Background to the CONBAT project

This website results from a project run within the ECML's (European Centre for Modern Languages) Empowering Language Professionals programme entitled "Content based teaching and plurilingual/cultural awareness".

Abstract of the project

The project acronym ConBaT+ means that content-based teaching needs to be complemented with activities enhancing plurilingualism and pluriculturalism. Developments in second and foreign language teaching aiming to use languages to teach other content subject areas need to take such concepts into account, if Europe is to succeed in creating a 'language culture' (Candelier et al 2004, p.20). The aim of the "ConBaT+ " project is to produce materials in three languages, English, French and Spanish, to teach other subjects at primary and secondary level.

Educational institutions also face the challenge of plurilingualism and pluriculturalism in their classrooms; for that reason, the materials developed in this project will contain activities aimed to raise awareness of plurilingualism and pluriculturalism in order to foster positive attitudes toward languages, their speakers and their cultures.

Awareness of plurilingualism and pluriculturalism is the major aim of the project: how can this aim be achieved? First, by using an L2 to teach any subject in the curriculum, and second, by offering the pupils whose L1 is a minority language the opportunity to use it for specific activities. At the same time, those pupils might contribute to enrich any topic presented in the subject in question, by comparing the way in which the same topic is viewed in his/her country of origin.

ConBaT+ will strongly contribute to language education practice and the project will grow out of the large networking opportunities offered by the ECML through the development of rich, varied and useful materials as well as through the dissemination of its vision.

The project team
Mercé Bernaus Queralt

Mercè Bernaus Queralt (Coordinator)
University of Barcelona
Spain

Sofie Jonckheere

Sofie Jonckheere
Regional Integration Center Foyer   
Brussels, Belgium

Áine Furlong

Áine Furlong
Waterford Institute of Technology 
Ireland 
Martine Kervran Martine Kervran
IUFM Brittany
France
Associate Partners
Fernando Jesus Trujillo Saez

Fernando Jesús Trujillo Sáez
University of Granada
Spain
 

Peter Daniel MacIntyre

Peter Daniel MacIntyre
Cape Breton University
Canada
 

Acknowledgement

The CONBAT+ publication and website result from the work of an international network established within one of the ECML projects. We would like to thank all who worked on CONBAT+, in particular the project coordination team for their motivation and active involvement.

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