Working with disadvantaged children in Romania

The VIVACE project partner in Romania, the EuroEd Foundation, is accredited by the Ministry of Education and Research and is part of the national education system. It is located in Iasi, a large city in the east of Romania, and has a close relationship with institutions in the region. EuroED promotes innovation in education, especially in teaching and learning foreign languages.

Nine per cent of children in Romania have parents who work abroad and are often brought up by other family members.  They are separated from their parents for long periods.  The VIVACE team in Romania worked with a variety of social providers to reach these children and come up with activities which would give them an insight into the language and culture of the countries where their parents are living.

One of the social partners was the Church of Saint Martyrs in Iasi. With them EuroEd decided to run a Christmas activity for children whose parents were in Italy.  Italy is a common destination for Romanian migrant workers with its close linguistic link. The aim of the session was to introduce children to the language and some customs of the country where their parents are working.

The event was announced by the Church and on the day more than 40 children and adults (their carers, who are usually other family members) attended.  The children, who by and large come from impoverished families, often live in challenging social and emotional situations.

The event was led by an Italian teacher and participants were taught a little Italian, told something about life in Italy and Italian Christmas customs, given a simple Italian-Romanian dictionary (custom-made for the event) and sang carols in both languages.

Languages for people with learning disabilities in the Czech Republic 

Our Czech partner worked with Empatie, a centre in České Budějovice which cares for adults with learning disabilities providing both day and residential care.  

The Empatie Centre, where the clients normally live or meet every day, was ideally equipped for our needs. Empatie also has a café in the centre of the city run by people with learning disabilities called “In between”

Working with groups such as this, we’ve learnt that it’s important to combine the language learning with other practical, hands-on activities, so in this case English was taught through the medium of cooking.

In the course of three 120 minute sessions, the clients of both the day–care centre and the permanent home learned the names of ingredients and some basic language together with the development of their kinaesthetic skills.

Linguistic aims were modest: to learn basic greetings, to say one´s name, to learn the names of ingredients for each recipe, to count the ingredients, to order drinks in a restaurant.

Teaching people to fish in Hungary

`Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a life` is the slogan of the Hungarian partner, Libra Books.  So for them teaching people ways to learn a language independently and to build a set of skills which could be adapted to the learning of any language was an important goal. 

In the three different VIVACE initiatives in Hungary, the target groups were young drop-outs from socially deprived areas, people with physical and learning disabilities and the blind and visually impaired.   

To reach the first group, Libra worked with the Social Welfare Services and Sub-Regional Children’s Welfare Services in Vaja and Var Language School, Kisvarda. This area of the country is among the ones which have the highest rate of unemployment, mostly affecting youngsters.  One of the reasons for being unemployed is the low level of education and the lack of any language competence.  The young people were offered a taster session in English which focussed on the use of the internet, had demonstrations of  a range of self study materials and did some mini-lessons. They were signposted to further language learning opportunities in the region.

Study Circles in Slovenia

In Slovenia, VIVACE works with disadvantaged adults through the well-established study circle method, which is a highly learner-centred approach.  A wide range of different kinds of learners have taken part in languages study circles – prisoners, those with hearing difficulties,  blind and visually impaired groups, young people with learning disabilities, war victims.  A study circle is fuelled by the needs and interests of the individual, who, to the best of his/her ability, actively participates in learning and work within the circle.  Every study circle decides by itself what, where and how they will learn.  Our language study circles have used cooking, literature, travel and music , as a focus for their language learning. Besides selecting the content, participants also select their own goal.  Learning in a study circle always leads toward concrete conclusions: products, events, exhibitions, excursions, literary evenings, publishing of brochures, theatre plays... so not only does the circle encourage the creativity of participants, but also contributes to the development of their community.   Languages study circles in Slovenia have produced  quizzes, comic strips, posters and articles for in-house publications.

Each study circle has a mentor who supports the group.  For the language study circles they were not required to speak the foreign language but were given training in study circle methods.  See also the Links section for further information on Study Circles.

Engaging young people in the UK

Stratford-upon-Avon College was been an enthusiastic collaborator in VIVACE, working alongside VIVACE coordinators at Nottingham Trent University.  At first there was some scepticism among the course leaders in the College about positive outcomes.  The group in question – seven girls and one boy, all over seventeen - had serious social and educational disadvantages.  They came from difficult backgrounds: some were victims of abuse or lack of parental interest and their interest or knowledge outside their immediate environment was very restricted. They had been expelled from mainstream schools and some had been in trouble with the police.

The teacher used the group’s favourite subjects as a way in and planned activities designed to keep their interest and motivation for a one day event with two languages, Spanish and Italian. Staff at the college felt that the measure of success would be if the group stayed in the room.

Activities ranged from quizzes to dressing-up, as well as preparing and tasting traditional dishes; mostly they were conducted in the target language, supported by lots of body language, in individual or small group work.

The college teaching staff were surprised by the results: increased concentration span, willing participation, motivation, excellent feedback that even said they’d like to learn more.  And best of all, the learners stayed until the very end of the session!