The Community Café project: language teachers creating and sharing resources online Alison Dickens Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

Overview background ‘the Community Café’ project? why did we do it? what did we do? how did we get on? what happens next?

Background Language Café project 2006/08 EU-funded project to facilitate non-formal community- based language learning set up language groups in cafés, libraries, restaurants, bookshops in Southampton and 8 other cities in Europe aim was to create self-managed groups which would be sustainable and replicable beyond the life of the project

Background Language Café project 2006/08 EU-funded project to facilitate non-formal community- based language learning set up language groups in cafés, libraries, restaurants, bookshops in Southampton and 8 other cities in Europe aim was to create self-managed groups which would be sustainable and replicable beyond the life of the project

Background concept proved very appealing and some cafés are still going today a steady trickle of new cafés being added to the website won an EU award for social inclusion in 2010 provided the model for the Community Café project

The Project funded by JISC under the developing community content initiative for: ‘the development of community collections, where digital content is created, co-created or enhanced by audiences from outside traditional tertiary education boundaries’ in our case we had already identified community languages as an area in which there was a need for more support and teaching resources. This project presented an ideal way of helping to address this.

Why did we do it? to create more up-to-date online teaching resources for community languages to give community language teachers the opportunity to improve their teaching and IT skills to help community language teachers to make contact with other teachers across the UK to share expertise and resources from the University of Southampton with the local community

What did we do? met at the Community Café in a local primary school once a month to share teaching ideas and explore new ways of teaching their students ran a workshop programme to provide training in the use of new technologies for teaching languagesworkshop programme used an online space, The LanguageBox, to store and share the resources created by the project worked in partnership with LLAS, Southampton City Council and Manchester Metropolitan University

The online space… personal profile pages range of resources contributed by language teachers see most viewed/downloaded see when someone else downloads, remixes or comments on your resources create ‘favourites’ contact other users through the site

The online space…

My Room downloaded

How did we get on? café has met 7 times and there has been very good attendance (30-40 each time) we have discussed classroom teaching practice and have had guest speakers we have run 7 workshops on how to use new technologies to create teaching resources or share teaching ideas we have worked collaboratively in groups and sometimes across languages teachers are growing in confidence in using IT resources are being uploaded into the LanguageBox

What’s in the Box? resources for teachers to use in the classroom resources for learners to use on their own teaching ideas for other teachers to adapt guidance on the use of software advice on teaching techniques cultural materials – images, songs etc.

Teaching materials resources for teachers to use in the classroom resources for learners to use on their own teaching ideas for other teachers to adapt guidance on the use of software advice on teaching techniques cultural materials – images, songs etc.

Learning materials resources for teachers to use in the classroom resources for learners to use on their own teaching ideas for other teachers to adapt guidance on the use of software advice on teaching techniques cultural materials – images, songs etc.

Teaching ideas resources for teachers to use in the classroom resources for learners to use on their own teaching ideas for other teachers to adapt guidance on the use of software advice on teaching techniques cultural materials – images, songs etc.

Technology guides

Teaching tips resources for teachers to use in the classroom resources for learners to use on their own teaching ideas for other teachers to adapt guidance on the use of software advice on teaching techniques cultural materials – images, songs etc.

Cultural materials resources for teachers to use in the classroom resources for learners to use on their own teaching ideas for other teachers to adapt guidance on the use of software advice on teaching techniques cultural materials – images, songs etc.

How did we get on? What we have learnt… there is a fantastic group of community languages teachers in Southampton it takes time to develop new skills. We have made progress but could do with much more time community languages teachers don’t always have access to computers within their teaching setting so can’t always use technology in the classroom there is great enthusiasm for gaining new teaching and IT skills and for sharing teaching resources and ideas with others

How did we get on? BUT… it is clear that many community languages teachers would benefit from some intensive training in language teaching before tackling the technology there is great diversity in English Language skills and these need to be addressed in order to help them benefit more fully from the Café and workshop sessions there are a range of technical challenges that no course can address, e.g. no access to ICT in their classrooms lack of general technical skills, in particular use of keyboards in the target languages can impede progress

What happens next? teachers hopefully will continue to meet monthly in the Community Café to share ideas and resources teachers will continue to create resources and share them through the LanguageBox a workshop pack will be added to LanguageBox which can be used to support community languages teachers in other parts of the UK we will present the project at conferences and meetings we will look at new sources of funding to develop further workshops locally and UK-wide

Thank you! Here are some useful links… The Language Box: The Community Café blog: The webpage: The JISC programme The Language Café ‘Community Languages in Higher Education: towards realising the potential’ (2008), a report by Joanna McPake and Itesh Sachdev for the Routes into Languages project‘Community Languages in Higher Education: towards realising the potential’

A big thank you to all the teachers who have participated. It has been great to get to know you and I hope you have all got to know each other a bit better. And special thanks to Sawar Jamil for being such a great project partner and also to Kate Chandler for supporting the project idea and helping get the City Council on board