Recent Events
Canterbury Christ
Church wins European Label 2007
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The European
Award for Languages recognises creative ways to improve the quality of
language teaching, motivate students and make the best of available
resources.
The Award is a Europe-wide initiative supported by the European Commission.
CILT, the National Centre for Languages
and has
recognised over 600 innovative projects across Europe since the end of its
pilot phase in 1999.
'We are thrilled that the Truck SpeakTM project has won this prestigious award. The dedication and professionalism of the project team has made this project both enjoyable and rewarding. These self study training materials have provided a solution to the many problems that drivers face whilst out on the road'. (Pam Tipping, Project Manager)
An awards event will take place on 20TH November 2007 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
Truck Speak TM - What the project has achieved so far
The Truck Speak sector specific language materials have reached and helped around 14,000 drivers and transport workers across Europe.
The bi-lingual language
prompt cards have been sold in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the UK.
In 2004 Eurotunnel purchased 8,000 sets of cards and the VDAB (Flemish
Public Employment Service) have purchased 4550 sets of cards to use as part
of their driver training. Cards are available for sale @ £5.99 a set from
the CCCU bookshop:
www.canterbury.ac.uk/bookshop
Or at the Ashford Truck Stop.
An audio based language course with a paper based version has been developed for use in a vocational training setting. It will be used for training in both the Netherlands and Belgium in September 2007. The cost of the audio course will depend on individual client needs.
Harlow College in the UK have used the training materials with Polish drivers who have been relocated to the UK to work in the industry. They found the sector specific content a great asset.
The methodology adopted for creating the databank of language course content will allow us to create a minimum of 42 language combinations and adding additional languages will be a simple process.
There has been interest from other sectors including the Police, Coach and Passenger and Harbour board with a view to developing similar ‘Speak’ ranges bespoke to their sector.
Future Pan-European commercial opportunities are currently being explored.
Joint activity Taste the Language / Truck SpeakTM
The Truck SpeakTM project will have a presence at a 'Taster Session' being organised at a truck stop in Habay a province of Luxembourg, on Friday 4th May 2007.
The event is part of
an initiative to encourage language learning through food. This
project called 'Taste the Language' is funded by
the Socrates
programme of the European Commission
and managed by Francis Note from
Lessius Hogeschool in Antwerp.
For further details visit their website
http://www.tastethelanguage.net/
Simon Langton Boys Canterbury compose music for Truck Speak audio language course
13th March 2007
Two Year 10 students - Matthew Richards and Jack Carmichael from Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys will be composing some music for the Truck Speak audio language course. ‘We went to visit the school with samples of the materials we have developed to give them a flavour and feel of what they were composing the music for’. The boys will be working with some of their classmates to compose some music for the introduction to the course as well as some notes to separate the units. They will be able to use the music they produce to contribute to their GCSE music coursework.
Teacher Emily Temel with Matthew Richards and Jack Carmichael
Their teacher Emily Temel said, “This is an excellent opportunity for the boys to see how music can not only be a fulfilling hobby, but also a valuable career. We are very pleased to develop our links with Canterbury Christ Church University. ”Matthew and Jack are already enjoying working hard to produce an innovative and creative accompaniment to the language course, using programs such as Sibelius and Fruity Loops. ‘This collaborative working with local schools is something we are happy to encourage’ – Pam Tipping, Project Manager
Bulgarian Partners Meeting
2nd and 3rd July 2006
Our Bulgarian Partners Integra Association hosted a plenary meeting in Sofia. Below are some pictures of the partners enjoying a typical Bulgarian meal in a local restaurant. The meeting coincided with the world cup quarter finals between UK and Portugal and France and Brazil.
The Learning Curve
Radio 4 Programme featuring Truck Speak
Monday 26th June 2006 8:30am
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Tony Ruiz from Tony Ruiz Transport
International (based near Hythe in Kent) |
| On
Tuesday 20th June - with the help and support of Tony Ruiz (pictured
above) and Eurotunnel (who very kindly arranged for us to travel in
the freight carriage with drivers travelling over to Calais) we
travelled with a Radio 4 reporter Sara Parker (see picture below)
over to France. Sara was focussing on the educational aspect of the European LdV funded project and wanted to travel in the cab with a driver from the UK across to France and visit the Depot where she could experience first hand the language needs and barriers a driver faces on a daily basis. The Learning Curve programme will feature interviews with a variety of drivers which we met whilst travelling on the Club Car over to France. The drivers we spoke to came from all over Europe. Exerpts from the programme can be heard on the main Canterbury Christ Church home page http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/about/features/feature-009.asp in the feature on Truck Speak
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Sara Parker from Radio 4 interviewing Tony |
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a driver in the club car looking at the Truck Speak cards |
Award for innovative projects in language teaching and learning
Truck SpeakTM, a project initiated by the Centre for Enterprise and Business Development (CEBD) recently won the European Label, an annual award given to projects which further language teaching and learning.
The European Label is
co-ordinated by the European Commission, but managed on a decentralised
basis by the Member States of the European Union, Iceland and Norway.
National juries decide on which projects will receive the Label. A total of
13 projects applied this year, six were nominated and three won.
The prize is a signed certificate by Jan Figel, Member of the European
Commission responsible for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism,
the use of the European Label logo and 2000 euros.
Pam Tipping, Project Manager, said: “This is really good news. Our Dutch
partner entered the project for the award and we are delighted he won.”
Derk Sassen receiving the award
Other News
Our External Evaluator - Patrick Jongbloet
joined us at our last partner meeting and will be producing a report on his
impressions of the Project. You can find out more by clicking on his
logo below.
