The main aim of Work Package 7 (Multilingual Issues in International Cooperation and Lifelong Learning) was to develop new approaches in the form of online support tools for promoting student exchanges and Lifelong learning through language skills. This was to be done by producing a language learning game as an induction tool to aid student exchange, and by piloting the use of 'game technology' for teaching essential scientific terminology at a specific workshop. As the Aqua-tnet 2 budget does not foresee or fund the development of such resources, much of this work was based on the LEONARDO da VINCI multi-lingual language learning project PESCALEX (see below for information on the PESCALEX concept).

A small part of the PESCALEX project was devoted to the design and development of a new language game, organized via a novel cellphone application concerning the diagnosis of fish diseases, run in several European languages. The overall aim of the simulation game was to demonstrate how to obtain an accurate and reliable record of disease events, based on fish farmers’ observations, and using the most basic of keywords available in several languages. The fishfarmer team key in the observed symptoms, using keywords in their native language, and send these via the internet tool to the expert diagnosis team. The cellphone application translates the keywords into their preferred language, and sends back the diagnosis. There should be a maximum of four teams, working in Greek, Turkish, Hungarian, Galician/Spanish, with English used as the comfort zone language. The linguistic aim of the game is to ensure that keywords in the target language are learned very quickly.

The online cellphone application was demonstrated very successfully in October 2010 at the EAS international conference in Porto, with 104 participants. The simulation game was run as a competition at a specific workshop in Galicia, Spain, also in October 2010, with four teams from Turkey, Hungary, Greece and the hosting region, Galicia. The competition was won by the Hungarian team, and all participants agreed that it had been a worthwhile experience, with the Galician students commenting on the English language items they had been able to learn fast and easily.

The two language games produced by AMC Ltd as part of PESCALEX and Aqua-tnet 2 have been subject-specific, based on the need to acquire vocationally specific language items, and using, in general, a keyword approach.

However, taking consideration of the results of the Generic Skills survey (WP4), the AMC team is now working on a new generic skills language induction game, which was demonstrated in an early pilot format using iMovie at the 2011 EAS international conference in Rhodes. This too is scheduled to appear as a future cellphone application in Aqua-tnet 3.

The PESCALEX concept starts from the premise that while there can be a need for complete beginners to understand and to convey vital pieces of information concerning potential fish diseases, in a new language, there is also a need for accurate and up-to- date information at a much higher level, concerning the fish diseases themselves. The PESCALEX Fish Health Toolset is much more than the sum of its parts, though these are considerable in their own right, comprising several different levels of language and subject competence within its framework. Its wide range linked to its focused and selective coverage enables complete beginners as well as serious students to make steady and incremental progress in both language and content acquisition.  There are 24 language lessons, freely available online in 9 languages important for aquaculture, containing native speaker audio recordings.  There are four sets of course materials, also freely available online with the Aquatic Pathology materials available as downloadable pdfs, all in 9 languages important for aquaculture.  There are two major aquaculture and fish diseases glossaries which have never before been freely available in the 9 aquaculture languages (considerably more than the FAO glossary which is available online in 5 languages (3 European only)).  There is the PESCALEX Diagnostic Tool, a breakthrough for farmers experiencing problems, since it allows remote interrogation using the PESCALEX languages, with the capacity to deliver confidential and accurate information to and from client and expert in the required language. The PESCALEX Online Multilingual Fish Health Toolset offers a genuinely innovative way of streamlining the help process.

Stimulus for beginners Because the entire package is freely accessible online, users can learn what they need, using familiar terms from the workplace, and acquire a little communicative competence at CEFR levels A1 & 2, by listening as often as necessary to the audio input. The language lessons will also enable them to pick up some basic English. Because these essential first steps are presented online in an attractive and incremental way, beginners can spend as much time as they require for mastery.

Stimulus for trainers Most of the course material has been adapted for internet delivery, with an emphasis on keywords, all presented at about intermediate level (CFER B1 & 2). This methodology not only enables swift comprehension, but resembles the note-taking process and leads to a more thorough understanding and retention of the course content1. Trainers can use the course materials to develop their own customized, perhaps more sophisticated course materials covering fish health areas.

Stimulus for students The glossaries in the PESCALEX website give the best available information on the subjects concerned in an accepted academic format (CEFR C1 or C2 levels).

1 ‘A curriculum as it develops should revisit this basic ideas repeatedly, building upon them until the student has grasped the full formal apparatus that goes with them’. J.Bruner (1977), The Process of Education, Harvard University Press.