Teaching English Motivatedly for Adult Students

Teaching English Motivatedly for Adult Students has maintained the aim to bring together three partners from different cultures and traditions, in order to share and exchange different experiences of learning a second language. Each partner has identified common problems to face as basis on which the project activities has been delivered. TEMAS has been characterized by a series of oral activities based on the sharing of topics related to personnel interests of participants and according to their different backgrounds.These oral activities, such as sharing experiences, role playing and tandem-learning, has been the basis of the interaction between participants, also through the use of online channels (such as Slack and Skype, which has been preferred to the creation of an “ad hoc” online community).The topic of discussion was about: institutional questions, the sense of belong to Europe, the political challenges of enlarging the European Community (a particular sensitive issue for the Turkish partner).These topics has been alternated also to the account of personal experiences (useful for the participants' connection).Regardless of their origin, their social background or the age of the participants, it has been recognized the individual characteristics of each person and the added value of the community. Among the proposed activities, there were group games and theatrical sketches in English whose aim was to get involvedpersonally. To reach this stage it was been necessary to provide the experience of tandem-learning: it deals with an activity for the interpersonal connection between two participants. In general they talk about ideas and experiences using English language. These activities, carried out during LTTA, were also been practiced remotely during the months of preparation for LTTA.Among the objectives, those certainly achieved by this path are:- To encourage intercultural dialogue and promote community involvement- Integration of participants in the European Union- Provide participants with tools for language practice- Activities based on real life and personal experiences, which proved to be very engagingThe activities foreseen in the LTTA and the problems presented during the course have been dealt by e-mail, Skype, conference calls (by Slack).In all activities, the contribution of each partners has been fundamental, both in terms of knowledge and personal experiences. During the workshops, it has been give space to the presentation of partner’s countries of origin and traditions. The same has been also done during group games designed to promoteconnection among participants. Each partner has been involved in holding laboratories and in bringing their own training method.Furthermore, it has been exploited the German partner's experience in organizing a workshop on cosmopolitan communication that deals with a form of communication between people going beyond the exchange of ideas and it is instead based on the search for emotional harmony among participants. Thebasic idea of all the activities was to relate participants, so that the exchange of Europe's propitious experiences and ideas was a more interesting topic to get involved and consequently improve language skills. This approach, based on the 'Problem-based learning’, has therefore proved to be very functional andhas allowed, at the same time, to improve the language and effectively put the participants in relation, creating the particular sense of European community that we wanted to achieve.In all the phases of the project, the partners' managers analysed the progress of the project, trying to redefine the activities to be carried out during LTTA.The Logo of the project was printed on shopper bags distributed to participants, and in all the materials used in the meetings (brochures of the program, block notes, images shared on social networks) both among the participants and with the local institutions (mayors, schools, local associations) in order to givevisibility to the project and to EU.The main achieved results are: the creation of a link between participants of the various partners, the use of digital tools to overcame communication barriers (Skype and Slack in particular), the realization of laboratories in which participants have come into play, acquisition of skills on the cosmopolitan communication, knowledge of the traditions and peculiarities of the host territories, the acquisition of the sense of European community and the added value of international cooperation.