The e-lang project aims to produce training modules to develop a digital literacy for the teaching and learning of languages. 2017 was a busy and productive year for the team. The pedagogical framework and the first modules were piloted by language teachers, teacher trainers and stakeholders from all over Europe during the project workshop held in Graz in October. The pedagogical framework will be published in early 2018 and the full training programme will be available by the end of 2018.

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The e-lang project aims to promote the development of digital literacy for the teaching and learning of languages. It proposes training modules which present an innovative use of online technologies, combining interactional and cognitive dimensions.

As the second year of the project is drawing to an end, the project team, led by Christian Ollivier and team members Catherine Jeanneau, Ulrike Szigeti and Katerina Zourou, can reflect on the progress achieved throughout 2017.

The pedagogical framework, laying the theoretical and methodological foundations of the project, was finalised in both English and French. It details the main principles of the socio-interactional approach (which guides the entire project) and explains what real-world tasks are. Several sets of modules, forming the first phase of the training modules on the ECML Moodle platform, were also developed and translated into both working languages. 

These products formed the basis of the project workshop which was held on 10-11 October 2017 at the ECML headquarters in Graz. The e-lang team was joined by Marie-Josée Hamel and Catherine Caws, researchers from Canada who are associate partners in the project. This event sparked a large interest as it drew 40 participants from 34 countries (member States of the ECML and Canada). 

The two-day workshop involved group work and discussion sessions in a very productive atmosphere, which contributed to the successful completion of the workshop goals which were to:

a) give participants the opportunity to discover the real-world tasks and the pedagogical approach guiding the e-lang project and to explore the training modules developed by the e-lang project team;

b) encourage participants to actively contribute to the project by giving feedback on the current project productions, creating real-world tasks and suggesting resources for language activities.

In addition to their online participation in pre-workshop activities, participants provided high-quality contributions during the workshop.

These inputs from the workshop and feedback on the material created to date were reviewed and incorporated in the project during the expert meeting of the extended e-lang team which took place in the days following the workshop. The second phase of the training module development was scheduled. As initially planned, this phase will be carried out throughout 2018. The team also developed a training guide which will be of use to the Moodle users wishing to integrate some or all the training modules into their teaching.

By the beginning of 2018, the pedagogical framework should be published and it will be also possible to freely access the first training modules on Moodle. The whole training programme will be available online by the end of 2018.

So watch out for further information on the e-lang project in this space or contact us if you would like to get access to the Moodle training modules.

The project team: 
Christian Ollivier (project coordinator), Catherine Jeanneau, Ulrike Szigeti, Katerina Zourou

• Project website "e-lang - Digital literacy for the teaching and learning of languages": English - French