Pools-m is a TOI
(transfer of innovation)
project based on the
original BP-BLTM
project,
which selected five
communicative language
teaching methods
suitable for VET
teachers and their
students, especially
those preparing for or
in the midst of work
placement in other
countries. For each
method the project
developed sets of
materials and
instructions for
exemplary lessons.
To help the training of
the less experienced
teachers the use of the
methods and materials
are demonstrated through
instructional video
recordings of exemplary
lessons.
The main outputs to be
translated, adapted and
transferred during the
pools-m project period
are:
-A video library with
subtitled commented
recordings of the five
methods used in real
classes.
-A manual with five
method descriptions,
instructions and ready
to copy and use
materials
-An International Work
Placement Guide
-This website.
This project will
transfer the BP-BLTM
results to Italy,
Lithuania, and Turkey by
adapting and translating
the guide, the methods
manuals, the ready to
use in classes
materials, and the
subtitles for the
project videos.
Recent research and
improvements in language
teaching methods have
not been fully applied
in VET in IT, LT, and TR
especially not in the
LWUTL (Less Widely Used
and Taught Languages).
This is found in the
Eurydice Studies
"Foreign Language
Teaching in Schools in
Europe" 2001) and in the
European Language
Learning Materials
Survey" (December 2000)
According to a
Eurobarometer survey
carried out in 1997,
Difficulty with foreign
languages is by far the
most feared problem when
young Europeans
contemplate working or
studying abroad.
Language proficiency is
a key instrument for a
common understanding
between citizens of
Europe and for
exploiting the rich
cultural heritage of
Europe (European Report
On Quality Of School
Education, May 2000).
Teachers in technical
colleges in IT, LT, and
TR teaching the less
taught languages are
often not educated as
language teachers;
research and
improvements in language
teaching methods have
not been applied. This
is based on our own
experiences as well as
the Eurydice Studies
"Foreign Language
Teaching in Schools in
Europe" 2001 ) and as
stated in "The European
Language Learning
Materials Survey"
(December 2000) "Many
felt that lower level
course materials for
LWUTL were rarely
communicative in nature
(which they attributed
to the fact that
teachers of LWUTL have
little pedagogical and
methodological
training), and
emphasised the need for
improvement in this
area. In the same vein,
the lack of a "learning
to learn" approach in
LWUTL materials was
mentioned «.
POOLS-M deals
substantially with use
of ICT in languages
teaching methods, in
2005 the Uteacher
project found that 45%
of teachers in IT
declared “to have little
knowledge of this
issue”. Another research
paper “ICT Development
In Education In the
Baltic Countries – 2005”
(see www.emokykla.lt)
shows that in LT
computers are mainly use
for teaching ICT and
that “in other subjects
IT technologies are used
‘passively’ (writing
texts), and not
‘actively’ (forming
presentations,
demonstrating
simulations etc.).”
Computers are now widely
used by teachers in TR,
"however, this wide use
of computers has not yet
been observed in the
instructional activities
– either using a
presentation tool during
class or using computers
for experiments (Usluel
& Askar, 2002)." Also in
Turkey "Studies pointed
out that teachers’ use
of ICT for instructional
purposes is insufficient
(Martins, Steil, &
Todesco, 2004; Askar &
Usluel, 2003; Szabo &
Suen, 1998; Proulx &
Campbell, 1997)."
The TOI project targets
the above needs in IT,
LT, and TR through
communicative language
teaching methods and
materials with an
emphasis on cultural
diversities and
promoting learning LWUTL.
The use of ICT in
several methods (for
instructional purposes)
also work for promoting
ICT among language
teachers and learners.
For each
teaching method the
project teams
will develop
sets of
materials
and
instructions
for
exemplary
lessons in
Italian, Lithuanian, and
Turkish. Such
materials
are also ready for use in
Basque, Danish, Dutch, Gaelic, Romanian and they have been
translated
into
English,
German and
Spanish to
facilitate
later use in
other
languages.
To help the
training of
the less
experienced
teachers the
use of the
methods and
materials
are
demonstrated
through
instructional
video
recordings
of exemplary
lessons with
subtitles in the
project partnership
languages.
The project teams have adapted and translated five
manuals covering language teaching methods and a guide for
students preparing for a work placement period
The POOLS-M partnership has decided to open the online
evaluation areas. These areas will remain open for the next
two years so we can collect data on the courses. Please user
the online forms so you can assist us in the work after the
funded period:
SUPSI, the Swiss pools-m partner has collected the
electronic evaluations from the past pools-m pilot courses.
The evaluation results from teachers and their students can
be downloaded here:
The
Italian team has
prepared a teachers'
guide for a board game
preparing students for
International Work
Placement.
Download the guide
here to order
the board game, please
contact: Stefano Tirati:
stefano@cscs.it
+39057350444 Website:
http://www.cscs.it
The POOLS-Machine Plc is
a simulation where the
participants have to
choose between four
locations for a new
factory, each location
has advantages and
disadvantages. Download
the simulation in:
The simulation
can be played in groups with three
to five students (if less than five
in a group then some students will
have to have more than one profile
in the simulation)
The simulation
is self explanatory; each student is
given a text with a personal
profile, the students read and
inform the other group members about
the content.
Go to the
Airport download page to download the simulation
materials in English, Italian, Lithuanian, and Turkish
The final video produced by SUPSI demonstrates the five
communicative language teaching methods (PhyEmoC, Task Based Learning,
eTandem learning, Simulations, and Computer Assisted
Language Learning):
The video comes complete with all the materials used in
the lessons. Download the instructions, handouts / student materials used in the video:
We have noticed that we now get a number of subscriptions for the Youtube videos. A new trend or facility?
One of the pools-m team members Kent Andersen visited a language school in Rome (Percorsi d’Italiano). The manager had participated in a pools-m course arranged in Pistoia so it was great toe learn that the course still makes a difference:-) You can learn more about the schoole here: http://www.percorsiditaliano.it/
Call for Papers for Eurocall 2013, University of Evora, Portugal 11-14 September 2013: Like the TOOLS project you too can present projects, research, experience, and ideas at Eurocall 2013.Download the Call for Paper here
The CALL Interest Section of the international TESOL professional association is pleased to offer the opportunity to participate in the Electronic Village Online (EVO) 2013 sessions.
This project is a virtual extension of the TESOL 2013 Convention in Dallas in which educators around the globe will have the chance to enhance their professional development, network, collaborate, share and learn with like-minded professionals in wonderful online sessions that were carefully designed by our moderators.
You do not need to be a TESOL member to participate in a FREE, five-week, online session of the EVO, January 14 - February 17, 2013.
We have just received the results from the Danish national agency of the pools-m final evaluation: We received a 9 (maximum grade is 10:-)
Pools-m is still going strong:-) On March 6th the Turkish coordinator received the official national accreditation this means that Pools-M in-service training programmes have gained FORMAL RECOGNITION from the biggest national education body across Turkeyand will now be offered on a wide scale:-)
Signing of the protocol in Istanbul on March 6th 2012. In the middle is the Director of the Central of Board of Education in Istanbul
February 2012
The project website has now been moved to a new host (surftown.com) if you meet messages like "Page not found" then please mail to ka@sde.dk with information about which page is missing.
January 2012
We have now submitted the Final Report to the national agency "Internationale Uddannelser" in Denmark.
A Maltese teacher training and language center wants to run the course. More information from: http://www.etimalta.com/
December 2011
The final evaluation
report from the external
evaluators is now ready
for download
here.
Pools-m finished the
official project period
with a teacher course in
Denmark on PhyEmoC and
CALL. Download the
slides in Danish for:
Download the minutes from the final project meeting
here.
SUPSI has added two more methods to the already popular video
on language teaching methods. The final video demonstrates the five
communicative language teaching methods (PhyEmoC, Task Based Learning,
eTandem learning, Simulations, and Computer Assisted
Language Learning). Go to the
video and supporting materials
The POOLS-M
partnership has decided
to open the online
evaluation areas. These
areas will remain open
for the next two years
so we can collect data
on the courses. Please
user the online forms so
you can assist us in the
work after the funded
period:
SUPSI, the Swiss pools-m partner has collected the
electronic evaluations from the past pools-m pilot courses.
The evaluation results from teachers and their students can
be downloaded here:
The Italian team member Marialuce has produced a fun unit with
exercises for learning Italian:
Test the unit here
Or use your QR reader:
October 2011
The project outcomes were presented at the EfVET 2011
conference in Malta with a round table presentation, during
the presentation the videos were displayed on computers and
the five manuals (the English versions) were presented in
eBook versions on an iPad.
SUPSI is busy preparing the final two videos in the news
series demonstrating the chosen five language teaching
methods.
In Turkey the team is making promising progress towards an
approvement (certification) of the pools-m courses
A Finnish ToI project titled IQWBL with partners from Finland,
Italy, Lithuania, Romania, and Sweden is making use of units
from the pools-m manuals. The project deals with quality
improvements of work based learning:
www.iqwbl.eu
September 2011
The project video produced by SUPSI was watched by 30
participants at the EACEA celebration of the 10th European
Day of Languages in Brussels. The participants had chosen
the workshop dealing with language teaching methods.
The project newsletter issue 31 can be downloaded
here.
August 2011
The project was presented in Nottingham at the Eurocall 2011
conference with an exhibition of outcomes, especially the
new video produced by SUPSI received much praise and was
watched by many participants (it was displayed with an iPad
as part of the exhibition.
The statistics for
the first six months of
2011 indicates
approximately 30.000
unique visitors.
Download to read here
June 2011
SUPSI, the Swiss pools-m partner has collected the electronic
evaluations from the past pools-m pilot courses. The
evaluation results from teachers and their students can be
downloaded here: ../archive/pools-m/evaluation/survey_responses.docx
Pools-m will be presented during the EfVET 2011 conference
with round table presentations:
Download the description here
A book of reference
(based on the work of
POOLS-M) for Computer
Assisted Language
Learning can now be
downloaded in
English,
Greek,
Italian, and
Turkish
The Pools-m project
teams run a free
training course on
teaching methods in
Bodrum, Turkey. The
course is between
11/07/2011 - 14/07/2011
(11th July and 14th July
are travelling dates).
To participate please
contact Burak Demirkazýk:
demirbur@yahoo.com
May 2011
The Swiss project team SUPSI has prepared a video
demonstrating three of the teaching methods.
Go to watch the video
The student travel
preparation guide has
now been updated with a
new layout:
Download the guide in
English,
Lithuanian,
Turkish, or
Italian
April 2011
The teams are preparing for the May meeting in Istanbul.
Read the agenda
The newsletter labelled issue 29 with information on how you
can attend the free courses can now be downloaded
here
March 2011
September, 28-30,
2011 the Language
Teaching Centre of
Freiburg University will
host an International
Conference on LANGUAGE
POLICY AND LANGUAGE
TEACHING:
"Multilingualism in
Society, the World of
Work, and
Politics. New
Challenges for Teaching
at
Institutes of Higher
Education/Universities".
For further information
please click directly on
the conference homepage:
www.sli-konferenz-mehrsprachigkeit.de
or check our website:
www.sli.uni-freiburg.de
February 2011
The Danish layout
artist Lone Olstrup has
created the final
versions of the pools-m
method manuals.
The Lithuanian
version of the CALL
course book is ready for
download.
The project teams met
in Pistoia, Italy for a
one week workshop, which
included a pilot course
with presentation of
language teaching
methods and tools.
The Italian team has
developed a board game
for students preparing
for a work placement
period. Download the
board in
low resolution
or in
high resolution,
Notes/manual for the
teacher can be
downloaded here.
The Danish team had a meeting preparing the pilot course for
the workshop in Pistoia in November.
A document in Danish forms the base for continued
development
August 2010
The Italian team has finalised translating and adapting the five
method manuals read their
The Italian team has prepared a teachers' guide for the board
game preparing students for International Work Placement.
Download the guide here to order the board game,
please contact: Stefano Tirati:
stefano@cscs.it
+39057350444 Website:
http://www.cscs.it
A new version of the PhyEmoC manual can now be downloaded in
English (.doc format) The manual is based on the work
done by the Turkish and Danish teams
A new version of the pools-m coursebook for Computer Assisted
Language Learning edited and improved by the Swiss team,
SUPSI
can be downloaded in .pdf format here, or in
Word format here. The teams are now
preparing translations into German, Italian, Lithuanian, and
Maltese
eTandem
(Pending
final
approval
before
translations
begin)
The teams have
started preparing new
exercises to go with the
methods, the materials
will be presented in
Istanbul in May. After
the Istanbul workshop
the material will be
online from here
The project teams have now been joined by a Swiss partner: The
University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI)
is one of the 8 Universities of Applied Sciences in
Switzerland. A warm welcome to SUPSI:-)
The Danish coordinators have had a local meeting,
read the minutes.
Jolita from the Lithuanian project team has finished the
adaptation and updating of the "Simulations Manual".
Download it here
Theproject
newsletter issue 24
(January - March 2010)
can be downloaded
here
News from a pools-m
project friend: EU
grants for course on WEB
2.0 and Language
Education.
'Designing activities
for the 2.0 Language
Classroom' (A Comenius
professional development
course)
In conjunction with the
Utrecht University
Summer School the
Faculties of Education
of Heidelberg and
Utrecht Universities of
Applied Sciences offer a
7-day, international
course exploring WEB 2.0
applications such as
Wiki
and Web-logging,
real-time communication
(Videoconferencing and
3D Virtual Worlds) and
the Language Quest
format for integrating
the World Wide Web into
classroom teaching.
Besides, the course
location in the
brand-new building of
the Faculty of Education
in Utrecht, the
Netherlands, allows for
demonstration of good
practices of and
personal training in the
use of Interactive
Whiteboards.
Intended participants
are practising (student)
language teachers,
teacher trainers and
materials developers.
Dates: 10-07-2010 -
16-07-2010
More information and
registration at:
http://www.utrechtsummerschool.nl/index.php?type=courses&code=S5
Persons eligible for EU
Comenius Grants can
apply at their National
Agency for compensation
of costs for travel,
accommodation and fees
for this course. <b>The
deadline for grant
applications is January
15</b>, 2010, but please
confirm with your
National Agency for
country-specific
deadlines.
N.B. Participants who
would like to extend
their visit to the
Netherlands can apply
for an additional period
of campus accommodation
at 135 Euro per week.
Ton Koenraad, MA,
ICT-E consultant,
Hogeschool Utrecht
University of Applied
Sciences
http://www.koenraad.info
http://www.niflar.eu
The kick-off workshop in Brussels was a success where the
teams worked together learning each others languages through
selected language teaching methods.
Read the meeting evaluation. This worked both as team
building and gave us the experience being learners "again".
Watch the teams learning:
Exercise for learning Danish; a video with text linked to an
English dictionary,
or an Italian
dictionary The exercise is the post task after a
task based lesson in Brussels.
Pools-m has started the
funded period. First
meeting is in Brussels
on December 7th to 11th.
Read the agenda here.
A first project
brochure has been
produced to be used as
handouts at conferences
and meeting,Download here
The pools-m project blog has been set up, we still experiment
with layout and functions. Click on "Project blog" from the
main menu in this page, or
go directly to the
blog from here
A pools-m section has been set up in the "Project documents"
area with all project documents, and reports (e.g. the
application, meeting agendas and minutes, reporting
documents, etc.). Click on "Project Documents" from the main
menu in this page, or
go directly to the document area from here
The newsletters below cover the period from the first methods
project BP-BLTM to now. After the funded project period the
Newsletters will be continued (as has been the case since
BP-BLTM:-)
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
