European Union project for language learning

[Joel Josephson]

Below I have posted information about a European Union funded education project Chain Stories for early language learning via 'Inter-comprehension'. The posting is about how schools, that learn in one of the Romance languages, can take part in the project. The posting is in French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish. There is no limit to the number of schools that can participate.

Joel

r.e. Chainstories – motivating early language learning

Chainstories is a European Union project for pupils who do their schooling through a Romance language (French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese). Five schools, each speaking one of the Romance languages, work together to complete a single story. Each school writes their part of the story in their language and has to understand the other schools’ parts, based on the inter-comprehension of the Romance languages used.

The project has been piloted with 25 classes of pupils, between the ages of 8 to 12 in Italy, Spain, Romania, France and Portugal, with wonderful results. Teachers have been amazed at the capacity of the children to understand the other languages and the pupils have shown a measurable increase in their understanding of languages, the European Union and their motivation to learn languages.

Due to the pedagogic success of the project, Chainstories is now being opened up to schools in Europe. Schools and teachers can join an existing chain or form their own Chainstories and share in the positive results for the pupils and also the professional development of teachers.

There is much more information on the project website http://www.chainstories.eu , where you can see some of the actual stories produced, or you can reply to this newsletter for further information.

I look forward to seeing your Chainstories.

Best wishes

Stephen Moran
Coordinator Chainstories
CNAI, Pamplona, Spain
[e-mail]

Francais
Projet de l’ Union Européenne pour l’apprentissage de langues

Réf. Chainstories – Motivation des jeunes élèves pour l’apprentissage des langues

Chainstories est un projet de l’Union Européenne pour les élèves des écoles qui utilisent une langue romance (français, espagnol, italien, portugais, roumain). Cinq écoles de primaire, chaque une avec une langue romance différente, travaillent ensemble pour compléter une seule histoire. Chaque école écrit une des parties dans sa langue maternelle et doit comprendre les parties crées par le reste des écoles de la chaîne, n’utilisant que la intercompréhension des langues utilisées.

On a fait une expérimentation avec 25 groupes d’élèves, âgées de 8 à 12 ans en Italie, Espagne, Roumanie, France et Portugal, avec un grand succès. Les professeurs ont surpris para la capacité des enfants pour comprendre les autres langues et les élèves qui ont montré une amélioration de la compréhension d’autres langues, de l’Union Européenne et de leur motivation pour apprendre une nouvelle langue.

Grâce au succès pédagogique du projet, Chainstories s’ouvre maintenant aux autres écoles européens. Des écoles et des professeurs peuvent joindre une chaîne qui existe déjà ou créer sa propre chaîne et partager les résultats positives avec les élèves et profiter aussi pour développer leur carrière professionnel comme professeur.

Vous pouvez consulter plus d’autres détailles sur le site web du projet http://www.chainstories.eu , où vous trouverez toutes les chaînes finis ou répondre à ce bulletin de nouvelles-ci pour demander des renseignements complémentaires.

Dans l’attente de trouver votre Histoire en Chaîne.

Stephen Moran
Coordinator Chainstories
CNAI, Pamplona, Spain
[e-mail]

[Laura Beghè]

What a fantastic idea. You've now given me the curiosity to try it out in other countries, such as Australia.
Cheers.

[Joel Josephson]

Laura,
Thank you for the kind words. Tonight I leave for the final meeting of the project, in Spain. I will pass on your words. If you do use the idea, I would be very interested in the outcome, please let us know.

On the project website you will find some guides that may be helpful.

Joel

[Véronique Preau]

This is EXCELLENT !
I am also very keen to try this fantastic initiative in Australia.

Cheers,

Véronique

[Joel Josephson]

You can use the application we have made, on the Chain Stories website to run your own story across, upto, 5 classes/schools.

You will just ignore the language options if you wish, although you will need to assign a Romance language to each school, for the system to work. You will also find full documentation in English and a poster, you can download.

The system allows you to manage your own Chain Story autonomously and communicate with your own chain group.

You will be able to place the results back up on the site to share.

Enjoy, learn and let us know how you fare.

Joel

[Véronique Preau]

Thank you very much Joel for this info.

I am teaching French as a second/target language (LOTE) in Australia and I can see the great benefits of using Chain Story for my students and in collaboration with other schools using Romance languages.

I hope to find other like-minded LOTE teachers to participate in this project in Australia.

Cheers,

Véronique

[Noah Goodman]

Thanks for sharing this story. We are currently partnering 3rd graders in Hamilton Heights Elementary school here in Harlem, through our after-school foreign language program, with a third grade class in a school in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We are going to be exchanging videos between the two classes and are coordinating performances between them. I like the idea of writing a story together, I'd be real interested to hear what you got out of the meeting in Spain. We're always looking for great new ideas.

Thanks for the information,
Noah Goodman
Global Language Project
www.facebook.com/globallanguageproject

[Joel Josephson]

Noah

You are welcome to register on the Chain Stories website and evaluate the project for your needs. On the Chain Stories site http://www.chainstories.eu you will find a complete set of tools to build and manage a Chain story project, including communications. The site is in 6 languages so you could complete the project in multiple languages.

Interested were you found the statistic that 80% of European students are bilingual, on your website, please let me know. I am engaged in EU programmes that are trying to make that happen, in fact language learning is a major priority of all European countries and institutions.

Joel