ECML training and consultancy: Action Research Communities online workshop
Date: pre-workshop on 23 May 2024; workshop: 31 May – 1st June 2024
Venue: Brusov State University, Yerevan
Local organiser: Arpine Hovhannisyan, Brusov State University
ECML moderators: Christine Lechner, Austria, and Renata Zanin, Italy
Participants: 22 language teachers working at the university, schools, language centres

As a local organiser and recent participant in the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) online Workshop on Action Research Communities (ARC), I am excited to share the incredible training and consultancy opportunities offered by ECML! These events are designed to empower language educators with cutting-edge methodologies and innovative practices, ensuring that we – Armenian language teachers – stay at the forefront of language teaching.

The ARC workshop was a transformative experience. You engage with educators from different Institutions, exploring innovative research methods, collaborative strategies, and effective practices in language education. The insights and practical tools develop the participants’ knowledge and creative impulses to enhance the effectiveness of their teaching.

ECML’s training and consultancy events cover a wide range of language education themes, including digital literacy, plurilingual education, and inclusive teaching strategies. These events are tailored to meet our diverse needs, offering engaging workshops and collaborative learning experiences.

By participating in ECML events, we benefit from the expertise of leading professionals in the field and join a supportive community of educators committed to excellence in language education. These programmes provide unparalleled opportunities to advance our skills, network with peers, and contribute to the evolution of language teaching.

I encourage all language educators to take advantage of these exceptional opportunities. Elevate your teaching and make a meaningful impact on your students’ language learning journeys.

Visit the ECML website to learn more and register for upcoming events. Together, we can transform language education and evolve further!

Arpine Hovhannisyan

• More information about the ECML training and consultancy offer for member states on Enhancing language learning and teaching through Action Research Communities for language teachers
• Facebook group of the Action Research Community for Language teachers

ECML training and consultancy event: “Action research and language pedagogy: Infusing action learning in language teaching processes”
Date and venue: 20-21 October 2023, University of Agder, Kristiansand, Norway
Local organiser: University of Agder, Department of Foreign Languages and Translation in collaboration with Sørlandsk Lærerstevne
ECML experts: Angela Gallagher-Brett (United Kingdom) and Larisa Kasumagić-Kafedžić (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Participants: 22 teachers from lower secondary schools and upper secondary schools in the region of Agder, student teachers and teacher trainers from the university

The workshop by the Action Research for Language Teachers (ARC) team is a good starting point for developing your language teaching community. In the workshop, the ARC team offers a hands-on introduction to how to use different tools and leads participants through all the necessary steps in an action research process. Working together with other in-service and pre-service language teachers during the workshop creates an inspiring atmosphere with critical friends which leads you to develop shared ideas. As part of the workshop, participants are inspired to plan a small project for their own classroom and form a peer group with teachers with similar projects. In these peer groups you are strongly encouraged to plan a schedule for meetings to ensure progress in the projects. Before you leave the workshop, a date is set for a virtual follow-up-meeting with all the participants to present an update on each other’s projects.

To help you on your way, the ARC toolkit on the ECML website offers many tools that you can use to carry out the project. In addition, the follow-up meeting where you share the ups and downs in your projects is very fruitful and you see that small steps can make big differences for the quality of teaching languages in the classroom.

Eli-Marie Drange

• More information about the ECML training and consultancy offer for member states on Enhancing language learning and teaching through Action Research Communities for language teachers
• Facebook group of the Action Research Community for Language teachers

Norwegian version

Ønsker du inspirasjon til å utvikle din egen språkundervisning og samarbeide med andre lærere?

En workshop om aksjonsforskning for språklærere i regi av ARC-teamet fra ECML (Det europeiske språksenteret) kan være et sted å begynne for å utvikle egen språkundervisning i samarbeid med andre lærere. I workshopen gir ARC-teamet deg en steg-for steg introduksjon til hvordan du kan bruke ulike verktøy for å utvikle et aksjonsforskningsprosjekt i klasserommet. Gjennom å samarbeide med andre lærere og lærerstudenter i løpet av workshopen, skapes det en god atmosfære der en støtter og utfordrer hverandre til å utvikle nye ideer. Som en del av programmet, blir du utfordret  til å definere et lite prosjekt du kan gjennomføre i ditt eget klasserom, og etablere mindre samarbeidsgrupper med andre lærere som har lignende prosjekter. I samarbeidsgruppene blir du oppfordret til å avtale møtepunkter for å sikre en gjennomføring av de planlagte prosjektene. Ved avslutningen av workshopen, fastsettes det en dato for et virtuelt oppfølgingsmøte med alle deltakerne for å gi en oppdatering av de ulike prosjektene.

Som en støtte i prosessen videre, finnes det mange nyttige verktøy tilgjengelig fra ARC-prosjektet på ECMLs nettsider. Oppfølgingsmøtet der du kan dele erfaringene med prosjektet ditt er nyttig for å se at selv små steg er viktige i arbeidet med å forbedre kvaliteten på språkundervisningen i klasserommet.

Eli-Marie Drange

“Inspiring innovation in language education: changing contexts, evolving competences” – Join the livestream!

The conference represents the culmination of the four years of work of the ECML’s “Inspiring innovation in language education: changing contexts, evolving competences”  programme, involving, among others, 9projects, 1think tank, 12offers of training and consultancy (TaC) and a series of initiatives developed with the support of the European Commission.

The conference is aimed at all language education professionals and in particular at ECML stakeholders, policy makers and persons with a professional focus on the practice of language education (curriculum development, teacher education, material design…).

The programme involves plenary presentations, speeches, a round table, a series of smaller workshops for the presentation and discussion of programme outputs and outcomes as well as envisaged links to activities in the 2024-2027 programme.

The workshops on the second day of the conference will be organised thematically:

• Language teacher and learner competences,
• Transversal dimension of language education / Competences for life and work,
• Plurilingual and intercultural education,
• Languages of schooling; language in subjects.

Within each given theme there will be a focus on the completed project resources and related TaC activities from the current programme. Presenters will focus on the inspiring and innovative aspects of their TaC activity/new resources and will consider how the different approaches and materials presented in their thematic session complement one other.

This will also be an excellent opportunity to get a preview of the new ECML programme “Language education at the heart of democracy” (2024-2027).

In order to ensure access to a wider audience, the event will be streamed in both working languages (English and French) and the recordings made available on the ECML website.

Conference web page: English – French

Conference programme: English – French

Join the live streaming here – no registration required: English – French

#ECMLCELVconf2023