English as a Lingua Franca For Inclusive Multilingual Classrooms (ENRICH)

ENRICH aims at developing a high-quality Continuous Professional Development infrastructure which will empower English language teachers to integrate in multilingual classrooms the current role of English as a Lingua Franca.

About the project

This project won the Erasmus+ "Good Practice" Badge in 2023 (europa.eu).

ENRICH puts high priority on the promotion of teacher competences which are necessary for responding to and building upon the diversity found in today’s multilingual classrooms across Europe.

To this end, it aims at developing a high-quality Continuous Professional Development (CPD) infrastructure which will empower English language teachers (ELTs) to integrate in multilingual classrooms the current role of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), i.e. as the most frequently employed means of international and intercultural communication.

ENRICH places strong emphasis on supporting ELTs in:

• a. exploiting the benefits of ELF in adopting an inclusive pedagogical approach in multilingual classrooms, i.e. classrooms with learners having more than one languages at their disposal (irrespective of level of competence), including learners from migrant backgrounds, such as first- and second-generation and newly-arrived immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers;
• b. using innovative teaching practices, such as translanguaging, and appropriate cultural content to develop the learners’ ELF-related communicative competences and other transversal skills crucial for employability and social inclusion in today’s increasingly multilingual and demanding world.

Tangible outputs of ENRICH on its completion

1. Analysis surveys investigating: a) the training needs of ELTs with regard to multilingualism, social inclusion, ELF and teaching multilingual classes with young and adolescent learners, including learners from migrant backgrounds, and b) the needs and wants of learners attending such classes, in relation to the content and process of teaching, the ways they currently use English and the ways they might do so in the future.
2. An open-access and free-of-charge blended learning CPD course for ELTs, based on the priorities (Section C) and the objectives of ENRICH (illustrated above). This will follow 3 main phases: a) development of CPD materials & activities (based on NA findings and a thorough literature review), b) piloting (by a small number of ELTs), c) implementation. The implementation phase, throughout which the participants will form physical and virtual, local and transnational, communities of interest and will be mentored by ENRICH members of the respective countries, will include an awareness-raising stage based on the CPD materials & activities and a practical stage, where they will design and teach original lessons in their classrooms and evaluate the outcome, in relation to their training needs before the CPD course, the knowledge gained throughout it and the needs and wants of their learners.
3. An open-access and free-of-charge digital and printed Handbook, containing, among others, the CPD materials & activities, good practices from the ELTs’ classrooms, guidelines for teacher educators facilitating the use of the course beyond the partner countries and beyond the lifetime of the project, conclusions specifically addressed at educational decision-makers, annotated further readings and suggestions for improvement.
4. The website of the project, which will host all necessary information about it, as well as its tangible outputs, the ICT-based CPD materials & activities and the virtual space for synchronous and asynchronous communication among ELTs’ communities of interest and ENRICH partners.
5. Project flyers, presentations, publications (e.g. in scientific journals) and other items aiming at disseminating the project, as well as documenting, evaluating and fostering its impact.