TeachMe: Multimedia Didactics – The Art and Science of Teaching Host Country Language

The number of international students has been increasing globally in recent years. In 2016, there were almost 5.1 million international students in the EU (i.e. 2.3% of all tertiary students), up from 2.1 million in 2000 (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2018). Reports by UNESCO (2018) and the EVP of Global Engagement and Research (2019, see Studyportals) show significant economic benefits from increasing international enrolment in higher education in European and other countries. In addition to the visible financial impact, a myriad of intangible positive impacts can be associated with international students.

Europe thrives on people meeting and understanding each other. A key competence in this respect is language skills. It can be said that one of the basic conditions for the success of international students is their ability to speak the language of the host country or the language they will use during their studies. Usually, these students have a clear vision of the field of study they plan to attend and are willing to work hard to achieve their goals, but without language skills this will come much more difficult.

The project partnership wanted to make it easier for young Europeans to study in other European countries. For this purpose, the project focused on countries that were less in demand and languages that were less widely spoken. Learning these languages in a relatively short time required advanced didactics and methodology. The TeachMe project created neurodidactically based online tools for international students and for teachers, educators and facilitators of language courses, with the aim of increasing the number of young people willing to learn less common languages of EU countries and improving their ability to master the language of the host country.

Project objectives

The TeachMe project aimed to:

• To increase the number of young adults who want to learn minor European languages, as well as to immerse into the host country language and culture;
• To establish a European role model: a set of intensive language programs tailored to the needs of youth interested in the study at a foreign university in any of the partner countries;
• To promote transnational cooperation and mutual learning between the partners who represent different sectors of education in order to improve education systems, structures and processes;
• To support exchanges and make visible good practices, dialogue, mutual learning and cooperation among policymakers, practitioners and stakeholders from partner countries.

Target groups:

Key target groups:

• foreign language teachers
• foreign students

Results

1. A guide for international students with links, infographics, videos and other materials that will be useful when preparing to study in a foreign country.
2. Neurodidactic concept of intensive foreign language teaching through multimodal and blended learning approaches.
3. New methods and tools for teachers on how to be flexible and adapt teaching methods to circumstances and how to transfer knowledge from teacher to student in a digital environment, including the concept of the ‘digital online classroom’.
4. A guide for facilitators of intensive language courses with useful interactive resources, materials and tools that can be used during the teaching process.
5. A TEACHME platform with an interactive library that will serve as a bank of resources and self-preparatory tests for language teachers and international students.

Added value

The project had a significant educational impact on students who wished to study in the language of the host country, as it offered an innovative combination of synchronous and asynchronous learning. International students received authentic information about language structures, vocabulary, culture and civilisation of the country, as well as grammatical structures specific to each host language and the mechanisms of their use. They integrated relevant grammatical structures into oral and written discourse in real communicative contexts. The ambition of the project partners was that international students would not only choose less popular European countries to study in, but would also immerse themselves in the language and culture of the respective host country. In this way, students became more connected to what the country had to offer and were better able to integrate the knowledge and skills they had acquired into other areas of their lives

Implemented activities

TeachMe workshops were organised in each partner country, and a final conference was held in Mainz, Germany, at the end of the project.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.