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Multilingual Orientation through Voluntary Exchange’
Start date: Jun 1, 2016, End date: Feb 28, 2017 PROJECT  FINISHED 

For 17 years, Foundation 21st Century has gained extensive experience in the creation and implementation of projects in the field of education, youth training, culture and civil society development, as most of the projects were achieved with volunteer labor. The Foundation initiates the MOVE project in order to encourage the learning of foreign languages in Bulgaria, since according to Eurostat data from 2015, 61% of Bulgarian citizens do not speak any foreign language. This puts Bulgaria on the penultimate place in the ranking of language skills of European citizens. The project activities will be aimed at learning foreign languages through informal methods of training to improve the level of multilanguage and improve intercultural understanding. Each volunteer will participate equally and actively in the planned activities, will be able to express their opinions and ideas and will play an important role at every stage, regardless of gender and age.In formal school education, during the classes of foreign language the methods of teaching are mostly written exercises and they often neglect oral speech. So at the end of their studies, most of the students often are good with the language grammar and can write, but are not able to participate in conversations and discussions. For this reason, one of the main activities of the project is the visits of the volunteers during the language classes in various secondary schools in the Sofia region and participating in discussion groups on their mother language. It will help the students and the participants to develop skills in discussions, to participate with open conversations and to learn more about the country and the culture of each other. Another major activity is the organization of open discussion groups outside of school hours led by the native speakers - volunteers, which will be accessible to a wider range of people. These activities will contribute to both social and personal development of the volunteers and will help for the elimination of language barriers and will make the study of the participants’ languages easier.The process for the selection of volunteers is crucial to the success of the whole project. The volunteers have to be active young people, between the age of 18 and 30 years , with innovative ideas, full of energy who want to contribute to the intercultural exchange, knowledge and skills. The participants are from countries, whose mother languages are popular in Bulgaria - Italy, Spain, France and Austria. Volunteers are not required to know a second language apart from their mother language, as they will be leading discussion groups in their native language. Volunteers will be selected based on their suitability for the job, and so they themselves can learn the most and improve their personal qualities to the highest extend. The activities during MOVE project will be divided into several categories: Preparatory activities, Core activities 1– the actual visits of the volunteers to the school language classes in Sofia district, Core activities 2 - organizing open discussion groups available to the wider audience, Organization of the European day of Language, Core Activity 3 - the organization of the event for the International Volunteer Day and last activity will be the Leisure activities of the participants.By performing these activities, the project provides opportunities for informal and formal learning of young people - volunteers. Volunteers and other participants will have the opportunity to promote the rich linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe. As a result of the training and activities of volunteers, the aims to encourage the study of languages will be achieved, whether for educational purposes, for professional needs, or with the aim of mobility.The achievements and results of the activities should be disseminated and exploited in order to optimize their value and strengthen their importance and to ensure that as many young people and organizations will benefit from them. Sending organizations will maintain periodic connections with their volunteers and receive feedback from both the volunteers and the host organization throughout the project.After volunteering, hosting organizations and volunteers will determine whether the objectives set at the beginning of the project are met, will assess the success of the project and how each of the targets are met. Crucial to finalize the project and ensuring its success is the quality of the dissemination of project results, and following activities will be undertaken to ensure that the project reaches a large audience, shows the advantages of language learning, motivates multilingualism in the European Union and creates preconditions for the inclusion of other volunteers like-initiative.
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