An Exciting European Project!
On October 6th and 7th, Mother Tongues were delighted to participate in the first Transnational Meeting of the Erasmus Project “BABO: Bilingual And Bicultural Outlook”, coordinated by the University of Extremadura, Spain and made up of a large consortium of European organisations.
The consortium has a high level of experience in different fields related to the project: multiple intelligences, multilingual education, ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care), gamification, design of educational games, audiovisual animation and app development. The meeting was held at the Faculty of Education and Psychology with the participation of the Research Group Nodo Educativo of the University of Extremadura (UEx), (Spain), Munster Technological University (Ireland), the Baby Erasmus multilingual Early Childhood Education Centers (Spain), Superlexi (Belgium), La Rueda (Austria), Mother Tongues (Ireland), the companies Smart Makings (Spain), Tecnologias Imaginadas (Portugal) and Glow (Spain), winners of the Goya Awards for best animated film with “Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles”.
Following the European Commission report “Education begins with language” (June 2020) which aims to support the application of the European Union’s Recommendation for a global approach to language teaching and learning, the BABO project’s main focus is teaching a second language in preschool settings in an innovative way, offering early childhood educators and families new educational methodologies and digital resources.
Moreover, this project connects with the objectives of the Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027). This plan outlines the European Community’s vision for high-quality, inclusive and accessible digital education in Europe. It is a call to action for further cooperation at a European level in order to learn from the COVID-19 crisis, during which technology has started to be used on an unprecedented scale in education and training.
Ms Rosa Fernández Sánchez, professor at the UEx and member of the coordination team, pointed out that “it is a very ambitious project that has partners with extensive experience in multilingual education and that allows us to analyse and evaluate the introduction of these new digital educational resources in early childhood settings in several European countries”.
The outputs of the project include the creation of a series of cartoons, 10 analogue games, 4 digital games and an app for children of early age to learn a second language in a fun way. In addition, a booklet will be developed with guidelines for early childhood educators, based on multiple intelligences. For more information, please visit baboproject.com
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