Abstract:

This paper focuses upon the process of creation of an app meant to foster the incidental learning of four languages and cultures: Finnish, Italian, Polish and Portuguese. The app is intended as a support to student mobility across Europe and it is developed within the ILOCALAPP project (www.ilocalapp.eu). Smart devices can prove to be a powerful tool not only to assist students but also to make mobility an inspiring learning experience in terms of language proficiency and intercultural comprehension, which is the final aim of this project.

ILOCALAPP (Incidentally Learning Other Cultures and Languages through an APP) is a three-year Erasmus+ project coordinated by the University of Bologna and carried out in collaboration with the University of Lapland (Rovaniemi, Finland), the Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznań, Poland) and the Centre for Social Studies (Coimbra, Portugal).

The project began in October 2015 and will end in August 2018. The first version of the app will be ready in autumn 2017, it will be then tested by a selected group of students and the final version will be released in July 2018. In the first part of the project life-time, the Consortium has conceived the methodology to follow, has carried out a large consultation among the potential end-users of the app and has also set up a multidisciplinary production process.

This paper aims at recalling all the main project phases, by analysing the methodological questions and implications, reporting the results from the dialogue with students and debating on the content and technological implementation of the app.

Keywords:

Incidental learning, internationalisation, mobility, language and culture acquisition.