Being strong readers and educators engaged in adult learning processes, especially targeted on socially disadvantaged people and social inclusion, several months ago we happened to get this thought: why not using literature and promotion of reading to involve migrant adults in their acquisition of intercultural skills? How to do it would be the second step, that we started to develop after a brief survey on existing experiences.
Reading clubs are not a new practice, and so read-aloud clubs, and we found some rather interesting experieces, however none of them could satisfy completely our educational need. For this reason we decided to propose a project that would allow us to implement reading clubs specifically focused on the promotion of intercultural skill.
The project "READ-OVER - Read-aloud Clubs to overcome intercultural divide" has been submitted in the framework of the Lifelong Learning Programme, Grundtvig Partnership, in order to develop a tool kit for implementing reading clubs as educational method that educators and trainers in adult education could use to promote intecultural skills, literacy and soft skills in socially disadvantaged adults, particularly migrants.
Reading aloud resumes the storytelling tradition or oral transmission of peoples, by means of which costumes and traditions, events, experiences, myths and legends, values and
culture are transmitted. The “space” of the Read-aloud Club becomes a virtual place where to live, to make alive again and to share one’s own cultural identity, at social, racial and religious level. In this common location each participant learns to know the other person, his/her values, way of being, and to accept him/her as different (race, culture…) but same (humanity), to integrate the other in one’s own space of thought and action, in this way there happen a reciprocal enrichment of knowledge and of intercultural/transcultural competences.
Reading aloud has also the function to stimulate the improvement of language. The activity of the Read-aloud Clubs intends to promote literacy of migrants, improving the knowledge of the adoptive language and of the hosting culture, but also literacy of native citizens, improving the knowledge of their mother-tongue and of the hosted cultures. For all participants, the Read-aloud Clubs improve positive attitude towards books and enlarge the literary interests, stimulates to transfer this appreciation in writing, also empowering the writing skills, for example keeping a diary, writing tales, contributing to the blog and the newsletter.
Furthermore, through the Read-aloud Clubs it is developed socialization, relational competences (communication, emotional intelligence, active listening…), sense of belonging, participative citizenship. Learners become part of a small community that can constitute a support at different levels, starting from help in the learning process.
The partnership composed by four organizations from Italy (Tecnopras s.a.s.), France (Élan Interculturel), Romania (ADER-RO) and Estonia (Narva Central Library) will work on this project for 24 months. The financial period started in August this year and will close the 31st of July 2015.
Further news in the project website
The partnership composed by four organizations from Italy (Tecnopras s.a.s.), France (Élan Interculturel), Romania (ADER-RO) and Estonia (Narva Central Library) will work on this project for 24 months. The financial period started in August this year and will close the 31st of July 2015.
Further news in the project website
