Dear friends,
Language Learning for the Screen Generation - our latest project in the frame of Erasmus+ - is well and truly underway. Last week, we had the privilege to host the second transnational partner meeting here in our very own Manchester. From Wednesday until Saturday, alongside our partners from IIPC, Kedainiai Language School and Bragamob, we discussed the progress made so far, we set our midterm goals and we developed strategies to meet these goals by the end of the project next September.
On Thursday, we also held a day-long language teaching workshop, involving numerous lively discussions, as well as two majorly interesting talks.
For the first talk, we must be thankful to Mr James Miley, Chairman of the UK TaeKwon-Do federation, as well as instructor at TridentTKD Academy. Though his introduction was met with scepticism by our partners, as well as guests from our network of local language teachers, due to his very different background, his methodologies were soon warmly embraced by all. His hour-long talk (see video below) concentrated on problems surrounding differentiation, motivation, recognition and adaptation. In addition, he involved our delegates in a fun exercise which taught them the importance of peer teaching, peer assessment and active involvement in the learning process. He made connections between the practices in teaching TaeKwon-Do and teaching languages, which everybody in the room found helpful and applicable in their practice.
Before and after the talk, Mr Miley took the time to get to know the guests in the room and to answer their questions. Our partners were fascinated by the different route taken by Linguistic Aid Kit and congratulated us on the choice of a speaker. They felt that the methods used by the speaker were transferrable to their own practice but often overlooked due to the lack of different perspectives.
Subsequently, our Director Abboh Savchoff delivered a talk which escalated from general educational issues through new teaching approaches in linguistics, as well as in general, and ultimately focusing on the potential of technology to overcome some of the pressing issues when working alongside humans. This fostered several discussions concerning the relevance of our project for the future of language education. Naturally, we spent a lot of time talking about the methodology toolkit - our ultimate deliverable. This toolkit we have left open for uploads by all members of our teachers’ network so please feel free to visit it and upload anything you feel is relevant to our mission.
Finally, two inspirational videos were played to emphasise the importance of creativity – in students as well as tutors – and adaptation to people and circumstances alike. These videos were also of great value to our partners since they managed to place our project very precisely in the context of modern education and give us guidelines as for the direction we need to take to deliver a valuable output in a little over a year. In addition, they brought on a conversation which led us to start planning a next project, an extension of the current one, thought to allow us to develop apps and other software to facilitate language learning.
The next step will be for Linguistic Aid Kit to organise a series of seminars and workshops in Manchester and the surrounding areas, where we will offer seats for professionals at very low prices. These events will allow for networking, development, professional growth as well as involvement in the making of a new generation of linguistic education.
Please follow our website and facebook page for more information or simply contact us at your earliest convenience.
Please do not forget to leave your comments and, of course,
Stay classy
Linguistic Aid Kit
Language Learning for the Screen Generation - our latest project in the frame of Erasmus+ - is well and truly underway. Last week, we had the privilege to host the second transnational partner meeting here in our very own Manchester. From Wednesday until Saturday, alongside our partners from IIPC, Kedainiai Language School and Bragamob, we discussed the progress made so far, we set our midterm goals and we developed strategies to meet these goals by the end of the project next September.
On Thursday, we also held a day-long language teaching workshop, involving numerous lively discussions, as well as two majorly interesting talks.
For the first talk, we must be thankful to Mr James Miley, Chairman of the UK TaeKwon-Do federation, as well as instructor at TridentTKD Academy. Though his introduction was met with scepticism by our partners, as well as guests from our network of local language teachers, due to his very different background, his methodologies were soon warmly embraced by all. His hour-long talk (see video below) concentrated on problems surrounding differentiation, motivation, recognition and adaptation. In addition, he involved our delegates in a fun exercise which taught them the importance of peer teaching, peer assessment and active involvement in the learning process. He made connections between the practices in teaching TaeKwon-Do and teaching languages, which everybody in the room found helpful and applicable in their practice.
Before and after the talk, Mr Miley took the time to get to know the guests in the room and to answer their questions. Our partners were fascinated by the different route taken by Linguistic Aid Kit and congratulated us on the choice of a speaker. They felt that the methods used by the speaker were transferrable to their own practice but often overlooked due to the lack of different perspectives.
Subsequently, our Director Abboh Savchoff delivered a talk which escalated from general educational issues through new teaching approaches in linguistics, as well as in general, and ultimately focusing on the potential of technology to overcome some of the pressing issues when working alongside humans. This fostered several discussions concerning the relevance of our project for the future of language education. Naturally, we spent a lot of time talking about the methodology toolkit - our ultimate deliverable. This toolkit we have left open for uploads by all members of our teachers’ network so please feel free to visit it and upload anything you feel is relevant to our mission.
Finally, two inspirational videos were played to emphasise the importance of creativity – in students as well as tutors – and adaptation to people and circumstances alike. These videos were also of great value to our partners since they managed to place our project very precisely in the context of modern education and give us guidelines as for the direction we need to take to deliver a valuable output in a little over a year. In addition, they brought on a conversation which led us to start planning a next project, an extension of the current one, thought to allow us to develop apps and other software to facilitate language learning.
The next step will be for Linguistic Aid Kit to organise a series of seminars and workshops in Manchester and the surrounding areas, where we will offer seats for professionals at very low prices. These events will allow for networking, development, professional growth as well as involvement in the making of a new generation of linguistic education.
Please follow our website and facebook page for more information or simply contact us at your earliest convenience.
Please do not forget to leave your comments and, of course,
Stay classy
Linguistic Aid Kit
