Innovation in Language Learning

One of the overarching challenges our educational system must face is to prepare students -the future citizens- to act in an inclusive and sustainable world. This is the main principle that supports “global competence” (OECD, 2018), which aims at promoting the following goals: a) understand the perspectives and world views of others, b) engage in open, and effective interactions with people from different cultures, and c) act for collective well-being. To achieve these educational objectives, it is paramount to implement innovative methodologies in the classroom of English as a foreign language (EFL). In this regard, Service-learning, defined as “the various pedagogies that link community service and academic study” (Ehrlich,1996, p. xi), provides a relevant framework to empower students to participate in society and understand the world around them. In this vein, this contribution describes the design and implementation of a service-learning project (SLP) that was linked to the Seminars on Teaching Innovation in English and on Educational Research in English of the Master's Degree in Teacher Training for Secondary Education (University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain). An agreement was signed between university and educational administration to experimentally implement this SLP in three secondary schools. The SLP was aimed at raising awareness about the situation of elderly people (Victor et al., 2009) and at promoting respect and understanding, as well as solidarity and commitment to improve their conditions, by providing them with support and company and carrying out different actions to raise money for NGO. The presentation illustrates the different activities carried in the secondary school English classroom to develop the SLP, including reading, writing, listening, speaking, and particularly, oral interaction by means of video-calls with elderly people from small villages of UK. Students created, as final products of the project, posters, short films, and raising awareness videos, and organized festivals and charity markets to raise money. All in all, this project may be relevant, not only for their social and pedagogical aspects, but also for the opening of high schools to society including an international dimension and involving English-speaking countries. The SLP provided a more experiential and significant environment for the use of English along with the development of civic competences (Hatcher et al., 2017).