English course for all teachers: overcoming language barriers in multicultural classrooms

The course content is for teachers of all group ages and all subjects that wish to engage into the importance of teachers’ language awareness and understand how to utilize the linguistic diversity existing in their classrooms. We are using English as the middle ground language to deal with the language barrier, especially when it comes to classes where early arrived refugees and immigrants are included. During the course teachers will learn how to create/adjust and develop learning activities and multilingual projects, they will become familiar with ICT language tools and open resources for language teaching and they will develop key skills such as designing activities to support communication, checking learner’s understanding and provide a personal feedback.

Teachers (primary, secondary, vocational, adult) who work in multicultural environments, deal with linguistic diversity into their classrooms and are trying to benefit from this diversity regardless of the subject they usually teach.

• Raise teachers’ “awareness of the students” language diversity.
• Learn to empower language teaching with innovative technologies and ICT tools and apply them in the classroom.
• Explore and understand the use of freely available online tools and open educational resources for language teaching and learning to integrate in the classroom.
• Provide educators/teachers with the knowledge and skills to design language activities.
• Provide educators/teachers with the knowledge and skills to assess the level of understanding by their students.
• Provide educators/teachers with the knowledge and skills to provide a personal feedback for every student.

Every group is special and we tailor the working methods based upon participants’ needs, previous experience, attitudes and professional profiles in order to ensure high productivity, effectiveness and transferability into practice. Our teachers are using highly practical and participatory methods with hands-on approach that comprises real-job examples, case studies examination and simulations. We embrace collaboratively working methods that foster mutual learning and cooperation among participants. Our focus is on learning in an interactive and international environment knowledge applicable to the real contexts and/or in the classroom. The pedagogical methods that we use are based upon experiential training, group and peer activities, learning-by-doing and best practices’ exchange.

Morning Wrap-up and brief daily evaluations are foreseen to ensure quality of education and to adapt the learning program to participants’ needs better tailoring the education.
We organize optional social, networking and cultural activities in order to give participants the opportunity to know Athens as well as to exchange best-practice and establish professional cooperation and links.

Trainees will be supported by the e-Nable Greece Erasmus+ trainees Facebook Group. The administrators of the Group will give instant feedback to any trainees’ question or problem.

In addition, trainees will be provided the educational material of the course in copies and in digital files. This material may be used by the trainees for presentation to their own organizations in order to generate interest in the methods that are taught and their applications.

By the end of this course the trainees involved will have:

-raised their awareness on the issues and implications of multilingualism and multiculturalism on learning;

-identified their own attitudes and beliefs about teaching multilingual and multicultural learners;

-identified their “language awareness” of their students

-considered some of the linguistic and cultural issues which may inhibit learning;

-identified some of the areas of the curriculum which could challenge the multilingual or multicultural learner;

-gained a set of teaching strategies that will engage and encourage their learners and will provide a platform for learning in multi-lingual classrooms;

-learnt how to deal with cultural differences inside the classroom and make the most out of cultural diversity;

-learnt how to implement best diversity policies and take affirmative actions;

-strengthened professional profile

-increased capacity to cooperate on an international level

-contributed in the Internationalization of the sending organizations-opportunity for future cooperation (job shadowing/partnerships)

-achieved improvement of language skills