Description
Child language studies is an inherently cross-disciplinary field that builds on the insights from several areas of inquiry such as theoretical and applied linguistics, pedagogy and psychology. Understanding child language development is important from at least three perspectives. For linguists, language acquisition data provide crucial evidence for testing and developing formal theories of language as a property of human mind; practicioners need language assessment tools and norms to timely notice language delays; educators need methods that encourage language development in a variety of monolingual and multilingual contexts. The best-case scenario is a situation where professionals in these areas work in collaboration and inform one another´s practices. The planned staff exchange will bring together experts in these areas with the view to create sustainable and productive platform of collaboration between Norway and Latvia in the area of child language studies. Synergy with the Research activity will have direct positive impact and create added value for the Project Promoter and Project Partner. It will strengthen international research collaboration between the two institutions, increase the motivation and mobility of academic staff and strengthen their research competencies, promote research-based teaching, and enhance cross-disciplinarity of teaching methods. Besides, new course modules will be developed based on research results, thus contributing to the formation of young researchers and ensuring future sustainability. Project Promoter and Project Partner will discuss and plan further bilateral exchanges of students and academic staff (e.g. supported by Erasmus, Nordplus and other programs), as well as the possibility of creating joint education programs in the future.
Summary of project results
In order to make the co-operation between Riga Teacher Training and Educational Management Academy (RTTEMA) pedagogical staff and the colleagues from Norway more successful, all planned mobilities (4 academic staff mobilities) took part in the common mobility trip to Norway from June 13th till June 18th 2016: Tija Zīriņa, theme: „Lexical development: Learning Words in Monolingual and Bilingual Acquisition”; Agrita Tauriņa, theme: „Outdoor education and research based teaching in preschool age chid’s language development”; Antra Randoha, theme: „Bilingualism in Pre-school Education on the Nordic and Baltic countries”; Dagnija Vigule, theme „Cultural projects effect on the Pre-school age child’s language development”. Staff exchange brought together experts in these areas with the common view - to create sustainable and productive platform of collaboration between Norway and Latvia in the area of children language studies. This project was in synergy with Research project "Latvian in Monolingual and Bilingual Acquisition: tools, theories and applications". Two academic staff members, who participated in the mobility, are researchers in research project. They were involved in designing interdisciplinary course modules in the area of children language studies, based on the novel data resources created in the course of research project. Rest of the academic staff, who participated in the mobility were volunteers in research project and their cooperation resulted in strengthening the link between research and teaching. Professional readiness of the academic staff increased both for RTEEMA and The Arctic University of Norway. The academic staff gave additional academic knowledge as well as experience of the scientific work. Joint research in the field of education for pre-school child’s language development was carried out and collective publications were created. Results of the research of education for language development, suggestions for the content of study courses “The philosophy and language of children”, “The contents of child’s education in the pre-school: Latvian language methods” were published. Acquired materials and recommendations for future development needs in Latvia were used for developing content of study courses “The philosophy and language of children” and “The contents of child’s education in the pre-school: Latvian language methods”, which were approved by involved specialists from Norway and Latvia.
Summary of bilateral results
Synergy with the Research activity have direct positive impact and created added value for the Project Promoter and Project Partner. It strengthened international research collaboration between the two institutions, increased the motivation for mobility of academic staff and strengthened their research competencies, promoted research-based teaching, and enhanced cross-disciplinarity of teaching methods. Besides, new course modules will be developed based on research results, thus contributing to the formation of young researchers and ensuring future sustainability. Project Promoter and Project Partner will discuss and plan further bilateral exchanges of students and academic staff (e.g. supported by Erasmus+, Nordplus and other programs), as well as the possibility of creating joint education programs in the future.