A Londoner in Greece! (Task 15)

This task focuses on written mediation. The main aim focuses on developing learners’ skills in selecting information from source texts of different genres, summarising messages into a target language and developing the mediation strategies of paraphrasing, providing synonyms, distinguishing major from minor information.

Reasons to learn Spanish (Task 38)

This activity aims at providing practice in gathering information from a specific text in Language A (Greek) by identifying the main points in order to give a presentation on the reasons why someone should learn Spanish.

Filmmaking competition (Task 7)

Learners perform a number of mediation activities as they go through the process of getting to know about a language film design competition and of actually writing the script for the competition. The task aims at developing learners’ skills in selecting information from source texts and relaying it into a target text in another language.

A visitor from Mexico (Task 14)

Learners learn how to describe places through the use of adjectives, and at the same time become familiar with different text types. They practise their skills in comprehending texts in Language A and producing meaning in Language B. The lesson plan consists of five parts, each containing several steps. Communicating tourism information to people in another language is a common practise which can be taught in the classroom with steps 1-3 in the first part of the plan. The second part (step 4) involves intercultural aspects and uses a text format that learners are familiar with: a social media message. In the third part (step 5), learners can reflect on their multilingual practice. In the final two parts (steps 6 and 7), they are exposed to multimodal texts (song, video and text) and are asked to transfer information from one language to another on a relevant topic, i.e., learning foreign languages.

Hot topics and digital media (Task 16)

Engaging learners in the crisscrossing of information available in several media in different languages, this task aims at developing their critical thinking and skills of relating and interpreting. Because young people consume information in several languages, this task intends to bring their multiliteracy skills to the foreign language classroom. The tasks, even if classroom-specific, are oriented towards students’ authentic, every day needs as consumers and producers of media.

Healthy diet! (Task 17)

This task focuses on written mediation. The main activities included aim at developing learners’ skills in selecting information from source texts and relaying it into a target text in another language.

Student-teacher e-communication (Task 18)

This is a project-based task that focuses on email communication between learners and teachers. The duration of the task is two lessons. There are eight distinct steps. The aim is to familiarise learners with the style of email communication in general, and raise awareness of intercultural communication in particular.

First-aid poster (Task 22)

This is a project-based task that focuses on first-aid instructions. Learners create informative posters and present them in front of a small group of other learners.

First-aid instructions (Task 24)

The aim of this task is to practise learners’ reception and production skills in an authentic situation. They first read a short text in Language A about fainting, and then role play a phone call scenario in pairs.

European Day of Languages (Task 33)

Learners in groups prepare one product: a short video, a poster, or a leaflet promoting multilingualism for the European Day of Languages (26th September) at their secondary school. They prepare their video/poster/leaflet about the advantages of multilingualism, and then present their products to the class.

Organising a school trip to Germany (Task 35)

The task is based on a visit of Maltese learners to Leipzig, Germany. First, the German-speaking learners read a brochure about the main sights in Leipzig and briefly relay the information (in English) from the brochure (Activity Worksheet; text 1) in discussion with the Maltese. After that, the Maltese-speaking learners agree on a specific area of interest (in Maltese) and report back to the German-speaking learners in an email (in English). The German-speaking learners then read the part of the brochure (online; text 2) regarding the chosen topic and report information about the topic orally (in English) to the Maltese-speaking learners, in a virtual meeting. Potentially, as a follow-up activity, the Maltese-speaking learners present and discuss (in Maltese) the options they heard about in the previous step.

A visitor from Scotland (Task 39)

Learners learn how to describe places through the use of adjectives and at the same time they become familiar with different text types. They practise their skills in comprehending texts in Language A and producing a text in Language B. Communicating tourism information to people in another language is a common activity which can be developed in the classroom with the first activity. The second part involves intercultural aspects and uses a text format that learners are accustomed to: a social media message. In the third part students can reflect on their multilingual practises. In the final two parts, learners are exposed to multimodal texts (song and text) and are asked to transfer information from one language to another on a relevant topic: learning foreign languages.

Social media and teenage life (Task 42)

This task focuses on written mediation. The main activities aim at: a) developing learners’ skills in selecting information from a source text (a blog entry), b) summarising messages in a target language, and c) developing the mediation strategies of paraphrasing, providing synonyms, distinguishing major from minor information.

Volunteering (Task 44)

Through this task, learners will have the opportunity to practise their cross-linguistic mediation skills in a variety of ways. However, it is not only different languages that are involved, but also different genres across languages.