summary of the project

(link to our project brochure https://madmagz.com/fr/magazine/1620562  )

The capture of languages ​​and the codes associated with them is essential to facilitate integration in a culture, whether national, social or professional. Students should be prepared for European and even international mobility, to continue their education and then engage in the professional world, live in harmony with other people and become active European citizens. The main objective of the project is to prepare young people for European or even international mobility by developing the skills necessary to facilitate integration in a new culture. It includes the development of  language skills without making it a first goal, thanks to the use of CLIL and "learning by doing". A major objective will be to identify the barriers in language and cultural codes’ learning which integration arise, and to develop activities which will help circumvent the difficulties : tools of observation, analysis, strategies using non -verbal language and five senses conjunction of information, peer transmission strategies ... Another objective is to make students responsible for their development, promoting investment and autonomy through the project approach. Committed schools, all facing multiculturalism, are located in Belgium, Austria, France, Spain, Finland, offering a large cultural variety and often multilingual environments. The common working language will be English. The activities are based on the exchange of expertise and experience sharing: For Teachers exchange of expertise and experience by sharing their practices, identification of barriers, co-intervention in the classes abroad, theoretical training practices. For students: sharing experience with allophone populations through experiencing integration abroad or in the school, with peers to develop protocols, tools, strategies to describe and transmit the cultural codes among young people. For all the partners: the possible participation in a United Nations conference simulation to explore the workings of a highly codified instance, and make a strong experience in intercultural activities to stimulate their citizenship skills. The environment of each of the partner institutions, the interdisciplinary nature of the teams involved, multi-party exchanges, offer different and complementary opportunities to develop rich and various experiences for young people: different school cultures, experience of a second language learning situation, understanding of non-verbal components of cultural codes through artistic activities that will also explore the traditional dimensions of each culture through the themes and forms of expression addressed. In order to fully understand the codes of a culture, a variety of factors such as history, politics will need to be explored. Multimedia will be a fundamental tool for the activities of students and teachers, but also the dissemination and sharing of experiences, design and processing of inquiries and information. The use of ICT will apply to partner communication (e-mail, social networks), design of materials and work tools, but also in the dissemination of project-related productions like observation tools, surveys, analysis, evaluation, audiovisual media, e-twinning, blog, ... As priority groups are concerned as well binational young people without experience in their home countries, students from European or bilingual classes, young people who have little or no fact of the travel experience because of either the distance or the isolation of their institution or their socio-professional environment. The project will develop awareness of the cultural components other than language, and the development of tools to understand them. It will lead to a better understanding of different cultures, releasing the common and original features. The practice of the language will be strengthened. The curiosity of youth towards other cultures will be stimulated. Finally exchanges are favourable to the creation of lasting relationships between individuals, facilitating their future mobility. These results will be evaluated by short and long-term observations (quality of activities, impact on the school career and personal development of young people and teachers). There should be a reduction in the apprehension related to the prospect of mobility, the development of an active attitude to appropriate codes. The project promotes an enlarged consciousness of the European and international dimension, of the professional world, but also active citizenship and peer competence sharing.

activities

STM : Short Term Mobilities = project weeks. We organize exchange weeks between partners, always tripartite to increase cultural diversity and exchanges. Students (and eventually teachers) are hosted at partner's families. They have a full program of activities at school, organized by the hosting school according to a personal declination of the general topic of the project. Students also organise activities at night on their own, sharing the codes of young people and tightening the links. Teachers help students prepare workshops for their partners, organize excursions, match the students, inform and support families, do the paperwork, welcome their colleagues, ...

LTM : Long term Mobilities. We select students for their motivation to study abroad, their inexperience of interculturality, and their language skills. They study for 2 months in one of our partner's school, on an exchange basis with a student of the other school. They live the daily life of a foreign student for 2 months, and get insights on the culture and wonders of the hosting country. They improve greatly their language skills by speaking on a daily basis the language of the host country. Teachers of both schools are their tutor to prepare, accompany their stay and return from the exchange, and coordonate the pedagogical teams.

Teacher's conferences : twice a year, delegations of teachers from the 5 partner countries meet in one of the partner schools. At the beginning of the year, exchanges are organized and time is dedicated to formation and exchange of good practices. At the end of the year, we exchange on our project weeks and their evaluation, we dedicate time to dissemination and production processes. All teacher's conference are a good occasion for team building, which is essential to facilitate communication between the members of the project.