7.2. Case study 2: Virtual technologies and realities for learning foreign languages.

Project Name: Increase the empowerment of adults and migrants with specific learning disorders (IRENE)

Short Description:

An Erasmus+ project that aims to use virtual technologies to help adults who experience learning difficulties learn a foreign language. To this end, partners for seven European countries have collaborated to develop an innovative methodology.

Implementation Period:

2018-2021.

Objectives:

The project is aimed at adults between 18 and 35 years old who experience learning difficulties and are therefore discouraged from learning a foreign language.

Target:

This practice supports or benefits different groups:

• Adults between 18 and 35 years old who experience learning difficulties.
• Immigrants with learning difficulties.
• Foreign language teachers.

Involved countries:

Greece, Italy, Austria, Spain, Ireland, Denmark, Netherlands.

Description of Practice

Globalisation and trans-national connections are characteristics of modern society. Nowadays the use of foreign languages in different activities of daily life is essential but there are several barriers that adults and migrants with learning difficulties encounter in the way.

The IRENE project intends to support adults who experience learning difficulties and are therefore discouraged to learn a foreign language.  Technology is the core focus of the project.

Developed Actions and Materials

IRENE project intends to fill the knowledge gaps through the development of three main actions:

• Development of a comparative Desk Research of existing teaching methodologies and tools in partner countries. This research analyses the realities and context of 7 countries: Greece, Italy, Austria, Spain, Ireland, Denmark and Netherlands. At the end of this research a comparison was made between all countries, which serves as a basis for the development of the following actions. See Suggested resources for further reading section to access the research.
• Design of a curriculum defining contents (materials, exercises, etc.) for an e-learning platform. See Suggested resources for further reading section to read more information about curriculum design.
• Creation of an e-learning platform for foreign language learning. See Suggested resources for further reading section to access the E-learning platform.

Impact and Obtained Results

This project provides us with a free e-learning platform full of content to support adults who experience learning difficulties. It consists on the following four sections:

• Pronounce: the learner will have the opportunity to learn and experience the pronunciation of individual words in the chosen language.
• Study: e-learning section that contains teaching modules via diversified media, quizzes and interactive exercises with focus on both comprehension and production.
• Explore: learning game that uses 3D reality, the learners are asked to apply the language knowledge and skills acquired in order to solve given tasks.
• Learn together: In this section you can find a community of interested people, either as learners or as educators, to communicate with other interested parties with the aim of exchanging knowledge, experiences and resources.

See Suggested resources for further reading section to find different tutorials on how to use this online platform.

Why is it Good Practice?

The IRENE project has been selected because it offers an innovative approach. It implements the design of an online training to facilitate the learning of European languages using immersive teaching set in a virtual reality environment with speech recognition and synthesis.

In summary, we can highlight three key principles that were used in this case-study to support learners with LDs: modern ways of teaching, use of technology and retaining knowledge through an engaging way of teaching.