"Serious Games for Fostering Multilingualism

in Early Childhood Education"

Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership NEWSLETTER No 4 - December

Dear friends!

Dear partners, colleagues and friends, we are pleased

to show you the results of our Language Games project!!

Our project is ending and we want to show you the multiplier events that

took place in each country. The project has been a success and the results

have been distributed farther than we hoped.

But first a small introduction:

Language Games is a pedagogical software product, created within an

Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnership project, which aims to use serious

games to foster multilingualism in early childhood. It provides a tool for

kindergarten and primary teachers to use in language lessons, when children

are getting familiar with the basics of a foreign language.

The final version of the game is available on the project website:

http://www.languagegames.eu/

Partners involved:
 Inspectoratul Scolar al Municipiului Bucuresti, Romania (the coordinator)
 Agrupamento de Escolas de Silves, Portugal
 edEUcation ltd, Uk
 Ethniko Kentro Erevnas Kai Technologikis Anaptyxis, Greece
 Panepistimio Thessalias, Greece
 Tallinn University, Estonia

Project Reference Number: 2015-1-RO01-KA201-015212

 Multiplier events

Portugal

In Portugal, during the month of November several dis-

semination sessions of the project and the game were car-

ried out in the first cycle schools and kindergarten in the

municipality of Silves and Portimão.

The dissemination in Silves county, was held in various

places, Alcantarilha, Algoz, Tunes, Armação de Pêra (Silves

South Schools Group) and Silves (Institution Amigos dos

Pequeninos), a total of 50 teachers/educators.

The session held in Portimão on November 16,

2017 involved 37 teachers / educators from the

Júdice Fialho Schools Group.

This project provided

an opportunity for

teachers to realize

the advantage of introducing a second language alongside their mother tongue.

The game was very well received in any of the three events. The teachers had access to materials, they

were offered a pen with the game to install on multiple computer platforms and support materials.

The potential of the game was highlighted and the participants had the opportunity to hear the testimony

of some of the teachers who introduced the games into their practice. In the various events a demonstra-

tion of the game was also made to demonstrate the potentialities and dynamics that it allows in the ap-

proach of basic curricular contents, related to the age group.

In the Silves Schools Group, Portuguese partner, the first cycle teachers and

kindergarten educators continue to apply

the game to students, promoting the devel-

opment of skills in the English language.

Next year the game will be presented at

the Week of Languages event, which will

take place in this institution.

 Estonia

In Estonia, there were several dissemination events but the biggest multiplier

event took place on 20th to 22nd October in Tallinn University. The event was

called EduHäkk which means Educational Hackaton. A lot of different people, in-

terested in making education better – gathered for three days and tried to bring

innovation to education.

Language Games was used as an example

how an educational innovation is made.

We had a presentation about the devel-

opment of the game and all the partici-

pants and visitors could play the game

all three days.

All the people got a goody-bag which had printout of the games coloring sheets,

crayons to color them with, a reflector, an USB stick with the Language Game

files on it and finally a bag to carry it all.

 Romania
On the 15th November 2017, The Library of the Romanian Academy hosted the multiplier event for Language

Games. The event was attended by representatives of decision-making institutions in the Romanian
Educational system, school inspectors for early years education from the National Education Ministry,

representatives from the Projects and Programmes Centres of the Bucharest Municipality, school inspectors

from the Bucharest Inspectorate and teachers from pre-school and primary education.

All the participants were offered information about the activities, intellectual products and

development and the games electronic version on memory sticks. During the event there were workshops

about the usage of the game, and the teacher’s guide which presents an important collection of learning

activities. Teachers tested these materials during their class activities, presented their experience and the

way children reacted. In addition, attenders were presented examples of good practice by the project

participants from partner countries: Great Britain, Greece, Estonia and Portugal. Participants also had the

opportunity to test on computers the games for learning English and French under the guiding of their

colleagues who have already tested the games with children.

Within the event, teachers and professional inspectors analysed the way children experimented with

the games and the impact on them. It was noticed that the game developed by the project is an instrument

through which children can experiment in a useful and attractive way the learning of foreign languages and

can be attracted to further study. After discussions, it turned out that it is very useful at the end of every

lesson to practise a song in order to help children learn mor easily the new information, taking into account

that at this age children actually learn by singing and dancing. Practically, they memorize while singing.

At the end of the activity, teacher from 52 Kindergarten – Bucharest, exemplified with a group of pre

-school children and the event participants could see in person and assess children’s reaction to the language

games and how pleased they were. Participants noticed children’s delight while using the game, how easily they

understood and did the tasks, and the fact that the games are intuitive and attractive for children. The

m ul t ip l i er e v en t was

extremely well received by

the 70 people in the

audience, teachers from pre

-school and primary

education from Bucharest,

who, starting with school

yea r 2 0 1 8 - 20 1 9 , w il l

introduce these contents in

their school.
 United Kingdom
In the last months of the project, edEUcation focused on disseminating

the outcomes of the project and the main event was the official multipli-

er event in London when edEUcation set up a stall at the three-day inter-

national event called Language Show London. It is the largest language

event in Europe and around 9,000 language learners, teachers and pro-

fessionals attended the event.

We spoke to a variety of people representing all the possible types of

potential users from primary and pre-school teachers to national country

clubs and private tutors. They were informed about the game, the role of

Erasmus+ in funding the endeavour. The participants could also try play-

ing the game by themselves, which they did with great enthusiasm. The

interest was significant and many attendants were keen on more lan-

guages being added to the Language Games.

The new banner attracted attention and hundreds of leaflets were given

away to interested attendants.

 Greece
The multiplier event in Greece took place on November 13, 2017. The event was coorganized by the Univer-

sity of Thessaly and the Institute for Research and Technology Thessaly of EKETA. The event was orga-

nized in collaboration with the Educational Authorities of the Area of Magnesia. All English teachers that

teach in primary schools were invited. Notably, the event was very successful because the participation of

the teachers was very large. It is estimated that 80 teachers teach in primary schools in Magnesia, and the

large majority of them were present at the event. To achieve this success, the project partners worked

with the English Language Consultant of the Educational Authorities of Magnesia, Ms. Vassiliki Papaioannou,

who embraced the project. The Regional Educational Authorities of the larger area of Thessaly were also

informed about the event. Their permission was achieved to formally invite all English language teachers.

The audience of the event was 74 individuals, which exceeds the expectations of 60.

During the event, the audience had the opportunity to be exposed to the principles, methodologies, and out-

comes of the LanguageGames project. In addition, the audience was exposed to a live demonstration of the

software produced in the project. Furthermore, teachers that used the project results in their classrooms

in the context of evaluation ac-

tivities presented their very

positive experiences to the audi-

ence. In other words, the event

was organized in a manner that

ensure active participation of

teachers engaged in the context

of evaluation activities.

The event was organized at Xenia Hotel in Volos. Catering

was available for the audience. In addition, the audience re-

ceived handouts in the form of a mug, a t-shirt, a pen, and a

notebook. Most importantly, the audience received a USB

stick that contained the LanguageGames software and the

instructor support content with the objective of promoting

the wide deployment of project outcomes in classrooms.

Page 6 "Serious Games for Fostering Multilingualism in Early Childhood Education"

 4th Transnational Meeting of the Language
Games team - Volos, Greece
In September 2017 the partners met for one last time at

the University of Thessaly to finalise this successful pro-

ject. We have developed a game that is very much liked by

the teachers and students as well. The learning content

focuses on fundamental vocabulary and the graphics are

amazing.

The Greek partners’ hospitality was remarkable and all the

work was done in a relaxed atmosphere. We agreed on the

documentation that needs do be done to finish the project Good bye!

with success. Each partner gave an overview of their dis-

semination activities and plans for the multiplier events Bon Temps! Head aega!
that you can read about in this newsletter.

We thank all the partners and wish you happy learning with
Καλή ώρα! Bons momentos!
our Language Games!
Timp bun!

NEWSLETTER No 4 - December 2017 Page 7

You can also follow us on the facebook page of the project: https://www.facebook.com/LanguageGames/

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission can-
not be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

http://www.languagegames.eu
http://www.facebook.com/LanguageGames

Page 8 "Serious Games for Fostering Multilingualism in Early Childhood Education"