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ALL and TOOL Projects
Case studies of creativity
and innovation in a
multilingual context
Aisling O’Donovan, CNAI
Iasi, June 2009

The Multilingual Context
• Mandarin Chinese, English, Hindi and
Spanish are the world’s most spoken
languages.
• 90% of the world’s 6000 languages will
disappear in the next 100 years.

Languages in Danger
•516 languages are nearly extinct.
•Languages are in danger, dying and
extinct all over the planet.
•One falls out of use every two weeks.

Some Geography
Romance
Germanic
Celtic
Slavic
Baltic
Albanian
Greek
Turkish
Basque
Finn-Ugric

Some Politics
Article 22, Lisbon Treaty signed
by 26 member states states that
“the Union shall respect cultural,
religious and linguistic
diversity.”

Respect is an ambiguous term and it
only affects legislation coming from the
EU, not state legislation.

Charter for Regional and Minority
Languages 1998
Eight fundamental
principles and
objectives for states to
follow:
• Recognition of regional or
minority languages as an
expression of cultural
wealth.
• Respect for the
geographical area of each
regional or minority
language.
• The need for resolute
action to promote such
languages.

• The facilitation and/or
encouragement of the
use of such languages, in
speech and writing, in
public and private life.
• The provision of
appropriate forms and
means for the teaching
and study of such
languages at all
appropriate stages.
• The promotion of
relevant transnational
exchanges.
• The prohibition of all forms
of unjustified distinction,
exclusion, restriction or
preference relating to the
use of a regional or
minority language and
intended to discourage or
endanger its maintenance
or development.
• The promotion by states of
mutual understanding
between all the country’s
linguistic groups.

Minority or not?
While most of the languages of these projects,
are in fact official state languages spoken by
millions, their learners often form minority
groups within other regions and countries.

Histories
• The languages of the partner countries have
had histories both of being repressed and
repressing.
• Partner countries have sometimes been
isolated from other countries.
• This isolation has led, in some cases to
difficulties in terms of socio-economic
development.

Charters, treaties and agreements...
• Lofty and valid aims on a macro level, but
multilingual context is politically complex.
• Proscriptive language legislation being
overruled by the Supreme Court in
Strasbourg.
• Elected MPs actively campaigning against the
protection of minority languages.

A little Philosophy
•The project teams are all people with a
passion for the learning and teaching of
languages.
“Those who know nothing of foreign
languages know nothing of their own”
Philosopher, Goethe

Multilingual Context
Politics, History, Geography, Philosophy
•Projects like TOOL and ALL, are not just
professional commitments, they are
deeply personal ones

In 2006, the Executive Agency, the
agency that supervises the putting into
the effect of EU policies, in Brussels,
accepted the applications of the TOOL
and ALL projects, Socrates would
finance the projects under the Lingua
programme.

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Joint kick off meeting

First Milestone
•With an only 30% acceptance rate of
applications, this was the first
achievement of the two projects
•But back to the Executive Agency…

Innovation
•The agency will only finance innovative
projects
•A key brief of both projects is to be
innovative
•in terms of methodology and technology

From macro to micro: the ALL Story
THE ALL STORY

ALL project map

Български език
• 9-12 million
speakers
• Indo-European,
Slavic family
• Cyrillic alphabet

Limba română
• 28 million
speakers
• Indo.European,
Romance family
• Adapted Roman
alphabet

Lietuvių kalba
• 3 million speakers
• Indo European,
Baltic family
• Adapted Roman
alphabet

Türkçe
• 63 million speakers
• Uralic-Altaic
• Adapted Roman
alphabet

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Innovative Approach: Blended Method
Challenge
Diverse languages and learning contexts
Inflections, Cases, Genders, lexis,syntax,
Agglutinating, Alphabets, Phonetics
Would one project approach be possible, that
would suit such diversity?

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Tutor Guide: Blended Model

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One Method?
•Diverse teaching philosophies and
backgrounds.
•Grammar translation, functional notional,
Berlitz method, task based learning, teacher-
centered learning.
•Need to unify the terms and definitions in
which language learning objectives would be
stated across the project in the language
syllabi.
Wealth & Chaos!

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Blended Approach

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Transparent Learning
Objectives

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Student Guide: CEF

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Tutor Guide: CEF

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Innovative Method: Development of
learner Autonomy
Need to guide the learners through the blended
learning field, to help them negotiate the different
materials available on the courses
• Student and tutor guides
• Transparent learning objectives in every activity
and in every unit
• Orientation tutorials and units
• Diary
In some languages a need to develop learning
materials from scratch.

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project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication 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.
DotSub: Any Video Any Language

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Innovative: Method
•Ever-changing potential of new technologies
would need to be realized.
•Need not just for the motivational and gimmick
factor that pictures, sound and movies have but
to use them for communicative teaching
•Need to train editors in the use of platform to
edit on platform, to visit new softwares, use new
cameras, to upload images, sound files, video
files.
•Conversations and differing perspectives in
Brussels and in Sofia.

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Videocast: Turkish course

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Technology for Collaboration
• Need to fully exploit the collaborative and
communicative possibilities of technology, when
neither the communicative teaching philosophy nor
the use of the technology was automatic to the
target course users (teachers and students). Both in
some cases, not just unfamiliar but alienating to
target users
• Need to write this effective use of write boards,
messages, Skype and Web 2.0 to achieve learning
targets into course design

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Innovation: Collaboration Online

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Every ribbon is a thought

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“Language shapes the way we
think, and determines what we
can think about.”
Benjamin Lee Whorf,
linguist of Hebrew

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Summing up!
• Multilingual context
• The ALL Project Story
• Ways in which we have been innovative and
creative in the project
• A multilingual anecdote in TOOL, the board
and the map in 100 years?
• The TOOL story…