Last updated 7 years ago by UtrechtCentral.com
Improving the quality of foreign language teaching and learning processes by means of effective telecollaboration among peers: that is the aim of the European project Telecollaboration for Intercultural Language Acquisition (TILA), coordinated by Utrecht University. The project has been approved by the European Commission within the Life Long Learning Programme and will run from January 2013 to 2015.
The evaluation commission praised the project for its relevance, innovative character, quality of the consortium, European added value, cost-benefit ratio & quality of the valorisation plan.
Several researchers from the Utrecht University will join the TILA project: Kristi Jauregi (initiator), Emmanuelle Le Pichon, Silvia Canto, Mabelle Hernández, Rick de Graaff, Huub van den Bergh, Jan ten Thije and G.J. Koopman.
TILA and goal achievement
Among the many project objectives, TILA seeks to:
1. Innovate and enrich language teaching programmes at secondary schools and make them more motivating and effective by stimulating telecollaboration for intercultural awareness with peers of other cultures.
2. Empower teacher training programmes for developing ICT literacy skills and organisational, pedagogical and intercultural competences of (student) teachers for telecollaboration, by promoting experimental learning in task development, implementation and evaluation.
3. Study the possible added value telecollaboration might have in language learning for intercultural understanding of younger learners.
TILA additionally aims to offer practical, hands-on experiences in telecollaboration activities. The initiative promotes professional development by addressing digital, intercultural, pedagogical and organisational concerns for the successful integration of telecollaboration practices in language education. The target languages of the project are English, French, German and Spanish.
TILA consortium
Six countries are represented in the TILA consortium: France, UK, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands and Czech Republic. Each country collaborates with a secondary school and a (teacher training) university.
Consortium partners: Utrecht University, Berlage Lyceum (Amsterdam) & 3DLES (The Netherlands), University of Roehampton & Secondary school (UK), Steinbeis Transfer Center Language Learning Media & Gymnasium Saarburg (Germany), Universidad de Valencia & IES Clot del Moro (Spain), Université de Paris 3 & Collège La Cerisaie (France) & Palacky University (Czech Republic).
Associate partners: 32 institutions from the Netherlands, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Portugal and Italy
Source: Utrecht University
