This post is to inform you about an opportunity to join an ErasmusPlus KA2 Project initiative as an associated partner. Find more information about the project proposal below.
The project consortium that developed this application consists of experts on (the training of) the pedagogical use of corpus linguistics tools and methods at the universities of Turin (coordinator), Warsaw, Limerick and Jaume I (Spain), TELLConsult and the Dutch enterprise EDIA, expert in automated content labelling, CEFR readability classification and development of Artificial Intelligence-based web applications.

Project goal(s)

The intended project (October 2023 –  September 2026) aims to contribute to the use of corpus-based approaches and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven applications in secondary general and vocational language education to support (foreign) language pedagogies in response to changing views on the role of content in language learning and the development of subject-specific literacy.
Areas of specific benefit that data-driven approaches and the current generative affordances of smart applications can offer include :
– personalised, (subject specific) CEFR-level adequate content provision (to improve language proficiency and promote learner autonomy & engagement)
– facilitation of teaching and learning materials production in general and in particular with a view to supporting (national and/or school-based) curriculum innovation related developments such as implementation of plurilingual policies (Language friendly and newcomer schools), language-oriented subject teaching and development of bi/multilingual disciplinary literacies (CLIL), project-based learning (e.g virtual exchange), and the implementation of 21st Century skills such as global citizenship.

To help increase the number of Higher Education organisations offering language teacher education (pre- and in-service) programmes that include modules on the potential of (big) language data-driven applications and the use of corpus-based tools and methods for educational purposes the project will produce related course and professional development materials including classroom research-based use cases.

To enhance the practice-based approach to the development of the project’s resources the project team will invite a number of schools to participate as associated partners. In this way a regional/international network of in-service teachers can be supported in exploring  the rapidly evolving affordances and educational potential of the mentioned technologies.

The main outputs of the project, accessible at its website, will be:
a) a professional development MOOC on AI-supported and customised data-driven language learning and is targeted at language teacher educators and student teachers, language teachers in Higher Education and secondary general & vocational education

b) a customised version of the smart web application ‘Graded News Reader’ (GNR) to support general & secondary vocational Modern Language education, CLIL as well as language-oriented subject teaching and multilingual classrooms.

c) Project web portal.
In addition to information about the project the portal will host the project assets consisting of (semi-) automatically sourced and classified content knowledge databases providing access to:
1) professional development materials on the topic of AI in language education including related academic publications, the project’s use case descriptions and the project’s up-to-date Guidelines for interacting with generative Large Language Model (LLM) applications (e.g. ChatGPT, GPT-4) and
2) a platform to publish and share the project partners’ and future practitioners’ sets of LLM interaction prompts and the language teaching & learning resources produced, based on the LLM generated output results.
The portal will be developed using existing technologies and tools. The open source search technology Elastic search will be used as the basis for the portal. It provides the frontend, database and search functionality. The work of the project team is further supported by the EDIA Framework manager tool.
The published output will not only support the other work packages in terms of guiding the research and development at hand, but it will also serve as a foundation from which our peer academics and professionals working in this domain can benefit. The facility for sharing customised teaching and learning materials will support practitioners’ knowledge about and skills to use LLMs for the production of educational content.  

 What will be offered to and what is expected from the participating teachers

Benefits for the teacher/ school

What is in it for you?

• Your school will receive free training on how to implement data-driven language learning in general modern language education and related approaches such as project-based learning and/or content and language integrated learning (CLIL) and to support local/national cross-curricular innovation policies with respect to 21st Century skills and/or plurilingual education.
• AI-driven applications and learning platforms relevant for language teaching and learning will be introduced and your school will get free access to the web application ‘Graded News Reader’ (GNR) and you and your students will be coached to explore ways to use it in actual practice.
• You will be invited to suggest modifications for the GNR in line with the needs or innovation ambitions of your school.
• You will be equipped with the knowledge to design and implement technology-mediated language learning activities that will enhance learner motivation and learner investment.
• You will have access to the project community consisting of other associated school language teachers, pre-service teacher and university researchers.
• You will receive travel funding to attend regional and international events to exchange your experience with language teachers in your region and other European countries.
• If interested to also be able to exchange 1:1 experiences with implementing the innovative practices in another project associated school in another EU country your school can get support with the writing of an Erasmusplus KA1 mobility grant to fund travel and job shadowing.
• Your school will be mentioned as ‘associated partner’ on the website and in all our promoting activities.
• The project partners will implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure data protection.

 Expected activities for teachers (estimate: some 40-50 hrs in the course of 3 years)

• Attending the MOOC sessions, related potential in-person teacher training workshops and executing the related tasks.
• Contribute to the evaluation of the activities mentioned above
• Reflect and report on own practice with respect to trial uses of data-driven applications and the Graded News Reader via interviews and questionnaires
• Collaboration with project partners on activity design and implementation (minimum of 2 teaching units over a 6-month period, approximately 8 hours of teaching)
• Co-production of the use case(s). Documentation of the run and evaluation of (one of) the trials in own practice
• Optional: Attendance at Multiplier events and Learning and Teacher Events that will be provided at least once a year

We have learned (Projects – TELLConsult) that through reflection and discussions on classroom practice, teachers obtain useful insights of their teaching style and receive feedback from/on their students.
You will contribute to the development and quality of language teacher educational resources and enable teacher educators, trainee teachers and practising colleague teachers to work more effectively together as part of a continuum in order to research and evaluate the innovations involved.

We would like to thank you and your school for your interest in the project. If you would like to participate in this European project please copy & fill out the form below and return this document (preferably on school paper) to admin AT tellconsult.eu before March 20 or contact us in case you have further questions.

We are convinced that this approach will help to bridge the gap between research on technology and actual teaching practice in general and that participating in this initiative will provide a unique experience since it will be among the first Erasmus+ projects addressing integration of (BIG) data-driven approaches to language learning in the pre-tertiary sector.

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Name of School / Organisation:

School Type: (Primary / Secondary / (secondary) Vocational) / Other

Address of school:
Country:
School e-Mail address:

Main interest in participating as an associated partner to promote further school development with respect to (choose one option):
– General L2 and Modern Language Education
– CLIL
– project-based learning
– language-oriented subject teaching
– implementation of plurilingual policies (Language friendly and newcomer schools)
– other, namely:

Name Contact Person:

Role / Capacity:

I hereby inform you that our school is interested in joining the proposed project, provisionally titled ”Data-driven Applications and Pedagogies for Language Education” (DAPLE) as an associated partner if the initiative gets granted.