Case Studies

Eva Søndergaard & Jesper Andersen report that there had been ongoing discussions at their department of how to provide linguistic studies for foreign researchers and other adults with education who arrived in Denmark. There was no national plan or programme.

The objectives described are : That they had registered the large group of scientific specialists who came to Denmark and they wanted to take good care of them by introducing the Danish language and culture at the same time. The creators believe that culture and language are related and want to incorporate both in the language teaching. The creators of the project also had an intention to prepare a concept that could be used in any EU country.

They had thoroughly discussed the aspect of having Danish as the main language. There were discussions around having it in English, but since the students/ researchers were supposed to work in Denmark, in one or two years there were good reasons for keeping the education in Danish.
Students learn expressions and facts based on the communicative processes in the workshop where they put together sound, images, and text in a functional meaningful context. The 'communicative workshop “, is a physical frame which supports and integrates the two subjects and the focus is on active language production, not just reproduction. They present different ways of working with communication, such as project work, seminars, interactive assignments, poetry and novels. The teachers should try to identify the goals and interests of the participants and incorporate that in the language teaching. The teacher’s role is more guiding and consulting than teaching.
The pedagogical approach is influenced by task-based pedagogy, and Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences and the derived individual learning strategies

The creators reported to having had a good and positive experience with the group of researchers that they worked with. Unfortunately, there was at the time no great interest in allowing the project to continue.

They reported that it was a nice recognition, but there was a lack in following up the project and its results.

They tried to set up a network around the project, but it required too much funding and time, so it was difficult to achieve. The creators both have full-time jobs so they did not have the possibility to set the time needed aside.

It is always good to believe that something can be changed. If you have good ideas, you must of course be open to pass them on to others. AND you will not be disappointed later.

This project is transferable into any language and any country, It is my belief that it could be used for different age groups as well, which makes it a very good project to promote.

It has a comprehensive approach. The needs of the students are identified and met. Added value. It provides an improvement in the teaching and learning of languages in a national context.

The 2004 priority in Denmark was education for adults, which is highly consistent with this project.

The project was chosen because it demonstrates a creative initiative which inspires people to learn languages.