Form a group of four students and do the activities suggested.
PRE-READING
1. Before reading discuss the following.
a) Have you ever heard about EU programmes?
b) What do they deal with?
c) Is your school involved in any of them (or has been in the past)?
d) Can you mention any specific EU programme?
2. Have a look at doc.1 and find out:
a) what type of text you are going to read;
b) where it is taken from;
c) which topic it deals with;
d) reasons for the programme name.
| Doc. 1 - Lingua: Getting People to Talk... Another Language |
Around half of all Europeans are incapable of carrying on a conversation in a language other than their mother tongue, and even when they are, it is usually in one of the 'big three', i.e. English, French or German. Knowing other languages brings a better understanding of other cultures in a Europe characterised by diversity. It is a factor of personal development and fulfilment . It makes it easier to get a job.
The teaching and learning of languages – the 11 Community languages plus Irish and Luxembourgish – is a feature of all the Socrates actions, be it Comenius, Erasmus or Grundtvig. Lingua itself operates horizontally by focusing on certain key issues in order to encourage proficiency in languages, whether these are taught at school or outside the school context. Support is available from the European Commission for two categories of projects:
Lingua 1 intended to:
- raise citizens' awareness of the Union's multilingual wealth, encourage people to learn languages throughout their lifetime, and to improve access to foreign-language learning resources across Europe.
- develop and disseminate innovative techniques and good practices in language teaching.
Lingua 2 aimed to:
- ensure that a sufficiently wide range of language-learning tools is available to language learners.
1. The promotion of language learning
Encouraging people to learn another language entails getting them interested in doing so, familiarising them with the different opportunities that exist, and providing access to the places and channels of learning. The Commission accordingly supports a wide range of transnational projects, which are all important steps in the learning of foreign languages. Firstly, there is awareness raising : partnerships, for instance, can be organised to conduct campaigns through the mass media. Second, there is motivation. Third, we have information: where and how to find a method of learning which is suited to one's requirements ? What is new and what is the best practice in this field? Lastly, there is the matter of access to language resources: how can they be networked so as to make them more readily available?
2. The development of tools
The aim of this second part of Lingua is to ensure the presence on the market of an appropriate range of language learning tools. The transnational projects supported by the European Commission must clearly be positioned in areas, which are ill catered for by this market. They must also support innovation. This could for instance embrace a new method for learning Finnish, the development of an Internet-based test of proficiency in Spanish, or the design of a video for students wishing to study in Germany. Projects submitted under one of these Lingua strands must meet a number of conditions. They must be based on a partnership of establishments/bodies from at least three participating countries. They must demonstrate an added European value and, importantly, they must not have any profit motive. Lingua also emphasises encouraging the learning of the less widely used and taught European Union languages.
The action is divided into two parts, corresponding to different sub-objectives. Under both sub-actions, the Commission will fund projects developed by transnational partnerships composed of eligible institutions and organisations. The application procedure is the same for both sub-actions.
From http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/languages/actions/lingua2.html.
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READING
3. Read doc.1 and complete the table with the missing information.
VOCABULARY
4. Match the red words and expressions in doc.1 with the correct definitions.
SPEAKING
5. Organise the information you have gathered to prepare a presentation for the whole class. Use visual aids (transparencies, PP slides etc.) to make it more interesting.