 Hello and thank you for the opportunity for presenting our project here in this in this forum. We're very excited about this and Hope that we can bring across the importance of this at this particular moment in time in Ireland My name is Dr. Emery Erdind. I'm the teaching and learning officer at the School of Languages linguistics and cultures Language literatures and cultures I should get my own name, right? at UCC where I also teach German and applied linguistics, so I'm project Project leader on this Dr. Clive Earls is representing the Meneuth University where he is head of German and also lecturer in German and applied linguistics Dr. Onja Furlong is representing WIT. She's our so these are our team leaders and the institutions Onja is a lecturer in French intercultural communication and language education and Dr. Colin Flynn is Representing Dublin City University where he is lecturer in Irish and applied linguistics as well Before I begin I want to give you some background to this project in order to Give you an understanding of the rationale behind it This is particularly in relation to the languages connects documents, which has been published recently And this is a really significant document for language education in Ireland It's in fact the first foreign language strategy that we have had and the language teaching community in Ireland is very Excited about this and we really need to respond at higher education also to this in a very Yeah, in a very strong way especially to Some particular aspects of it and I wanted to draw your attention particularly to one of the state of aims of the languages Connect document, which is a five-fold increase in the number of students learning language at higher education institutions in Ireland by 2026 and just so it's a 500% increase So currently there are about 4% of students learning language in higher education And it should increase to 20% and just to give you some context of this I was thinking about you to see where I'm based and there's 20,000 students So according to these numbers then if we extrapolate from that We currently teach 800 students language and we should be increasing this to 4,000 So obviously this is a major capacity issue There are other aspects of the languages connect documents that are also very Important to us the increase in number of foreign language systems the diversification of languages offered increased uptake in the Erasmus plus scheme and then the integration of the common European framework of reference for languages, which is a policy document from the EU and In general than the increased awareness of language learning and the importance of that We also have to mention brexit and the implications of brexit for languages Particularly if and when Britain leaves the EU that Ireland will be the largest English-speaking country So that will have implications for trade and also for working within the EU and languages may Become much more important to our students in higher education so Capacity building is obviously a huge issue for this and this is what we're aiming to address But one aspect of it is of course structurally and in terms of resourcing like facilities and things are institutional issues we are looking at Language teachers and the profile of skills that language teachers need to have to be successful efficient effective at higher education Institutions there are currently no nationally recognized qualifications for foreign language teachers in higher education So we're looking firstly to profile the language teacher skills that that are needed in higher education institutions And in doing so then we will produce a self-evaluation tool Which you may have heard about before in terms of the spiky profile. So luckily Karl gave me a little bit of a Leg up in that description. I'll tell you what we want to do with this as well And we also want to provide then a professional development framework because we know that our language teachers in higher education are undertaking professional development But it's very difficult to get it recognized and it's very difficult to know how this fits in with the greater scheme of their professional development The deliverables on this then is this evidence-based skills profile. This is very important to us, especially as applied linguists that what we produce is research-based And then this self-access and freely available self-evaluation tool for teachers will be based on the skills profile that is Identified during the sort of research phase of the project again. You probably recognize this from from Karl's presentation where you have Sorry where the profile already exists I can do it here Brahms. No So where the profile already exists so the development of this is maybe a little bit of a misnomer because the the profile are they software tool at least exists we would need to populate it with the Skills that we have identified during the research phase of the project So then we would populate these sorts of questions for language teachers And they in different areas of their language teaching skills and a visual representation of their Skills profile will be produced for them to then think about what kind of action they need to take based on this We will also be looking at this in terms of the digital badge type system that has been Used in teaching and learning for the last number of years So that there is some sort of certification for teachers to be able to say yes I've done this and I'm moving forward with areas that I feel that I was deficient in and we will identify existing professional development Opportunities online and otherwise and I'll give you a little indication of what what's already already available and sort of fit These into a framework of how Teachers will be able to address their skills in that sense So we are building on the speeds project, which is a the national forum funded project Which is coming to the end of its funding cycle now We are also very much taking into consideration the DG languages project Which is also based on the all aboard project where there are online resources for teachers to access So when we have the skills profile for the teachers, we can if they have identified a deficit in a specific skills area We can direct them to those sorts of activities that are already existing And here you may maybe can't read those so well, but we have hosted at UCC and at Manuth National forum seminar series for instance on the unilang project in the UK and on the new descriptors from the common European framework of reference Where we have fantastic attendance loads of teachers great conversations We want to be able to certify that sort of professional development activity that's going on and you can see here This is a template for the digital badge that is used at UCC and the implication there that you would also use it on your Social media platforms to in order to show what you have done So the work plan is Yes, there's quite a lot to be done in this sense We have a team of applied linguists So as project leader at UCC the the lead institution and then the team leaders at the other at the partner institutions at UCC then we would propose to have a steering committee that would be made up of Representatives from the languages and we are very lucky also at UCC at the School of Languages to have Asian studies as well So it would not just be the European languages, but also Chinese Korean Japanese That we will have a representative from those languages a student representative and the head of school the learning technologists and also Yeah, a research assistant So that would be the steering committee which would be based at UCC then and then the team leaders would Coordinate their colleagues at their institutions the first Step for the project then would be to consult with stakeholders So that would be really very much a mixed methods research approach where we would have focus groups to talk to students to Allow to explore what they feel is important for their language teachers to have in terms of skills And interview then management and also of course the teachers themselves to see what they feel their skills are and what they need to develop We will review also existing framework. So we are aware of equals for instance. We are aware of the uni like projects We're aware of different language teacher training Initiatives in Ireland, but we want to make this specific to the higher education context So that would be the first stage and then we will have this very rigorous data collection and analysis As I say, we all have very strong evidence or sorry empirical research background And we would produce research outputs with the intention of Presenting our research at conferences such as the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics and the European The Association of University Language Communities of Britain and Ireland and circles, which is the European version of this We'll develop the skills profile then and allow teachers to access this to self-access this On a small scale and a piloting type of idea and then test and revise the profile and this is where and I know Carl address these as well issues of The data how we gathered the data, I mean I know at the moment the the the profile tool is available on WordPress and the WordPress farm at UCC So it's basically owned by UCC at the moment And this is an ongoing Conversation that will be happening about how we will develop this what we will do with the data If we'll do anything and what the implications of this will be And then we will identify as I mentioned the existing activities and be able to direct teachers who have identified deficits in their skills profile to these activities So This is my last slide But it's a very important one. It's regarding the impact and sustainability Of course the most important thing for us is then student learning So firstly to give students the opportunity like it has been said in the language connect document to access language education and higher education So that's a really important to aim for us And also that when students are accessing language provision that they are getting the best provision That is possible. So the most effective teachers using the most up-to-date methodologies and so on The language is connect implicated implementation is obviously a very important factor here We're also aware of the foreign language advisory group and the lobbying group one voice for languages for instance national languages lobbying group has mentioned that There is a dearth of higher education Representation on that foreign language advisory group which is related to the language connect and we would hope maybe that In doing this project we would be able to in some way yeah influence or Also, yeah, I give some guidance to that advice advisory group very important is also than the professionalization of the field. So We have a lot of Staff even currently that are on part-time contracts who are funded outside of Ireland Who are postgraduate students? And to give them the opportunity maybe to progress in their career But also that when we are recruiting teachers that we know what kind of skills they have And if there is a deficit how they can address that and Building this community of practice is very important. So we are working across languages and Across the country in different institutions. So we are building a community of practice. So there are already Associations for individual languages and we want to build a bridge between these to Recognize that modern foreign language education at higher education can learn from each other in this way And the potential is there also for outreach to post primary level and to other language educators in the country as well Evidence-based practice is very much at the core of this. So it's at the core of what we're going to produce It's also at the core of what the teachers are going to be able to do with this. So when they Are thinking about their own professional development They will have a tool that will allow them to identify based on evidence or at least their own interpretation of the evidence What they need to address and it may also be useful for management for Assessing the skills profile of a team for understanding then what is needed within a particular department within a particular institution And how that may go forward in the future with with recruitment. I Relate this also then to future developments in language teacher education. So we have at all of our institutions and the some sort of accredited teaching and learning Activities so be that a postgraduate certificate or modules or postgraduate masters and so on We would envisage perhaps that in the future there would be a Specific language and teaching language teaching and learning accredited Activity and what we're doing would be forming the basis of what could happen in those situations. So we will have Gathered all of the evidence. We will have Consulted with the with the stakeholders and have developed a skills profile. So any accredited Work can be based on that and I think also of the seminar series So we're hosting an UTC next year a seminar series for prepare Event from the National Forum on preparing students for study abroad for instance and I am mad I can see that You know, we would be able to identify More effectively what sort of seminars in language teaching and learning would be useful and then we may be also able to Provide a digital bad sort of certification for those sorts of measures. I Talk really fast I think I Will end by saying that we really feel very strongly that this project is very timely that it needs to Happen now because we need to respond at higher education to this document and that now is the time The issue of capacity is really inherent to the languages connects document and we need to be doing something about us Thank you