Abstract:

The increasing alterations in the social structure of the modern European societies due to the migratory flows that arise as a consequence of the destabilization of the political and economic systems from the West to the East are currently creating new forms of multi-faceted cultural and ethnic identities, as well as new forms of migration. Hence, the latest developments have led de facto to the creation of multicultural and multilingual conditions within European contexts. Indicative of this trend, is that, according to research findings, more than 50% of Europeans are either bilingual or live in an environment where they are confronted with two or more languages, especially people living in border regions, migrants and people whose parents speak a language other than the national language. Language acquisition and language enhancement gets more and more important for an intercultural dialogue in our society and for increasing job chances of individuals. Besides, from the perspective of migrants, the majority of sociological and linguistic studies indicate the necessity of learning a local language, in order for the smooth integration of the migrant into the new social context to be ensured.

Based on the above reasoning, within this output, the consortium will initially conduct a research, through which it will try to identify the most impactful European funded or other projects which have been focused on the creation of innovative ICT tools and that will enable migrants and refugees to learn the local language of the EU country they reside.

The findings of the research will catalyse the enhancement of academic research in relation to applied linguistic tools which operate as open educational resources, as they have been developed within the context of European funded programs, by simultaneously contributing to a further dissemination and sustainability of the already existed European programs whose duration has probably expired.

Keywords:

Free digital language learning tools, migrants, refugees, intercultural dialogue.