2024 saw the launch of the ECML project A toolkit for implementing integrated didactics in language education, which aims to provide educators with structured models and tools to address the linguistic repertoires of the learners in the language classrooms.

Key milestones of the year include the formulation of a definition of integrated didactics, refinement of the project scope for the next three years, and the elaboration of the first draft of the toolkit structure as a framework for the project outputs. A highlight was the network meeting in November, which brought together international experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities of implementing integrated didactics in language education. This event underlined the overall importance of this approach as a core element of plurilingual education.

Among the aspects that have been highlighted so far are the consideration of learners’ full linguistic repertoires as resources for facilitating the learning of a new language and the use of AI as a support for adapting materials to different contexts. Looking to the future, the project team is ready to broaden the impact of integrated didactics and ensure that it responds to the needs of the linguistic and cultural diversity in 21st century classrooms.

Christian Koch, Dolors Masats, Elżbieta Sielanko-Byford, Marie Steffens

• ECML project website “A toolkit for implementing integrated didactics in language education” (2024-27) (available in English and French): www.ecml.at/integrateddidactics