The concept underlying the above scheme arises from the awareness of an unsatisfactory level of competence which European people have with regard to European languages. Such an inadequate level of competence in European languages represents one of the chief obstacles to a real and true European integration.

 

Learning a foreign language cannot be separated from the many characteristics of a culture. It is indeed through contact and knowledge of the culture of a nation that we become motivated and interested in learning a new language.

 

The partners of the project are institutions that teach and promote languages and promote the culture of their home country throughout the world. Besides the coordinating institution in Italy (City Council of Arezzo), partner institutions come from various European countries: France, UK, Lithuania, Portugal and Poland.

 

The scheme-action plan intends to promote and awaken public opinion to learning a foreign language and more specifically among adults. The first action will consist in the awakening of the public awareness of the benefits of learning the languages in today‘s hectic life of working European people. Moreover, these actions should be able to represent for that particular age group which has reached retirement an opportunity of a pleasant and meaningful pastime, which will help not only to relax, but also become more competent in the society.

 

For the first action a new type of promoter has been identified, the language promoter whose job will be that of facilitating, encouraging, supporting, organizing and arousing interest in language learning.

With the second language action it will be intended to act upon language learning and teaching by upgrading effective teaching through teacher training courses. The courses will be provided to teachers to make them able to apply new methodologies to their teachers, which have been proved to be successful in developing a good language learning.

With the third action, partners intend to act upon the political agenda by propagating the importance of language learning and teaching among our local and national policy makers seeking to obtain the necessary resources and funds.

On October 8-10, 2004 a three-day international meeting of the Action Lingua 1 project " European Languages ABC" partners was held in Gorzow, Poland. Partners from Poland, Lithuania, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the UK flocked together to look at the progress and share valuable experience. The main speakers were the project coordinators from Italy, Giuseppe Cezari and Manuela Calzini who highlighted the progress of the project and emphasized that "at this stage it takes a different shape and moves into a didactic module development". In general, the project is developing quite successfully and the envisaged actions on the territories are taking place.

 

Furthermore, the project coordinators introduced what was being done on the issue. During the training week in Italy the trainers worked highly favourably. On behalf of our institution, Soros International House, Lina Marciulionyte, teacher trainer, took part with the package of promotional training on Lithuanian culture, traditions, lifestyle and language. Also cultural evenings on TV are being organized. For example, during the English evening, tea-making procedure was presented whereas during the French evening, wine and cheese dish presentation took place. In addition to that, TV presentations of the Lithuanian evening and the Polish evening will be offered.

 

As to the future plans, the meeting came to an agreement that the best time to arrange a partnership meeting in Vilnius would be January 2005. During the period of one week, the teacher trainers of other participating countries will promote their languages cultures and traditions to Lithuanian audience.

Also, the promotional actions of the project are highly important too. As the project is the European Label Winner, all promotional materials should include the European label logo. Overall, having shared their opinions and expertise, foreseen the forthcoming developments, the partners concluded that the project was gaining its speed and would be completed successfully in due terms.