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Horizonte 2020: Internacionalización de la EOI de Gijón
Start date: Jun 1, 2015, End date: May 31, 2017 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Horizon 2020: Internationalization of the Official School of Languages of Gijón (EOI Gijón) is a KA1 Erasmus+ project that covers the ongoing training of the teachers in the EOI Gijón, a public, non-profit organisation for adult education. Ever since it was opened in 1989, the school has dedicated all its efforts to teaching world languages: English, French and German. In 2007, the school became an authorised exam centre for the Certificate Exams (Pruebas de Certificación) for the Basic (A2), Intermediate (B1) and Advanced (B2) levels according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). In 2013, the school was authorised to certify the C1 level. The school also offers Teachers’ Refresher Courses for educators working in the Principality of Asturias. It has a staff of 29 teachers, 3 administrative assistants and 6 service personnel. The School Board has encouraged and endorsed the Project which arose as the result of our Needs Assessment Plan. In September 2014, a Work Team, approved by the Teacher and Resources Centre and composed by 19 teachers and 3 members of the School Board, supported the importance of identifying teachers’ training needs. The outcome of this process was a European Development Plan that has been integrated into the School’s Education Project. The project Horizon 2020 is seen as a tool which will contribute to the implementation of the schools’ internationalization process. Learning a language inevitably facilitates our learners’ mobility and employability, however, the school must first of all open its doors to the world and facilitate contact with other social-cultural realities. A successful exchange of citizens and ideas demands mobility at alternate levels, it requires citizens to be equipped with the necessary tools to understand other cultures and acquire multilinguistic competences. The current state of affairs in Spain intensifies our need to strengthen our ties with the rest of Europe. The EOI Gijón has consistently participated in different European Actions and Projects. Facilitating a European scope in our approach to language teaching has always been one of our main objectives; it cuts across languages and teaching-learning levels of competence. A significant number of our teaching staff has worked abroad and has successfully taken part in events organised and co-funded by the European Union. The school has also supported Language Assistant Schemes, has encouraged the participation in the Socrates and Lifelong Learning Programmes through the Lingua, Comenius, Grundtvig and Erasmus Actions and it is currently involved in an E-twinning project. Our two-year project includes twelve mobilities for teaching staff and School Board members. All the personnel has negotiated and reached a written agreement to implement the school’s Training Programme, in order to attend 9 structured courses in the UK, 1 in France and 1 in Germany aimed to cover the needs assessed by the teaching staff as well as 1 course in Slovenia for the Principal of the school, appointed during the school year 2014-2015. Prestigious and renowned providers of relevant Teacher Training Courses in Europe have already been contacted so as to approach specific interest points: the evaluation of linguistic competences, socio-cultural features in language, methodological strategies applied to CLIL, ICT-CLT tools as well as Leadership, Networking and Management Skills. The activities consist of seven-day courses, which are one of the measures taken in our Training Plan to meet our requirements: 1. To increase the ratio of learners who achieve successful continuous assessments and the overall number of examinees who obtain their Language Certificate. 2. To decrease absenteeism and boost motivation among learners. The courses have been divided into four content sections: Methodological-Linguistic Proficiency, Digital and Inter-cultural Competence and Managerial Skills for Education. To ensure the success of the project, the members have met every two weeks and agreed to share the responsibility involved in management, administration, communication with course providers, attendance of courses, content dissemination and the evaluation of the performance measures adopted to assess the project’s impact before, during and after its existence. The results will be quantified by comparing the number of successful candidates and by analysing the ratio of absenteeism in different school years. Questionnaires evaluating learners’ degree of satisfaction, self-evaluation and qualitative assessment worksheets for teachers and learners will also be developed. Due to our experience in other European programmes and the benefits obtained from these, the teaching staff, together with the School Board and the learners of the EOI Gijón wish to continue moving forward in the sustainable process of internationalization of our school and the dissemination of the European dimension of Diversity in Education.
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