Kristin Brogan & Valerie McGrath ( (Ireland)
Abstract
“Exploring Intercultural and Plurilingual Dimensions
Vocational Orientated Culture and Language (VOCAL) in Need” is an Erasmus+ funded project (2017 to 2019) that aims to improve the cultural and linguistic skills of security staff, trainers, counsellors and NGO personnel across Europe who interact with migrants and refugees who are unable to converse in the language of the European country that they currently reside in. The project comprised of nine European partner institutes with eight target languages. The focus of this project was primarily to assist security staff (police, border control; etc.) and NGOs staff to work with refugees and to raise their cultural sensitivity. Secondly, there was an emphasis on creating a greater understanding and responsiveness to social, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity. Finally, to increase competence in foreign languages by security and NGO staff. A range of different languages
are included: German, Lithuanian, Italian, Bulgarian, Turkish, Arabic and Russian.
A quantitative online survey with the target groups was used for this project which resulted in the selection of topics for the five training modules. The content of these modules included useful words and phrases for linguistic acquisition, virtual tours (animated dialogues/scenarios with quizzes), cultural information, country-specific information and a final self-test. The needs analysis also highlighted the need for a more innovate approach to ensuring engagement with personnel and therefore, a mobile app was also developed to enable the end users (security staff, trainers, etc.) to overcome language barriers.
For each module, a partner was responsible for a specific dialogue and the creation of a prototype which was reviewed and approved by the whole partnership and then transferred into a local context and translated into the target languages. This could then be freely used by personnel interacting with migrants and asylum seekers across Europe.
Project website: www.vocal.erasmus.site
Bio
Kristin Brogan, BA, MA, PhD, lecturer
Dr Kristin Brogan is a lecturer in German and Intercultural Communication since 1994 at ITT/MTU (School of Social Sciences). Since 2003 she has been involved with EU Commission-funded international projects in the area of online language and intercultural communication (ICC) modules and other disciplines and is currently coordinating various Erasmus+ projects (www.ittralee.ie/euprojects). She also participated in ECML (Council of Europe – www.ecml.at) projects and facilitated workshops as an ECML consultant. Her PhD research study was in Applied Linguistics and ICC on the Year Abroad. She was the chair of www.onevoiceforlanguages.com. For further information please see: http://www.ittralee.ie/en/InformationFor/Staff/Profiles/kristinbrogan/
Valerie McGrath, MII Grad CDMP FHEA PhD, lecturer
Dr. Valerie McGrath is a lecturer in the Department of Business & Hotel, Culinary Arts and Tourism in Munster Technological University (Kerry) Ireland. She has extensive academic experience spanning over twenty years in Higher Education teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate students. She has also taught migrants and asylum seekers through the Limerick/Clare Education Training Board in Ireland. Valerie has worked on several Erasmus+ projects with colleagues in Munster Technological University which have had a focus on cultural awareness and language acquisition.