Date : 5 and 19 October 2024
Venue: Online, Świętokrzyskie In-Service Teacher Training Centre in Kielce, Poland
Local organiser: Ewa Witczyńska, Świętokrzyskie Centrum Doskonalenia Nauczycieli, Kielce
ECML experts: Eli Moe (Norway) and Jérôme Béliard (France)
Participants: 23 primary and secondary school teachers who teach their subjects in English; English teachers involved in bilingual education, teacher trainers involved in the bilingual education

The workshop “Language of schooling: Developing language awareness in subject classes ” was a unique event for the Świętokrzyskie Region primary and secondary school teachers involved in bilingual teaching. The training, conducted by ECML experts – Eli Moe and Jérôme Béliard – was run in two online sessions on 5 and 19 October 2024.

The agenda of the training was perfectly adapted to the online mode of working. During the sessions, the experts provided  structured input on language and subject integration and on the language scaffolding techniques. They emphasised the importance of cooperation between the subject teachers and language teachers and showed ways of organising such cooperation in a school.

The experts created a friendly and stimulating atmosphere during the training, which encouraged the participants to actively express their opinions, discuss ideas and present their solutions. The participants worked individually and in groups and shared their findings. Materials provided by the trainers and developed during the training were made available  to all in an open access folder  and can be used for developing bilingual lesson plans in the future.

Thanks to the trainers’ expertise, the workshop deepened the participants' knowledge, provided a source of reflection and inspiration, and enhanced the search for effective bilingual teaching methods.

The trainings offered by ECML guarantee the highest quality – it is worth taking advantage of them!

Ewa Witczyńska

Polish version

Szkolenie ECJN w Świętokrzyskiem

Warsztaty “Language of schooling: Developing language awareness in subject classes ” były wyjątkowym wydarzeniem dla świętokrzyskich nauczycieli szkół podstawowych i ponadpodstawowych zaangażowanych w nauczanie dwujęzyczne. Szkolenie, prowadzone przez ekspertów ECML - Eli Moe i Jérôme Béliarda - odbyło się w dwóch sesjach online w dniach 5.10.2024 i 19.10.2024.

Program szkolenia został doskonale dopasowany do trybu online. Podczas sesji eksperci przekazali usystematyzowane porcje wiedzy na temat integracji językowej i przedmiotowej oraz technik wspomagania językowego. Podkreślili znaczenie współpracy między nauczycielami przedmiotów i nauczycielami języków obcych oraz wskazali sposoby organizacji takiej współpracy w szkole.

Prowadzący stworzyli podczas szkolenia przyjazną i stymulującą atmosferę, dzięki czemu uczestnicy czuli się swobodnie wyrażając swoje opinie, dyskutując o pomysłach i prezentując swoje rozwiązania. Uczestnicy pracowali indywidualnie i w grupach oraz dzielili się swoimi spostrzeżeniami. Materiały dostarczone przez trenerów i opracowane podczas szkolenia były sukcesywnie umieszczane w pliku dostępnym dla wszystkich i mogą posłużyć do opracowania scenariuszy lekcji dwujęzycznych w przyszłości.

Dzięki doświadczeniu trenerów, warsztaty pogłębiły wiedzę uczestników, stały się źródłem refleksji i inspiracji oraz zachęciły do dalszych poszukiwań skutecznych metod nauczania dwujęzycznego.

Szkolenia oferowane przez ECML to gwarancja najwyższej jakości - warto z nich skorzystać!

Ewa Witczyńska

Local organiser: Maria Iacovidou, Ministry of Education, Sport and Youth

ECML experts: José Noijons, the Netherlands; Jana Beresova, Slovak Republic

Participants: 27 (teachers and teacher trainers, language testers and examiners, item writers, curriculum developers, language inspectors, policymakers)

“The Ministry of Education, Sports, and Youth, in collaboration with the European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe (ECML), successfully organised a training workshop on alternative, continuous methods of assessment in line with the CEFR and its Companion Volume and on exploring ways to test mediation and pluricultural/plurilingual skills in the classroom.

The workshop, which included hands-on sessions, took place from 2 to 4 October 2024 at the OELMEK (Organization of Greek Cypriot Secondary Education Officers) building in Nicosia. Participants included language teachers, inspectors, and specialists in the field of second or foreign language teaching and learning.

The training aimed to promote alternative continuous assessment practices in line with the standards of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Specifically, the workshop emphasized the use of CEFR descriptors, which ensure quality and validity in language education and provide a common framework for recognizing language proficiency levels across Europe and internationally.

Additionally, strategies were presented for assessing linguistic, communicative, plurilingual, and pluricultural skills, which involve reception, production, interaction, and mediation. The participants developed exercises, scales, and assessment methods for the aforementioned skills in working groups, presenting to the plenary how these are aligned with the CEFR’s assessment recommendations.

This workshop provided foreign language teachers with a significant opportunity for professional development and for promoting excellence in language education. Over the course of three days, participants enriched their knowledge, exchanged views and reflections, and shared experiences and ideas with the experts and their teams. At the end of the workshop, they expressed their satisfaction and the desire for similar future initiatives aimed at strengthening authentic learning and assessment.”

Maria Iacovidou, local coordinator, 21 October 2024

ECML project website: RELANG, ECML-EC cooperation agreement 2024 "Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning"

Date: 9-10 October 2024
Venue: Lycée Georges Frêche, Montpellier, France
Local organiser: Cyril Dowling, Education inspector, Regional Educational Inspector
ECML experts: Kevin Schuck (Netherlands) and Frédéric Taveau (Switzerland)
Participants: 50 regional inspectors (each overseeing approximately 500 teachers), school directors (between 500 and 2,000 students), primary school inspectors, primary school advisors, education advisors for primary schools, teacher trainers

On 9 and 10 October, 50 staff members (management staff and inspectors at primary and secondary level education), pedagogical advisors and teacher trainers, gathered at @Lycée Hotelier George Frêche for a seminar organised in cooperation with the @European Centre for Modern Languages @Council of Europe. This event was opened by Mr. Thierry Duclerc, Director of Pedagogy at the Académie de Montpellier, and Mrs. Valérie Lacor, Inspector General of Education, Sports, and Research.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the benefits of CLIL / non-language subject practices (integrating modern foreign and regional languages into subject areas) in relation to the 4 pillars of the Montpellier Academy project.

Pillar 1: Shared values. Develop students' intercultural skills and strengthen their identity as European citizens.

Pillar 2: Successful students. Teachers' consideration of the linguistic dimension in each subject contributes to strengthening students' transversal skills and language proficiency.

Pillar 3: Ambitious partners. Through the development of CLIL/non-language subject pathways, European links are established, and an international dimension can be brought to school/ business partnerships.

Pillar 4: Committed men and women. Develop teachers' international skills in all disciplines within their own master’s programmes, contributing to their personal growth and mobility.

In addition to theoretical contributions, the academy’s staff and trainers engaged in a series of immersive activities in English and Swiss German, putting themselves in the shoes of students and teachers! They created, over the two days, an academic group that shares the culture and principles of CLIL/ non-language subject teaching and pluriliteracies. 

The Académie de Montpellier includes: 22 international sections and 7 BFI (baccalauréat Français international), 4 ABIBAC (French-German high school diploma), 7 BACHIBAC (French and Spanish high school diploma), 140 European sections, 29 CLIL pathways in primary education, 39 bilingual CATALAN pathways, and 33 bilingual OCCITAN pathways.

Thanks to the European experts, professors @Kevin Schuck and @Frédéric Taveau for their theoretical contributions and the immersive workshops offered. Thanks to @Reseau Canopé eTwinning for its participation.

@European Centre for Modern Languages

Académie de Montpellier – Cyril Dowling

• More information about the Training and consultancy offer of the ECML for member states: "Beyond CLIL – Pluriliteracies teaching for deeper learning"

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The ECML offers its member states European expertise in language education adapted to the concrete needs and specific contexts within individual countries. This bilateral support in a range of key areas helps strengthen the cooperation between member states and the ECML by taking the expertise gained from ECML projects directly into member states. ECML experts work with national authorities and local experts to devise and implement in-country activities, tailored to the particular context and target audience.  For 2025 a number of new areas are on offer which  build on the results of projects run within the Inspiring innovation in language education programme (2020-23). Please note that activities offered in cooperation with the European Commission are subject to a separate Call for requests which will be issued in late November.

The  following  ECML training and consultancy activities are on offer for 2025:

• Plurilingual and intercultural education: teacher and learner competences
• Steps towards implementing plurilingual and intercultural education
• Plurilingual and intercultural education in early language learning
• The CEFR Companion Volume: Mediation and other key concepts – Focus: teacher and learner competences  
• The CEFR Companion Volume: Mediation and other key concepts – Focus: curriculum and evaluation
• Learning environments where languages flourish – Focus: Plurilingual and intercultural education
• Learning environments where languages flourish – Focus: Early language learning
• Action research communities for language teachers
• Fostering digital citizenship through language education
• Language for work – Work-related second language learning for adult migrants and ethnic minorities
• Beyond CLIL – Pluriliteracies teaching for deeper learning
• A roadmap for schools to support the language(s) of schooling

Details of the proposed activities, practical information and the application form can be found here: www.ecml.at/Trainingandconsultancy.

Requests for a Training and consultancy activity must be submitted via the national ECML representative in the Governing Board. Educational professionals interested in a particular activity should therefore contact their national representative.

The application deadline for 2025 is 15 November 2024.

The specific workshop-program (ICT-REV) provides training in the application of pedagogical principles for language teaching through technology and promotes the effective use of digital tools and open resources to improve the quality of language teaching and learning. It was implemented for the 1st time in Greece, and specifically at the 4th Senior High School of Corfu on September 26-27, 2024 (8.30am-2.30pm) with 28 participants (Education Consultants, School Principals and teachers of foreign languages, kindergarten/primary and Greek working in areas with intercultural schools and/or primary & secondary schools with reception classes), and three trainers from ECML specializing in training language teachers to use ICT in the classroom.

The two-day workshop in line with European and national education policy priorities contributed to the development of digital skills and literacy in the education community with results such as improving teachers' skills and expertise, fostering interaction between colleagues and instructors and participation in a learning and collaborative community practice. The preparation of the workshop and the shared Moodle platform for various activities created the appropriate supportive environment for learning and collaboration. The results captured through an anonymous online questionnaire demonstrated the impact of the specific approach and the need of leveraging tools and resources already developed by ECML. Finally, the participants are already preparing actions to disseminate the workshop and the lesson plan ideas they delivered, thus promoting the exchange of opinions and good practices in their immediate and wider professional environment.

Marianthi Alexandropoulou, coordinatrice locale

Greek version:

Το Ευρωπαϊκό Κέντρο Σύγχρονων Γλωσσών (ECML) του Συμβουλίου της Ευρώπης εδρεύει στο Γκρατς της Αυστρίας και έχει  ως αποστολή να προάγει την αριστεία και την καινοτομία στη διδασκαλία γλωσσών και να υποστηρίζει τα κράτη μέλη του στην εφαρμογή αποτελεσματικών πολιτικών γλωσσικής εκπαίδευσης. Συνεργάζεται με φορείς χάραξης πολιτικής στα κράτη μέλη για την ανάπτυξη καινοτόμων λύσεων στη γλωσσική εκπαίδευση μέσα από προγράμματα και δράσεις που υλοποιεί.

Το συγκεκριμένο πρόγραμμα-εργαστήριο ( ICT-REV) παρέχει εκπαίδευση στην εφαρμογή παιδαγωγικών αρχών για τη διδασκαλία γλωσσών μέσω της τεχνολογίας και προωθεί την αποτελεσματική χρήση ψηφιακών εργαλείων και ανοιχτών πόρων για τη βελτίωση της ποιότητας της διδασκαλίας και εκμάθησης γλωσσών. Υλοποιήθηκε για 1η φορά στην Ελλάδα, και συγκεκριμένα στο 4ο ΓΕΛ Κέρκυρας  στις 26-27 Σεπτεμβρίου 2024 (8.30π.μ.-2.30μ.μ.) με 28 συμμετοχές από Συμβούλους Εκπαίδευσης, Δ/ντές-τριες σχολικών μονάδων και εκπ/κούς κλάδων ξένων γλωσσών αλλά και νηπιαγωγών, δασκάλων και φιλολόγων που εργάζονται σε περιοχές με διαπολιτισμικά σχολεία και/ή σχολεία Α/θμιας & Β/θμιας Εκπ/σης με τάξεις υποδοχής, και τρεις επιμορφώτριες από το ECML με εξειδίκευση στην εκπαίδευση καθηγητών γλωσσών στη χρήση ΤΠΕ στη τάξη.

Το διήμερο εργαστήριο σύμφωνα  με τις προτεραιότητες της ευρωπαϊκής και εθνικής εκπ/κής πολιτικής συνέβαλε στην ανάπτυξη ψηφιακών δεξιοτήτων και γραμματισμού στην εκπ/κή κοινότητα με αποτελέσματα όπως  βελτίωση δεξιοτήτων και τεχνογνωσίας των εκπαιδευτικών, αλληλεπίδραση με συναδέλφους και εκπαιδευτές, συμμετοχή σε μια μαθησιακή και συνεργατική κοινότητα πρακτικής. Η προετοιμασία του εργαστηρίου και η κοινή χρήση πλατφόρμας moodle για διάφορες δραστηριότητες δημιούργησαν το κατάλληλο υποστηρικτικό περιβάλλον μάθησης και συνεργασίας. Τα αποτελέσματα που αποτυπώθηκαν μέσω ενός ανώνυμου ηλεκτρονικού ρωτηματολογίου κατέδειξαν τη χρησιμότητα της συγκεκριμένης εκπ/κής προσέγγισης και τη δυνατότητα αξιοποίησης εργαλείων και πόρων που έχει ήδη αναπτύξει το ECML. Τέλος προωθώντας την ανταλλαγή απόψεων και πρακτικών οι συμετέχοντες-ουσες προετοιμάζουν δράσεις διάχυσης του εργαστηρίου και των εργασιών που εκπόνησαν, στο άμεσο και ευρύτερο εκπ/κό τους περιβάλλον.

Marianthi Alexandropoulou, local coordinator

Local organiser: Kati Bakradze-Pank, Estonian Association of Foreign Language Teachers

ECML experts: Karine Dekeukelaere, Belgium; Gábor Szabo, Hungary

Participants: 23 (language testers and examiners, item writers, teachers and teacher trainers, curriculum developers, language inspectors, policymakers)

“The Relating language curricula, tests and examinations to the Common European Framework of Reference (RELANG) three-day workshop was of high value to language testers and examiners, item writers and curriculum developers, policy makers who are in the middle of rewriting and validating their national examination in relation to the CEFR model of language use. During the workshop, special attention was paid to the principles of CEFR descriptors, item construction by skill, assessment, and rating scales; practical tips, examples, and exercises are useful materials. Local expertise is taken into consideration and parallels drawn between national language exams and the CEFR. The workshop was of high practical value to the local context.”

Kati Bakradze-Pank, local coordinator, 3 October 2024

ECML project website: RELANG, ECML-EC cooperation agreement 2024 "Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning"