Innovation in Language Learning

The Faculty of Education of the University of Córdoba (Spain) has designed and taken the lead for an international Project in the frame of the LLP Comenius Programme. The proposal herein is an outcome of the participation of its agents in two Comenius projects developed between 2004 and 2013:

a.     ISTEPEC (2004-2007): Intercultural Studies in Teacher Education to Promote European Citizenship. Ref: 119121-CP-1-2004-1-FR-COMENIUS-C21.

b.    ELICIT (2010-2013): European Literacy and Citizenship Education. Ref: 510621-LLP-1-2010-1-FR-COMENIUS-CMP.

The common line of these two projects is the development of the concept of European Citizenship in Teacher (both, pre-service and in-service) Training. The last of these, ELICIT, was devoted to the design of the desired competences (and its portfolio) on European Citizenship that European teachers should acquire.

This theoretical frame (designed by ISTEPEC first, and ELICIT then) must be put into practice as an initial step towards an ambitious and comprehensive goal: the practical frame of a network devoted to the acquisition and teaching of European Citizenship for teachers of Europe as both, initial training of teachers, and as lifelong learning for in-service teachers.

Our paper here will account for the project that a group of four European Universities (all of them as participating institutions in ELICIT: Córdoba, Stockholm, ESPE of Brittany and Kecskemét) have designed to run a course on European Citizenship (Sept. ’14) which copes with the acquisition of such competences for teachers (initial training this year as the pilot course). The real strength of this course is the power of its inner design, because:

a.     It can be adapted (and adopted) by any European Higher Education Institution.

b.    It allows validation and recognition of students’ competences acquired within participating institutions.

c.     It promotes international participation based on mobility (of students and teachers).

d.    It makes possible the recognition and use of the concept and feeling of European citizenship by European citizens.

e.     It ensures the way to allow European school teachers to develop (and teach) European citizenship to pupils at schools.

Such design, and the strength described above have been recognized by the European Commission evaluators on ELICIT Progress Report (June 2012), in whose ‘Strong Points of the Overall Evaluation’ they state this: “The conceptualization of the ELICIT Reference Framework is likely to be used in influencing policy levels. Here, additional work on a ‘European Mention on Diplomas for Teachers’ in teacher education qualifications could support dissemination and exploitation efforts. The Reference Framework was translated into nine languages, which is useful for dissemination into many educational contexts”. (2012, p. 5)