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- Technology enhanced language learning in higher education. The case of the European project QUILLPublication . Silva, Elisabete Mendes; Chumbo, IsabelToday, education indelibly goes hand in hand with the digital context that permeates our lives. It is then paramount to improve the digital literacy of both teachers and students to provide them with adequate and proficient learning and working skills so they are able to face the societal challenges. The teaching and learning of languages for specific purposes thus seem to acquire relevance in a multifaceted labour market. The main purpose of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, we intend to showcase the intellectual outputs of the project – QuILL-Quality in Language learning – a European project funded by the European Commission, and running from March 2021 until February 2023. The three accomplished intellectual outputs of the project align closely with the objectives outlined in this call, as one of the primary goal of the project is to enrich the digital literacy of higher education lecturers to bolster their language instruction in Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP). Moreover, it furnishes higher education language lecturers in LSP with a comprehensive collection of 385 high-quality Open Educational Resources meticulously identified, tested, evaluated, and validated across 18 languages. Lastly, the project addressed the escalating demand in the job market for specialized training in LSP coupled with digital technologies, underscoring the significance of IO2 and IO3 as invaluable resources offering practical training recommendations and best practice guidelines. On the other hand, yet concurrently, we aim to show evidence of the sustainability of the project, highlighting its major strengths and potentialities in the current educational contexts.
- QuILL: innovation and quality in language learning in higher educationPublication . Silva, Elisabete Mendes; Chumbo, Isabel; Gonçalves, Vitor; Martins, Cláudia; Dotras Bravo, Alexia; Alves, Ana M.The European project QuILL – Quality in Language Learning –, written and coordinated by Pixel-Italy in cooperation with the project applicant and scientific coordinator, Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB)-Portugal, is funded by the Erasmus+ programme, KA2 – Strategic Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness. Other partner institutions participating in the project are Vilnius University, Faculty of Philology, (Lithuania); Cuza University of Iaşi, Department of Language Learning, (Romania); University of Bologna (Italy); Károli Gáspár University (Hungary); and Universidad de Cordoba (Spain). QuILL aims to provide language lecturers with the skills to identify, assess, use, and create digital and ICT based language teaching resources, as well as provide decision makers and policy makers with the information and skills to enhance the implementation of digital and ICT based language teaching sources and methods in the higher education systems. Besides the creation of a database of on-line open educational resources (OER) for language teaching and learning of 18 European languages, QuILL will also create an on-line training package for the identification, use and creation of ICT based language teaching sources for teaching languages at higher education level. In addition, it will publish a document aimed at analysing the technological potential for language learning in European higher education systems. The aims of this paper are two-fold. On the one hand, we intend to introduce the project to the higher education community. On the other, underlying the first intellectual output (IO1) – creation of a database of on-line language learning resources –, we aim to present some of the resources collected, assessed and validated by means of case studies, analysing the type of resources, the methods suggested and applied in the learning-teaching context, highlighting their relevance within the project’s goals. Therefore, we shall attempt to reach some conclusions regarding this innovative and far-reaching process of identification and validation of teaching resources by pointing out their benefits, as well as shortcomings, and their importance in the higher education teaching-learning language context. Not only will it benefit the lecturers, because they will have a wide variety of OER teaching resources available to be used in class, but also the students who can use the resources to learn the selected language in a rather autonomous way.
- Are Portuguese Higher Education Students Motivated to Study English as a Second/Foreign Language?Publication . Bessa, Luciana Cabral B.; Silva, Elisabete Mendes; Meirinhos, Galvão; Silva, RuiBeing motivated is fundamental for any individual to achieve personal and professional success. In the context of learning in Higher Education, Motivation is crucial for achieving this success. Understanding the motivational state of students is essential for higher education managers and teachers. Understanding students’ Amotivation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can provide vital information to initiate changes in teaching and learning. In this sense, measuring Amotivation, Intrinsic Motivation, and Extrinsic Motivation allows for understanding the general state of students’ Motivation. This study aims to analyze the Motivation of 145 Portuguese Higher Education Students (70 Male and 75 Female) aged between 17 and 47 years old who studied the second/foreign language (English) in Portugal during the Academic Year of 2020/2021. We used the Academic Motivation Scale to measure Motivation to study English. The results show that students are not demotivated. The Motivation that prevails in the results is Intrinsic Motivation, and Extrinsic Motivation was insignificant. This study’s results contribute to the literature on Motivation to study Second Language, especially concerning the need to understand why students are only intrinsically motivated. Are the lessons, the teaching methodologies, the techniques and the contents not able to motivate them?
- International Networking: the case of the European project QuILLPublication . Silva, Elisabete Mendes; Chumbo, Isabel; Gonçalves, Vitor; Martins, Cláudia; Dotras Bravo, Alexia; Alves, Ana M.In our day and age, collaborative work is of the utmost importance for the development of research projects as well as the establishment of solid networks in a myriad of knowledge areas. It was in this context that the European project QuILL – Quality in Language Learning – saw its first light. Written and coordinated by Pixel-Italy in cooperation with the project applicant and scientific coordinator, the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (Portugal), it is funded by the Erasmus+ programme, KA2 – Strategic Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness. The partner institutions in the project are as follows: Vilnius University, Faculty of Philology, (Lithuania); Cuza University of Iaşi, Department of Language Learning, (Romania); University of Bologna (Italy); Károli Gáspár University (Hungary); and Universidad de Cordoba (Spain). The first intellectual output (IO) of our international project was achieved, that is the collection of online open educational resources, which enabled us already to put an open-access database together in 18 European languages. This IO followed a collaborative approach, through the interaction among the partners, but also through their multilingual and multicultural teams that oversaw the assessment and validation of these resources by means of case studies, the analysis of the type of resources, the methods suggested, and their application in real learning-teaching contexts. Guided by the same collaboration input, the second IO for QuILL consists in the creation an on-line training package for the identification, use and creation of digital-based language teaching and learning sources for teaching languages at higher education level. Regarding the third IO, we intend to publish a document that seeks to highlight and analyse the technological potential for language learning in European higher education systems. Our aim with this paper is not only to reflect on the outputs already achieved or under development and their added value for an increasingly technological education, but also on the strengths and shortcomings of international collaboration, of which QuILL will be a case in point.
- Innovation and creativity in uncanny times: teaching strategies in language teachingPublication . Silva, Elisabete Mendes; Martins, CláudiaIn the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it might be a truism to state that education and, consequently, the teaching-learning process have undergone a major shift and both teachers and students experienced either beneficial or negative learning situations which gave them insight into a brave new world of technology highlighting both its potentials as well as its hazards. Nonetheless, regardless of the struggles, these uncanny and challenging times forced teachers to make the most of the new online context to keep students engaged in learning, using the available technologies, and easily accessed by students. As such, as English language lecturers in higher education, we also had to adapt and come up with more innovative strategies so that students could practise not only linguistic skills, but also others, such as critical thinking and creativity. Based on our teaching experience during the last year and a half, in this paper we aim to present some activities, developed under a project-based approach, that the students were challenged to carry out, namely a coronavirus journal or vlog, a video CV and a multimodal essay. By showing some of the students’ works and how they reacted to the proposed tasks, we will prove the innovation and efficacy of such strategies in the language learning and teaching process.