Teaching foreign languages, especially English, to seniors, is becoming one of the most crucial elements of education in later-life in Europe. Existing analysis concerns mainly the needs and current state, but there are not enough didactic materials which would support teachers in their daily work with learners 55+. This concerns in particular those materials that go beyond the traditional language course, and include such elements that are emotionally engaging, motivating, and provide new incentives: mental, physical and sensory – so essential in later-life pedagogy.
Bearing in mind the above, the main objective of the “Innovative methods for increasing effectiveness of teaching English of 55+ learners” (InMETE 55+) project under the Erasmus+ Programme was to develop tangible propositions of innovative methods for increasing effectiveness of teaching English to 55+ learners.
Through well-structured cooperation, researches, discussions, international meetings, three tangible intellectual outputs of the project were prepared:
- resource pack of possible resources: materials, ideas and guidelines which could be used during the English lessons to increase cognitive functions of elderly learners, in particular, their attention, motivation, emotional involvement, memory functioning, senses and body involvement, communication sensitivity and capability, and also their well-being;
- nine detailed lesson outlines together with teaching/learning materials for teachers and students (each for two levels: elementary (A2-B1) and intermediate (B2) including innovative elements taken from external sources like art, historical heritage of our countries, memory rules and methods, music, poetry, body expression and para-theatrical forms, etc.;
- two curricula for a one-year (60 hrs) course for learners 55+, two levels – elementary (A2-B1) and intermediate (B2).
These three products are available free of charge for seniors’ educators from the non-profit sector.
The project Partnership includes organizations from Poland, Hungary and Italy.
Source: https://inmete55plus.blogspot.com/
Access date: 10.09.2021