Case Studies

YELL is a Key Activities Languages Network project with 11 partner institutions in 10 partner countries which was supported by the European Commission. The participating countries were Germany, Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria,Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom,Latvia and Austria. The common themes of the project were to disseminate best practice in a network and to encourage language learning for young people in non-formal settings.

The main aim of the project is to increase young people`s motivation in learning foreign languages outside formal learning environment. Therefore a collection of attractive and interesting tools and concepts consisting of innovative learning methods and learning environments from best practice in Europe is collated on a virtual documentation center. Moreover, a handbook for implementation of best practice examples was developed. The main project aim is to disseminate best practice in language learning all over Europe on the one side but also include new innovative best practice in order to enrich and enlarge the virtual documentation center and the network of participating institutions.
The overall objective of the network is thus to facilitate the exchange of experiences in the field of raising motivation of young people to learn foreign languages and analyse the potential of the network’s previous European projects and other initiatives results in order to improve implementation of languages learning in attractive, outside school forms.

In order to achieve this, the specific objectives were set up:
- To collect foreign language learning concepts (best practice) by using learning contents in other cultural, sport and entertainment activities designed for young and young adult people, making the process of learning enjoyable and meaningful, for example: activities in sport clubs, social clubs, in theatres in order to attract interest in participation and increase motivation to learn foreign languages.
- To set up virtual documentation centre containing proposal of introducing language learning in other social, cultural and sport activities conceived for young people.
- To include aspects of diversity, especially of the cultural and social background of the learners in order to overcome sectoral divides and other cultural differences.
- To include the use of ICT as a very useful incentive to agree on further learning, especially foreign language learning, since in young people’s view attending ICT courses and using ICT tools are “cooler” activities than traditional language courses.
- To spread the project contents and results through a variety of demonstration and dissemination activities, including a European Conference and the action “join the network”.

One of the first activities performed within the network was the research into the relevant aspects on a national level of each country in order to improve the above described situation.

The researches covered, inter alia, the following areas:

- situation of foreign language learning, what languages are taught
- education policy and programs,
- prerequisites for involving young people and motivating them to participate in learning
- languages outside formal education, including identifying and collection of best practices


The report “Analysis identification and collection of best practices” is available on the project website www.yell-project.eu.

Within the experimentation phase (test of collected best practices) about 436 participants took part. Experts (language teachers, trainers, tutors) tested them for several months and found that even those activities which were not necessarily innovative in their teaching practice could simply be used as alternative to usual activities. However, many of the examples collated in this project have been rated innovative and of value in most participating countries and —more interestingly — the ones tested have proved to be fun and motivating for young learners.

Our approach consists of two issues:
- raising awareness on cultural and linguistic diversity and language learning among various groups, e.g. potential learners, language teachers, educators, education institutions, stakeholders, decision makers of lifelong learning.
- increasing motivation among youth, young people and adults to learn foreign language.

The Network achieves its aims by:

- the sharing of existing good practice of language learning across the partner countries, researching previous project outcomes where innovative and useful language tools have been developed but not sustained and where possible, revive and adapt them so that they could be used by young people in non-formal and informal environments,
- creating a collection of language learning tools which have been adapted to suit other social, cultural and sporting activities directed at young people,
- promoting an awareness of the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity in Europe through various dissemination actions,
- enhancing the collaboration between trainers and tutors of non-formal education institutions, cultural, sport and social institutions, key actors for lifelong learning, national and European language learning networks and social partners.

The project strategy included internal and external evaluation.

The main outputs of the project network are:

- A virtual documentation centre integrated in the project’s website www.yell-project.eu It includes a wide variety of good practices of language learning. The building of VDC is finalised, but it gives all members of the network (partners and associated organisations) the opportunity for continuous updating.
- A Handbook “How to implement best practice in language learning”. It includes description of best practices on the innovative and friendly learning environment and innovative language learning concepts, tools and methods. One chapter is devoted to the topic of learner`s motivation.

This collection of best practice examples is placed on the website: www.yell-project.eu and available for free download. Language teachers and trainers are able to research for innovative ideas which could be included in their training.

These outputs were developed with the help of all partner institutions and input from their national context.

As the collection of best practice consists of conceptions and tools that are implemented in one the European countries with the target group of young people, practical implementation, learning motivation and learning success have been evaluated.

Since 1997, the European Language Label has been awarded to outstanding projects in the field of language learning in order to make them accessible to the public opinion. In 2011 this award was presented at the Transnational conference for Germany, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and Austria that took place on the 7th of October in Vienna. It was a huge success for Volkshochschule im Landkreis Cham e.V. and their European partners in the YELL"We believe that the YELL project is able to become a new impetus for language learning throughout Europe, as it offers innovative concepts and tools that can be used by educational institutions and teachers, trainers and lecturers as an inspiration for their own courses. In particular, the concepts which are not dedicated to conventional classroom instruction and which are thematically attractive and motivating for young people could be pioneering for the future of modern language learning," stated Aleksandra Sikorska who initiates and coordinates European projects in the Lifelong Learning Programme at VHS Cham.
project.
A moderated exhibition with a variety of projects and good practice from Austria, Belgium and Germany as well as topic-related workshops in the afternoon completed the event. Good practice examples offered a wide range of possibilities in language learning, for instance multilingual cookbooks for children from other nations, language competence trainings for young people in vocational trainings the classical writing partnerships are supported by a qualified mentor.

The conference offered the possibility to exchange information and networking materials
among language learning professionals.
All awarded projects are published in a brochure.

A moderated exhibition with a variety of projects and good practice from Austria, Belgium and Germany as well as topic-related workshops in the afternoon completed the event. Good practice examples offered a wide range of possibilities in language learning, for instance multilingual cookbooks for children from other nations, language competence trainings for young people in vocational trainings the classical writing partnerships are supported by a qualified mentor.

The conference offered the possibility to exchange information and networking materials
among language learning professionals.
All awarded projects are published in a brochure.

The award of the European Language Label helps to raise awareness for the project and also to disseminate the project results. The brand “European Language Label” indicates the quality of the initiative of the project.

For successful application it is recommended to follow the structure of the application, the project has to meet the aims of the national priority which is changed every year

This project reflects Europena policies in a number of areas - the encoragement of language diversity through networking, the emphasis on non-formal learning, the target group of young people.

It is consistent with the emphasis of preserving language diversity