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    Programme 2008-2011
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    Planning, implementation and evaluation of whole school projects
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Planning, implementation and evaluation of whole school projects


OVERVIEW
Resources

Glossary



  Action-oriented approach (of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages)
  Autonomy
  Awareness
  Checklists
  Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)
  Communicative activities
  Competence
  Descriptors
  Formative and summative assessment
  Multilingualism
  Partial competences
  Plurilingual repertoire
  Plurilingualism
  Self-assessment
  Strategy
  Task-based approach
  Whole-school use (of the ELP)
  

The ELP in whole-school use - Case studies

 Download report
in French
Albania
ELP-WSU participant: Elida Reçi

  • Sami Frasheri School, Tirana
  • 1,621 pupils aged 15–18
  • All pupils have Albanian as their home language
  • Languages taught: Albanian (as language of schooling/school subject), English, French, German, Italian
  • ELP model used: 96.2008
  • Scope of the project: 7 teachers, 4 languages (English, French, German, Italian), 827 pupils

The Albanian project was undertaken with official support as a way of introducing the ELP at national level in association with curricular reform. Two of the project’s principal aims were to follow progress in language learning and the development of learner autonomy. Self-assessment was found to have a strong motivating effect on learners. The preparation of teachers to use the ELP focused on three things: the different types of activity that promote learner autonomy, with a particular emphasis on creativity and imagination; classroom practice that recognises the value of plurilingual and intercultural experience; and the importance of integrating the ELP fully in the learning process. The project was evaluated by means of questionnaires and interviews, and by analysing learners’ dossiers.

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in English
Austria
ELP-WSU participant: Rose Öhler

  • Praxisschule der Kirchlichen Pädagogischen Hochschule Edith Stein und der Katharina Lins Schule der Barmherzigen Schwestern in Zams (KLS)
  • 108 pupils aged 10–14
  • Most pupils have German as their home language. Other home languages in the school at the time of the project: Croatian, Czech, Romanian, Thai, Turkish (mostly one speaker each)
  • Languages taught: German (as language of schooling/school subject), English, French, Italian
  • ELP models used: 58.2004 (Austrian model for learners aged 10–15) and Austrian model for primary learners, not validated at the time of the project
  • Scope of the project: all language teachers (7) and all pupils (108) in the school, plus 32 learners and their 2 form teachers in an associated primary school

 project report

 classroom report

The co-ordinator of this project was a member of the team that designed the Austrian ELP for lower secondary learners, and all language teachers at the school were already experienced users of the ELP. The purpose of the project was to consolidate use of the ELP across the school, seeking further ways of developing learner autonomy, exploring the intercultural dimension of language learning, and engaging the pupils’ developing plurilingual repertoires. The full report explains how the ELP is introduced to pupils in a succession of steps, how from time to time pupils are required to set and achieve short-term learning goals by working on individual projects, and how pupils in Year 8 introduce pupils in Year 5 to self-assessment. The report offers many practical hints on how to achieve successful pedagogical implementation of the ELP. Towards the end of the reporting period a survey of pupils elicited overwhelmingly positive responses.

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in English
Czech Republic
ELP-WSU participant: Katerina Dvoráková 

  • Zakladni skola Matice skolske, České Budějovice
  • 500 pupils (primary/lower secondary)
  • Languages taught: Czech (as language of schooling/school subject), English, German
  • Scope of the project: one teacher of English interviewed on her use of the ELP

This report is based on an interview with one teacher of English in a school that was interested in developing portfolio approaches across the curriculum but was not using the ELP on a whole-school basis. The teacher interviewed was herself using the ELP, but she was an exception. She used „I can‟ checklists to make comparisons between English and German in classes where pupils were learning both languages. She identified a number of problems in the school‟s use of portfolios, including lack of coordination and lack of training/support for teachers. She also mentioned that some of the older pupils could see no point in working with a portfolio because it had no official status and thus could not be used to support their progress from one educational level to the next.

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in French
Greece
ELP-WSU participant: Evangélia Gkiovousoglou-Kaga

  • All primary schools in the country (national project coordinated by Evangélia Gkiovousoglou-Kaga)
  • All pupils aged 10–12 learning French and German (second foreign language)
  • The majority of pupils have Greek as their home language; between 5% and 20% of pupils in each class are immigrants (home languages include Albanian, Russian, Polish, Bulgarian and Romanian)
  • Languages taught: Greek (as language of schooling/school subject), English (first foreign language), French and German (second foreign languages)
  • ELP model used: Greek model for primary learners (not validated at the time of the project)
  • This national project was supported by in-service courses for teachers and the development of materials, and evaluated by questionnaire survey

The Greek project was conceived and managed by a government agency, and its purpose was to introduce the ELP to foreign language teachers and learners at primary level throughout the country. It was organised in two phases. In the first, a thousand teachers of French and German attended in-service courses on using the ELP, and in the second the ELP was piloted in classrooms. The project was evaluated using three instruments: questionnaires completed by teachers; semi-structured interviews with school principals; and observations carried out by pedagogical advisers for foreign languages. The project was warmly welcomed and fully achieved its objectives: to familiarise teachers with classroom use of the ELP, to motivate learners to be more autonomous in their learning, and to acknowledge the value of plurilingual and pluricultural learning and experience.

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in French
Hungary
ELP-WSU participant: Zsuzsa Darabos

  • Lauder Javne School, Budapest, a school of the Jewish community with pupils from the beginning of kindergarten to the end of schooling
  • 547 pupils (excluding kindergarten)
  • Most pupils have Hungarian as their home language, some are bilingual, and some come from other countries (e.g. the United Kingdom, Colombia, Turkey)
  • Languages taught: Hungarian (as language of schooling/school subject), Hebrew (first foreign language), English (second foreign language; there is also an English bilingual programme), French, German, Italian, Spanish (third foreign languages)
  • Versions of the ELP used: 15.2001 (Hungarian model for learners in secondary education); 105.2010 (Spanish on-line model for learners in secondary education)
  • Scope of the project: 5 teachers, 5 languages (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish) and 70 pupils

In Hungary the introduction of the ELP was associated with curriculum reform, and this project was undertaken with official support. The project forged close links between the intercultural dimension and plurilingualism. Each year the Jewish community school that was home to the project sends a group of 10th-grade students on a study visit to Israel. There they use English and Hebrew (and sometimes Hungarian) to access a culture to which they already belong. This encourages them to seek other intercultural experiences, and some of them visit other countries and take part in international Jewish youth meetings. Plurilingual and intercultural experience is part of the everyday life of the school thanks to the presence of students who come from abroad or have a home language other than Hungarian; sporting and cultural events also play a role. In the Hungarian project the preparation of teachers was guided by a checklist of things to keep in mind, and questionnaires were used to evaluate the project.

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in English
Iceland
ELP-WSU participant: Elísabet Valtýsdóttir

  • Fjölbrautaskóli Suðurlands School (FSu), an upper secondary school for pupils aged 16–20
  • Approximately 1,000 pupils
  • Almost all students have Icelandic as their home language
  • Languages taught: Icelandic (as language of schooling/school subject), Danish, English, French, German, Spanish, occasionally Latin
  • ELP model used: parts of 75.2006 (Icelandic model for learners in upper secondary education)
  • Scope of the project: 18 teachers, 5 languages (Danish, English, French, German, Spanish) and approximately 600 pupils

The school’s application for funding to support its whole-school ELP project was rejected. It made sense to proceed on a voluntary basis, however, because there is a close connection between the ELP and the new curriculum. Also, teachers who had already worked with the ELP were keen to promote its use across the school. Using selected parts of the Icelandic ELP for learners in upper secondary education, the project had two principal aims: (i) to introduce the ELP to teachers who had not already worked with it, and (ii) to encourage teachers who were already familiar with the ELP to use it more extensively. In both cases the intention was to take small steps that over time would lead to full implementation of the ELP. Two teachers sought their students’ opinions on working with the ELP. Although a few students were unenthusiastic, most of them acknowledged the advantages of peer and self-assessment based on the ELP checklists. At the end of the reporting period the co-ordinator judged that the project had been a modest success and was confident that use of the ELP would continue.

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in English
Lithuania
ELP-WSU participant: Nida Burneikaité

  • 10 schools and 11 teachers in primary schools around Lithuania (project coordinated by Nida Burneikaité under the auspices of the Primary English Special Interest Group [PESIG] of the Lithuanian Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language [LAKMA])
  • About 90% of pupils have Lithuanian as their home language; other home languages include Polish and Russian, and especially in the Vilnius region many pupils are plurilingual
  • ELP model used: there is no validated Lithuanian model for this age group; the project designed and piloted various portfolio tasks for primary learners
  • Scope of the project: 11 teachers (in 10 schools), one language (English), 250 pupils

This project originally hoped to develop and pilot a version of the ELP for use in Lithuanian primary schools, involving teachers of English, German and French. When lack of funding made this impossible, the Lithuanian Association of Teachers of English (LAKMA) agreed to support the project in developing and piloting ELP-related approaches to the teaching of English at primary level. Project events were supported by Vilnius Pedagogical University. The project had three principal pedagogical aims: to foster the development of learner autonomy, to make learners aware of their plurilingual repertoires, and to explore the intercultural dimension of language learning. By the end of the reporting period the project had produced and piloted a range of portfolio activities for Grades 2–4, some hints for teachers, and an inventory of ‘I can’ descriptors. Project meetings allowed participating teachers to share their experience and discuss some of the practical questions posed by portfolio learning.

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in English
Norway
ELP-WSU participant: Anita Nyberg

  • Kastellet School, Oslo – primary and lower secondary school (pupils aged 6–16)
  • 610 pupils in the school
  • Very few immigrant pupils compared with other schools in Oslo
  • Languages taught: Norwegian (as language of schooling/school subject), English (first foreign language), German, Spanish, French (second foreign languages)
  • ELP models used: 97.2008 (for learners aged 13–18) and 100.2009 (for learners aged 6–12)
  • Scope of the project: all languages, language teachers and pupils in the school

This school’s ELP experience goes back to 2004, when it became compulsory to use the ELP in all foreign language classes. The school has also participated in the piloting of ELP models under development. Nevertheless, a consistent whole-school approach is still not in place. Some teachers have been uncomfortable with the ELP and wanted the freedom to decide whether or not to use it. Pupils at the school already hand in most of their written work digitally, so the lack of a digital version of the ELP has been a disadvantage. However, teachers have worked out a way of using the ELP digitally, and this will provide a basis for future work.

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in French
Romania
ELP-WSU participant: Elvira Rodica Andronescu

  • National College Horea, Closca si Crisan, Alba Iulia, upper secondary school (pupils aged 15–18)
  • 857 pupils in the school
  • 98% of pupils have Romanian as their home language; 2% have Hungarian, Italian or Romani
  • Languages taught: Romanian (as language of schooling), French, English, Italian (third foreign language); there is a bilingual programme in French
  • ELP version used: 6.2000 (French model for learners aged 16+)
  • Scope of the project: 15 teachers, 4 languages (French, English, Italian, Romanian), 201 pupils

In Romania the introduction of the ELP has been associated with curricular reform, and the Romanian project was undertaken with the official support of the Ministry of Education as a means of introducing the ELP at local level. The project coordinator noted that at the end of the school year 2009–2010, all foreign language teachers in the project school believed that the ELP was an essential tool for language learning. Following a presentation she gave for the teachers of French in a network of bilingual schools, the Ministry of Education recommended that the ELP should be used in all schools in the network, and in time it will probably be possible to promote the use of the ELP beyond the network. The Romanian project interpreted learner autonomy as learner independence, introducing a great variety of activities to help learners to complete their ELP on their own. The project also sought to develop cooperation among teachers. It used francophone assistants to establish cultural contacts, and the school participated in several European projects and exchanges. Learners responded positively to the Language Biography but preferred working with the Dossier.

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in French
Russian Federation
ELP-WSU participant: Tatiana Yudina

  • Lycée linguistique/secondary school specialising in languages, learners aged 13–17
  • Total number of pupils: about 290
  • An overwhelming majority of pupils have Russian as their home language, though they come from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds
  • Languages taught: Russian (as language of schooling/school subject, except that the history of the literature and culture of the first foreign language are taught through that language); English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Ukrainian, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic (all taught as first or second foreign language). All pupils learn two foreign languages and Latin
  • Versions of the ELP used: 31.2002 (Russian model for learners aged 15+) and 3.2000 (Russian model for learners aged 11–14)
  • Scope of the project: 6 languages (English, French, German, Ukrainian, Spanish, Italian), 10–15 teachers, 290 pupils

The Russian project was proposed by a university department and supported by the school management. Its aim was to build on existing use of the ELP. It sought to develop learner autonomy by focusing on goal setting, learning strategies and self-assessment, and by developing learners’ capacity to find materials and activities relevant to their goals. The project addressed the plurilingual and intercultural dimensions in a number of ways. For example, it involved learners in global simulations that required them to use their proficiency in different foreign languages, and it encouraged them to communicate with native speakers of languages other than their own first language. In addition the project used a lexical approach to identify similarities and contrasts between different cultures. It explored the cultural implications of lexical borrowings and compared proverbs and gestures across languages. The project was evaluated using questionnaires addressed to learners and teachers.