Escuela Oficial de Idiomas de Telde I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else PABLO PICASSO The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 2 DECCA Project Participants Introduction Theoretical background of our work Perspectives Acknowledgements Activites DECCA Resource Book Authors 3 Developing English Communicative Competence through Art Decca Project Erasmus + Norberto Ojeda Zamora DECCA Project Coordinator Escuela Oficial de Idiomas Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Canary Islands, Spain Norberto Ojeda Zamora Coordinator Participants Carolina Castellano Ortega Eugenia González Betancor Mª Rosario González Martín Jon Iñaki Iriondo Sáez Luis García García Norberto Ojeda Zamora Mª Rosario Rosales Acosta Escuela Oficial de Idiomas Telde Canary Islands, Spain Mª Mercedes Hernández Rey Coordinator Participant Mª Mercedes Hernández Rey 4 Mullsjö Folkhögskola Sweden Asa Holmqvist Coordinator Participants Mats Eriksson Åsa Holmqvist Jaana Plate Jenny Söderlund Westfalen-Kolleg Bielefeld Germany Karsten Bremke Coordinator Participants Karsten Bremke Michael Witte DECCA logo designer Jaana Plate 5 Introduction This book, designed for adult students of English as a foreign language, emphasises our research and innovation of language learning activities, ranging from “A2” to “C” CEFR levels, which can be easily adapted to other levels of education and students’ characteristics. Basically, the content of this book centers around the development of English communicative competence language skills through art. Learners are engaged in a variety of activities which will make them aware of understanding differences in art, culture as well as developing their cultural awareness in today’s world. The activities also convey a very active and innovative methodology that will lead students to make their own interpretations based on observation of a particular work of art regardless of their style (Baroque, Pop- art, Cubism, Abstract art,..). Using art in language learning is a challenging task as for many people visiting museums is a boring activity and also students are sometimes taken to museums to look at some artworks, which perhaps are later studied in class, whether they like it or not. Thus, the only relationship between a person and art is mere being spectator. The activities in this book go further, learners are not going to be observers any more but the protagonists of their own learning process. Artworks are a fascinating pretext and vehicle to explore and expand vocabulary as well as to practice all learning language skills and the museum itself is turned into a real classroom where the works of art are magnificent tools to improve their English and to enhance creativity, among other things. A significant number of the activities include innovative uses of ICT tools such as the use of mobile phones in class, in order to help adult learners, for example, to develop their digital competence, as well as the use of QR codes or Augmented Reality, Aurasma. The material, which has been previously piloted in the different participating European institutions, is composed of a series of lesson plans designed to fit any length (sessions ranging from 40-50 min to 120 min ). However, it is up to the user of this book to accommodate the activities into their own school curriculum or/and teaching syllabus. 6 It may also be wondered whether some knowledge of art should be necessary in order to use this material. Not at all. The activities presented have been created to develop language linguistic competences but with an added ingredient: art. This will make the lessons more interesting and at the same time they will enhance students’ cultural competences. Using Art in language learning is also a process in which students can find the ways of expressing their perception of culture through creative approaches. By effectively using the suggested activities in this book, both teachers and learners will also discover a rich resource to enable them to gain cultural awareness in terms of cultural values and identity as art interpretation will define their own creativity through their cultural points of view. It has to be mentioned that although DECCA Project was originally intended for teachers of English F/L, other teachers of different European languages from our institutions, seeing the fruitful results, decided to join the project, creating their own DECCA activities in the language they usually teach; as an example of this, some activities in the German language can be found in this book (English translation is also provided). Teachers of French, Spanish or Swedish have translated the activities into their languages to use them in class with their students. Not only has this new perspective enriched our work but also it has added a European value to it. The activities displayed in this Resource book are a result of a joint European cooperation in which the partner organisations have contributed their specific expertise and skills in order to develop innovative and usable material for the foreign language teacher to be used in the classroom and the museum. Thus, the participating institutions have successfully known how to join the best of everyone of their members and integrate the use of smartphones as well as QR Codes, Aurasma, cultural perspective analysis and content-related activities in the activities. What the user of the DECCA Resource book will also profit from is the constant debate between the partner organisations about cultural issues, which have enabled them to critically examine their own standpoints and - above all - improved the quality of the activities by providing them with a multi-faceted and thus, truly European perspective. 7 Theoretical background of our work The methodological and pedagogical approach of the activities have been inspired by Bloom’s Taxonomy and Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence, as well as Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence to enhance learners’ self-confidence in language acquisition as well as self- esteem. Some of the units include an introductory activity based on the research-based method “Visual Thinking Strategies” (VTS) developed by the cognitive psychologist Abigail Housen and the veteran museum educator Philip Yenawine, and their colleagues. “VTS uses art to teach visual literacy, thinking, and communication skills—listening and expressing oneself”. This idea introduced to an English class learning environment works miraculously. Growth is stimulated by several things: looking at art of increasing complexity, answering development-based questions, and participating in peer group discussions carefully facilitated by teachers. The three key questions which open the debate and the activity are: 1. What’s going on in this picture? 2. What do you see that makes you say that? 3. What more can we find? Differently from “What do you see in this painting?”, which will lead students to number what they just merely see in the painting, the first VTS question “What’s going on in this painting?’” helps students to tell a meaningful story from their own cultural background and experiences. There will be a story of stories. The second question: “What makes you say so?” focuses the debate on the image itself, making the students justify their own opinions. However, if we use the question “Why?” the students will only give you their “reasons” and not their “proves” and this is what we are looking for! The third question: “What else can we find?” helps students to be more careful and detailed in their responses and opinions. It is a question to be asked not when the students or the teacher may think that everything has been said but let them know that there is still something else to tell. Once the debate has been established, the teacher introduces the students to other different creative tasks to explore vocabulary and other language skills. For more information, visit: https://vtshome. org 8 The integration of Visual Thinking Skills (VTS) and further meth- ods, in which students are actively involved, into English language classrooms, engage students in new and varied language approach- es, while gaining emotional positive responses to learning, under- standing and communicating their own ideas through art. Besides, together with developing adult learners’ linguistic competence and creativity, the activities also seek to bring adults closer to the world of art and increase their interest in art galleries and museums so as to build an intercultural awareness. Some of the benefits of using VTS in class are: • To have students participate actively, improving their oral skills. • To improve listening skills by listening to other students at- tentively. • To increase and expand students’ vocabulary by teacher’s paraphrasing. • To make students grow their self-esteem and to nurture stu- dents’ confidence by validating their opinions and comments, when speaking in public. • To foster European democratic values by making students respect diversity of opinions and contradictory comments when appreciating everyone’s opinion. • To explore Art in a more real world. • To create and enhance critical thinking by having repeated VTS sessions. • To make students grow their capacity of observation. • To launch other language tasks after the full VTS discussion. • To help teachers introduce a