'English is not enough'
Under the slogan 'English is not enough' the project is coordinated by the University of Alicante (Spain) and led by Dr. Claudia Grümpel, lecturer in German Studies. Six European universities will be taking part in the project: the University of Alicante, the University of Vienna (Austria), the University of Barcelona (Spain), the University of Jena (Germany), the Vienna University of Economics & Business (WU, Austria), and UNED (Spain). Two Chinese universities will collaborate in the research. The limited hours of face-to-face classes and the need to develop communication skills to enhance the employability of young graduates as well as a European Framework of Reference for Languages, which requires - among other things - the development of communication skills also in a third language led Alicante researchers to design a pilot system of online-tandems and video conferences in 2011. The aim was to supplement formal education with the possibility of direct access to a third language outside the classroom. Thus, on the initiative of lecturer Claudia Grümpel, the L3-Task Project emerged. L3-Task aims to create a methodological concept for the implementation of third languages and ICTs, this time focussed on German, Spanish and Chinese, the organization of online- tandem groups and the creation of an oral corpus for research in methodology. The project will also study the relationship between cultural concepts and identify linguistic and cultural needs aimed at employability. Due to a strong commitment to science communication, during the three years of the project, four international workshops will be organised in order to disseminate results. At the University of Alicante, the specific work will be focussed on the creation of a linguistic corpus for third language acquisition and the first pilot online-tandem groups will be created. The UA team is made up by doctors Claudia Grümpel, main researcher and coordinator, José Luis Cifuentes, and María Tabuenca, as well as a number of collaborators and trainees. L3-Task will starts its activities as a European Consortium in the upcoming Kick-off-Meeting that will be held on December 9, 2013 in Vienna (Austria), where the Consortium will be officially created with the main researchers and representatives of the elected institutions. These are Dr. Eva Vetter (University of Vienna), Claudia Grümpel (UA), Javier Orduña, (University of Barcelona), Hermann Funk (University of Jena), Martin Stegu, (WU Vienna), and Germán Ruipérez (UNED Madrid).
Countries
Austria, Germany, Spain