priority themes in 2001 :

Preparing, organising and following up colloquia, seminars, conferences, etc.

Specialist publications Creating and promoting associations and

networks

Concentrating on the following areas

Teaching of languages at an early age Multilingual comprehension Partial linguistic competence, such as written and oral

comprehension, or survival-level linguistic competence The development of measures encouraging the acquisition of

sufficient knowledge of foreign languages to meet the requirements of particular situations and contexts, provided that these measures are not linked to a specific profession (this would fall more within the scope of the Leonardo da Vinci programme)

Analysis of the problems linked to language teaching and learning presented by further Community enlargement.

Projects focussing on other themes will not, however, be excluded.

Lingua 2: Development of instruments for language-teaching and for the assessment of foreign language

skills.

This action continues the work of the former Lingua action D

Lingua 2: Objectives

The objective of this action is to help raise the standards in language teaching and learning by ensuring the availability of sufficient language learning instruments and tools for assessing linguistic skills acquired. 

The action will encourage the development of new tools and a wider dissemination of existing methods which represent best practice and provide European added-value. 

Lingua 2:Objectives

More specifically, this action aims to: encourage innovation in the development of language learning and teaching

tools encourage the sharing of best practices  provide a wider variety of language teaching materials to more clearly

defined target groups encourage the production of language tools for the less widely used less

taught languages  support educational approaches which are commercially under-represented

or difficult to market on a large scale encourage the acquisition of sufficient knowledge of foreign languages to

meet the requirements of particular situations and contexts, provided that these measures are not linked to a specific profession (this would fall more within the scope of the Leonardo da Vinci programme)

improve the distribution and availability of products.

Outline of projects

The Commission will encourage cooperation on a European scale in the development and exchange of innovative curricula, methodologies and educational materials as well as effective tools for assessing language skills acquired. 

The Commission will provide co-financing for projects which create, adapt, refine or exchange one or more of the following products:

educational media and materials for foreign language teaching, as well as for raising awareness of languages

methods and tools designed to recognise and evaluate language skills teaching and study programmes. 

Outline of projects

The projects must: precisely define their educational objectives demonstrate a need for the product(s) or activity(ies)

proposed clearly define both their target publics and the situations

to be covered show a consistent approach to teaching issues evaluate the results obtained disseminate widely within the participating countries the

results obtained.

Outline of projects

NOTE: the products developed under Lingua Action 2 are essentially aimed at language learners (and not at the training of language teachers – see Comenius 2).

Themes and priorities The Commission publishes, regularly, a list of the priority

themes for this Action, in addition to the overall priorities listed above. 

Projects concentrating on other themes will not, however, be excluded. 

For 2001, priority will be given to projects which devise, develop or produce material and techniques for language teaching and learning and which:

Concentrate on preparing Union citizens for trans-European mobility

Encourage self-study of languages.

Themes and priorities

For materials developed by transnational partnerships under the previous Lingua Programme and under Lingua action D, please see Lingua Catalogue.

For examples of projects supported in recent years, please download the Lingua D compendia, or see the web sites

of some current projects.

Take a look at Lingu@net  a multilingual, virtual resources centre.Further details of these actions, and their eligibility criteria and priorities, of which these are only a summary, may be found in the Guidelines for Applicants, available from the National Agencies.  Lingua Catalogue

http://www.ua.gov.tr/portal/page?_pageid=218,33370&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL