Lifelong Learning Programme

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
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basic information

Title of the Project
Open the window
Brief description
The main target is to make the most of language teaching focusing on extensive reading from the secondary sector onwards, and making it even more profitable because it is open to all community with the support of ICT and later on paper support. The idea is to involve not only the school community, but all the community which surrounds the school. It is also a way of enriching the work developed in previous school years and avoiding to forget interesting written assignments that have been produced. All in all is a new way of learning foreign languages, to improve the learning success, to foster the writing and reading skills, and at the same time raising their creativity and making them use the ICT. The interaction between school community and local community is an enriching aspect that points to lifelong learning.
Country
Portugal
Year
2003
Target Language
English
Sector
School Education
Adult Education
Further Information

THE INITIATIVE PROMOTER’S PERSPECTIVE

Background

Although our students like the English language, they sometimes have difficulties in expressing themselves and are too shy to show their feelings to the others. We try to help them improve their language skills, strengthen their self-esteem and trust their creative power and imagination. We try to diversify the thematic areas to meet the students’ interests and different age groups. Why English? Well, it’s a global language. It’s the language of music, of films, of the net. It’s the language of communication.

Objectives

• Develop new strategies of foreign language learning,
• Promote success in foreign language learning,
• Improve creative writing skills,
• Develop poetry writing and reading skills,
• Motivate students to acquire reading habits.

Approach

We suggest topics on which the students develop their language skills, collect the works produced, evaluate the quality of the results and select the best works as far as language skills and creativity are concerned. The amount and quality of the works produced tell us whether we should keep the same thematic area or introduce new ones. “The Open Window” has been the only recurrent topic since the first publication.
The fact that some of their works are going to be published is an incentive for the students’ creativity. They also give voice to some of the works done by reading and make them known in the Book Fair organized by the school. The recognition of their talent improves their self-esteem and gives them the motivation to keep writing.

Results

Every two years an illustrated book is published, sold inside and outside school, offered to other schools and teaching organizations. The feedback given to us by those who read the book is essential to our self-evaluation. The presence of parents and local authorities in the Book Fair is a strong motivation for everybody. The fact that this project has existed for 13 years is undeniably important both to us (coordinators of the project) and to our students. We try to involve in our project all the students interested in reading and writing and also those who have artistic skills, because due to them all the stories and poems are illustrated accordingly.
This initiative can be transferred to the teaching process of any other foreign language.

Why the European Language Label?

The application for the European Label was a test to us. We wanted to ensure we were walking along the right path. Therefore, the award of the ELL was the recognition of our work and a motivation to continue the project.

Activities following the award of the European Language Label

In order to let the initiative become known beyond the school area, the books published have been offered to other schools and teaching organizations. We also had articles about the project published in magazines of language teaching and the description of the project was also published online by a national editor.

Assessment of the Impact of the European Language Label

The award of the ELL was an incentive to pursue our goals and try to find new ways of motivating our students.

Recommendations for future applicants for the ELL

New and innovative ways of motivating students to learn foreign languages should be found and implemented, which is always an advantage when it comes to applying for the ELL.

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Comments on this Case Studies

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Date: 2014.09.19

Posted by MªJose (Spain)

Message: Fostering the writing and reading skills among the educational community and incentive students’ creativity is a good way to ensure students are walking along the right path. In Spain one of main goals of primary and secundary teachers is to motivate students in their reading and writing, so they can improve their language skills. Currently students are getting worse and worse in language skills since they write with abbreviations.

21 December 2014

Audio- video presentation of the NELLIP project

An audio- video presentation of the NELLIP project has been created and made available in the Information section of the NELLIP portal. To access the presentation please click here: http://nellip.pixel-online.org/IF_intro.php.