NEWS
We are pleased to announce that the APATCHE project has been completed and its Final Report evaluated positively.
We are ready to implement the project ideas and the created materials into our professional activities. We hope you will do the same and find them interesting and useful.
We'll continue keeping you informed about all project-related events and endeavors!
Some moments from the APATCHE Multiplier Event 3 at University of Sacred Heart, organized on the first day of 2023 CEL/ELC conference “Languages at Higher Education: plurilingual approaches and competences enhancement at AI time’. The event took place on November 23rd in Milan, Italy.
See ME agenda
On 25 September 2023, the APATCHE hybrid Multiplier Event was organized at University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal. The participants were welcomed by Paulo Águas, Rector of University of Algarve; Vilma Bijeikienė, Vice-rector for Communication at Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania; Luís Sérgio Vieira, Dean of the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences of UAlgarve and Manuel Célio Conceição, the local coordinator of APATCHE.
- Susana Pinto (University of Aveiro) delivered a thought-provoking presentation titled “Plurilingual and Intercultural Education: An Asset or a Burden in HE?”, focusing on strategic multilingualism.
- Pedro Sousa’s (University of Algarve) presentation “The Importance of being plurilingual and pluricultural” centered on the insights derived from the ECML Summer Academy held in 2023, emphasizing the significance of plurilingualism and pluriculturalism in European language teacher education.
- Manuel Célio Conceição’s (University of Algarve) presentation “Plurilingual approach in HE. A paradigm shift from emergent needs and unknown challenges” addressed the evolving needs and unforeseen challenges faced by contemporary educators and institutions.
- Nemira Mačianskienė (Vytautas Magnus University) presented the ongoing work of the APATCHE project, its rationale, aims and objectives, organizational scheme, and the website of the project.
- Kris Peeters and Jim Ureel (University of Antwerpen) presented the project result “Descriptive scale of plurilingual competence”, a novel framework for self-assessing and understanding plurilingual competence.
- Maria Teresa Zanola, Silvia Gilardoni, Maria Vittoria Lo Presti and Luisa Satirana’s (Catholic University of Milano) presentation titled “What is plurilingualism?” presented the ongoing work of the development of Module WHAT for the Open Online Course.
- Neuza Costa, Manuel Célio Conceição and Pedro Sousa (University of Algarve) encouraged the attendees to contemplate the question “Why do we need a plurilingual approaches in HE?” and presented the ongoing work of the development of Module WHY for the Open Online Course.
- Anna Murkowska, Jacek Romaniuk, Joanna Fitula (University of Warsaw) and Maria Vittoria Lo Presti’s (Catholic University of Milano) presentation “How to implement plurilingual approaches in HE?” discussed the practical integration of plurilingual approaches and presented the ongoing work of the development of Module HOW for the Open Online Course.
On 9 June 2023, the APATCHE Multiplier Event was organized at Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania. The event was a great success and was attended by a number of language teachers and teachers of other subjects at HE or other institutions, the members of the administrative staff and people interested in plurilingual approaches. The event was really plurilingual and pluricultural and the participants from Belgium, The Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland engaged in fruitful discussions on how to use plurilingual approaches in HE and develop teachers' plurilingual competences.
See ME agenda
See ME evaluation survey results
A roundtable discussion THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGES IN HE TEACHING closed the 1st day of the Sustainable Multilingualism International Conference 2023 in Kaunas, Lithuania on 9 June, 2023.
Moderator: Kris Peeters, University of Antwerp, Belgium
Panelists: Manuel Celio Conceição (University of Algarve, Portugal); François Grin (University of Geneva, Switzerland); Enrica Piccardo (University of Toronto, Canada); Maria Teresa Zanola (Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Italy)
Thank you everyone for such an enriching discussion!
The 4th transnational APATCHE project meeting took place in Vytautas Magnus University Botanical Garden on 8 June 2023, where constructive discussions on finalizing the project results were held.
On 17 March 2023, the 1st APATCHE Multiplier Event was hosted by the Centre for Foreign Language Teacher Training and European Education of the University of Warsaw. The event was attended by a number of experts from language disciplines representing higher education institutions, including teachers, educators, and project experts. The aim of the event was to present the developed project results and promote the use of plurilingual approaches in HE.
The APATCHE DESCRIPTIVE SCALE of plurilingual teacher competence in higher education, as a tool for professional growth, was presented by Kris Peeters (University of Antwerp) and The APATCHE SURVEY: some data on HE teachers’ knowledge (What), awareness and attitudes (Why), and skills (How) - by Jim Ureel (University of Antwerp).
Partners, coordinating the development of Modules for the Open Online Course, introduced the developed material, and discussed key terms and topics:
- Module 1 What? – presented by Silvia Gilardoni, Maria Vittoria Lo Presti, and Luisa Sartirana (the Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Milan).
- Module 2 Why? – presented by Pedro Sousa (University of Algarve, Portugal)
- Module 3 How? – by the hosting institution: Jacek Romaniuk and Joanna Fituła. A workshop on Plurilingual didactics was held by prof. Radosław Kucharczyk (the University of Warsaw).
The 3rd Transnational Project Meeting was held in the University of Warsaw on 18 March 2023. We summarized the results of the ME1 and agreed on the current tasks for the implementation of the project results.
After productive discussions on the opportunities and challenges of plurilingual education, the APATCHE team enjoyed exchanging positive emotions. Thank you all for your valuable contributions!
A productive meeting of the APATCHE project team was organised in Faro, 26-27 September 2022. Dean of the faculty of Human and Social Sciences of UAlg, Vice-rector for Internationalisation and Sustainability of UAlg and Vice-rector for Communication of VMU stressed the impact of the APATCHE project on ensuring linguistic diversity and plurilingualism in HE as well as its contribution to the aims of European Universities Alliances. The project implementation process was monitored by:
- presenting the work completed to date and the emergent issues associated with the field of languages in different contexts
- agreeing upon further organisation of the work in PR3
- renewing and emphasizing common values about the project
- enhancing collaboration between the project partners
- writing the Interim Report together!
Another productive meeting of the APATCHE project team was organised in Antwerp, 13-14 May 2022. After a careful revision of the ongoing project work, a collective workshop was held to answer the following questions:
- what should go into the descriptive scale of plurilingual competence for HE teachers?
- how can the CEFR’s methodology and its illustrative descriptors be used?
- how can existing frameworks and resources such as MAGICC, FREPA, PluriMobil, LANQUA and PLURCUR be applied?
- how can we use the Council of Europe’s Guide for the Development and Implementation of Curricula for Plurilingual And Intercultural Education?
- what should our APATCHE scale look like?
Many thanks to everyone!
APATCHE project was presented in the International Conference “Appreciating Plurilingual Competences: Current and Future perspectives” in Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic on 2-3 June 2022
Project presenters Vilma Bijeikienė and Nemira Mačianskienė
