Abstract:

This contribution will describe the results of the socio-linguistic analysis of the two-year European project Literalia. LITERALIA, which is the acronym of Learning In Tandem to Encourage Reciprocal Autonomous Learning In Adults, developed from the European Union's Grundtvig initiative to promote adult long-life learning in Europe. It involved four institutions of four European countries: in Germany, the Volkshochschule Ostkreis in Hannover and Bildungszentrum Wolfsburg GmbH, in the United Kingdom the Department of Languages of the Open University, in Italy, the Centro Territoriale Permanente per l’Educazione degli Adulti in Pontedera (Pisa) and in Poland the Wyższa Szkoła Bankowości i Finansów in Bielsku-Bialej.
The project consisted in the creation of a workspace and a chat room where the learners of the different countries could meet and communicate, improving their linguistic and cultural competence in a foreign language. Transnational meetings, where tandem partners could meet and talk face-to-face, were also planned and were of fundamental importance for the success of the project.
The Literalia project offers an insight on intercultural communication and on interpersonal cooperation as a mean to improve the competence in an L2, by using media and strategies which diminish stress and embarrassment and favor the use of a contextualized language.

Keywords:

adult education, computer-mediated communication, motivation, tandem learning.