BALL –

Brain-friendly Accelerated Language Learning

Contract No. 71519-CP-2-2000-1-AT-COMENIUS-C31

http://vobs.at/ball-online

Partners in this project are

Pädagogische Akademie Feldkirch - Austria

Jelling Seminarium – Denmark

Universidad de Granada – Spain

University of Lapland –Finland

Kölcsey Ferenc Reformatus Tanitoképzö Föiskola in Debrecen - Hungary

Abstract Improving foreign language is essential if Europe is to achieve its potential, be it economic, cultural or social. Europe is multilingual and foreign language teaching should reflect this – as it increasingly does. The learning of foreign languages is part of education and training is important not only for the cultural enrichment of the individual but also as a contribution to mobility and European competitiveness. Early foreign language learning can be a key to a greater language success later in life. Not only does it anchor the concept of foreign language in a child’s mind at a period when the child is most receptive, it also enables interest about a society’s neighbours and partners to be developed in new ways. Further initiatives in this area are to be encouraged. This is one of the outcomes of the meeting of the Council of European Union in Lisbon in March 2000 (Outcome of Proceedings: Report from the Education Council to the European Council on “The concrete future objectives of education and training systems”). In the early 90s first attempts were made in Austria to lower the age from 8 to 6 for starting with a foreign language and – at the same time – to introduce the new methodological approach of integrated foreign language learning. Building on the positive experience gained from the pilot years this new foreign language programme was incorporated into regular schooling practice in the autumn of 1998: After a transition period of five years all Austrian primary schools will offer a foreign language from the first year of schooling. In other words, from the school year 2003/2004 onwards all Austrian children will have their first contacts with a foreign language at the age of 6. In Austria – as in some other European countries – the primary school class teacher is in most cases the foreign language teacher to early learners. This is obviously useful and to some extent even necessary, because the foreign language should not be taught in splendid isolation but should be linked to other areas of the primary school curriculum. One of the current challenges seems to lie in teacher training as a great amount of teachers are currently being confronted with a completely new situation and challenge: a wide range of methodological strategies as well as a good proficiency in the foreign language are considered to be necessary prerequisites for successfully integrating a foreign language in the primary school curriculum. Mr Arnold Gritsch and Mr Franz Ludescher who teach at he Pädagogische Akademie in Feldkirch created a lot of interesting material for a regional project that was called “Teddybear”. These ideas have been used for the in-service training seminars for the primary school teachers in Vorarlberg area. A lot of experience and some of that material was the bases for BALL - the new COMENIUS 3.1 Project that was launched in 1999 with partners in Rovaniemi / Finland, Jelling / Denmark, Granada / Spain and Debrecen / Hungary. The objective of that programme was to pass on both suitable material (teaching tools such as stories, songs, games) and didactical background to primary school teachers to enable them to start teaching English across the curriculum to six and seven year old children. Another task was to supply teacher trainees at the colleges and faculties with material and ideas that can be used for first graders. We decided to publish our findings in the internet, so that any teacher can get access to our outcomes – We intend to update them continuously. Additionally to this website at www.vobs.at/ball-online we publish our findings in this book. In Chapter A - “INTRODUCTION” you’ll find detailed background information on foreign language education at Austrian primary schools and the contributions of our partners from all over Europe.

In Chapter B – “ABOUT US” you’ll be informed about the persons involved in our project and what had been done and worked on at each of the meetings. In Chapter C – “TEACHER’S MANUAL” you will find a lot of didactical information on how to pass on English to first graders. You can get information on various approaches such as “The Integrated Approach”, “The Natural Approach” and methods such as “De-suggesto-pedia and “Total Physical Response”. Apart from these approaches and methods you can find a lot of didactical and methodological advice on how to introduce and establish vocabulary according to the Natural Approach. In Chapter D – “TOPICS” we present a huge variety of various topics that are part of each national curriculum. Here the reader can find pictures, games, songs, chants, rhymes, stories, background information and recommended books on these topics. We regarded it as very useful to supply the reader with a lot of pictures that can be used when introducing new vocabulary or when telling the stories. At the website www.vobs.at/ball-online all these pictures can be enlarged when double-clicked. Apart from all this material some songs can be downloaded from our website. In Chapter E) “ENGLISH ACROSS THE CURRICULUM” the reader can find useful phrases and expressions you might need when using the Integrated Approach. So you’ll find specific vocabulary on subjects like Maths, Music, PE and Arts. In Chapter F) – “Additional Recourses” we included pictures and phrases on topics like “animals”, “spare-time activities”, “classroom”, “playground” and “house / flat”. Here all the stories from students and teachers from our partner schools are published as well. Finally you’ll find a list of books we can recommend for our target group. We think that our project is very successful and supplies primary school teachers and student trainees all over Europe with a lot of useful didactical, methodological information and very practical ideas. Prof. Franz Ludescher, MAS

CONTENTS Page

A) Introduction 1) Objectives 1 2) Background information 2 2.1 Foreign Language Education at Austrian Primary Schools 2 2.2 The European Dimension of this project 4 2.2.1 In Feldkirch / Austria 4 2.2.2 In Debrecen / Hungary 5 2.2.3 In Granada / Spain 6 2.2.4 In Rovaniemi / Finland 7 2.2.5 In Jelling / Denmark 9 B) About us 1) Persons involved 12 2) Meetings 14 C) Teacher’s Manual 1) Mind-map - overview 17 2) Why should you start teaching a foreign language to first graders of Primary schools?

18

2.1 References 20 3. The Integrated Approach 22 3.1 What you should consider when teaching across the curriculum? 22 4. Brain-friendly learning 23 5. The role of stories in the process of language acquisition 25 6. De-suggestopedia 28 6.1 The Method 28 6.2 What is De-suggestopedia? 29 7. The Natural Approach 35 7.1 Background 35 7.2 Approach 36 8. TPR – Total Physical Response 43 8.1 Background 43 8.2 Approach 44 8. Introducing and establishing new words 50 8.1 Introducing a new word 50 8.2 Establishing a new word 51 9. Workshop 8B "Foreign Language Education in Primary Schools 55

D) Topics Stories

TOPICS SURVEY 57 SAYING HELLO A Walk with the Dog / Hello 58 GIVING DIRECTIONS The Pied Piper 62 COLOURS Mr Caterpillar’s Strange Adventure / Where is the Blue

Balloon?? 66

FRIENDS Ten in a Bed / Let’s be Friends / The Bear and the Mouse 74 NUMBERS There were ten in a Bed / The Hungry Cat 79

FAMILY The Frog Family / I Love You so Much 86 WEATHER In a Dark, Dark Town / The Little Glowworm 90 AUTUMN / FALL Billie’s Cat 95 TOYS What will he get? 99 CHRISTMAS Christmas / Where is the Brown’s House? 102 WINTER Poems 109 TIME Teddy’s School Day 113 FOOD Where are the Cornflakes? / The Very Hungry Caterpillar 118 ILLNESS The Ill Cock 124 SPRING Caterpillar’s Wish 128 EASTER That’s Why Rabbit Has Long Ears / Mother Hen 131 APRIL FOOL John 138 JOBS Elliot, the Bear 142 BODY Can’t See My Feet 148 SUMMER Teddy Goes on Holiday 152 E) English across the curriculum The Integrated Approach 156 Maths: Addition / Subtraction / Shapes – Tasks - Songs 157 Music: Theory / Instruments 160 PE: In the Sports Hall: Equipment / How to Move 163 Arts: Equipment / Activities 166 F) Additional Recourses Contents 167 Animals: Pictures / Sounds 168 Spare-time Activities: Let’s go…/ Let’s play… / Let’s 170 Classroom: Equipment / phrases / arrangement 172 Playground: 177 House / Flat 177 Users’ contributions: Students / Teachers 172 More recommended books: Fairy Tales – Big Picture Books 195 G) Feedback 198 Form 198

A) INTRODUCTION 1) Objectives This project is to enhance and further the learning of foreign languages at the primary school level so that the institutions participating in the EEP can profit from the Action 1 projects of Comenius. As a result, much advice and training is given to improve both didactical and language competence of primary school teachers and primary school teacher trainees. Building up and improving language competence enables primary school teachers and trainees to pass on their language skills to the children in the classroom. This process must start at the beginning in order to employ the natural resources of children of that age: Children at the elementary school level are very curious of new things and at this age level they are optimally suited for second language acquisition because of their natural ability to imitate. Scientific research has shown that best results are achieved when a second language training is started at a very early age, because children naturally adopt and imitate different stimuli such as customs and cultural habits which are different from their natural environment. This approach is based on the ideas of "De-suggestopedia" and "Accelerated Learning" and involves the following principles: 1. Presenting language in a multi-sensory way 2. Working with a higher input 3. Creating an emotional atmosphere 4. De-suggesting learning-barriers 4. Learning through art 5. Motivating through dynamics The target group are primary school teacher trainers, primary school teacher trainees, and primary school teachers. Second language teaching should be across the curriculum in Science, Music, Art, Physical Education and/or Mathematics. The outcomes and products are didactical, methodological material and teaching tools. The object of this project is to pass on both suitable material (teaching tools such as stories, songs, games) and didactical background to primary school teachers to enable them to start teaching English across the curriculum to six and seven year old children. Aims

• to conduct training courses for primary school teachers who teach at schools close to the partner schools.

• to publish a brochure / book containing the necessary information, tools, and materials for primary school teachers and trainees who are already active in this field or who wish to obtain supplementary qualifications in this field.

• to install a web-site for each partner and a chat room in the internet, in order to enable teachers throughout Europe to gain from our mutual experience and expertise.

• The results of the project will become part of the primary school teacher training curriculum and also will become part of the in-service training of this group. As in-service training materials are scarce the material developed by this project will enhance and supplement them. The web-sites in the partner countries and the chat-rooms will be up-dated with the newest materials developed by this project.

2) Background-Information 2.1 ) Foreign Language Education at Austrian Primary Schools Language Education at Austrian Schools (based on the article “Foreign Language Education at Austrian Primary Schools: An Overview” by Elisabeth Jantscher and Isabel Landsiedler) at http://www.ecml.at/documents/earlystart.pdf The Primary Level The 60s From the modest beginnings in the early 60s when first pilot runs were carried out at Viennese primary schools, early foreign language education has gradually gained interest and importance all over Austria. A decisive step was taken in 1983, when a first compulsory encounter with a foreign language from the third year of schooling (age: 8) onwards was introduced for all Austrian primary school children. The 90s In the early 90s first attempts were then made to lower the age for starting with a foreign language and – at the same time – to introduce the new methodological approach of integrated foreign language learning. Building on the positive experience gained from the pilot years this new foreign language programme was incorporated into regular schooling practice in the autumn of 1998: After a transition period of five years all Austrian primary schools will offer a foreign language from the first year of schooling. In other words, from the school year 2003/2004 onwards all Austrian children will have their first contacts with a foreign language at the age of 6. Languages: Offer and Choice There is a wide choice of languages which can be learnt (however, without any formal assessment) as foreign languages at primary level: Croatian, Czech, English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Slovak, and Slovene. Although there is a big choice of languages as well as a general language policy to diversify language learning, English is still by far the most popular foreign language taught at primary school level (about 97% of all primary school children learn English). All the other languages range far behind English, headed by French and Italian. The decision which language to start with is made by each primary school individually, depending on parental wishes, teacher supply and the specific regional situation and demand. The National Curriculum As for all other grades and school types there is also a national language curriculum for the primary school level. It is issued by the Federal Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs and offers a wide range of possibilities for language learning. The fundamental objectives for learning a foreign language in the primary school context are: • to motivate for life-long language learning; • to prepare the ground for communicating in a foreign language; • to generate in children essentially positive attitudes towards other; • languages and respect for other ways of thinking and acting. The national curriculum also provides the teacher with a detailed list of suggested aims, topics and techniques; it is – however – left to the teacher to select and adapt these.

As far as linguistic skills are concerned, the focus should be on listening and speaking skills: in the first two years the young learner should spend nearly all of the time devoted to foreign language learning with listening to and speaking the new language. Especially at earlier stages, the emphasis should be on listening comprehension since some children need a so-called “silent period” before they are “ready” to use the language productively. Reading and simple writing in the foreign language should not be introduced before grade 3. Both, reading and writing, have to be introduced gradually and related to the children’s individual cognitive and personal development. Some of the topic fields suggested in the national curriculum are: “The child and his family and friends”, “The child and school”, “Body and Health”, “Seasons”, “Nature” Language Learning Programmes at Primary Level The great majority of Austrian primary schools carry out language learning programmes which correspond with the national curriculum and focus on an age appropriate introduction to one foreign language (mostly English) with an average weekly exposure time of about 50-60 minutes. The starting age is either 6 (integrated approach) or 8 (traditional model) and the number and length of language learning sessions varies from 10 minutes offered several times a week (integrated approach) to 30 minutes twice a week (traditional model). The teachers are trained primary school teachers, who are very often the class teachers at the same time. This programme attempts to provide first contacts with a foreign language and to pave the way for developing at least elementary communicative skills in the foreign language. This rather new approach to primary foreign language education has been gradually growing in importance since the first pilot runs in the early 90s. Building on the positive experience gained from the pilot phase (as well as parental pressure and support from policy makers), integrated foreign language education (or “embedded” language learning) starting at the age of 6 (= first year of schooling) was incorporated into regular schooling practice in September 1998 (see above). Teaching Methods, Assessment and Materials Foreign language teaching at primary school level has to meet the general principles of primary education and the basic aspects of foreign language learning. In other words, foreign language teaching in primary schools should: • be child-centred and experiential (for example, including stories or fairy tales); • be holistic and multi-sensory; • include active and playful learning (for example, games, role-plays, sketches, rhymes); • provide meaningful contexts to support comprehension and to stress the here and now. The teaching, however, can only be successful when the (short) sessions of foreign language teaching take place at times best suited to the children. So it is up to the class teacher (who is preferably the foreign language teacher at the same time) to choose the right time for her / his foreign language portions. The teacher should use the target language as much as possible and the children’s native language only as much as necessary. With regard to assessment, it should be noted that the philosophy underlying early language teaching in Austria does not include formal testing or formal assessment of any kind. However, teachers are free to use informal methods of recording their pupils’ achievement (day-to-day observation, personal notes, etc.). As far as foreign language learning materials for the primary level are concerned, schools can choose among a wide range of textbooks included in a list of recommended teaching materials published by the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs.

Teacher Education for Primary School Level In Austria – as in some other European countries – the primary school class teacher is in most cases the foreign language teacher to early learners. This is obviously useful and to some extent even necessary, because the foreign language should not be taught in splendid isolation but should be linked to other areas of the primary school curriculum. The class teacher knows the children and the appropriate content and is therefore the best person to plan and organise the foreign language development. Pre-service teacher training for primary school teachers in Austria is offered at colleges of education (Pädagogische Akademien) which normally last three years. Prospective primary school teachers acquire the whole range of skills that are necessary for teaching all subjects at primary level (including compulsory training in one modern foreign language). For this reason, primary school teachers are not university-trained foreign language specialists but more likely all-round subject teachers with a special training in methods of teaching young children. One of the disadvantages of this kind of teacher training might be that primary school teachers sometimes lack sound linguistic competence. For this reason the optional (usually free of charge) in-service training programmes, which are offered to all teachers on a regular basis and throughout their professional career, are very important. The training programmes offered are supported by the regional educational authorities and are geared to the specific requirements of the provinces. Many teachers also take advantage of informal opportunities to improve their foreign language competence and their understanding of the target language culture(s): they participate – often at their own expense – in tailor-made language courses for teachers either in Austria or in the target language country, or they read literature or watch movies in the target language. Austria Teacher Education One of the current challenges seems to lie in teacher training as a great amount of teachers are currently being confronted with a completely new situation and challenge: a wide range of methodological strategies as well as a good proficiency in the foreign language are considered to be necessary prerequisites for successfully integrating a foreign language in the primary school curriculum. Basically, all Austrian primary school teachers are trained – either by initial or in-service training programmes – to teach a foreign language at primary level. However, integrating the foreign language in the first two years of primary education asks for much more flexibility in the foreign language and the application of new techniques and strategies. Currently, great efforts are being made to offer tailor-made programmes to primary school teachers all over Austria. Although training programmes geared to the specific demands of integrated foreign language learning have been worked out by most of the responsible regional authorities, there is still the need for nationally accepted qualification criteria, which then could provide the basis for developing long-term measures concerning initial and in-service teacher training for the primary school level. 2.2 The European Dimension of this project 2.2.1 In Feldkirch (Austria) by Franz Ludescher In December 1998 Mag. Lothar Hämmerle came back from a Thematic Seminar for Comenius Projects in Brügge with a lot of news. There he had the chance to speak to the leader of a Technical Assistance Office (they examine the projects for the commission) about

a project dealing with foreign languages in primary schools. At that discussion he was informed that a project like this could easily be accepted as a COMENIUS 3.1 Project. At our college he addressed me and asked me if I was interested in coordinating such a project, since Brussels was eager to receive such projects. Together with my colleague Prof. Arnold Gritsch we have been involved in this field for several years and gained a lot of experience. We have run in-service training seminars and of course passed on our ideas of the integrated aspect of teaching English to first graders at our faculty for several years. Mag. Herma Karg – the Socrates Coordinator in Feldkirch - created the title of our project “BALL” – and helped me to write the application form for Brussels. I got the chance to bring in a lot of background knowledge, ideas and material in this project and so – in a way – with BALL our work has truly received a European dimension because international partners who are located from the far North of Europe to the far South and also includes Hungary, which historically is a multi-lingual nation. At our “Übungsschule” – a practice primary school that is attached to the teacher training college – two colleagues are involved in this project. Mr Gunar Winkler, who currently teaches a second form, has used our material for the second year now in his class and Ms Luise Schmid uses our material for the first time this year. Apart from that practical involvement of our project, the teaching objectives for our teacher trainees are based on the material and ideas of “BALL” for two terms. In that sense “BALL” has become an important part of our teacher training curriculum. 2.2.2 In Debrecen (Hungary) - by Eva Tohol Before 1989 in Hungary, as in most Central-Eastern European countries, Russian was taught (and not necessarily learned) as a compulsory language in the school system, normally starting in the fifth grade, i.e. from the age of ten or eleven. After the transition to market economy or as the German say, die Wende, Russian ceased to be the first foreign language in Hungarian education system, and from the early nineties there has been a huge demand for qualified English / German teachers especially in the lower primary section of the public education (i.e. the first four grades of the eight-year primary school.) Being under the pressure of necessity, the education system tried to cope with this situation first by launching re-training courses for former Russian teachers on the one hand, and by setting up English and German major courses in the teacher training colleges all over the country. The Ferenc Kölcsey Teacher Training College in Debrecen did a pioneer work in this field, as this college was the first to introduce English and German training courses for regular students, and later on, since 1995 also evening courses for teachers wishing to gain qualification in teaching English in the lower grades of the primary schools. And primarily this is the TARGET GROUP for whom the materials of the BALL PROJECT provide an invaluable resource. Although the National Core Curriculum, and the recently introduced Frame Curriculum do not particularly favour starting foreign languages early, i.e. in the first or second grades, in a large number of schools English is taught from the first grade onward. Even before BALL was online, I managed to contact several teachers in the various primary schools in Debrecen and also in a larger 'catchments area' Hajdú-Bihar county, who were more than happy to try and apply these materials in their classes. According to their feedback, they have found these materials very 'children-friendly', i.e. tailored to the specific

psychological and cognitive needs of this particular age group. They also appreciated the multi-sensory approach, the huge collection of relevant activities, which can effectively be used as SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL or WARMERS. Of course our regular students are the other target group. Since BALL has been online, I have been encouraging them to have access to our website. Some of them have made use of the materials in their teaching practice or even in their private tutoring. Over the past few months I have also manage to publicise the BALL project in two NEWSLETTERS for primary teachers and also managed to contact teachers (our formers students) I might say all over the country, e.g. in Budapest, Miskolc, or Sárospatak. There is also a special target group, the so-called BILINGUAL PRIMARY SCHOOLS. The participants of the BALL project visited one of these schools in Hajdúhadház, and had a very positive experience of TEACHING ENGLISH ACROSS THE CURRICULUM. I have also contacted the network of these bilingual primary schools, and hopefully we'll gain more feedback from them, depending on their possible access to the INTERNET. As I run courses in children's literature, I have laid great emphasis on focusing on nursery rhymes, poems and tales in our project. Perhaps a special feature of our website is the collection stories/tales created and illustrated by our students. These stories can be particularly appealing to YOUNG LEARNERS, since the students were fully aware of the special needs of this age group when they created these little storybooks. I also believe that the classroom English section was a good idea to include. Finally I have also contacted the English teachers in the demo schools attached to our college, who have also found the materials easy to apply and practical. To put it in short, teachers appreciate the fresh approach of the BALL project in teaching young learners, especially the way it attempts 'to smuggle in' English through arts and crafts, maths and P.E. 2.2.3 In Granada (Spain) by Dr. Fernando Trujillo and Dr. Daniel Madrid The working group of the BALL project in Spain have consisted of four people. The coordinator has been Dr. Daniel Madrid (University of Granada), who has been working with Dr. Fernando Trujillo (University of Granada), Dr. Elena García (University of Almeria). At the school, the materials produced during the BALL project has been used by Ms. Eloisa Velázquez, a teacher at the Carmelo School (Granada, Spain). The Spanish working group has been devoted to designing materials following the guidelines established by Dr. Madrid in his several publications (quoted at http://www.ugr.es/~dmadrid), as his Making Friends textbooks, published by La Calesa, Valladolid, Spain. They have also encouraged their students to use and evaluate the materials. In that sense, among other activities, on 20th March 2002 Dr. Trujillo ran, together with Ms. Kirsten Rahbek, a seminar for in-service teachers at the Teacher Centre (Ceuta, Spain) about the BALL project. In order to contextualize our experience at the BALL project, it must be said that the tendency in Spain, as in other European countries, is to start learning a second language as young as possible. Nowadays, our children start at the age of eight, but the desire is to introduce the second language much earlier, during Infant Education. This is a venture which requires, apart from an infrastructure at the school system, some training for teachers. In that context, there is a need for materials both for teacher education and for teaching practice. That is the first appealing feature of the BALL project, which is a collection of materials at the widest store of knowledge human beings have ever devised, the Internet. Teacher trainees and in-service teachers can find at BALL website a reasonably complete and large selection of games, stories, rhymes and songs ready to use.

The second interesting feature of the BALL project is its ideological stance. This could be characterised by two elements: freedom for the teacher but an effective teaching framework. Actually, teachers are free to choose the topics and the activities they want to use, and that is why there is no didactic sequence pre-established by the authors of the website; however, the methodological approach to use these materials is clearly explained and justified at the website, which makes it a resource not just for in-service teachers who may or may not need the didactic explanations, but also for teacher trainees who certainly need this indications to make sense of such an open collection of materials. The teaching-across-the-curriculum suggestions are the third element which we would like to highlight. Indeed, this approach, as the content-based approach and all those which try to integrate language and curricular content, is one of the most interesting trends in TEFL nowadays. In our website, teacher trainees and in-service teachers can find materials for teaching English across the curriculum as well as linguistic items for classroom management, both of them adjusted to the level and age all the other materials in the website have been designed for. Finally, there is a fourth element which has been the key of this project, and that is attitude. Attitudes are the most important single element when teaching languages to young learners, that is, it is much more important to generate a positive attitude towards learning, towards the language and towards “the others” than simply learning a few bits of vocabulary which may be quite rapidly forgotten. With that idea in mind, the members of the working group have taken care, for example, of including socio-cultural information about certain topics, to introduce an intercultural perspective in the materials. Or, for example, cooperation has been emphasized instead of other more competitive teaching strategies. Perhaps, I must say, this has also been a reflection of the attitude of the people involved in the project, which has made every working session a friendly meeting we were looking forward to. All these ideas have been expressed by teachers trainees and in-service teachers which have been able to use the materials at the BALL website. Teacher trainees were glad to find materials to use during their practicum; many of them told us that during the practicum finding materials adds more anxiety to the task and the BALL website has helped them reduce this anxiety with its wide offer of materials and activities. In-service teachers appreciated that the sets of materials were topic-based and they were able to integrate songs, stories, pictures and games into a single didactic unit, although some of them preferred to use them as warmers or five-minute activities. To sum up, the BALL project and its result, the BALL website, is an appealing resource for teacher education and for teaching practice. It has been proved by our formal and informal evaluation of the website that teachers and teachers trainees like it alike, find it interesting and useful and, what is particularly important, would like us to continue adding more and more materials to the website. The project, then, is never ending. 2.2.4 In Rovaniemi (Finland) - by Kate Jackson and Kirsti Kumpulainen Before we can address the issue of language education within Finland, we must first go back and briefly look at Finland’s history. For many centuries Finland was the centre of a tug of wars between it’s neighbours: Sweden and Russia; finally gaining full independence in 1917. During the early years of independence many acts were passed, including the introduction of compulsory education, as well as legislation regulating the position of the two language groups: Finnish and Swedish. It is interesting to note that although Finland remained under soviet rule for many a long year, Russian was never adopted as an official language. Language education in Finland reflects the historical and cultural diversity present throughout the country. These range from areas on the south and east coast where Swedish is spoken as

the first language, to Lapland, in the north, where Sami is often spoken as the first language. Thus the range and variety of languages offered must not only reflect current trends but cultural and geographical requirements; those offered include: Swedish, English, German, French, Russian and Sami, which is predominantly offered in the north. Although primary schools have the autonomy to decide at what age their children start learning their second language, 90% of schools choose to do this in the third grade, when the children are 9 and 10 years old. Every child is required to learn one other foreign language apart from Swedish. The regulations also state that if Swedish is not chosen as the first option, it must be taken during their secondary schooling, where they must take an exam at the age of 18 or 19. But statistics show that 95% of children choose English as their second language. The trend in schools in recent years has been to start second language acquisition earlier, to accommodate children coming from an increasing number of language based kindergardens. It was this trend that sparked off the introduction of partial immersion schooling, where the children, starting in the first grade, would be taught through the target language across the curriculum. Here in the North of Finland a partial immersion programme was started, initially for the Swedish language and then nine years ago in English. The general aims of the programme, were:

• To encourage the children to use the foreign language as a natural part of their schoolwork.

• To promote skills of communication. • To create a positive attitude towards foreign languages, cultures and peoples. • To create a basis of bilingualism. • To learn to appreciate their own identity and develop self-confidence. • To support children in meeting other nationalities without a complex or feeling of

superiority.

The work that has been carried out in Rovaniemi has been tow fold. The first was to introduce the Teddy Bear material and later the BALL website, to teachers of the local English kindergardens and the partial immersion classes in the primary schools. They were encouraged to work with the material over a period of time and provide feedback to be used as evaluation of the BALL project. During the early years of the partial immersion project, teachers had to research and create their own material and resources, due to a lack of readymade material in English for teaching across the curriculum, rather than simply for English as an independent subject. Thus these teachers were able to appreciate the full value of the BALL project when it was introduced to them. They were able to appraise the website based on years of experience; recognizing the value of having a store of ideas and readymade activities, which included visual and textual support. The second part of the implementation process was to incorporate the material into our teaching at the University. Although we have primarily worked with the students who are specializing to become English teachers, we have also explored the material with second year students during didactic and oral skills sessions. One of our aims has been to encourage the student teachers to consider various communicative methods, rather than simply following the children’s workbooks. During oral skills sessions with the specialists they were asked to look at the material in terms of their other specialist fields, addressing the issue in terms of the role of subject coordinator and how the material conforms to the subject’s ideologies and requirements. Some of the fourth year specialists went on to produce their seminar work

based on some of the approaches that the BALL project is founded upon. The last group of students to receive the BALL project information, were those taking part in postgraduate studies in primary education. Due to restrictions in time, this was only brief, but withholds the nature of the website, in that teachers can access not only the material but also the theories behind them. The introduction of the material was not restricted to students at the University alone, but was presented to English students here in Rovaniemi undertaking their second year teaching practice in the local partial immersion schools. These students, from the University of Plymouth, teach all curriculum subjects through English. This is especially difficult for those working with the younger children, for the children must still receive the same concepts as they would in their mother tongue, but the approach must differ to broach the language gap. The BALL website offers them access to numerous topic related activities that not only suit teaching English to first graders but can be used or adapted for older children. The development of the BALL project has not only echoed, but strengthened the aims and work of local teachers, not just in allowing the teachers to update their knowledge according to recent research, but also exposing them to the work being carried out by the other countries involved in the BALL project. The website has been invaluable in helping teachers and students, both Finnish and English, in equipping themselves with the skills, knowledge and resources to teach through English across the curriculum. The hope is that teachers can not only access the site, but influence it by contributing feedback and new ideas, to be shared by students and teachers alike. 2.2.5 In Denmark (Jelling) by Ingelise Jensen and Kirsten Rahbek English in Denmark Denmark has a long tradition of initial and in-service education of teachers, provided by various types of teacher education institutions catering for different school forms and age ranges. Colleges of Education are the only institutions authorised to educate teachers for the Danish Folkeskole, a municipal school combining primary and lower secondary education and run on a near-comprehensive basis for children between the ages of 6 to 16. The teaching of foreign languages has always played an important part both in the history of Denmark and the Danish language. Since the Education Act of 1958 English has been a compulsory subject in the Folkeskole, introduced first from the 6th form level, later at the 5th and eventually at the 4th form level in 1993 when the present Education Act was introduced. German as a foreign language is offered from the 7th form. Today English is the first foreign language in Denmark, an international communication language used by a majority of Danes on all levels. The subject of English must thus contain a proficiency aspect, a familiarisation aspect and an attitude-forming aspect. The Danish Folkeskole has no national curriculum but Aims, Central Knowledge and Proficiency areas (CKPs) along with a recommended curriculum have been laid down by the Danish Ministry of Education. The overall aims of English as a subject is to develop the learners’ communicative competence and the four CKPs indicate the content of the teaching and are used as guidelines for planning as well as evaluation:

• Communication skills • Language and language usage • Language learning • Cultural and social relations Although the starting point of English is the 4th form level, some innovative projects of early English have taken place within the last 10 years. According to the present Minister of Education an earlier start of English is desirable, and we can foresee a change in the near future and consequently the need for teacher training in that area. The BALL project gave us the opportunity to be prepared for that development and include the teaching of early beginners with students who specialise in English as a foreign language at the College. Furthermore Ingelise Jensen was allowed to carry out an innovative project teaching English in the 1st form at a local school from August 2001. Her experience is described below: About my project in school Last year 2001 was the European Language Year. I went to Copenhagen to get inspired and to hear further arguments for an earlier start. I got them and was ready to start teaching English from 1st form very much supported by the parents and the school board but not by the Department of Education. Therefore, on the timetable we do not call the subject ’English’, but ’Language stimulation in English’. I practise 90 minutes per week. In order not to disturb the mother tongue, Danish, I am not allowed to write any English words on the blackboard or on any paper. In fact, the pupils must not see any written English before they know their Danish better. The mother tongue is not to be disturbed by the target language. At the moment, I do not know when to introduce writing at all, perhaps not until the 3rd or the 4th form. What I do in the lessons is: play games in English, sing, tell easy stories, say nursery rhymes, and pick out words from everyday life topics, such as numbers, colours, body parts, clothes, the house, fruit etc. The important thing is that it makes fun to learn English. The pupils are not forced to say anything if they do not feel like. But that is not the case. These 6-year-old children have not yet the inhibitions that we see among 9-year-old children. It is a great advantage. I try to speak English to the pupils all the time during the lessons even though some of them do not quite understand. They are very clever at helping each other and they may ask and answer me in Danish. My reply will always be in English. I think it is important that they hear as much English as possible and they also hear the intonation, which I find very relevant. My use of the BALL-project The website www.vobs.at/ball-online is where I have gathered ideas for use in English teaching together with colleagues from other European countries. Some of my easy stories especially the ones about the caterpillar are from this address and the children love them. This website will surely inspire newly qualified as well as senior teachers searching for something different. Recently, I was asked to write an article for a book on the Danish school system and foreign language learning. Here again I mentioned the Comenius-BALL project. Last week a reporter and a photographer came to visit me and my 1st form to see what was going on and to write an article about it in the teachers’ weekly, FOLKESKOLEN, because

our government intend to start English teaching from the 3rd form from August 2003. At the moment it is an educational focus in Denmark. BALL The BALL website is well suited to the Danish curriculum where teachers have the freedom to choose materials and activities covering the topics decided in class as part of a democratic process. The language activities and tasks represent a rich variety of experiences and sense impressions, and artistic and practical work and forms of impressions are integrated to provide the best possible learning environment for young learners. All students of English at Jelling College of education have been introduced to the BALL web. The website has been used frequently by our students who have found a great source of inspiration when teaching, not only young learners but pupils in the first phase of language learning. During their teaching practice they have been able to introduce it to teachers of English at the practice schools who in return have expressed their enthusiasm and interest in the didactics of teaching young beginners.

B) ABOUT US 1) Persons involved

Franz Ludescher - Austria ; Professor at the Pädagogische Akademie Feldkirch Initiator of the project and coordinator responsible for content and execution of the project. Expert of "De-suggestopedia" and didactical components. Also responsible for evaluation and execution of results in Austria.

Kirsten Rahbek - Denmark ; Professor at Jelling College of Education Input about educational innovations in Denmark and adaptation of results of all partners to Danish elementary schools system. Evaluation and execution of results in Denmark.

Ingelise Jensen - runs an innovative project at a primary school in Vejle, teaching English to first graders. Takes over the project in the testing phase.

Kirsti Kumpulainen – Finland; Professor at the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi Input about educational innovations in Finland and adaptation of results of all partners to Finnish elementary schools system. Evaluation and execution of results in Finland.

Kate Jackson: English Language teacher at the University of Lapland, Rovaniemi Native speaker, Evaluation and execution of results in Finland.

Daniel Madrid - Spain; Professor at the Universidad de Granada Input about educational innovations in Spain and adaptation of results of all partners to Spanish elementary schools system. Evaluation and execution of results in Spain.

Fernando Trujillo Ceuta Faculty of Education and Humanities, University of Granada Evaluation and execution of results in Spain.

Eva Tohol – Hungary; Professor at the Kölcsey Ferenc Reformatus Tanitoképzo Föiskola in Debrecen Input about educational innovations in Hungary and adaptation of results of all partners to Hungarian elementary schools system. Evaluation and execution of results in Hungary.

All participating partners are specialized in teacher training. 2) MEETINGS First meeting in Feldkirch: From February 2nd till February 6th, 2000 we had our first meeting in Feldkirch. These were some of our highlights.

At the beginning of the 13th century the Lords of Montfort founded the town Feldkirch. It is close to the Swiss border and to the principality of Liechtenstein and the Lake of Constance, which is only 30 minutes away, Feldkirch itself with about 30000 inhabitants is the best preserved middle aged town in Vorarlberg. Because of the culture historical importance the whole old town is under natural trust and a lot of streets and roads are free of traffic.

It is a living small town , in which the Alemanns built themselves a little jewel at the most western part of Austria.

The landmark was built in 1260 as a protection for the town and it’s citizen. It was the main castle for the Lords of Montfort, who raised as the reigning royals in the region of Vorarlberg during the middle ages. After Feldkirch was given to the House of Habsburg in 1390 they built important extensions. After the castle was given free for tearing down in 1825 the town bought the grounds. It is today a museum and a restaurant., which is famous for its huge "Wienerschnitzel".

The "Pädagogische Akademie" in Feldkirch is the place where our project started.

At our first meeting we mainly talked about the methodology and pedagogical approaches. We all agreed on creating material on the basis of de-suggestopedia, a method which involves the following principles: Presenting language in a multi-sensory way Working with higher input Creating an emotional atmosphere De-suggesting learning barriers Learning through art Motivating through dynamics Since Austria has the role of a forerunner in the field of English education at primary schools, the Austrian partner in this project has done a lot of preparation work and groundwork for this project. Mr Graham Crane, who is responsible for instruction to improve the language competence of the teachers involved in the Teddy-bear project in that part of Austria, presented material and passed on his experience to all partners of the project.

2nd meeting in Debrecen From May 30th to 3rd of June, 2000 we had our third meeting in Debrecen. These were some of our highlights.

Francis Kölcsey Reformed Teachers` Training College

The Great Calvinist Church of Debrecen. The event that made the Great Calvinist Church of Debrecen really significant was that the Declaration of Independence was announced in that building on 14th April 1849 and Lewis Kossuth was appointed to the Regent of Hungary.

The Great Hungarian Plain stretches from the Danube to the country’s eastern border. The Hungarian puszta (the word puszta means empty, bare, grassy plain) is a distant relative of the prairies, pampas and steppes - one of the most popular tourism destinations in Europe. This flat expanse occupies well over a third of Hungary’s entire area.

Puszta Arid grasslands that once covered a large part of the Alföld, Hungary. They were used for extensive cattle raising. With the irrigation and drainage projects of the late 19th cent., the Puszta disappeared except in the small Hortobagy region (c.100 sq mi/260 sq km), near Debrecen. Old customs of the Puszta are preserved there.

At that meeting we mainly focused on the following topics which we have planned and created for that meeting: • Winter • Time • Food • Illness • Spring • Easter April • Fool Additionally we discussed the theory behind B A L L - Brainfriendly-Accelerated Language Learning very intensively.

3rd meeting in Rovaniemi

From Nov. 15th till November 19th, 2000 we had our fourth meeting in Rovaniemi, Finland. These were some of our highlights.

Rovaniemi - the Capital of Lapland Rovaniemi, an international, developing town of business, administration and education, is located at the confluence of Lapland’s mighty rivers Kemijoki and Ounasjoki. As the capital of the province, Rovaniemi has always been a gateway to Lapland.

Arktikum at Rovaniemi is a science centre and museum focusing on the Arctic regions and presenting life, natural habitats, history, customs and cultures of the peoples living north of the Arctic Circle.Most of the rooms and space are located underground. The architectural design expresses the harsh and severe climate, where plants and animals often take refuge under the snow and in the soil.

University of Lapland The University of Lapland [UOL] was established in 1979 and now has 3390 students. As the most northerly university of the European Union it aims to provide university-level education for the local population and for those who wish to study in its unique environment.

Santa Claus Village: In Rovaniemi you can meet Santa Claus and his reindeer every single day of the year. You can visit Santa Claus in his own home and whisper into his ear at any time.

Reindeer huspandry - Lapish livelihood

The main focus of that meeting was on the material we have elaborated an created for the following topics: • Saying Hello • Giving Directions • Colours • Family • Weather • Autumn • Toys • Christmas Another very important discussion we had was about publishing our outcomes and we decided to put all the material into the www.

4th Meeting in Granada: From May 30th to June 3rd, 2001 we had our 4th meeting in Granada. Here you can see some highlights from that meeting:

Ingelise, Daniel, Franz and Eve are having a nice drink with tapas, in one of the beautiful shady places.

The picture was taken by Kate.

This is an attractive view of the Alhambra with the Sierra Nevada in the background.

Courtyard of Lions in the Alhambra.. It is one of the most exquisite and delicate manifestations of Islamic architecture.

Here Daniel shows us the school "Santa Maria" in the Sacromonte area.

This picture shows the terrific view of the Alhambra from Sacromonte.

From the fortress of the Alhambra you have got a magnificent view of the Albayzin, the ancient part of town, with its hidden corners which fill the soul with memories of times gone by.

These are some of the results we agreed on at that meeting: • We regard the homepage as good start in presenting our project. • A chat-room will be installed. • This material will be passed on to our students within our faculties and the project will be

part of one of the modules of our teacher training. • The material will be used by the students when running their practice lessons and it will

also be evaluated. • We will contact publishers of suitable songs and books and ask them if we can put some

of them onto the net. In return we will recommend their songbook or reading book on our homepage.

5th meeting in Jelling From December 5th till Dec. 9th, 2001 we had our fifth meeting in Jelling. Here you can see some of the highlights of that meeting.

Here our group - Ingelise, Fernado, Eva, Franz and Kate - are standing in front of a huge rune stone in the churchyard of Jelling. Jelling was Denmark's first capital. Christianity was introduced here, the nation united by King Gorm the Old. The direct line, from Gorm the Old to the royal family today, is unbroken.

The exhibition "Royal Jelling" traces the history of the monuments from their construction one thousand years ago until the present day. The two rune stones are central to the exhibition, representing the unification of the Danish kingdom, and the acceptance of Christianity.

A nice experience for all of us was the chance to attend Molholm School where material from our project is used and passed on to school-beginners under the supervision of Ingelise.

It was also quite impressive to see how the ideas by Howard Gardener (Multiplied Intelligences) are applied at that school.

In Århus we visited Den Gamle By, a reconstructed town with old houses and a very pleasant atmosphere. Its opened all year with people working and doing their trade like tailor, weaver e.g.

The meeting in Jelling was the first meeting in the third year of our project. The main focus of the last year will be on evaluation of our project. So we worked very intensively on preparing an evaluation form for our project and writing down answers for the interviews. We also worked on making suggestions to improve our website including the feedback of our students at our institutes.

6th meeting in Feldkirch From May 1st to May 6th 2002. The final meeting of our project took place where it all started, in Feldkirch. The main focus of that meeting was the presentation of our website to students of the teacher training college and to primary school teachers, who came to Feldkirch to attend their final seminar of the “Teddy Bear Project”. Our team had the chance to present our outcomes at that in-service training. We also discussed the problem how to increase the number of student teachers and primary school teachers, who will send their feedback via e-mail to us. Another item of discussion was based on further co-operation. Although our project ended officially with that last meeting we all agreed to continue to exchange ideas and to add further material to our web-site.