EURINGLISH

The project priorities:

In terms of priorities, the project is focused on 4 interconnected and mutually supportive areas.

• The 1^st area is European culture. The purpose of the project is to make participants aware of how difficult it has been for Europeans to come together, join their cultures, and build a unified Europe. Europeans have devoted much energy and money as well as many lives to build their union. However, there are currently many threats to the achievements of the preceding generations, which could be destroyed by exits from the EU. We want to demonstrate to participants that we have a common history, and despite having faced enormous problems and conflicts, we have managed to create a unified Europe with all its many advantages. It is so important to stress this at present, when there are many forces acting to weaken Europe and destabilize the EU.
• The 2^nd area is language learning. Naturally, our languages are one of the keystones of our culture, which makes Europe and its cultures quite diverse and culturally rich. However, they also provide a substantial challenge, because multiple languages make it more difficult for Europeans to communicate among themselves. Therefore, it is extremely important for Europeans to learn languages for communication purposes.
• The 3^rd area is innovation and creativity. This new type of game format will motivate students to participate and experience learning a language in an entirely different way: they will be learning a language and thinking about cultural aspects while playing a game.
• The 4^th area is digitalization and online learning. Online learning is becoming more and more important – the COVID-19 crisis has forced our society to double down in this area and take big steps forward. We want and need to take other steps to make online learning more professional, provide it with added value, and make it even more attractive for it to continue to be sustainable after the crisis ends. Our resulting course will have a full online version, which will help online language learning to become more advanced and attractive.

The game:

The game is based on a gripping story taking place in the year 2186 after all memory of humankind and its identity has been deleted in the wake of an aggressive invasion of Earth by the technologically superior planet Brilat Majoris. After many years, the invaders retreated, leaving Europe exhausted and depressed. Although material needs such as housing, health, and consumer goods were being met, the population had lost all its ethical and cultural references. However, there is now a chance for recovery. Europeans discovered a time tunnel left by the invaders and have decided to send a patrol of brave people to travel to various historical moments to gather knowledge about our past and return with a summary of European historical experience and identity.

The course’s students become patrol members and are sent to different periods in European history to discover the essentials of each historical period, solve tasks, and summarize this in a book for humankind.  

The participants are placed in a particular moment in history, where they then spend three lessons. At the beginning, the patrol members are introduced to the time period through reading, listening, and short animations. They must complete a set of activities focused on vocabulary, grammar, and communication skills and must solve tasks like role playing, making presentations, and participating in discussions.

At the end, they finally sum up what they have learned about this experience inside European history and write a chapter for the book that will be brought back to humankind in 2186 to help Europeans regain their identity.

The course structure:

The course participants start the game as a group and are guided by a teacher, either online or face to face.

The course will be developed for 4 language levels (A1, A2, B1, and B2), and each of the 4 levels will be divided into 10 moments in history.

Each historical moment will be covered during three 90-minute lessons, so that each language level will include 10 x 3 = 30 lessons per 90 minutes + individual work for the participants.

Project outcomes:

• The course curriculum – the overall game rules, the structure of the game as a whole, the goals and messages of each historical situation as well as of individual episodes and tasks.
• Teaching materials located on the course’s digital platform in two versions – face to face and online, always at the various language levels (A1, A2, B1, B2).
• The online version would offer all materials in one platform. The materials for the face to face version will also be available for download from this platform.
• Testing – there will be a pilot course for each language level.
• A guide for teachers.