Gazette 45 - January 2019

The European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe (ECML) invites professionals in language education who work and live in an ECML member state to take part in the Call for proposals which is open until 22 April 2019.

The priority areas established for this Call are based on the needs expressed in ECML member states. They also reflect views of language professionals and take account of developments at the Council of Europe and other European and international organisations. Just some of these areas are:

• Language professionals as agents of change (such as learner-centred processes and strategies…);
• Considering and reconsidering flagship resources of the Council of Europe (such as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and its Companion Volume…);
• Foreign language learning and teaching in the spotlight  (such as foreign language methodologies for skills development…);
• Bi-/plurilingual education for a new decade (such as regional and minority languages…);
• Organising language education (such as successful transitions across educational stages…).

The Call for proposals offers the opportunity to get involved in and benefit from a unique European platform to negotiate, communicate and publish your innovative ideas, and to make a genuine contribution towards influencing language education in Europe.

Would you like to address one or more of the above mentioned priorities, and share and enrich your ideas on language education through European collaboration? Are you interested in developing practical resources with the support of a renowned European institution, which can be adapted to fit the different national contexts? If so, do consider getting involved in an ECML project, either by submitting a project proposal or by applying as a team member.

Please consult the dedicated website www.ecml.at/call to find out more about the national priorities and possible topics, key considerations for submissions, as well as ways of getting involved in the next ECML programme and the proposals procedure.

Please take note that the proposal form for project coordinators and the application form for team members will be available online by 31 January 2019.

Support resources

To facilitate the outreach of the Call to the envisaged expert public, the section of the Call website entitled “Promote the Call” contains support material such as the Call brochure, the Call flyer, the video presentation of the launch event of the Call, as well as images for promotional use (programme logo, website banner, wordle "Priorities", wordle "Education sectors, target groups and languages"). This section will be further developed over the next few weeks.

Upcoming promotional events

To support the dissemination at a national level in all ECML member states, the following activities could be organised between January and mid-April 2019:

• A promotional event in your country: this could be a dedicated seminar focusing on the Call. It could also be a session/presentation with ECML representation either in person or via a video message, as part of an event (conference/seminar etc.) which is already planned. Currently five promotional events are planned in Austria, Finland, France, Slovenia, and Sweden (see calendar of upcoming events). Please use this form to request ECML support for such an event.
• Translation of the Call flyer into your national language(s): if you send us the translated text of the flyer, the ECML will do the layout and provide you with a PDF version of the flyer in your language(s). Please note that the Wordles would remain in English or French, according to your preference.
• We will also provide printed versions of the Call flyer on demand.
• “Liking” and re-tweeting the Call information on the ECML’s social media platforms Facebook and Twitter (#ECMLCall).
• Putting information and/or the Call website banner about the Call on the website of your ministry/agency/organisation.

We would be very grateful if you could promote the Call as widely as possible.

Contact for any questions:
call@ecml.at

Target audience:

• Language teachers
• Teacher educators
• Action researchers

Registration: link

Language: The webinar will be in English.

The European Centre for Modern Languages  project “Action research communities for language teachers” (ARC) has supported teachers in European classrooms in using action research as an essential tool for the development of reflective classroom practice - highlighting ways in which teachers can enhance their self-confidence and professionalism. The  90-minute webinar will provide an insight into the experiences gathered over the 3 years of the project (2016-18)  and the present the results achieved.

The goal of ARC has been to contribute towards quality enhancement in the language classroom through the application of action research approaches by tapping into existing networks with a view to creating new learning communities, which can be replicated across ECML member states.

Over the three years of the project, the team was able to strengthen professional networks by linking academic expertise on action research and good practice in the language classroom. The project has also designed a set of resources for teachers who would like to get into action research and also for teacher educators running courses on action research.

In the webinar the project team and colleagues involved in action research will speak about their experiences with action research :

• Christine Lechner, Pedagogical University, Austria: "ARC - project framework"
• Angela Gallagher-Brett: SOAS, University of London, UK: "The ARC-Spiral"
• Inge Alfredson: Avedoere Lower Secondary School, Denmark: "The discovery of the intercultural dimension in English lessons through action research"
• Kenan Dikilitas: Bahçeşehir University Turkey, "Action Research at tertiary level: Field notes from a research mentor"
• Sunny Lau, Bishop's University, Canada: "Participatory action research: Promotion of language teachers’ self-efficacy and advocacy for socially just plurilingual pedagogy"

During the webinar, attendees will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the content and some resources produced by the ARC project, to hear about action research from the perspectives of different educational and national contexts and to join in via a chat.

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Centre européen pour les langues vivantes du Conseil de l´Europe
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