About WAP

This project was developed based on the urgent need to develop and take on new approaches to teaching and learning and to use new technologies to support and facilitate this. Linguistic awareness, linguistic responsive teaching, combining language with content teaching and supporting learners in multilingual settings are an essential element of teacher education. Thus the project will have an effect on three levels:

At an institutional level, the project will maximise the impacts of internationalisation as a process with the potential to further develop and strengthen management structures, international relations, educational services, and to further develop strategic policies related to the internationalisation of education, research, student and staff mobility, and educational technology development.

At national level, the project supports the UK government's national ESOL strategy for England as the key measure to ‘help to unlock migrant capabilities, save costs to public services in the long term and promote a more integrated and socially cohesive society. The project also allows the partner institutions to have cross-European meetings, exchanges and discussions including multiplier events, on how the project's activities can be adapted by other teachers/schools/education providers/NGOs. The partner institutions will identify the common problems in teaching and learning English as a second language, and will develop new methods of teaching.

At an international level, the project supports the European Commission's "Proposal for a Council Recommendation", which is a proposal for a comprehensive approach to the teaching and learning of languages. The main aims of this proposal include:

ensuring that more language teachers have the opportunity to learn and study abroad
identifying and promoting innovative, inclusive and multilingual teaching methods using tools and platforms

The project also supports the Education and training 2020 (ET 2020), the EU framework for cooperation in the fields of education and training, in which the multilingualism policy states that languages unite people, render other countries and their cultures accessible, and strengthen intercultural understanding. Foreign language skills play a vital role in enhancing employability and mobility and with the WAP project, we will help our partner schools and several other European schools to improve the competitiveness of the EU economy.

With this strategy, the project will have an impact at the local, regional, national, European and international level:

Boosting a Europe-wide collaboration among teachers as well as education researchers and policymakers regarding tackling childhood obesity
Boosting a Europe-wide collaboration among English teachers and teachers of other subjects as well as education researchers and policymakers
Exchanging inquiry-based and game-based learning, CLIL and other innovative, effective and engaging approaches regarding English teaching and learning.

Objectives

According to the European Commission's "Proposal for a Council Recommendation on a comprehensive approach to the teaching and learning of languages" 2018, The only European Survey on Language Competences (ESLC) that has been carried out so far revealed a low level of competence in foreign languages. Only 42% of tested pupils reached the level of ‘independent user’ in the first foreign language. This means that after several years of studying at school, the majority of young Europeans are not able to have a simple conversation in the foreign languages they have learned. An additional source of concern is that a considerable percentage of pupils—14% for the first language and 20% for the second—do not even reach the ‘basic user’ level.

Education and training systems need to adapt to the challenges and opportunities posed by fast technology developments. Being able to speak English is not only a skill needed for studying abroad, but also to be able to secure a job in the increasingly international job market. Learning English also enables people to discover foreign cultures and also to broaden their perspectives. However, language proficiency levels among students at the end of their compulsory education are low across the EU with large discrepancies between Member States. According to research, many 'English as a Second Language' (ESL) students and teachers seem to have some difficulty in pronouncing some certain sounds. This might be due to various reasons: background of the teacher, lack of training in phonetic aspects of English etc. We aim to address the above issues with the WAP project in order to further develop English language teachers' competences, especially in the field of pronunciation, phonetics and grammar. The teachers then can pass on the newly gained knowledge to their colleagues and most importantly to their students.

Objectives:

Enable teachers to further develop awareness and use of the conventions of English language, speaking and pronunciation skills and transferable skills.
Transfer of innovative English teaching methods to numerous teachers, to enable them to explore and share innovative tools and techniques
Boost a Europe-wide collaboration among English teachers as well as education researchers and education professionals, exchanging innovative, effective and engaging approaches to English education.
Enable students to improve both their ability to communicate and their linguistic competence in English. To develop a balance of receptive (reading, listening) and productive (speaking, pronunciation, writing) skills through communicative workshops and the Intellectual outputs.
Explore the use of ICT (web 2.0 tools) in English education, to enhance its introduction in traditional teaching methods and create technology-rich learning environments for both teachers and students.

Implementation

The project's primary target groups are teachers, students (14-18) and educational institutions. The WAP project will greatly improve students':

Pronunciation and knowledge of English grammar
Engagement and interest in English language
Self confidence
Social and digital skills
Knowledge of Erasmus project and future opportunities
Knowledge of lifestyle and education in partner countries
Employability skills such as teamwork, problem solving, communication and independence

Teachers will be empowered to be more confident, to further developing their capabilities across key competencies such as digital skills, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and the ability to problem solve. Teacher's will:

Improve their pronunciation and knowledge of English
Improve the quality of English teaching
Be able to encourage students to talk in the classroom
Be able to increase students' awareness of the importance of speaking English fluently
Improve the delivery of English lessons, teachers' confidence and motivation
Improve motivation for professional development

The project activities are developed in order the achieve its objectives, therefore we will implement the following:

Problem solving workshops, role play, game based learning, interactive workshops delivered to students and teachers during the mobilities
Share best teaching practice - CLIL, ESOL
Introduce schools/teachers/educators to content and language integrated learning (CLIL), therefore developing cross-curricular teaching programme for the schools
Use eTwinning in order to collaborate with the partner institutions and the final findings will be published there being available for teachers across Europe
Develop 2 intellectual outputs, which will aid target groups to further develop their skills

Additionally, the mobility activities make it possible for both students and teachers to acquire knowledge about the partner institutions' geography, history and culture, including how the institutions function, therefore being part of the citizenship education. We will transfer innovative teaching methods to a large number of teachers, through the development of the IOs. We will help students to develop important transversal skills such as creative thinking, problem solving, etc., which they can utilise in school and also in the near future in the labour market.

Expected Impact

It is anticipated that the WAP project will achieve the following short term, medium and long term impacts:

Increased awareness about the importance of ESL methodologies
Increased awareness about the importance of cooperation and collaboration among organisations
Improved conception of integrating CLIL methods
Improved ability to stay up to date with the needs of the changing world by means of education
Increased support and involvement of other local stakeholders, local and regional authorities, companies, etc.

One of the examples of the short-term impact would be to enable students to have a simple conversation in English (which currently doesn't exist for the majority of students

One of the examples of the medium impact would be to decrease the 14% of students who do not even reach the ‘basic user’ level to a maximum of 4%.

One of the examples of the long-term impact would be closing the skills gap that currently exist such as increase the 42% of tested pupils, who reached the level of ‘independent user’ in the first foreign language to at least 65%