Update Feb 2025
What is happening right now?
The 18 teachers involved in this project meet once a month online with our partner, Simeon Oxley, heritage language teacher and trainer at Enheten för Flerspråkighet, Uppsala (EFF). During these meetings, they share their experiences and participate in workshops.
Each meeting is structured around working with the pilot, during the Autumn they focused on the context and local circumstances for Heritage Language Education (HLE) and now in the Spring they bring this understanding to evaluating 12 learning activities proposed in the pilot plan. The teachers are encouraged to develop, share and ultimately test activities that are created by teachers involved in the project. Between meetings, teachers are encouraged to reflect on each session, the classroom activities they are testing and be in dialogue with each other.
What does the Pilot model look like?
The Pilot model is a vehicle for producing the Handbook to be published once the Pilot phase has been concluded. At present the pilot is divided into four chapters: 1. introducing the model, 2. what is heritage language education?, 3. situating HLE in local contexts and perspectives and 4. classroom activities. Activities proposed in the final chapter build upon an acknowledgement of context and an understanding that language learning and teaching is complex and dynamic. These activities are related to perspectives of language, identity, interculturality and knowledge. The intention of the pilot is to provide learning activities that can be developed and provide teachers with the necessary tools to create, share and evaluate each other’s activities based on a solid understanding of important factors in the local context.
Source:
Ackerman-Boström, C.; Oxley, S.; Reath Warren, A.“Your language counts! Erasmus+ Pilot model for HLE teachers”. Uppsala. 2024
The 18 teachers involved in this project meet once a month online with our partner, Simeon Oxley, heritage language teacher and trainer at Enheten för Flerspråkighet, Uppsala (EFF). During these meetings, they share their experiences and participate in workshops.
Each meeting is structured around working with the pilot, during the Autumn they focused on the context and local circumstances for Heritage Language Education (HLE) and now in the Spring they bring this understanding to evaluating 12 learning activities proposed in the pilot plan. The teachers are encouraged to develop, share and ultimately test activities that are created by teachers involved in the project. Between meetings, teachers are encouraged to reflect on each session, the classroom activities they are testing and be in dialogue with each other.
What does the Pilot model look like?
The Pilot model is a vehicle for producing the Handbook to be published once the Pilot phase has been concluded. At present the pilot is divided into four chapters: 1. introducing the model, 2. what is heritage language education?, 3. situating HLE in local contexts and perspectives and 4. classroom activities. Activities proposed in the final chapter build upon an acknowledgement of context and an understanding that language learning and teaching is complex and dynamic. These activities are related to perspectives of language, identity, interculturality and knowledge. The intention of the pilot is to provide learning activities that can be developed and provide teachers with the necessary tools to create, share and evaluate each other’s activities based on a solid understanding of important factors in the local context.
Source:
Ackerman-Boström, C.; Oxley, S.; Reath Warren, A.“Your language counts! Erasmus+ Pilot model for HLE teachers”. Uppsala. 2024
Pilot Description
The pilot project aims to test practices in heritage language teaching and discussing the results. It centres on cooperation with 18 teachers who teach the heritage languages (HL) Arabic, Farsi, Russian, Somali, Turkish or Ukrainian at pilot schools in Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands during the school year of September 2024 to May 2025.
Following an intensive exchange of knowledge and experience, the partners involved in the project developed a pilot model for testing heritage language teaching practices that address the existing challenges and tests solutions at six selected schools in Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands.
Under the leadership of our partner Enheten för Flerspråkighet, they will spend a school year (September 2024-May 2025) exchanging ideas on the topics of materials, school organisation and family outreach and developing practical examples in peer groups. They will be supported by our experienced partners and receive professional training in workshops. The teachers document the exchange and results on an interactive platform, which will be further developed after the pilot phase and opened to other HL teachers in Europe.
The professional monitoring and evaluation of the pilot project will result in the development of a handbook with practical recommendations for the implementation of heritage language teaching in the national school systems.
Contact:
Simeon Oxley /EFF: simeon.oxley@uppsala.se
Following an intensive exchange of knowledge and experience, the partners involved in the project developed a pilot model for testing heritage language teaching practices that address the existing challenges and tests solutions at six selected schools in Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands.
Under the leadership of our partner Enheten för Flerspråkighet, they will spend a school year (September 2024-May 2025) exchanging ideas on the topics of materials, school organisation and family outreach and developing practical examples in peer groups. They will be supported by our experienced partners and receive professional training in workshops. The teachers document the exchange and results on an interactive platform, which will be further developed after the pilot phase and opened to other HL teachers in Europe.
The professional monitoring and evaluation of the pilot project will result in the development of a handbook with practical recommendations for the implementation of heritage language teaching in the national school systems.
Contact:
Simeon Oxley /EFF: simeon.oxley@uppsala.se