Introducing VIVACE

“Language is the path to understanding other ways of living, which in turn opens up the space for intercultural communication. The ability to understand and communicate in other languages is a right and a basic skill for all European citizens.”

Commission of the European Communities (2003) Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity: An Action Plan 2004-2006

VIVACE is a language learning project with a difference.  VIVACE recognises that across the EU there are still many citizens who have been excluded from language learning opportunities for reasons of disadvantage.

VIVACE provides a route to the experience of language learning for disadvantaged groups and individuals and helps them overcome some of the barriers they face in engaging with their own immediate environment and with the idea of the linguistic variety of the European Union more broadly.  

VIVACE stands for Voices for Inclusion, Voices for Access to Language Learning and Cultural Education.

Outcomes of VIVACE

Over the project lifetime VIVACE has:

• made the experience of language learning accessible to disadvantaged learners
• helped to increase learners’ confidence and self-esteem
• improved learners’ social and communication skills
• spread the message that language learning is valuable for everyone to a wide range of social and community care providers
• provided new insights into language learning approaches for teachers and tutors.

Award winning work

VIVACE builds on and develops the expertise and experience of the multi-award winning ALLEGRO project, funded under Socrates LINGUA 1, which ran from 2002-2005.  The focus of ALLEGRO (Access to Language Learning by Extending to Groups Outside) was to take language learning into the community and to target ‘hard-to-reach’ individuals and groups with no, or only minimal, prior experience of language learning. 

The pioneering initiative and approach developed by ALLEGRO was recognised by the award of three European Language Labels (France, Slovenia and the UK).  In 2007 ALLEGRO was awarded a coveted bronze European Lifelong Learning Prize from the European Commission.