Developing Early Foreign Language Learning and Teaching in the Nordic/Baltic Context

The 2-year project Developing Early Foreign Language Learning and Teaching in the Nordic/Baltic Context aims to establish educational collaboration between universities, teacher education centres and primary schools in four Nordic/Baltic countries Denmark, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. The focus is on early English, French, German and Spanish including a general focus on plurilingualism.

The aim of this new collaboration is to share and exchange national experiences systematically. The project addresses three thematic areas:

Initial and in-service teacher education course modules addressing early English, French, German and Spanish using new learning and teaching platforms
Innovative teaching materials for early English, French, German and Spanish
The plurilingual perspective in early foreign language learning and teaching

The project addresses three thematic areas

Initial and in-service teacher education course modules using new learning and teaching platforms (focus on developing teachers’ competencies)
Innovative teaching materials for Early English, French, German and Spanish (focus on collecting and further developing best practices based on research findings and recommendations)
The plurilingual perspective in early foreign language learning and teaching (focus on how to link early foreign language learning in English, French, German and Spanish to the wider context of plurilingual education)

The general objectives of the project are

to create a network of partners, i.e. researchers, teacher educators and primary school teachers, from four Nordic/Baltic countries
to further develop early foreign language learning and teaching in the Nordic/Baltic context
to pilot a plurilingual education within the context of early foreign language learning and teaching in the Nordic/Baltic context
to contribute to the societal discussions on early foreign language learning, language learning in
general and language diversity in the Nordic/Baltic countries
to disseminate the project results in the Nordic/Baltic context and internationally.