Swiss Project of European Interest

In partnership with the Geneva Henri Moser Foundation
and other Foundations, Companies or Institutions.

SCALA transEurope
A Swiss and European Project

Carrier of the project

European Teachers' Association (AEDE), Swiss section, a non-governmental organisation recognised by the EU,
President: Mrs Janine Bézaguet.  

PILOTAGE

Elected  head of project (contact-person)
Jacques-André Tschoumy, Director of the Swiss-French Institute for Educational Research and Documentation.

Responsibility and scientific conduct 
Professor Laurent Gajo, Director of the College for French Civilisation and Linguistics (ELCF), Department of Linguistics at the Faculty of Arts, University of Geneva.


CONTEXT – SPECIFIC ENVIRONMENT

SCALA transEurope

Summary

The Swiss and European systems of language teaching obtain only very modest results – which is very much in contradiction to the enormous financial and operational investments engaged by public as well as private institutions. A new start is essential.  The creation of quality standards of an innovating bilingual grammar school, as well as the introduction in Switzerland and Europe of an intensive language-training like in Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland, are two new, expected and promising innovations. 

Context - specific environment

Are we aware that in Central and Eastern Europe, and in Bulgaria since 1951, a pioneer experiment is undertaken to give learners the opportunity to choose between: 

  1. a grammar school with a traditional language teaching system
  2. a bilingual grammar school whose curriculum is divided into teaching in the local language and teaching in another living language (e.g. geography - chemistry - history - biology and philosophy);  students can choose between the 6 following languages:  English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian. An additional so-called transitional and for future studies preparing year offers an intensive training in the target language, at a rate of 18 hours a week during one complete year.  A significant part of the school population chooses this bilingual way.  The linguistic practice of these pupils is absolutely remarkable. 

History

SCALA transEurope is the continuation of a first project SCALA 1. 

SCALA 1 ended in July 2001, the European Year of Languages, by a presentation of the Research-development and its results in Las Palmas at the Congress of the European Teachers’ Association (AEDE), published by The Language Institute of the University St.Kliment Ohkridski, Sofia:  Language Portfolio for the use of Bulgarian learners, ED Héron Press, Sofia, 2001. 

A presentation was also made to the persons in charge for bilingual teaching and the Language Portfolio in Switzerland, in Neuchâtel and Geneva, on January 19th  and 21st, 2004.  All observers of these days underlined the European interest for a thorough examination of the formula initiated by the Bulgarian system of intensive language training.  Hungary and Poland who are also undergoing some interesting experiments in bilingual training wished to adhere to this project. 

Contents

The SCALA transEurope Project is a contribution to the great project of the European Framework of language experimentation, initiated in 1991 in Switzerland and adopted by the Council of Europe in 1997. 

Two main actions will characterize this project:

  1. Training:  the creation of quality standards: 
    Six training courses to be held in Geneva, Sofia, Budapest and Warsaw shall elaborate the quality standards for an innovating bilingual grammar school in Switzerland and Europe.  These courses are meant to be for teachers in private as well as public schools. 
  2. Compared assessment:  Intensive - Extensive: 
    The comparison shall relate to the results obtained in the 8th degree of Bulgarian, Hungarian and Polish grammar schools, on the one side by students who learned French during an intensive training-course of 320 lessons in one quarter, and on the other side by traditional learners who had attended the same number of lessons but over five semesters and at a rate of 4 weekly lessons. The Swiss systems of language training are particularly interested in these results since they organise language lessons in a homeopathic way throughout the entire curriculum. 

A university research will compare the competences acquired by the traditional so-called extensive way, and those acquired by the intensive way, in the beginning, at the end, and six years after the training, in Geneva (private and public grammar schools), in Basle and Sofia, in Budapest and Warsaw. Particular attention will be given to the linguistic competences gained in the non-linguistic disciplines (DNL) useful both in everyday and professional life. 

Reinvestment

Together with our main sponsor, the Geneva Henri Moser Foundation, whose president, Mr Henri Moser, has been the promoter of the bilingual A-level certificate (maturité) in Switzerland, the reinvestment of SCALA transEurope shall be carried out by approaching the political and economic decision makers in order to integrate more powerful structures of language teaching in Switzerland, most particularly the bilingual and intensive training. 

Evaluation

This project will be evaluated in scientific partnership with the University of Geneva, under the control of Professor Laurent Gajo, implied in the National Research Program (PNR 56) concerning "THE DIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTIC COMPETENCES". 

Prolongation

The formalization of quality standards and the Swiss and European valorisation of intensive language training like the ones in Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland, will be a useful platform in 2005/07 for experimenting new and more powerful structures in language training.

SCALA transEurope,

Swiss Project of European Interest