Abstract:

A multidisciplinary team of experts in Linguistics, ICT, Sciences and Humanities, involved in initial teacher training, from six Universities -Alcalá University (Spain), Comenius University (Slovakia), University of Leicester (United Kingdom), Lisbon University (Portugal), Helsinki University (Finland) and Karadeniz Technical University (Turkey)- participate in the intTT project. The project proposal was presented to the European Commission in March 2009, and was accepted in October 2009.
The European intTT project with the title ‘An Integral Teacher Training for Developing Digital and Communicative Competences and Subject Content Learning at Schools’ deals with training Secondary School student teachers through a methodology that fosters the development of communicative competence and subject content knowledge through digital tools in pupils. The project provides a teacher training which is based on the integration of communicative and digital competences with content learning, and it also promotes a conceptual and attitudinal change concerning the teaching/learning process in student teachers.
One of the main aims of the project is the acquisition of communicative competence which implies the development of the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing; linguistic knowledge and use of rule governed language; sociolinguistic cultural appropriacy in context and discourse structure. The project favours language learning and linguistic diversity as didactic materials will be produced in mother tongue and in English using the required linguistic strategies to achieve communicative competence. One of the innovations of the project is that these materials are aimed at being implemented in any subject lessons not only in mother tongue or foreign language lessons as it is generally done in schools.
We can also justify the need of this project as we now live in a global ‘knowledge society’ which demands the incorporation of ICT into all aspects of human interaction, including education. Furthermore, related to communicative competence, the informational competences are the most relevant ones in the digital world as they are demanded by both the scientific world and the labour market. The level of their acquisition positively influences on personal and professional development of pupils and students.
The project will design a methodology to produce materials (6 CDs) which present innovative pedagogical approaches to encourage language learning. These CDs consist of didactic activities and suggestions for student teachers to develop communicative competence and subject content learning in pupils through significant use of digital tools. Moreover, the team has designed a ‘framework’ to create these materials including: ‘criteria for selecting sources (to work with)’, ‘criteria for designing material and activities’ and ‘criteria for using digital tools’ in order to acquire these key competences. This methodology is transferable to other academic levels or other educational and vocational environments.
Furthermore, the project plans an international mobility of student teachers in order to promote transference and exchange of experience, thereby giving future teachers a wider cultural and educational perspective.
The poster that will be presented in this Conference describes the project aims and some of the most relevant outcomes achieved up to now.

Keywords:

Language, communicative competence, digital competence, subject content, teacher training.