Non formal Pathways in Language Teaching

Non formal Pathways in

Language Teaching
A booklet for educators active in adult immigrants’ language learning

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 Non formal Pathways in Language Teaching

Published in 2017 in the context of the project

Incorporate non formal Methods into Language Education for Immigrants
The project is co – funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union

The project was implemented by

- N.G.O. CIVIS PLUS (GREECE)

- EUROCULTURE (CYPRUS)
- NEO SAPIENS (SPAIN)

© 2017 N.G.O. CIVIS PLUS

This booklet can be freely used, distributed and copied for legal and educational reasons.

"The European Commission support for the production of this

publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which
2 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".
 Non formal Pathways in Language Teaching

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 Non formal Pathways in Language Teaching

Contents

PREFACE ……………………………………………………………………………………..….…6

ERASMUS PLUS PROGRAM…………………………………………………………....…10

1. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………….…...….11
1.1 Migration to Europe……………………………………………………………….….11
1.2 Migration to the participating countries……………………….……………12
1.3 Why immigrants/refugees enter language courses ………….……….15
1.4 Main characteristics of adult immigrants as learners…………………17
1.5 Variations observed usually in a group of immigrant learners…...19
1.6 Adult education providers for immigrants………………………………….20
1.7 Difficulties faced by the bodies that provide language courses….22
1.8 Formal, Non formal and Informal education………………………………23

2. NON FORMAL EDUCATION…………………………………… ……..…………25

2.1 Basic principles of non-formal education…………………….……………..27
2.2 The role, needed skills and competences of the educators in non-
formal education……………………………………………………………………….32
2.3 Learning environment in non-formal education………………….……..42

3. NON FORMAL LEARNING TECHNIQUES……………….………………….49

3.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………….………………..50
3.2 Non formal techniques classifications……………………………….…….…53
3.3 Proposed classification of non-formal techniques………………....….57
3.3.1. Techniques based on dialogue and verbal communication…….…..58
3.3.2. Techniques based on drama, body language and physical
expression………………………………………………….………………………………63
3.3.3. Techniques based on the use of new technologies….………… ..……65
3.3.4. Techniques based on the use of board games……………………………69
3.3.5. Techniques based on the use of handcrafts……………………………….76
3.3.6. Techniques based on the participation in open activities…………..81

4. THE DYNAMICS OF NON FORMAL METHOD IN ADULT

EDUCATION……………………………………………………………………………………..86
4.1 Introduction: origins of adult non formal education……………...………86

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4.2 Non formal adult learners…………………………………………………….……87

4.3 Benefits of non-formal education for adults………………………………91
4.4. Benefits of non-formal education for adult immigrants………..….94

5. THE DYNAMICS OF NON FORMAL METHOD INTO LANGUAGE

LEARNING………………………………………………………………………… ……….101

6. NON FORMAL LANGUAGE LEARNING ACTIVITIES………………….….…109

PRESENTATION OF THE PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS ………….….146

BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………….…………150

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PREFACE
Europe is experiencing one of the most significant influxes of immigrants and
refugees in its history. Pushed by civil war, violence, abuses and poverty and
pulled by the promise of a better life more than a million immigrants and
refugees crossed into Europe in 2015 and much more in 2016. While European
countries are struggling to cope with the influx and best deal with resettling
people a serious matter arises regarding their integration in the host societies
and their inclusion in the economic, social, cultural and political life of the
Member States.

The first asset that an immigrant needs upon his/her arrival in a new country of
residence and the lack of which is a key factor that hinders his/her inclusion, is
the knowledge of the spoken language in the host country. The lack of
sufficient knowledge of the language makes them weak to perform any daily
activity, to search, find and maintain a job, to meet the needs of their families
and to integrate in the local communities, resulting in low living standards,
unemployment and marginalization.

Adult education sector can respond to this need by offering effective

educational opportunities based on the needs and characteristics of the target
group. By incorporating in the learning process new methods and practices and
continuously improving the skills of the people active in the field, better results
will be achieved for both the learners and the society as a whole.

In this context a partnership of three organizations from Greece (NGO CIVIS

PLUS), Spain (NEO SAPIENS) and Cyprus (Euroculture) with rich
experience on adult education, working with immigrants/refugees, formal and
non- formal education has been implementing the project “Incorporate Non-
formal Methods into language education for adult Imimmigrants”. It is a
strategic partnership in the field of adult education in the context of the
European program “Erasmus Plus” that started in September 2015 and will be
completed in August 2017. Its overall aim is to improve the quality of teaching
a foreign language to adult immigrants/refugees by incorporating in the
teaching process non formal learning methods.

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The idea of the current project was based on two main facts:

- The first asset that an immigrant/refugee needs upon his/her arrival in a new
country of residence and the lack of which is a key factor that hinders his/her
inclusion, is the knowledge of the spoken language in the host country.
Knowing the language of the host country is a prerequisite for survival,
interaction with the local community, education, employment and integration.

- Non formal learning methods are gaining more and more recognition and are
indicated as highly effective means of acquiring knowledge and skills. Their
use can offer a more innovative, targeted and participatory learning process that
can develop simultaneously varying learners’ abilities and skills.

In this context, the current project aims to:

1) Promote peer learning among people offering or organizing language lessons

for adult immigrants in formal and non-formal education.

2) Improve the skills of educators already working in the field or wishing to

work, on practicing non-formal learning methods.

3) Create a booklet with guidelines for educators and practical activities that
can be incorporated in language teaching for immigrants.

4) Change perceptions about the validity of non-formal learning methods.

A big process, as described below, has been followed these months in order to
collect information from the educators themselves and prepare this booklet:

• 6 focus groups were implemented with the participation of educators

active or willing to work in the field both in formal and non-formal
education. During the focus groups and through participatory activities
the participants discussed the dynamics of using non-formal learning
methods in adult training and language teaching as well as the
possibility of strengthening the traditional curricula by incorporating
non formal learning methods.

• 24 workshops took place and the educators discussed about the topic
and created practical learning activities that can be incorporated into

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language teaching for adult immigrants which are presented in the part 3
of this booklet.

• The participating organizations arranged meetings with educational

bodies and relevant organizations in order to discuss about the use of
non- formal methods in language teaching and especially when adult
immigrants are the learners. Best practices, methodologies, opinions and
concerns were shared during these meetings.

• When all these information were gathered the working groups undertook
a research on the topic and drafted the current booklet, based on the
reports of the previously mentioned activities and the new data from
their research. The booklet was tested before its final publication and
adjustments were made based on the opinion of the educators and the
learners.

One can find in this booklet useful information about:

✓ Adult education
✓ Immigrants/ refugees as learners
✓ Non formal learning methods
✓ Language teaching
✓ Practical, educational non formal learning activities

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THE ERASMUS PLUS PROGRAM

The Erasmus + is the European Commission's program for education, training, youth
and sport, aiming to strengthen the skills and employability and the modernization of
education, training and youth, in all sectors of Lifelong Learning (Higher Education,
Vocational Education and Training, Adult Education, School Education, youth
activities, etc.).

Set to last until 2020, Erasmus+ doesn't just have opportunities for students. Merging
seven prior programs, it has opportunities for a wide variety of individuals and
organizations.

Erasmus+ support:

• Opportunities to study, train, gain work experience or volunteer abroad.

• Education, training and youth sector staff to teach or learn abroad.
• The development of digital education and the use of ICTs.
• Language learning.
• Recognition of skills, including those learned outside the formal education
system.
• Strategic Partnerships among educational institutions and youth organizations
with peers in other countries in both their own sector and other sectors, in
order to foster quality improvements and innovation.
• Knowledge Alliances and Sector Skills Alliances, to address skills gaps and
foster entrepreneurship by improving curricula and qualifications through
cooperation between the worlds of work and education.
• A loan guarantee facility for master’s degree students to finance their studies
in another country.
• Teaching and research on European integration.
• Exchanges, cooperation and capacity building in higher education and the
youth sector worldwide.
• Initiatives to foster innovation in pedagogy, and progressive policy reform at
national level through Prospective Initiatives.
• Good governance in sport and initiatives against match-fixing, doping,
violence, racism and intolerance, particularly in grassroots sport.

Why Erasmus+ ?
Europe must equip its citizens with the education, skills and creativity that they need
in a knowledge society. The world is changing fast, and education systems need to
modernize and adapt to new ways of teaching and learning and embrace the new
opportunities that exist. Education, training and non-formal youth learning are key to
creating jobs and improving Europe's competitiveness. That's why Erasmus+ will
make a key contribution to addressing these challenges.
Find out more at ec.europa.eu/Erasmus-plus

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1. INTRODUCTION (useful information for the educators)

For an educator to effectively work with immigrants/ refugees except for the
specific expertise in his/her field s/he should be familiar with the demographic
data in the region and other factors that influence the learning process and are
very important for choosing an educational strategy. Knowing the local
demographic, the reasons that lead the target group to an educational program,
their characteristics as learners, the learning opportunities offered to the target
group and other related issues, that you will find in this introduction, will have
a great impact on your educational program, will positively affects its success
and will increase the satisfaction of your learners.

1.1 Migration to Europe

Migration to Europe has a long history, but increased significantly the last years. The
number of immigrants and refugees is rising sharply across EU due to wars, terrorism,
poverty, abuses and conflicts. The International Organization for Migration (IOM)
estimates that 1,046,599 immigrants arrived in EU in total in 2015 while 387,739 in
2016 and 19,934 in 2017 (updates as of 5 March 2017). The bigger percentage of
immigrants comes from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea, Albania, Pakistan, Nigeria,
Ukraine, Iran and Kosovo.

The main first arrival countries according to IOM are Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain,
Cyprus and Malta. But these countries do not constitute the final destination of the
people on move as most of them want to reach north Europe. Although not all of

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those arriving in Europe choose to claim asylum, many do. Germany received the
highest number of new asylum applications in 2015 but far more people arrived in the
country while Hungary moved to the second place as a big number of immigrants
made the journey overland through Greece and the Balkans. Hungary, Sweden,
Germany, UK, Cyprus, Greece and Spain are the most affected countries. The
disproportionate number of people on the move that some countries received, created
tensions in the EU, borders were closed, measures to reduce irregular migration were
set and joint actions were undertaken.

In 2016 a significant impact on flows was observed due to political factors and
especially the EU – Turkey agreement. While flows were reduced in Mediterranean
and Western Balkans, arrivals to Italy were increased significantly according to IOM
to a level of 118%.

Total arrivals to Europe (first arrival countries) according to IOM.

Country 2015 2016

Greece 857,363 176,906

Bulgaria 31,174 15,962

Cyprus 269 189

Italy 153,842 181,436

Spain 3845 13,246

1.2 Migration to the participating countries

Greece

Greece has been traditionally one of the most important migration countries. During
the 1980s, Greece became a transit country for Eastern Europeans, Middle Easterners
and Africans. From the beginning of the 1990s, Greece started receiving large inflows
of immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe following the collapse of the
communist regimes, with a large number of immigrants from Albania. While the
financial crisis in Greece led to a decrease of the number of third country nationals
arriving in the country after 2011, in 2014 a progressive increase was observed due to
the refugee and migrant crisis. In September 2011, as stated in a study by the
National Centre for Social Research, third-country nationals with legal papers in
Greece amounted to 621,178. Two years later, based on data from the Interior
Ministry in April 2013, "the legal immigrant population in Greece" was about
405,306. However in 2014, the statistics of the Interior Ministry on legal migration

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totaled 461,438 foreigners from outside the EU, while in May 2015 it recorded
527,264 (Interior Ministry data on 05/31/2015) and in 2016 557.476. The biggest
percentage of the above mentioned population based on the statistics comes from
Albania, Ukraine, Georgia, Pakistan, India, Egypt, Philippines, Moldavia,
Bangladesh, Syria, China and Serbia. Many of them (241,165) came in Greece for
family reunification, 65,138 have obtained a residence and work permit, and 2,208 are
studying. The influx of third country nationals had a sharp increase in 2015 when
more than 800, 000 people on the move passed the Greek borders. Most of them come
from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

But what makes Greece a “special case” is its struggle with irregular migration. From
2007, the number of irregular immigrants and asylum seekers arriving in Greece by
boat (from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Afghanistan, among others) through the
Aegean Sea increased significantly. However, as from 2010, a shift from the sea to
the land border has taken place, resulting in increased irregular border crossings at the
Greek land border with Turkey, which constitute approximately 85 per cent of all the
detections of irregular border crossing at the EU level. These large influxes of
irregular immigrants/asylum seekers from Asia and Africa, who view Greece as a
gateway to the European Union, end up being stranded in the country. Through these
years, and in order to cope with this situation, the Greek state implemented three
regularization exercises. In 2011 the European Court of Justice found that 90 per cent
of all irregular entry into Europe was through the Greek borders. An estimated 8% of
the arrivals applied for asylum in Greece, with others hoping to find asylum in
Northern European countries. Law 3907/2011 is an attempt to establish a realistic
migration management system, through the operation of an independent Asylum
Service, the establishment of First Reception Centers and the adaptation of Greek
legislation to Community Directive 2008/115/EC on the return of irregular
immigrants. The EU- Turkey agreement reduced significantly the number of flows in
Greece which amount 176,906 in 2016 compared to 857,363 in 2015.

Cyprus

Currently around 80,000 non-Cypriots are residing in Cyprus, a number that

corresponds to 10% of the total population of the non-occupied areas of Cyprus.

The official migration policy of the state till 1990 was very restrictive and only
allowed very few non-Cypriots to live and work in Cyprus. In 1990 when the labour
shortages became obvious, some restrictions were revoked. The first group of
foreigners that arrived in Cyprus, after the loosening of the restrictive measures, was
domestic workers from Sri Lanka and the Philippines, to mainly look after families
and seniors. Then followed nationals from other countries, which came to Cyprus to
work in various fields, including the tourism industry, construction, and other areas
where there was no available domestic labour.

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Generally, the applied migration policy of the Cypriot government is based on the
"guest worker" model, which provides the non-national with the right to stay and
work for a limited time. The objective of this policy is to address specific gaps in the
domestic labour market provided that these foreigners will return back to their home
countries with the termination of their employment contracts.

Along with the other groups of foreigners, people seeking international protection also
fled to Cyprus. The asylum system in Cyprus is very recent. In 2000 the Law on
Refugees was passed and in 2002 the Cyprus Republic begun examining asylum
applications.

While the number of asylum seekers was relatively small until 2002, in 2003 a sharp
increase was observed. From 1,343 applicants who applied in 2002, in 2003 the
number increased to 5037 asylum seekers. The upward trend continued in 2004, were
9906 people applied. In 2005 there was a significant drop compared to 2004 (7,770
new applicants for asylum), a trend that continued in 2006 during which only 4,286
people applied for asylum.

Today there are about 12,000 asylum seekers awaiting a final decision on their
application. Most asylum seekers are from Syria, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan,
Georgia, India and Iran.

The rate of recognition of asylum seekers as refugees or as persons who need

international protection is 1- 2%. Currently more than 900 refugees live in Cyprus,
who are trying to rebuild their lives and integrate into the society of Cyprus. The main
problems they face in this effort are finding housing and employment and
discrimination in various areas of their lives.

SPAIN

Spain has always been at the crossroads of human migration due to its location in the
Iberian Peninsula. In 1998 immigrants accounted for 3% of the population while by
2008 the share had jumped to 13%- one of the highest in Europe. The vast majority
were Romanians and Moroccans. Between 2002- 2014 Spain received an accumulated
migration inflow of 7, 3 million, making it the second largest recipient of immigrants
after USA. The vast majority in this period came from Europe, Latin America and
Africa (many from Morocco). After the financial crisis the inflows were decreased
and the number of foreigners leaving Spain was increased. Nevertheless, the refugee
and migration crisis increased the inflows again. As of 2016 there were over
4.418,898 foreign born in Spain, over 10, 2% of the total population. According to
IOM 13,246 people on the move entered the country in 2016. As a first entry country
Spain, just like Greece, is trying to cope with irregular migration as well. In 2014,
according to figures announced by the Spanish interior ministry the number of people

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detained while attempting to enter the country irregularly in 2014 was 12,549, a large
increase on the 2013 figure of 7,472.

Immigrants in Spain are mostly young people aged 20 to 40 years old, with a high
educational level. They prefer to settle in the metropolitan centers of the country and
particularly in Barcelona and Madrid, as a result of increased demand for labour in
specific cities, but also the existing migrant networks, as the existence of their
compatriots in these cities favors their rapid integration into society. They work
mostly in the service and construction sectors. Another characteristic of immigrants in
Spain is that most of them come from Central and South America and Europe, that is
countries which have cultural and language similarities with Spain. This has helped to
avoid any intense social conflicts as has happened in other countries receiving
immigrants.

1.3 Why immigrants/refugees enter language courses

When designing a language program for immigrants/ refuges, attention should be paid
on their motives and the reasons that led the learners to the program. The adaptation
of the program to their needs will improve its quality and will succeed better learning
outcomes. Examining and taking into consideration the needs and the motives of the
target group allow the educator, between others, to:

➢ Make clever selection of the topics to be taught,

➢ Decide the sequence the topics will be introduced,
➢ Determine the duration and frequency of the lessons and the methodology to
be used.
➢ Prepare original educational materials.

As already mentioned the acquisition of the language spoken in the host country is a
prerequisite for any other activity and facilitates in various ways the daily life of the
target group. The reasons that an immigrant/refugee decides to enter a language
program vary a lot but the most important ones are the following:

1) Looking, finding and maintaining a job.

Finding and maintaining a job when you don’t speak the language fluently, or at all,
can be incredibly difficult. This is the reason why a big number of
immigrants/refugees are unemployed; work in low paid positions or temporary jobs
with serious effects in their living standards and psychology. It is really common that
highly educated immigrants often end up working in menial low paid jobs because
they lack the needed language skills. Progressing and earning money is the most
important reason for an immigrant to learn the language spoken in the host country. A
better job is associated with more advanced language skills, this followed by a higher

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salary enabling the immigrant to move to live outside the original migrant sphere, thus
entering into wider social contact with the host population.

2) Getting things done.

Taking into consideration the large number of affairs to be settled by immigrants upon
their arrival in the host country (legal papers, finding a house, registering their
children at school e.t.c.) someone understands that at least a basic knowledge of the
spoken language would facilitate all these processes. Without basic knowledge of the
spoken language, these processes become very difficult and time consuming and
usually lead to dependence to other people for their fulfillment. There are, of course,
translation and interpretation services available to newcomers in most host countries,
however it is important to start learning the language for decreasing the sense of
insecurity and alienation often felt by them.

3) Fulfill the daily needs.

Even the simplest daily tasks like going to the super market, using the public means of
transport, visiting a doctor and others become a great burden if you are struggling to
understand and be understood.

4) Socialization and participation in social life.

Usually, immigrants who haven’t acquired the language spoken in the host country
have to stick around people who speak the same language. Their limited language
skills or total absence of such skills hampers their socialization with the local
community, restrict their participation in social events and stick them in their
communities, increasing their isolation. Even in the working environment, where the
majority of employees are from the same linguistic background, there is the danger of
apathy setting in and isolation. Being able to speak the host country’s language allow
them to create new friendships and deeper connections with locals as making friends
with natives is likely an easier task when pursued in the local language. Moreover,
when the foreigner learns to speak in the host language, the immediate reaction from
the locals is one of approval and encouragement and racism against them is
minimized. This is because by learning the language of the locals the immigrant has
shown his/her sincerity or willingness to engage the locals socially and culturally and
the barrier between them begins to crumble, albeit slowly but surely.

5) Support their children.

The lack of the needed language skills makes immigrant parents weak to support the
learning process of their children. Their communication with the school community
and other environments that their children are involved is really difficult resulting in a
reverse of the traditional roles. Children, through the host country education system,
learn the language quicker and become the supporters of their parents instead of the
parents being the supporters of their children. Moreover, the fact that most of the
children speak languages at home other than the language spoken in the host country,
cause delays in the learning process and create a more complex learning context for
them.

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6) Cross cultural exchange.

For an immigrant is really important to get familiar with the culture of the host society
as much as to share his/ her culture with the host society. The linguistic knowledge is
a paramount for the cross cultural exchange that promotes mutual understanding
between immigrants and the host population and promotes their integration. Speaking
to locals and interacting can be a quick way to gain first-hand knowledge of the host
culture.

7) Psychological health.
Being unable to communicate and perform your daily tasks can knock down one’s
confidence. Being alone in a new country without a support network of friends and
family can by itself harm one’s confidence, but being unable to do normal tasks and
be totally dependent to others can surely damage it, especially if the person used to be
totally independent. Insecurity, disconnection, isolation, uncomforting, shame,
disappointment are all feelings that the limited language skills can bring to the surface
with negative effects on the immigrants’ psychology. It is generally accepted that
most economically and emotionally well-adjusted immigrants are the ones who learn
the language of their chosen country. Learning the language of the host country makes
them feel more powerful and protects them from victimization by others.

8) Further education.
Acquiring the host country’s language facilitates immigrants’ further education.
Attending the majority of the host country’s educational programs requires basic
or/and advanced language skills. Language skills open new educational pathways for
the immigrants and it is usually a major factor that leads them to a language program.

1.4 Main characteristics of adult immigrants as learners

The characteristics of our learners play a major role when planning an educational
program. The adult immigrants have specific characteristics derived both from their
identity as adults and as immigrants. Both should be taken into consideration by the
educator in order to plan a successful program. While a whole book could be written
describing the above mentioned characteristics this booklet is not limited to this
purpose so just the most important of them will be described succinctly in order to
offer a basic idea.

✓ Adults see themselves as self-directing and autonomous. They are used to have
control of their learning.
✓ Adults draw on life experiences as they learn.
✓ Adults are doers, producers and problem solvers. Their orientation to learning
is task- related or/and problem – centered.

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✓ Adults have many roles and responsibilities. They are conscious of the many
demands made upon their time and often work with conflicting priorities.
✓ Adults are ready to learn those things they need to know in order to cope
effectively with life situations.
✓ They come to training with specific objectives and formed learning
experiences.
✓ Adults have busy lives, often combining learning with work and with other
commitments, including caring and family responsibilities. Learning for adults
needs to be responsive to this. For example, by being flexible and fitting in
with everyday life, available at times and in places that are accessible to adult
learners.
✓ People’s linguistic competences differ considerably, depending on the contexts
in which they live and work, their learning experiences etc. Linguistic
heterogeneity is much stronger among immigrants – because they have
extremely different linguistic biographies, depending on their first language(s)
in the country of origin, other languages they have used and the language level
in the host society.
✓ Many immigrants are usually emotionally tired. They come from war-affected
countries and they have often experienced trauma, tragedy, persecution and
prolonged stays in transitional camps. Some have been forced to serve as
soldiers and many have witnessed acts of violence, torture and crime,
sometimes against their own family members. These experiences have
influenced their psychological status.
✓ Immigrant learners want to learn fast and specific things that will facilitate
their daily life.
✓ They require to practice inside the classroom and they are not very willing to
have a lot of homework.
✓ Immigrant learners are more conscious for the reasons they enter a learning
process but this doesn’t mean they really want to learn. It’s a choice based on
the needs and not the free will.
✓ Most immigrants are very used to the formal learning methods and they may
be suspicious when they first experience non formal learning methods.
✓ Immigrant adult learners are usually less patient and get easier disappointed if
they don’t see immediate results.

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✓ While immigrants sometimes have the opportunity to prepare themselves

regarding the language in the host country, the refugees do not usually have
this opportunity and they start from the scratch.
✓ Some immigrant learners are illiterate also in their own languages.

1.5 Variations observed usually in a group of immigrant learners

The groups of immigrant learners present a range of heterogeneity which makes the
task of the educator even more demanding. This heterogeneity has to do mainly with
the following aspects:

Age: In most cases the classes are shaped based on the level of the learners and not
the age. Learners of a big variety of ages are included in a class with different needs
based on the stage of their life, motives and learning requirements. This aspect should
not be ignored while planning an educational program as the whole program should
be appropriate for all the age levels.

Linguistic background: As the learners come from a variety of countries their

linguistic background differs a lot. The structure of their mother language influences
the reception and understanding of the new language and comparisons will be made.
Similarities or not between the mother and the new language will influence the
learning process and should be recognized early enough from the educator.

Level of knowledge of the language taught: It is a really common phenomenon that

learners with different levels of knowledge on the target language coexist in the same
class. This is very often in non- governmental organizations and voluntary
organizations which lack the resources and capacity to have many classes. The topics
taught and the methodologies used should be carefully chosen in order to cover the
educational needs of all the levels. The cooperation of more than one educator in the
same time is a good response as far as the creation of original materials and the use of
non- formal methods.

Cultural background: classmates come from different cultural background while

many of them come from cultures much different from the European one. This aspect
should be taken into consideration as the roles of women and men may be different,

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the family responsibilities, the interaction between the two genders and others.
Cultural exchanges should form a basis for learning.

Educational background: People with different educational levels may be included

in the same class (from total illiterate to university graduated and higher). This
heterogeneity will play a major role on the time that will take for each learner to learn
a new educational input and on the methodology that should be chosen in order to
facilitate learning by all, putting aside their educational background.

It is really important for the educator to be prepared for this heterogeneity, to detect
all these aspects in the first sessions, to adapt the learning program based on the
detection results in order to prevent any problems and drop outs during the learning
process.

1.6 Adult education providers for immigrants

Immigrants and especially refugees became a key participant group for education
providers. The needs of these groups differ from the needs of the “traditional” key
groups, which causes providers to take great effort in re-structuring measures,
educational programs and learning organization.

Non formal adult education providers are traditionally entities that do not only have
the knowledge and experience needed to promote the learning of their users, but that
also have the capacity of being self-governed to offer a freedom on the teaching
approaches that they use (even if some of them are placed inside bigger networks or
school systems with structured or centralized committees). Among these entities we
can mainly highlight or identify:

• Public administrations (lifelong learning centers, second chance education

centers, municipal centers e.t.c.): in general terms, public administrations and adult
centers are those responsible of the formal and academic training of adults. However,
they use sometimes non formal approaches as a complement to some of their
programs, but not as the base of their learning methodologies. They design most of
the public adult education programs and policies and provide official learning and
language accreditations. Their systems are not really flexible and have sometimes

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difficulties on offering tailor made learning opportunities for adults and especially for
immigrants.

• Nonprofit organizations and associations: they are the main providers of non-
formal education for adults and especially immigrants. The target of their training
programs can differ depending on the philosophy of each organization but as actors
involved on the third sector, most of them run activities focused on the social
development of their communities and supporting those at risk of exclusion due to
economic, social or cultural reasons. They offer quite flexible systems and accessible
learning opportunities. Besides training adults and immigrants, they also tend to
assume the role of guides for them and act as intermediary between their users and
other social actors and stakeholders.

• Self organized groups of peers: they are groups of people with similar
characteristics (in terms of age, cultural background, nationality, etc.) who arrange
self-organized systems of training and education among them. In these cases, the
educators usually are previous learners who have already completed their education
and take then the role of guiding others who are on the same situation that they were.
As the sides of a coin, this kind of organizations and their staff have two very
different main points to take into account. On the one side, their educators sometimes
lack advanced pedagogical or teaching skills, techniques and methodologies as they
do not have an appropriate preparation. However, on the other side, as they have been
in the same situation of their learners and understand deeply their cultural values or
situation, they can develop a very emphatic relation with them, that helps educators to
identify better the needs of their learners and establish a relation of trust. According to
this, even if they are extremely effective on the recruitment of learners and promotion
of their motivation, these groups face sometimes a lack of professionalization that can
also affect the inclusion or education of their beneficiaries.

All the training providers mentioned can develop a suitable non formal learning for
adult immigrants but the quality and effectiveness of their trainings will depend on
their capacity to match their programs with the real needs of potential beneficiaries
and their circumstances.

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1.7 Difficulties faced by the bodies that provide language courses

As already mentioned a big percentage of language programs for immigrants is
offered by non- profit organizations and voluntary groups. These bodies despite their
great will to contribute to immigrants’ education and integration they face a lot of
problems related to the practical application of their educational programs. The most
important ones are described shortly below:

❖ It is difficult for the entities to find suitable educators as the person assigning
this role has to deal with a lot of issues beyond the language and related to the
appropriate inclusion and adaptation of the beneficiaries to the local society.

❖ The beneficiaries come from different social, cultural and educational

backgrounds and vary a lot in age and other fields. The inhomogeneity of the
beneficiaries makes the formation of the groups really difficult as a lot of
factors should be taken into consideration and a big number of classes should
be formed.

❖ Following just one textbook has been proven not so effective for this target
group. The bodies have to use a combination of educational resources or in the
most of the cases to prepare original educational materials. The lack of
financial and human resources make often this task almost impossible.
Educational materials necessary to apply non formal methods and of course
relative expenses to create such material is a matter of concern. This is a very
difficult task for the bodies providing language courses because beyond
money, they need to find specialized staff with experiences in non-formal
methods.

❖ They lack the needed financial resources for training their human resources.
Educators most of the times are volunteers and the bodies do not have
sufficient resources in order to properly prepare them for their task.

❖ Volunteers, who are the main human resources for the lessons’
implementation, are not as committed as the paid staff. Volunteers’
withdrawals are frequent causing several problems in the learning process as

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the new volunteers replacing them should gain the learners’ trust from the
scratch and delays are caused in the learning process.

❖ Approaching the beneficiaries is another factor that makes the bodies’ work
difficult. Usually the target group is hesitant and scared and the first approach
should be made by professionals such as social workers or/and psychologists.
Finding volunteers of these professions is really difficult and hiring a person
for this position almost impossible as their financial resources is very limited.
The beneficiaries’ psychological support during the lesson period is also really
hard and the bodies usually depend on other actors for a holistic approach and
support to the beneficiaries. Unfulfilled demands of the beneficiaries (support
in other fields: financial, housing, legal papers, clothing, food e.t.c.) cause
disappointment and withdrawals.

❖ Approaching members of the target group that do not speak any medium
language create the need of interpreters, a cost that it is not affordable by the
bodies.

❖ The bodies in order to increase participation of beneficiaries with children to

take care of should find solutions regarding their children. Parents come in the
training place with their children and extra staff is needed in order to take care
of the children and spend creative time with them.

1.8 Formal, Non formal and Informal education

Before we proceed with the main content of this booklet that concerns the use of non-
formal methodologies in adult immigrant’s language learning, it is useful to give a
general idea of the distinction between Formal, Non formal and Informal education.

Formal education: Organized, guided by a formal curriculum, leads to a formally

recognized credential such as a high school completion diploma or a degree, and is
often guided and recognized by government at some level. Teachers are usually
trained as professionals in some way.

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Non-formal learning: Any organized educational activity outside the established

formal system - either acting alone or as an important feature of some broader
activity. Organized (even if it is only loosely organized), may or may not be guided
by a formal curriculum. This type of education may be led by a qualified teacher or by
a leader with more experience. Though it doesn’t result in a formal degree or diploma,
non-formal education is highly enriching and builds on individual’s skills and
capacities.

Informal education: the truly lifelong process whereby the individual acquires
values, behavioral attitudes, skills and knowledge through everyday experiences and
his / her environment educational influences - from family and neighbors, from work
and game, from the market, the library and the media.

Basic differences between Formal and Non formal Education

Formal Non- formal

Aims Long-term and general Short –term and specific

Duration Longer duration Shorter duration

Content Specific and Academic Personalized and Practical

Control External, exams and certification Self-evaluation

Roles Teacher – student Educator- Learner

Process Focused on the program and the Focused on the learning

curriculum , individually outcome, participative and
competitive cooperative

Emphasis On the teacher On the learner

Curriculum inflexible, strict Flexible, variety of methods,

adaptability

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Non Formal
Education

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2. NON FORMAL EDUCATION

Non formal education has a long history over 100 years. However in its
non- organized form has been traced back to the beginning of written records.
It became part of the international discourse on education policy in the late
1960s and early 1970s and since then a big number of definitions has been
given and a lot of debates have occurred regarding its validity and appearance.
In general, we could define non formal education as any organized, systematic,
educational activity carried on outside the framework of the formal system to
provide selected types of learning to particular subgroups of the population,
adults as well as children. The debate over the relative value of formal and non-
formal education has existed for a number of years and non- formal education
has gained both passionate supporters and fighters. The last decades though,
Non formal education has started to gain ground in education sector and its
effectiveness and value are more and more recognized. Non-governmental
organizations, self-organized groups and European programs in the education
sector, contributed a lot to its dissemination while the importance given to
lifelong learning has made it almost necessary.

Non formal education has "close ties" with the enduring and lifelong
education; it is often considered an intermediary type of education as it is
accessible for those who can’t be involved in formal education. It is a full and
independent education sector that can work both with formal and informal
education. It is closely related to a new philosophy of education that is based
on participatory learning and as an educational model has a given theoretical
and scientific substance and ensures all elements of a full training program. It
follows the theories of learning, is based on learning values and develops a
learner centered - educational model based on the real needs of the learners.

As an independent education sector, it has its own structure, characteristics,

principles and educational directions that will constitute the subject of the part

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2 of the booklet. In this part readers will have the opportunity to gain insight on
the features of non-formal education that guide its practical application.

Specifically, the readers will find in the sub units of part 2 information about:

✓ The basic principles of Non formal education.

✓ The roles, needed skills and competences of the educators in non-
formal education.
✓ The learning environments and the learning atmosphere.
✓ Non formal learning methods and techniques.
✓ The dynamics of non-formal methods for adult learners.
✓ The dynamics of non-formal methods for adult immigrants.
✓ The dynamics of non-formal methods in language tuition.

All this information constitutes the basic knowledge that an educator should
have in order to effectively apply non formal methodologies and will help
them gain clear understanding of its nature, substance and practical
application as well as its theoretical context.

2.1 Basic principles of non-formal education

As already mentioned, Non formal education has its own structure, substance and
characteristics that should be respected during the planning, implementation and
evaluation of an educational program. In this chapter the main principles on which
non formal learning is based are presented in order to offer a clear picture about its
character and facilitate the educators’ work. Although much more principles could be
referred only the most important ones where chosen and are related to the educational
roles, the process, the assessment, the contents and themes, the curriculum and the
decision making.

❖ Learner centricity: In non-formal education the learner is in the center of the

learning process. Learners’ perspective must be heard and respected and
bottom up approaches must be followed. The objectives, the planned

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methodology the anticipated learning process as well as eventual assessment

and evaluation procedures are explicit as well as known and agreed by the
learners. The learning process should respond to the individual needs and
interests of the learners and this is especially important for heterogeneous
groups with different backgrounds, experiences, knowledge etc. Methods and
objectives are geared to the particular participants as much as possible and
adapted to their needs and interests. In this matter, modifications in the sense
of setting new priorities can not only ensue in planning but in the course of
learning as well. The curriculum must be designed around learners’ problems
and what the members of a group want to learn must be identified and
respected. The initial session is very often about “what the learners want from
the educational program”. Learners must be supported to discover their
learning goals, plan how to achieve them, monitor and assess if their
objectives are being achieved.

❖ Learning by doing: In non-formal education the focus is on concrete doing

and not learning theory. Learning, most of the times, comes from what the
learners do and not from what the educator does or says. This form of learning
–experiential learning takes place in problem solving situations where the
learner draws on his/her own experience and prior knowledge and is a method
of instruction through which learners interact with their environment by
exploring and manipulating objects, wrestling with questions and
controversies or performing experiments. Learning by doing encourages active
engagement, promotes motivation, autonomy, responsibility, independence,
and develops creativity and problem solving skills. The learning process
should offer the opportunity to the learners, especially the adult ones, to see
how the educational inputs are related to practical application and their
everyday life and experiential learning is the best way to achieve this goal.
Encountering new and unknown situations is a basic element of non-formal
education and can create new and practical learning opportunities.

❖ Learning as partners, solidary: Non formal education relies on active

methods of cooperation and on group dynamic processes. Educators and
learners are partners in a learning process in which they take different roles

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and responsibilities. Together they identify learning needs and objectives, they
agree on the approach and methodology which normally is proposed by the
educator, they are responsible for creating adequate conditions for productive
learning and the learners are responsible for making best use of them and for
investing their full learning potential. An environment of collaboration is basic
element of non – formal education and peer learning should be promoted as
much as possible. A positive, trusting and caring relationship should be built
not only between the learners and the educator but also between the peers.
This implies symmetrical learning relations characterized by cooperation,
respect, trust, appreciation, equity and parity among educators and learners.
Educators and learners appreciate each other’s qualities, expertise, and
competences. Learners learn both from each other as well as with each other.

❖ Process oriented learning: Process-oriented instruction is defined as

instruction aimed at teaching thinking strategies and domain-specific
knowledge in coherence. In non-formal education the focus is on the process.
It is through the process that the learning is derived, so the whole process
should be carefully chosen and adapted to the initially agreed educational
aims. Processes should be modified and adapted according to the feedback
during the activity. The curricula are really flexible and in that way the
acquisition and collection of experiences may be equally relevant for the
acquisition of skills. A meaningful engagement such as posing and answering
realistic questions and problems is necessary for deeper learning.

❖ Participatory learning system: In non-formal education the learners must be

active cells of the process. They are involved in the educational activities as
subjects and learning is actively created by the learners for themselves-it is not
the passive absorption of someone else’s learning. Their active participation is
a prerequisite for the success of any educational activity in which they should
be involved mentally, emotionally and physically. There is balanced co-
existence and interaction between cognitive, affective and practical
dimensions of learning. Passive listening is outside the context of the non-
formal education and the whole process should be interactive, allowing space
to the learners for active participation and contribution. Leaners should

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actively participate in all the aspects of the activity, including decision

making. In this context shared responsibility and self-determination are both
objectives as well as being important pedagogical methods.

❖ Close to real- life concerns: Non formal educational activities should be as

close as possible to the learners’ real life concerns. The whole process should
help the learners to clearly understand how the learning will benefit them both
personally socially and professionally. Themes, contents and learning
objectives need to be based on what the learners need and are interested in.
Methodologies, methods and learning sites need to be adequate for the learners
and locations as well as timeframes need to be organized in order to allow
maximum accessibility for and participation of the target groups. All in all
people only learn what they want to learn. The focus of the learning is the
improvement of learners’ own lives and that of their families and
communities. Learning programs, therefore, should be organized around ‘‘life
application” categories and sequenced according to learners readiness to learn.

❖ Democratic decision making: In non-formal education all the decisions

should be made democratically with the participation of all the involved
parties. The learners participate in shaping the learning activity during the
process, including changes in objectives, contents and methodologies. Placing
the ownership of the learning process and outcomes with the learners ensures
the motivation of the learners and the sustainability of the learning outcomes.
The educational approach and process needs to be compatible and coherent
with democratic values and learners are active co-designers of their own
development and learning processes.

❖ Self- assessment: One of the main aspects of non-formal education is that

learners acquire knowledge by experimenting and self-reflection. Assessing
the work of learners should be made in a fair and equitable manner. Learners
should be actively involved and share responsibility in the assessment process
and offer their feedback regularly. Learners’ feedback is used as a tool for
learning and progression. Self-assessment is promoted and supported by using
different ways such as developing learners’ self- reflection skills and

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providing space for self-assessment. Learners should be strongly encouraged

to practice and regularly reflect on their learning and the needed tools and
knowledge for this process should be provided to them. The evaluation or
measure of success is not based in a competitive system and a more friendly
approach is offered for those learners with low self-esteem, problems to
manage failure and reduce their frustration during the monitoring of the
learning process.

❖ Reciprocity: The traditional educational roles frequently change in non-

formal education. The educator is not the authority that knows everything and
transfers this knowledge to the learners. Educators also learn on the one hand
from the respective expertise and competences of the learners, on the other
hand as learners in the experiential learning process of the training activity
itself.

❖ Variety of learning techniques: In non- formal education a variety of

educational techniques is used in order to satisfy the needs and characteristics
of all the learners and achieve learners’ motivation. Non formal education is
interactive, activity based and experiential, linking individual learning and
learning in groups. Diverse learning styles - visual, auditory and kinesthetic-
are addressed by the use of a contiguous variety of learning approaches.
Moreover, equal mentally, emotionally and physically involvement of the
learners should be promoted by the methods chosen. Laughter and enjoyment
are number one prerequisites for a successful non formal learning as much as a
relaxing and stimulating environment.

❖ Learners as a resource: Learners in non-formal education share knowledge

and skills and they are respected and valued for their contribution. Learners
are seen as a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing
resource for learning. Learning is built on previous knowledge and experience
which are shared with other learner. Designing learning structures which
promote such sharing is a basic element of non-formal education and
educators should spend some time to get to know more about the experiences
of their learners and seek to help them to link new ideas to such prior

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experiences. Learners are taught ways to bring to their current situation past
knowledge, opinions and experiences. Learners’ past experiences should be
always respected and incorporated in the learning process.

❖ Flexible curriculum: Non formal education is not based on a curriculum that

should be strictly followed. The curriculum, when there is any, is very flexible
and it is being adapted to the needs and interests of the specific learners each
time, before the educational activity and during the activity. Educators and
learners should co-decide on the progress and the different aspects of the
learning process. It is important to create flexible courses adapted to the
profile of each participant that could also include exercises focused on
promoting the self- esteem of the learners.

❖ Learning to learn: non formal education helps the learners develop strategies
to build their own learning models. The whole process should provide learners
with skills needed to self-manage those environments provided by the
educator and also build their own learning spaces. Skills for self-organizing
the learning should be promoted. Learners are encouraged to identify their
dominant and no dominant learning styles and contexts that are easier and
more difficult for them and to work with their development.

2.2 The role, needed skills and competences of the educators in non-
formal education
In non-formal education the emphasis is given on the new role of the educator more
as an educator and guide who fosters thinking and not as the traditional teacher who is
the source of information and authority.

It is true that societies in general have been significantly altered, compared to 20 years
ago. Today societies are more complex and people have more roles to perform. All
these changes in the structure of social patterns require new ways of offering
knowledge, skills and attitudes. This is something that the educator in a non-formal
learning environment has to take into consideration. Specifically, in a language

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learning class with adult immigrants and refugees -a great part of the multicultural
society nowadays- the role of the educator is even more crucial.

The structure and multidimensional character of non-formal education in combination

with the special characteristics of adult immigrant learners, requires the educator to
serve different roles and develop specific skills compatible with the nature and basic
principles of this kind of education. Though, a lot of pages could be written fir the
skills, attitudes and competences of an educator this material will present only the
main ones and mainly these closer to the character of the non-formal education.

The role of the educator in non-formal education

In this section, one can discover the broad description and roles of an educator in non-
formal education, meaning all detail characteristics and possibilities. A non- formal
educator has to perform multiple roles. This requires a very systematic, deliberate and
planned process of training for adult educators, in the context of participatory
learning.

Training designer and planner

Assessing learning needs and setting learning objectives.

Planning strategy of training. Working out the detailed contents, sequencing

them and choosing appropriate methods.

Involving learners in the designing phase.

Identifying and preparing resource persons.

Preparing and selecting learning materials and aids.

Manager

Mobilizing financial resources.

Planning dates/venue.

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Administrative support, ensuring communication with learners, resource

persons regarding the venue, travel details etc.

Co-coordinating arrangements for field trips, etc.

Educator

Facilitating group processes, to keep the group together and let it grow
(participation, communication, decision-making, leadership, conflict
resolution,etc.).

Summarizing, synthesizing information.

Appreciating and encouraging individuals and the group as a whole.

Initiating discussions, articulating unsolved group issues.

Creating a learning environment, pursuing, building their confidence so that

participants can perform beyond their existing potential.

Managing the heterogeneity within the group.

Providing new information and concepts.

Synthesizing, consolidation and conceptualizing thenew information and

analysis.

Directing, managing structured learning experiences -role-plays, simulations,

discussions, etc.

Using learning aids effectively, video-camera, tapes, flash cards, audio -

visual aids, etc.

Friend, philosopher, Counselor and guide

Being accessible to learners, listening to them, their anxieties, thoughts,

problems, joys, by being a sounding board sharing one’s own life experiences
with the learners.

Providing a sense of direction, by giving feedback.

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Developing a close rapport with learners and building their trust and
confidence.

Being a supporter, when required, responding positively and understanding

the origins of the learners’ anxieties or problems.

Setting up sessions to enhance the self-confidence and self esteem

of the concerned individuals in an informal manner.

Showing solidarity, being sensitive to and responding to a crisis if any.

Learner
Paying attention to what others are.

Sharing ,being open to and accepting differing frameworks of analysis and

perspectives.

Seeking additional information, clarifications, asking questions acknowledging

others’ abilities and appreciating them.
Accepting “learning structures” set up by others during the training and
supporting each learner.

Recorder and documenter

Observing the flow of content and processes taking place.

Maintaining detailed roles on a regular basis Involving learners in the

recording/documenting efforts.

Exchanging roles with co-adult educators and incorporating it into further

planning of sessions.

Learning more in depth about individuals, group, learning process, etc.

Using data for monitoring, evaluation purposes.

Addressing additional issues of individuals and groups that may arise in the
process.

Evaluator
Planning evaluation/monitoring mechanisms involving learners in the
evaluation process.

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Matching feedback with objectives of the session and assessing if learners

are learning.
Providing relevant feedback to the adult educator team and learners to
facilitate the learning process.

Promoting learners’ self-assessment and developing learners’ relevant skills

Follow-up coordinator
Communicating at regular intervals.

Disseminating feedback from individuals and organizations to feed into the

next training.

Assessing future learning needs and planning additional events.

Providing support through participation, involvement in designing, preparing

strategy and materials, etc.

Reflecting and evaluating the training outcome with co-adult educators.

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Important Skills, attitudes and competences

Performing non-formal education is a really challenging task and it becomes even

more challenging when adult immigrants are the learners. In order for an educator in
non-formal education to be able to handle the agenda in the best way possible and
effectively serve the different roles assigned to him/her, it is important to have or to
develop some particular competences and skills. In fact the educator becomes an
intermediary, a counselor, a mobilizer. S/he is the one who reinforce the learners in
order to develop their skills. This part of the booklet aims to present the core skills,
competences, behaviors and attitudes that an educator of non-formal learning should
have and present a general competence profile. This profile doesn’t intend to take the
form of a complete and detailed checklist but instead to become a keystone for self-
reflection, further education, personal and professional development.

Communication skills: First of all, a basic and essential characteristic an educator

should have is to be communicative and friendly. The creation of a nice and friendly
atmosphere is the first step. A good communicator is a good listener, someone who
pays close attention to what the learners are saying and responds appropriately. Of
course, far from the language there is also non-verbal communication. A relaxed,
open stance and a friendly tone help the learners to feel more comfortable, even
subconsciously. In this way, the learner feels that s/he is being appreciated and is
more possible to be more open and express the needs or being encouraged to
participate more in the learning procedure. The educator must be able to recognize the
non-verbal signals of the learners in order to better understand their feelings and
detect if there is any obstacle. Of course, the efficient communication means that the
educator is a good speaker and the way s/he transforms the information is easy and
comprehensible.

▪ Respect and cultural awareness: Ability to take on intercultural discourse, to

accept diversity, to critically reflect about and take distance from one’s own
perceptions and stereotypical views is essential for an educator in non-formal
education and immigrant classes. A successful educator embodies respect for
others and cultural awareness and has the capacity to manage discriminatory
experiences by effectively intervening among the learners. It is essential to
take into consideration the profile and the needs of the group as far as the

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appreciation of other cultures and have knowledge about them. The most of
the groups are multicultural, that’s why it is important for the educator to be
able to recognize the different beliefs, values and customs of each learner
because they heavily influence their identity and the interaction with others.
Even the non-verbal communication can be misunderstood. That’s why the
educator must be extremely careful and cultural sensitive.
▪ Competence to develop an educational approach based on the key-
concepts, values and consolidated practice of non – formal education: The
educator should have an in depth knowledge and understanding of the learning
theories central to non-formal education and the principles that govern its
application. S/he should be able to reflect on and integrate underlying values
and principles of Non – formal education into educational activities.
Moreover, s/he should be familiar with a variety of non-formal techniques,
able to effectively use them and choose the appropriate ones based each time
on the learners and the educational aims.
▪ Organizing and managing skills: In order to use and implement the different
techniques of non-formal learning, organizing and managing skills are
required. Abilities to effectively assess learning needs and set learning
objectives are crucial. But also, organizing each activity beforehand and be
able to predict obstacles or miscomprehensions are very important as well.
Additionally, capabilities of managing and coordinating a group of people are
a necessary asset.
▪ Creativity: In non-formal education the materials and the activities plays a
major role and in most cases original materials and activities must be
scheduled and created. The educator should be creative in order to provide
appealing, appropriate and effective educational materials that can attract
learners’ attention and at the same time achieve the educational aims. As a
result, an also essential competence is to be creative and think out of the box.
Every group of people has a different dynamic. So, every class is different and
that’s why the educator, following his/her insights, should be inventive and
trying new things to new groups. Non-formal learning does not include a strict
educational curriculum but at the same time provides a legion of techniques.
The educator is important to acknowledge the range of techniques s/he could
apply and move further.

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▪ Adaptability & flexibility: Flexibility and adaptability are fundamental

equipment for the educator in a non-formal learning environment. The
heterogeneity is certain, so one should be able to make changes and adjust in
different situations. In every learning environment there are parts that are
unpredictable. In non-formal learning there are people of different ages,
cultures and educational background. So, using methods and techniques based
on the reaction and interaction always gives unpredictable results. The
educator should be cautious during the planning and the implementation of
each activity and ready to rearrange anything that seems to be unsuitable.
Every group, every person, the connection among particular people can be
totally diverse each time. The educator should be able to create the ideal
balance and a flexible educational program as well as to adapt any activity and
methodology to the learners’ feedback.
▪ Facilitation skills: The educator’s toolkit is a set of techniques, knowledge
and experience, which they apply to protect the process that the group is
working through. The educator needs facilitation skills in order to create the
process, adjust it, keep it heading in the right direction and, most importantly
keep the people attached to it. S/He should be capable of keeping the course
focused and moving and to ensure learners’ participation.
▪ Capacity for teamwork: S/he should skillfully help the learners to understand
their common objectives and that through collaboration the team will increase
its performance. In order to achieve something like that, the educator should
promote the idea of the acceptance and be willing to accept the fact that
everyone is different and this is not an obstacle or something dreadful. So, the
educator should have an in depth understanding and awareness of individual
differences, personality, strengths and weaknesses and at that same time must
be able to break the barriers with non-formal methods and techniques. S/He
should be able to recognize and work with group dynamics and have the
capacity to motivate the learners.
▪ Competence to facilitate individual learning processes: Except for group
learning and teamwork, the educator should be able to support individual
learning processes, to support learners in identifying and pursuing their
learning needs and styles, to support learners in overcoming barriers in their
learning process and to explain the different dimensions of learning.

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▪ Ability to take new roles: Being a learner is equally important for the
educator in non-formal education. The educator should be open to new
knowledge, able to critically distance him/her from their own role fixation and
willing and ready to undertake new roles as mentioned in the previous section.
▪ Ability to deal with different ways of thinking: Non formal education is
open, participative and free. The educator should be able to create space for
interaction and participation and ready to accept different opinions and
thoughts. Readiness to have his/her ideas challenged, to analyze, assess and
improve his/ her own thinking is a prerequisite for effectively serving his/her
role.
▪ ICT skills: Educators should be able to effectively use and incorporate ICT
sources in the educational process. At the same time they should be able to
provide the learners with online and innovative materials and resources.
▪ Democratic values: Capacity to work in a democratic and participative way
and offer equal opportunities is essential for an educator in non-formal
education. Being able to foster democratic and inclusive practices, build
trusting relationships, create inclusive environments, identify and countering
oppressive attitudes, behaviors and situations are all needed skills in order to
effectively work with multicultural groups in a non-formal environment.
▪ Ability to develop relevant learning opportunities: The educator should be
aware of situations which can provide learning experiences, capable to analyze
the different learning needs and styles and to apply appropriate educational
approaches and methods. S/He should be able to create multidimensional
learning opportunities and close to the learners’ life concerns.
▪ Capacity to use evaluative practice: This category includes capacities and
knowledge connected to the monitoring and assessment of the educational
process. The evaluation of the educational program is equally important with
its planning and implementation. The educator needs the capacity to apply
appropriate evaluation methods and effectively use any evaluation results for
the improvement of the educational program. S/he needs also the ability to
explain the intention and objectives of the planned evaluation process to the
learners and support them as well as to have skills on collecting and
interpreting data in order to draw conclusions and make adjustments. S/he
should be adherent to ethical principles (confidentiality, transparency, respect

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for human dignity) in order to be able to apply these principles during the
evaluation process.
▪ Conflict handling skills: Competence to deal constructively with conflict
situations: Willingness to resolve conflicts, to read and understand conflict
situations, to refrain from accusations and generalizations and to view an
argument from various perspectives are basic characteristics of an educator in
non-formal education.
▪ Competence to design efficient course planning: The educator should have
the ability to develop a methodology appropriate to the diverse profiles and
needs of the learners, to integrate the physical environment of an activity
meaningfully into the design of the course, to translate aims and objectives
into a course plan, to design a course plan responding to various learning
styles and to explain the learners the reasoning of a methodology. S/he should
have the know how to plan sequences of lessons in order to ensure progression
of learning.
▪ Competence to motivate and empower the learners: Ability to motivate the
learners is core for an educator taken into consideration the participative
character of non-formal education. S/he must be able to support learners to
connect to their potential, to strengthen their self-confidence, to identify
motivating factors for learners and to address them appropriately, to bring fun
and joy into the learning processes. Moreover, S/he should have the ability to
raise learners’ self- awareness and make use of diverse ways and methods to
develop an openness to change.

In conclusion, the role of the educator in non-formal learning is

multiple. All these skills and competences woven together could allow
more effective learning outcomes and more satisfied learners. Of
course, every educator has a unique personality and the way s/he copes
with and applies them during the learning procedure is a personal
choice.

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2.3 The learning environment in non-formal education

Learning environment refers to the diverse physical locations, contexts and cultures
where teaching and learning occur. Since learners may learn in various locations
(classroom, outdoor environments etc.), the term is often used as a more accurate or
preferred alternative to “classroom”.

Furthermore, learning environment includes, on one hand the physical space and how
it is arranged, in other words “where” the learning procedure is taking place, either in
a classroom or outdoors. On the other hand, it also encompasses the ways the educator
organizes the educational setting to facilitate learning, the atmosphere among learners
and the educator in order to achieve specific goals. That is to say, “how” the learning
procedure could be successful and effective.

Non-formal education requires a positive physical atmosphere, mutual support and

collaborating trust. In non-formal education, the different ways and contexts play an
important role for the learning procedure and can lead to the best possible learning
results.

Influence of seating arrangements on the learning procedure

Studies have reported that seating arrangements impact the learning process. Learners
seating arrangements can help or hinder their learning. Although no perfect
arrangement exists for all situations a classroom layout may need to change based on
what learners’ needs are and how the educational materials are being presented.
Learners occupying the front rows are more active than those in the back. The
learners in front are the ones who generally answer questions and participate more in
the class. Actually, where learners choose to seat can be a first indication about their
personality. Usually, focused, diligent and more extrovert learners occupy the front
rows, while shy and frighten learners occupy the back desks to avoid being noticed
and feel more safe.

In non-formal education the goal is to promote a learning environment where all the
learners feel safe and equal as long as creative and motivated. Classroom arrangement
affects learners even unconsciously. In a classroom where desks and chair are
arranged in a circle with everyone being able to see each other, from the first moment
the atmosphere is friendly and the learners have a different psychology.

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Therefore, a wrong choice in the seating arrangements may be a cause for the decline
of learners’ performance as attention span, concentration, comprehension and the
retaining of information can be influenced by this choice while a good choice may be
the reason for the development of learners’ performance and the positive atmosphere,
which is a prerequisite for a successful learning procedure in non-formal education.

Learning environment as physical setting

When a learning process is being held, it takes place in a particular learning space.
More precisely, in formal education the learning space is the classroom. In non-formal
education there is a variety of options. It can be from a traditional classroom to an
outside space. Actually, in non-formal education the learning environment is an
essential part of the learning procedure as it has a great impact on the learning
outcomes.

A classroom is, of course, the main and more familiar space as we know it from the
formal education. But, when the learning procedure of non-formal education is being
held in a classroom, what is crucial is the seating arrangement. The arrangement of
the classroom layout influences the learning outcomes and the learning atmosphere.
Although, no perfect arrangement exists for all situations, the layout may need to
change based on what are the learners’ needs and the educational goals.

First of all, the traditional classroom with the desks facing the board and teacher’s
desk is not a case for non-formal education. The reason is that, this kind of
arrangement is suitable for teacher centered classes. The problem is that this layout is
not useful for classes designed for conversation, interaction and participative learning.

On the contrary, there are other options which are more appropriate and efficient for
non-formal learning. Let’s see some:

- For smaller classes that want more interaction between the learners and the
educator, a U-Shaped layout is a better option. A U-Shaped desk arrangement
encourages discussion and makes it easy for the educator to observe learners and
provide one on one help. This lay out allows to see and hear everyone in the group
and unity is created by putting all the tables together. Openness gives learners a sense

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of freedom and encourages participation. Works well with role-playing and other
physical activities.

- A circle or half circle arrangement promotes community and encourage

learners to cooperate. There is no table in the middle, therefore people are
unobstructed and have the possibility to directly speak to each other. It creates an
atmosphere of equality among the group with no designated “leader” position.

- Groups / Teams arrangement supports cooperative work. Learners have the

ability to consist small groups where they feel comfortable, they can discuss, share
experiences and ideas with each other. In small groups learners can express
themselves more easily and create a friendly atmosphere. In non- formal education,
team work is very significant method of learning and is ideal in groups with
immigrants as in the small group they can easily express themselves. Also in small
groups weak and slow or shy learners, have the opportunity to express themselves. In
the small group everybody feels equal.

- Study Circles layout: The founder of Study circles is Grundtvig. His ideas have
been developed later by Malcolm Knowles and others. Study circles are widely used
in Scandinavian countries. The Study Circle method makes an assumption that
everybody has some knowledge and experience, which s/he can share with others.
Members of a group choose a leader from among their members who will be
responsible for the group and its results. Activities of the group are supported by an
educator. It is often called a self-study group. People who want to gain new
knowledge/skills in a particular field or solve a particular problem meet regularly in
small groups (Study Circles) in order to work together on a chosen topic. Exchange of
skills and knowledge is the main characteristic. The relationship between the
participants is more equal. The group is small and participants sit in a circle
(Maximum 10 participants.) The educator sit also in the circle and an observer may
not realize who the educator is.

Each layout has a different purpose and may require an adjustment to the
teaching method and classroom atmosphere. It will be up to the educator to
decide which layout works best based on the activity or the educational goal. A
combination of classroom arrangements is also a possibility as it provides a
choice for everyone’s needs and it is extremely flexible.

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Far from the arrangements inside the classroom, in non-formal education the out-of-
classroom learning is something that is being encouraged, as it promotes the
experiential learning. It is essential for the educator to keep in mind that the learning
procedure should also take place outdoors. What it is being taught inside the
classroom it should be practiced in real world. And, of course, in many cases one can
learn by doing or being somewhere. Some of the main ways to extend learning
outside the classroom in non-formal education are the following:

- Field trips. Field trips are not only long bus rides, lunches and museum tours. They
can also take a variety of forms which could meet a variety of needs and enhance
deep, active learning. First of all, learners are energized by the excitement and
anticipation of visiting a new environment. They experience the knowledge and any
kind of information in a more holistic, integrated way and they have the opportunity
to determine what they learn and how they learn it. Moreover, learners get to know
each other and have another kind of interaction among them, something that is
essential for team building. Besides that, the educator has the opportunity to get to
know the learners in greater depth and reach their needs in a better way.

- Service learning and community engagement is a way of combining learning

goals and community service in ways that can enhance both learners’ growth and the
common good. In its simplest form, learners could have the opportunity to have a
contact with community members or local experts and discuss about an issue that
there are interested in. Learners are applying their knowledge in the real world, they
develop their interpersonal and social skills, something that is of a great importance
and they have a greater involvement with the community.

- Technology outside the classroom is indeed a modern learning environment.

Today’s smartphones and tablets, as well as the variety of social media can boost
learning procedure in a creative and appealing way. All these tools can be included
and engaged in the learning activities either during the actual learning procedure or
through asynchronous communication with the help of technology. Technology as a
learning environment is something modern with numerous possibilities and ways of
interaction. In many cases, technology is a great motivation for the learning procedure
and provides a range of activities such as group work, creative projects and
presenting.

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- Learning in the surrounding. A lot of learning can take place in the wider society.
Visiting the neighborhood and discuss with locals, go to a super-market or the grocery
shop can enrich learning by practicing the language in authentic situations. In this
way, many skills could be acquired and enriched in many ways and forms. They can
practice listening and speaking, comprehend cultural issues and improve their attitude
towards the target language.

- Blended learning. The term blended learning is generally applied to the practice of
using both online and face to face learning experiences. In blended-learning learners
might attend a class, while also independently completing online components of the
course outside of the classroom. In this case, in-class learning may be supplemented
by online learning experiences, and learners would learn about the same topics online
as they do in class. Online learning may be a minor part of a classroom-based
learning, or video-recorded lectures, live video and text chats. In some cases, learners
may work independently on online lessons, projects, and assignments at home or
elsewhere.

- Engagement. Under a new teaching method called “engagement” learners are urged
to engage with the real world and analyze what happens in different life spheres.
Learners are taken to visit real life places connected with the educational input and to
be actively engaged in these environments witnessing how the knowledge that they
were learning is applied to the real world. An example of this practice could be a visit
in a business where the learners should be actively involved in the processes and
practice what they have learned.

Learning environment as learning atmosphere

As mentioned, far from the physical space, the learning environment encompasses
also the culture of a group or a class, including the characteristics, the ways
individuals interact with and treat one another, as well as the ways in which educators
may organize an educational setting to facilitate learning. Learning environment
refers also to human behavioral and cultural dimensions, the means of teaching and
modes of learning.

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In an ideal learning environment the learners feel free to make questions and interact
with each other and the educator. Everyone feels equal with one another and considers
that everyone is fairly important. This is, first of all, a responsibility of the educator.
S/he has to take into careful consideration the people involved and their experiences
and what is the best way to create a suitable learning environment which will lead to
the desirable learning outcomes.

In non-formal learning, the learning environment should promote a friendly

atmosphere where learners can feel comfortable to express themselves and cooperate
with others. Learners should be engaged in the planning of the learning objectives and
encouraged to collaborate meaningfully with their peers. In order to achieve this, the
educator needs to take into consideration the needs and the learning styles of the
learners.

What is mostly required is thoughtfulness about each particular group of learners, as

well as the specific educational, cognitive and technological goals. Taking into
consideration the above, the educator could create the most effective learning
environment. Which is the best place for each goal? Which seating arrangement is
best for this kind of activity? Which activity is the most preferable to shape a friendly
atmosphere and promote team building? These are the questions that educator should
always keep in mind and try to give the best possible answers.

In non-formal education the educator questions everything and listens to all. A look at
teaching and learning with new eyes is essential for forming a creative learning
environment. Implementing new ideas, take risks and push traditional boundaries are
highly recommended. Of course, as new ideas are tested, a reflection and evaluation
of their effectiveness are demanded, in order to end up which method is the best for
each case.

Technology is in large part responsible for the new learning environments, that’s why
it must be taken into account. Different means of technology can be used and as the
developments continue to pave the way for new chances, it is suggested for improving
the learning environment. Of course, it is also significant to look beyond technology.
In certain situations, a highly effective learning environment might be accomplished
without anything digital or electronic.

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Effective learning environments provide learners both an opportunity to reach their

potential and the chance to engage their knowledge in activities that they will
encounter in real life. It seems that the final verdict on the effectiveness of a learning
environment lies in learning outcomes. That’s why the educator should always make
an evaluation and if needed readjust the techniques, the methods and the procedure
s/he follows.

Suggestions for creating an effective learning environment

o Investing on the first session. First impressions are frequently lasting
ones. The first session should create the foundation for a healthy learning
partnership and set the tone for the balance of the program. Group building
activities are essential for creating bonds and make the learners feel
comfortable and to pen up in the next sessions.
o Incorporate group work. Well-designed group work can contribute to
the development of a collaborative, participatory learning environment in
which the educator is perceived as a partner. Small group activities foster
the development of positive peer relationships among learners, which
frequently have a much greater influence on learning than teacher-learner
relationships. Informal, spontaneous groups can be used for short-term
activities such as brainstorming; groups can also be formed around ongoing
projects.
o Break the traditional classroom routine. There are several ways to
change the traditional classroom in both the physical and psychological
environment. Using a variety of methods, changing the traditional roles,
forming different groups, changing learning places and others can break the
routine and offer a “fresh” perspective to the learning process.
o Use humor. Humor, creates a friendly and joyful atmosphere, breaks
the routine and helps the learners to relax and focus again in the learning
process.

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3. NON FORMAL
LEARNING
TECHNIQUES
3.1 Introduction
As mentioned on the previous chapters of this material, education is based in a
bilateral process of transmission of knowledge, values, customs or behaviors.
According to this, and following the basics of non-formal education, it can not only
take place by using a pen and paper, but also through the actions, feelings, reflections
and acting ways that could allow individuals to acquire different attitudes,
competences and skills essential for the personal and social development of a person
or community.

When we speak about non formal education, the content to transfer, the context, the
relation educator-learner and rest of the facts that influence on the training process
must be taken into account as they produce very singular learning situations.
According to this, non-formal education will have always a holistic approach that will
demand more flexible methods and techniques to deal with both, pragmatic and
abstract concepts or values. Despite this flexibility and adaptation to the target,
context and learning environment on which they are used, non-formal approaches will
also have a teaching intention focused on solving or covering the needs of a learner.
According to this, even if in non-formal education the learner will have sometimes the
main responsibility towards his/her knowledge acquisition, a framework of methods
and techniques must be planned in advance in order to allow him/her to obtain the
results expected and demanded by the learning process.

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According to this, to design a good non formal technique or choose among those
detailed on these units or existing out of them, several factors must be taken into
account first out of the environment, competences or background of the learners
group:

• Competition Vs cooperation: The interactive mood

The educator must always think if the techniques to be used will have a competitive
or cooperative approach. Even if researches and studies tend to show a preference
towards cooperative methods and their benefits, both options can be suitable for a
learning process if they are used in the appropriate way. It must be always the
responsibility of the educator to choose between both depending on the target group
and the objective of the learning process.

About the cooperative learning, it must be highlighted its simplicity, capacity to

promote the team working, learning among peers and that they support each other
(what increases their feeling of being useful and their compromise with the learning
activity). However, as learners are the main characters and responsible for the quality
of the knowledge acquisition, this approach demands a more active participation or
interaction of those taking part in it.

On the other side, competitiveness provides learners extra motivation and becomes an
incentive that encourage them to get in a faster way the learning expectations but
without paying sometimes attention to those of the rest of the group. It must be used
wisely as the competitive spirit can get over the real aim of an activity and alter the
course of the learning process to a wrong direction (especially if learners are not good
on managing success or failure).

• Tacit Vs explicit: The knowledge transferability

When defining types of methods or techniques, it is also important to reflect first

among the differences between tacit and explicit knowledge.

On one side, explicit knowledge is defined as the one “that can be readily articulated,
codified, accessed and verbalized. It can be easily transmitted to others”. It is
systematic, easy to store, codified and uses a concrete formal language to be shared

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(E.g. the description of a product, instructions to use a tool, a scientific formula, a

computer programme, etc.)

On the other side, we understand tacit as “the kind of knowledge that is difficult to
transfer to another person by means of writing it down or verbalizing it.” It is based
on the premise that “we can know more than it can be said” (1967 Michael Polanyi).
Even if it can be developed by people and organizations, it is difficult to be
transferred as it requires a social interaction and deals with subjective matters based
on experience and the combination of non-tangible facts such as values, points of
views or beliefs of each individual.

It is recommended that the educator always explores the connection and combination
between both to obtain a qualitative learning process that utilize the highest potential
of all the learners involved on it (basic in some contexts such as language learning on
which explicit disciplines such as writing or grammar should be touched).

• The pedagogical game

Before starting with a classification of methods and techniques, it has been seen as
needed to define a horizontal aspect of non-formal education such as the use of the
game as a pedagogical tool. Among the different kind of definitions provided to
“game”, Johann Huizinga defined it as “a free and meaningful activity, carried out for
its own sake, spatially and temporally segregated from the requirements of practical
life, and bound by a self-contained system of rules that holds absolutely.” (HUIZIN
GA. J ( 1998)).

Even if Huizinga also contends that playing is somehow an activity based on

irrational actions, it has been widely proof that also the most serious exercises contain
ludic features when dealing with education. The pedagogical game has been always
seen from a horizontal perspective when dealing with non-formal techniques and an
intrinsic value. According to this, playing is not restricted to children, but demanded
as an essential tool that can provide a wide variety of benefits to learners in spite of
the age of the target group.

To obtain an effective acquisition of contents, mental activity must be stimulated

during the learning process as every tacit action of a game has a link with physical,
mental and intellectual qualities that interact to obtain new skills and assimilate

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knowledge in a flexible way. According to this, playing will always be for learners a
framework to apply what they know in a creative way while they develop their
cognitive knowledge in a systematic way. This will always contribute to acquire a
productive thinking and a constant mental activity that is considered as basic for
active participation methods (base of non-formal education).

Thanks to the use of the game very important aspects can be promoted: affectivity,
motor skills, cognitive competences, creativity or sociability among others. It is a
resource easily adapted to the
individual and group needs of
learners and offers unlimited
possibilities of interaction.

From the educational point of view,

the game can be used at the
beginning, during or the end of the
learning process.

According to all of these, even if the content or topics to be taught are more or less
complex, the educator has always the possibility to use the game as a pedagogical tool
adapted to the needs, interests and age of the learners.

3.2 Non formal techniques classifications

Before starting with the content of this chapter, it has been considered as necessary to
define several terms and concepts in order to understand better the information
included on this chapter. Taking into account that the main aim of this booklet is to
describe the use of non-formal education as a methodology to train immigrants, a set
of different methods and techniques on this field will be described. At this sense,
different definitions have been agreed for these two terms:

• Learning method: a process or way of using techniques to set a systematic plan

with a general orientation to deal with different principles, concepts or values. Its
main target is to make accessible for learners the theoretical approaches of a
discipline.

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• Learning technique: it is the specific way or procedure to apply a method in an

empiric way. Techniques are the sequence of actions that will promote the learning
acquisition.

For all of this, the learning process must be always based in a flexible method able to
figure out the conditions on which learners are. It must be chosen according to those
techniques that could be better adapted to each target group but without forgetting the
general aim of the method and generating the expected learning.

Out of the capacity of being adaptable to different fields, how to propose and
implement a non-formal technique must be always planned in advance even if
afterwards it is modified due to factors that influence the reality which we intend to
use it (what implies in a long term that techniques must be always reviewed and
reinvented in case of need with the pass of time).

Coming back to the idea of understanding a method as a sequence of techniques, we

must ask ourselves, “What shall we do?” When designing or choosing a technique
three main questions should be over the table:

1. Will it be useful to teach what we intend?

2. Will it be adapted and suitable for our target group?

3. Will the educator be able to develop it in a successful way taking into account
his/her skills and competences?

The following lines will study different classifications of methods used for non-
formal education that educators will need to have in mind when preparing the
pedagogic route of his/her learners. As methods and techniques must be adapted to the
needs of each precise situation, there are numerous classifications to be described.
Some suggestions offered in this unit are:

a) Depending on the duration

b) Depending on the space
c) According to the stages of the non-formal activity
d) Depending on the size of the group
e) According to the implementation modality

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A) Depending on the duration

Methods and techniques may be classified depending on the time, that is, longer or
shorter. There would be some techniques which would need more time than other
(E.g. a Theatre of the Oppressed technique lasts around 40-60 minutes, while a clay
modeling technique lasts just around 10 minutes). Time will go with the goals or
objectives of the dynamics. In order to establish the duration of the activities, the age
of the apprentices must be taken into account, as it is not the same to focus a dynamic
for children than for adults. Another important aspect to be considered regarding time
will be how concentrated the individual has to be during the activity. When talking
about non-formal methodologies, estimated duration for each subject will be
scheduled to combine one or more techniques. The educator must try to have all the
timing under control but generally being more flexible and open to modify a program
according to the group rhythm.

B) Depending on the space

Depending on the place, it is possible to distinguish between implementing the

methods indoors or outdoors. To do so, it will be taken into consideration the most
appropriate place for each kind of practice we would like to implement. The most
convenient environment according to the objectives to be reached will be set, without
forgetting that it will have a big influence on obtaining the best results and will play a
key role in the learning process.

Non-formal education is also defined by not having a fixed implementation space as it

happens in formal education, in which the classroom is generally used. It implies that
the places where the activities are carried out could be, likewise, non-formal spaces;
classrooms, picnic areas, parks, sport centers, clubs, reading circles, cultural centers,
community centers, streets, the neighborhood, camps, etc.

Within this classification it could also happen that the space in which those
methodologies are carried out has a pedagogical aim, that is, the place could be
chosen for a specific reason related to a better assimilation of the knowledge or may
have a direct connection with the information to be acquired.

C) According to the stages of the non-formal activity

Another kind of classification could be made according to the stages of the learning
activity when using non-formal education methods. To better understand these stages,
its sequence has been divided into four phases usually appearing during the
knowledge acquisition when using those methods and techniques. Those stages are:

o Energizing the team of the learners.

o Introduction to the topic.

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o Learning through the implementation of a task.

o Reflection through the presentation of results.

Energizing the team of the learners.

Every lesson should start with some exercises or techniques which allow all the
learners to be prepared, concentrated and active for the learning process. During this
first phase, short duration methods should be applied to energize the learners and
create favorable conditions for the learning that will come afterwards.

Icebreakers- energizers: they are group dynamics used at the beginning of a learning
session to “wake up” the group and prepare them for the tasks or teaching that will
come afterwards. They are normally short games based on movement or enjoyable
situations that also allow learners to have a first contact and reinforce their trust
among them (something essential in non-formal education as their interaction during
the learning experience is needed to obtain qualitative results). They are also used on
the breaks between sessions and are an excellent alternative for the educator when
feeling that the group is down and to activate their motivation and participation.

Introduction to the topic.

Stage on which participants take contact with the topic to be deal with. The educator
can opt to just make a short verbal introduction or an exercise to invite participants to
share the knowledge that they already have about it. The introduction can be also
supported by materials such as presentations, videos, case studies, etc.

Learning through the implementation of a task.

Main stage on a learning session. It is the time on which the educator provides
learners a task to do or an exercise to complete. The biggest part of the learning
process will take place here and it would be the time on which participants will have a
higher responsibility of their learning. In non-formal education, this part of the session
must provide learners an empiric experience related to the topic and objectives or
goals set by the educator for the session.

Reflection through the presentation of results

This last stage is focused on making learners aware about what they have discovered
during the previous part of the session (c). Some activities will just demand an
individual and private reflection meanwhile others will require that learners share the
outcomes of the activity in an open way. The reflection would be the evaluation of the
activity too. According to this, it is essential that it is properly driven by the educator
in order to make learners realize why the previous work or exercises done were useful
but allowing them to point out the learning outcomes. The time for this stage can be
diverse depending on the activity done before, but it must provide a free framework of

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dialogue on which all the learners could have the opportunity of talking. The
reflection can be done by brainstorming, discussions, games, etc. depending on the
educator objectives and competences of the learners.

D) Depending on the size of the group.

It is an important factor to have in mind when choosing or classifying methods or

techniques. The number of learners of a group will determine the way of
implementing an activity, its logistics, space, materials, learner’s interaction, etc.
According to this, techniques would be divided by:

• Individual ones: on which learners work by their own.

• Team ones: on which learners work in small groups (4 or 6 people for example).

• Group ones: on which the whole class take part together in a single exercise at the
same time but not divided in teams.

This classification is important in non-formal education in order to allow the educator

to arrange all the logistics of a session and increase the impact that the exercises
proposed have on learners. Techniques to be used should be chosen according to these
criteria or just adapted to be efficient taking into account the number of people
attending the session.

E) According to the implementation modality.

Kind of classification that was chosen and built for this material and will be described
on the next pages.

3.3 Proposed classification of non-formal techniques

Taking into account the purpose of this booklet, it will be developed here the last type
of classification detailed on the previous section of this unit (According to the
implementation modality). These techniques distribution has been made to simplify
its description and the identification of the most appropriate alternatives for those
educators using this booklet. The tools or means used during techniques’

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implementation: those that use similar materials, tools, interaction with the space or
promote the use of concrete skills by learners will be part of the same group.

Using the mentioned criteria, the next categories of non-formal techniques will be
described on this classification:

1. Techniques based on dialogue and verbal communication.

2. Techniques based on drama, body language and physical expression.
3. Techniques based on the use of new technologies.
4. Techniques based on the use of handcrafts.
5. Techniques based on the use of board games.
6. Techniques based on the participation in open events.

We just remind to the reader that non form techniques are not exclusive
or limited by space, target group or learning objectives. It is a task of the
educator to choose the most appropriate ones according to each
scenario, to adapt them, to use them in a concrete way or to mix them to
create new ones suitable for his/her objectives.

3.3.1. Techniques based on dialogue and verbal communication.

This category includes samples of techniques based on the oral communication

among learners to promote learning and acquire new knowledge. In most of the cases,
techniques offer a double side interaction on which learners can improve different
competences when acting as speaker or receiver (E.g. language fluency, exchange of
points of view, expressing ideas, active listening, shifts respect, argumentation, etc.).
When using dialogue and verbal communication with non-formal education, the
educator must be really aware about the skills and language limits of learners as this
kind of techniques requires a basic knowledge of a language or the use of complete
grammar structures. According to this, before using this kind of resources it is
recommended to use other kind of techniques that could reinforce before the self-
confidence of the learners, their capacity of speaking in public, knowledge of

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vocabulary to express ideas or body language to support the meaning of their

arguments when communicating.

a) Roleplaying

It is wide technique used to simulate a real situation in order to practice concrete

vocabulary or grammar structures. Learners receive different roles through cards or
papers that need to play in order to learn by experiencing and using the knowledge
acquired before on previous parts of their learning process. As a difference to theatre,
in role playing there is no need to perform what is represented and can be just done
sitting learners face to face. Besides this, there is not a real script but short guidelines
that learners need to follow and set by the educator in order to practice a short
dialogue. According to this, role playing is a cooperative game in which all its
participants are actors and spectators at any time during the process. The technique
allows learners to practice real life situations in a safe environment that can help them
out of the training sessions to face real problems or conflicts. Within non formal
education, this is a quite useful technique to practice second languages but also an
excellent tool to promote empathy among learners by providing them roles that are far
of their own personality, culture, status or social behavior.

Technique video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie0K1GsDM08

b) Brainstorming

It is a technique based on sharing in an informal and freeway ideas related to a

concrete topic or obstacle proposed. Its main aim is to promote learners creativity by
problems solving while they train their imagination and group consciousness. One of
the main aims of the process is to teach learners how to expose ideas and compare
them with others’ points of view in order to establish strategies to act and avoid the
frustration or blocking that a creative process can produce. The system also prioritizes
the use of positive comments by avoiding direct negative ones and making possible
that learners discover what constructive criticism is. It can be done orally or with
papers, but it is always recommended that when using this technique, the different
ideas shared by learners are written down in a place that all of them can see at the
same time in order to avoid repetition and inspire them (E.g. a black board or a big
paper flipchart).

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c) Interviews

An interview is a conversation that two or more people maintain in order to acquire

information with a specific aim. According to this, it can be seen as a dialogue
between the person(s) interviewed and the interviewer(s). It is not a casual
conversation but a communication with a concrete goal, defined expectations on the
interviewer and interests based on curiosity in all the parts involved on it. As a
difference from role playing, most of the times there are no roles assigned to learners
as they need to provide answers and make questions based on their real lives,
backgrounds or interests. It is a quite useful tool when learners do not know each
other as it helps to find points in common among them, reinforce their confidence and
promote their better interaction. However, during its use it is recommended that the
educator invites learners to switch from time to time the roles of interviewer and
interviewed in order to obtain the maximum learning benefit of the activity and
people involved on it.

d) Human libraries

It is a technique based on interviewing but with very specific characteristics. Human

libraries are spaces on which people with something to tell about an issue (normally
because they have a wide life experience or knowledge on it) are invited to share it
with others: They are called “human books”. “Human books” can be demanded in this
kind of spaces by “readers” or people who aim to know more about a concrete topic,
culture, historical period, etc. The main benefit over reading books is that all the
stories told have an empiric base and are transmitted with all their emotive content.
Moreover, readers are also free to make questions to the “human books”, what makes
the sharing of information more concise and accurate. During a non-formal learning
process, this is an excellent technique to allow learners not only acquire a new
knowledge, but also to invite them to act as “human books” in order to practice a new
language, how to speak in public, how to organize their stories, etc.

Entity sample: http://humanlibrary.org/

Technique video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nzifsl4Suo

e) Language/culture tandem

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We define as tandem a dialogue between two people with a common interest and who
aims to exchange points of view or information about it. According to this, language
tandem is defined as a technique on which two people from different cultural
backgrounds want to learn about the language and culture of the other in an empiric
way. The way to do it, is by establishing an informal conversation by time shifts of
concrete duration. During the first shift, learners will speak on the language of one of
them. After a while, they will change and communicate on the language of the other
one. Normally the meetings are done in public places that could be seen as neutral to
create a safer environment to talk. Even if this technique demands that learners have
linguistic competences in several languages, it is an excellent non formal and informal
way to learn not only about communication and improving listening but also to
discover peculiarities about a culture, its story, traditions and those living on it.

Technique video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbQDIEMnZDI

f) Debate

It is a communicative act for expressing opposed ideas that promotes a discussion

about an open topic among two or more people. Its aim is to expose ideas and
postures by using arguments to reason them. As it demands not only to give opinion
about an issue but also to previously search acquaint for it, debates are a perfect non
formal technique to acquire new knowledge and competences related to speaking and
listening skills (E.g. speaking in public, sharing feelings, exchanging points of view,
plan strategies, etc.).

g) Speed dating

It is an easy technique based on promoting the exchange of information among

learners about a topic, problem to solve or just to get to know each other (it can be
made in pairs or by groups). The difference with interviews or tandems is that learners
are sitting face to face in a table but they only have a very short period of time to
obtain the information that they need (E.g. 5 minutes). After this time, learners need
to stand up and sit on another table with a different person. The process is repeated as
many times as needed and depending on the objectives of the educator who is
supporting the activity. Thanks to this technique, learners do not only learn about each
other, but practice how to synthesize or express ideas in a direct way.

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h) Simulation

Simulation is a technique in which the learners participate in a procedure that

represents a real situation. They practice and learn many different disciplines and
topics. They have to think how some particular persons they would behave or react in
specific situations and be able to act like them if they had to deal with the same
conditions. It looks like role-playing but the difference is that the goal in simulation is
the understanding of the reactions in each case. The realistic scenarios allows for
practice till one can master the procedure or skill, something greatly useful in
language learning as well as the learners’ integration. Moreover teamwork conducted
in the simulated environment may offer an additive benefit to the didactic instruction,
enhance performance and help reduce language errors.

i) Storytelling

It is the art of telling a story or tale by using the oral speech. What is shared can be
planned but also improvised, what makes it a very good tool in terms of non-formal
education as it can improve oral skills but also other ones such as improvisation or
creativity. This technique also implies in most of the cases the design of characters
behind the story out of nothing, what makes it an excellent channel for learners to
show their feelings, expectations or transfer their emotions in order to be shared.
Besides this, during this character building, learners must make an extra effort to
understand how they should behave according to each character during the story. As a
consequence, it allows reinforcing competences such as empathy or observation
which are essential when working with non-formal education and basic for the
interaction of a person within an intercultural group.

j) j) Group exercises

This technique can easily be implemented together with other techniques during any
part of the lesson or the educational program. It is the cornerstone of adults’ education
and an effective tool for language learning. Through this technique the development
of the communication and mutuality among the members of the team can be achieved.
The one is helping the other reducing the negative competition. In a language class is
very important because it ensures the active participation of all learners without

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exception and promotes peer learning. Learners feel safer and express themselves
more easily in a small group.

3.3.2. Techniques based on drama, body language and physical expression.

Drama, theatre, mimic and body language have become very useful techniques when
dealing with non-formal education as they suppose the use of wide variety of
communication channels or codes. As explained by Gabino Boquete, when using
theatre the learner contributes with his/her own personality and experience to the
learning process as the individual has an innate capacity to imitate, make gestures,
present him/herself through other characters or express by using the body or voice
(independently of the linguistic competences of the person in a concrete language).

Techniques based in drama can promote depending on their complexity very different
competences or skills in terms of communication, reading comprehension,
pronunciation, interaction among participants, empathy, sharing social realities,
speaking in public, intercultural understanding, etc.

Some samples of techniques based on drama, body language and physical expression
are:

a) Imitation or mimic
It is the most basic technique in the theatre field. The idea is to use the body and not
the language skills to share or show a reality or its elements and try to transmit it to
others. The ways of using it in a learning process can differ but its main use takes the
form of an exercise focused on telling a story to others while the learners not
performing try to guess what is performed. Besides concrete activities based on this
technique, mimic or gestures are an excellent support for the verbal communication
and quite useful when the educator or the learners have very different linguistic skills
as it reinforces in a visual way the message that it is supposed to be transferred.

b) Theatre play or performances

They are complex activities to be shared to an audience (in a closed space or through
an open event) that allow learners through the creation and play of characters and a
script to discover themselves and develop their personality. From the point of view of

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a group, the creation of a theatre play supposes a constant interaction of the learners
and a regular communication by speaking or using body language. The script can be
based on the real needs of the learners, offering them the opportunity to exercise
dialogues useful in their daily life and to improve their oral communication in the
target language. Furthermore, as a project-based learning, a theatre play also implies
other aspects, out of performing, that require the use of very concrete skills which
learners either have and improve them or they don’t have at all and develop them
through the process.

c) Shadows theatre
It is based on the use of optical effects achieved by combining lights, shadows and
shapes or silhouettes made out a malleable material (E.g. carton, cardboard, wood,
etc.). It is a very useful technique as even if its implementation is quite simple, the
visual results obtained are extremely rich, what helps to awake and promote the
imagination, fantasy and creativity of both, performers and the audience. The benefits
of this technique are quite similar to the general ones of using theatre to learn but with
an added value as the use of shadow reduces the difficulty that sometimes performing
has for the learners (E.g. to show their faces, to see the audience, to use their own
bodies to play a role, to not have performing skills, etc.). It allows sharing stories,
exercising oral communication, learning about new realities or promoting project-
oriented learning processes with a common goal to encourage synergies and
cooperation among the learners (to develop a shadows play).

d) Dancing and music

The use of music and dance is a didactic and integrative technique that promotes
human capacities that cannot be developed by other learning approaches such as
rhythm, coordination, body expression or movement. At this sense and taking into
account the aim of this booklet, this technique will demand always the establishment
of a learning objective and must not be only seen as a ludic activity (E.g. sharing an
idea, improving listening skills, promote the interaction among learners, etc.).
Moreover, the use of music or rhythms allows creation of dynamic and pleasant
atmospheres that increase the motivation of those being part of them. Finally, it must
be reminded that music or songs are also able to alter and condition human behaviors,
what makes it a perfect complement in case the educator of an activity intends to
increase its impact on the learners (E.g. an activity done with fast music will speed up

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learners and challenging them (training their concentration and capacity of reaction),
while an exercise done with very slow music will relax them and involve them in a
calm mood (something very useful form example for self-reflection or activities
demanding analysis).

3.3.3. Techniques based on the use of new technologies

This category contains techniques which main aspect in common is the use of new
technologies to provide an added value to the non-formal learning process. According
to this, it brings together ways of learning that are supported by devices that allow the
learners to: 1) discover new concepts or express their ideas, 2) acquire competences
related to these technologies that are also needed on learners’ real life (E.g. Typing,
using internet, record videos, fill in documents online, etc.).

Besides the mentioned values, the use of new technologies adapted to the learners’
skills can increase the efficiency of the learning process, generates new dialogues and
develop the critic thinking. It also prepares learners for the use of equipment and
devices that are present in all the fields of the everyday life in the current societies
(E.g. registering of documents in a municipality, booking travels, chatting online with
customers, etc.). Furthermore, the use of these tools provides educators a new
framework for teaching such as the online education, something essential in some
cases on which learners cannot physically attend a course (E.g. when living in remote
rural areas) or to open the learning process to further venues (E.g. allowing learners to
connect with people from other countries or cultures to learn more about them).

However, new technologies must be used only if the educator considers that they will
provide an added value to the learning process. If so, they should be always adapted
to the learners’ skills. According to this, the techniques included in this section are
those that use new technologies as an extra support or that aim to provide learners
new channels of expression. That means that in this case, learning how to use these
technologies is not the main aim of the learning experience, but an extra benefit of a
process. The educator must be then sure that learners will be able to use the new tools
given or at least create the environment on which they could learn to use them.

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According to this, the use of new technologies or/and their combination with other
techniques should be only chosen when the educator is able to adapt the learning
processes to his/her learners through:

- On-site class sessions: on which technologies are a supporting material.

- Online class sessions: on which technologies are the channel to acquire the
knowledge.

- Blended learning classes: process combining both, on-site class and online sessions.

Some samples of techniques based on the use of new technologies are:

a) Movie or short movie

Creating a movie provides learners with a new way to express ideas, stories or
personal experiences in a very visual way. It requires from learners to develop a
common result or product that implies an appropriate preparation and to coordinate
very different logistic aspects such as equipment, scenarios, casting, edition,
production, etc. Thanks to this, those participating in a video project acquire language
skills and also competences related to other personal and professional fields of their
life and practice how to use them (E.g. leadership, time management, team
coordination, communication, speaking in public, etc.). It must be also highlighted
that movies and videos demand a well prepared script to be successful, what allow
participants to combine other different learning techniques in order to achieve the
creativity level and cooperation framework to obtain a good product (E.g.
brainstorming, debate, drawing to prepare shots, physical expression, simulations and
role playing to rehearse, etc.). Another benefit of this technique is that it produces
tangible results (movies) that can be easily shared and disseminated to a local
community (something very important in case of target groups such as immigrants
who are involved in an adaptation process to a new reality). These can be done by
uploading the videos on education provider websites, social networks, organizing a
movies festival etc. Moreover, by displaying movies or short videos during the
learning process comprehensive skills in the target language can be improved a lot.

b) Video clip/CD music

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The use and benefits of recording a video clip or music CD are quite similar to those
described on the previous technique of creating a movie. However, to develop a work
based on music provides extra value for the learners and allow that they share or use
personal skills to contribute to the creation of the project (E.g. singing, composing
music, writing lyrics, playing an instrument, etc.). The use of music always increases
the creativity and also makes project base activities more joyful and enjoyable.
Moreover, when working with learners from different backgrounds, it gives them not
only the opportunity of sharing their own cultures and folk, but also to achieve an
intercultural fusion by merging rhythm, instruments or styles from different regions or
countries.

c) Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is a new term and technique which describes the practice of
everyday people to tell a story or present an idea by using digital tools. A digital story
can combine many and different formats and moreover it can be interactive. It can be
a very useful and entertaining tool to enhance learners’ learning experiences. What is
interesting is that either the educator can use the storytelling for particular learning
goals or the learners themselves can create their own digital stories. There are
numerous ways to create a digital story for free starting with just a simple script and
as little as one image. The educator can use this tool for any kind of practice of the
target language and the creation of a digital story far from the language practice could
encourage the team building by working in groups.

d) Radio program

It is also a quite good technique if we aim to teach or improve learners’ competences

on writing, reading or speaking but in a new format out of the one using on the class
and avoiding boredom. Besides learning how to use all the equipment related to a
radio station, learners are provided with a new channel to share their experiences or
thoughts to a community while they contribute to it by entertaining or informing its
citizens. Moreover, even if a radio program can be considered as an open event due to
its audience (especially if it is live), the lack of images or cameras makes it more
suitable for those learners who are shy or do not want to be recognized.

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e) Blogging

To write a blog (private or to be published online) is a technique that can be easily

implemented as a complement of a learning process. Even if learners must be trained
before to use a blog (there are lots of booklets online about this issue) it provides them
an attractive tool that does not only allows them to write, but also to support their
stories or text with images or videos. It is a technique that learners can use at home to
practice and improve their writing, vocabulary, grammar and applying the knowledge
regularly acquired in the class (E.g. in a language course, learners can use this system
to reinforce their linguistic skills and notice the weaknesses that they can have in a
language in order to solve them). The use of blogs must be always done by the
educator upon the guarantee that all the learners have access to online equipments and
if the technique provides and added value to his/her class (E.g. in a group with
learners from different countries, inviting them to write public blogs about the main
cultural facts of their countries in order to get to know each other and raising
awareness on the local population about the importance of living in a multicultural
society). This technique can improve learners’ formal writing skills and
familiarization with different kind of texts such as articles, reports, invitations or
announcements.

f) Online platforms:

Internet is crowded of websites full of information and online platforms with

exercises to practice online about different issues (especially language). According to
this, to invite learners to make online researches about a topic or provide them links of
specific sites to practice, can reinforce their learning process out of the class while
they learn how to use new technologies. Taking into account the basic principle of
non-formal education about sharing with the learner the responsibility of his/her
learning process, motivating him/her to surf on internet will provide the learner the
opportunity of guiding his/her learning experience on different directions and also
making him/her aware about the importance of the different parts of a learning
process (E.g. selecting a topic, finding suitable information about it, classifying this
information, discerning useful or useless content, summarizing this content, etc

g) Online tools for educators

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Except for using online platforms for learners to practice on different fields, internet
also offers lots of websites to help the educators to create their own materials for their
non-formal teaching. They reduce considerably the time invested to prepare a class
and provide lots of enjoyable and visual results that increases the motivation of those
using them to learn. Thanks to these sites several products can be created such as tools
to play quizzes, design games, alphabet soups, etc. Some examples are:

-Getkahoot: https://getkahoot.com/ (to create games or quizzes by using or

participating through new technologies (computes, smart phones, tablets, etc.)).

- Crosswords or word searching: http://www.puzzle-maker.com/

-Worksheets on different formats or subjects:

https://worksheets.theteacherscorner.net/

-Create board games: http://www.timvandevall.com/templates/blank-board-game-

template/

-Bingo cards: http://myfreebingocards.com/

3.3.4. Techniques based on the use of board games.

Board games are those that are traditionally based on the use of counters that move
through a board organized in a concrete way. Traditionally created as a leisure time
entertainment, each board game has its own rules and instructions that players should
follow to play it properly. Depending on the aim of each board game, it will promote
the use of different skills on its players such as logical thinking, deductive capacity,
memory, etc. Some of them are games of chance or use elements such as dices that
although do not promote the previous mentioned competences, they promote instead
the acquisition of other ones such as strategic capacity or team’s cooperation. Dealing
with non-formal education, several subcategories of board games will be defined on
this section according to their nature:

• Traditional games adapted to the learning process of learners: educators

tend to use normally traditional games which rules could be well known by
users in order to promote among them different values. As they are popular for

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learners, the previous knowledge about their use makes them feel more
confident and comfortable to learn through them. On the other side, when
using traditional games from one culture but with users of another one, they
also offer an added value to the learners who are able to discover other
realities and folk facts by having fun or competing.

• Modern board games with copyright to be adapted to the learning process

of learners: they are games created on the last years that have a copyright
license. They can be bought in toy shops or shopping centers as leisure time
hobby but can promote an indirect learning that can be very useful for an
educator dealing with a non-formal process. Furthermore, as they are
originally thought to be sold, their design combines attractive colors or forms
that can increase the motivation of the learners to play.

Besides these two subcategories, coming back to the holistic point of view that
educators must always have when dealing with non-formal methods, it must be
highlighted that the techniques included on this section are samples that can be used
during the learning process but also modified to be adapted to a concrete target group
by changing their rules, tools, mixing them, creating handmade materials, etc. The
objective of their use must always be justified and their goal must be clear for the
educator.

The common materials that board games use and can be also used out of them during
the designing of a learning process are:

- Dices.

- Cards (of questions or with information).

- Boards.

- Chips, tiles or tokens.

- Handouts.

- Costumes or toys, etc.

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Traditional games adapted to the learning process of learners

a) Block construction

They are games which main goal is to build a structure or object by stacking, fitting
together and combining blocks (normally made out of plastic or wood). The
constructions to be done can have a concrete form and instructions to be built or being
abstract concepts that players can create by combining the blogs in a free style way
and according to their criteria. It is a technique that does not only develop the fine
motor abilities of users, but also other cognitive ones such as creativity, imagination
or physical-spatial intelligence. Depending on how the work during the construction is
organized by the educator (E.g. individually, in teams, with or without instructions,
etc.) learners will improve capacities more related to the team cooperation (such as
communication, tasks distribution, leadership, etc.) or on the personal development
(such as concentration, time management, sources distribution, etc.). As blocks
normally have different colors, sizes and geometrical forms, it is an excellent tool for
those language learners with a basic knowledge as they can learn those words related
to these fields while using blocks to express their own ideas or show points of view
about how an object can be seen.

b) Games using a board

To use a board (normally divided by

squares or boxes) is not only one of the
basic characteristics of most of the board
games, but also a good alternative to
focus the concentration of learners in a
reduced space and increase their
motivation by using it as an alternative to
other recurrent methods that the educator
could regularly use. Normally these games are using chips that players use by shifts or
using dices. Besides the normal rules that these games have, the educator can also
create his/her own ones by applying different values to each square or including on
them questions, tasks or actions to be done by players. According to this, board games

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are a very visual option to promote a wide variety of topics or goals such as learning
decisions taking, conflict management or emotions control. Furthermore, when
dealing with the non-formal learning of languages, they can be modified to allow
learners to acquire vocabulary, practice grammatical structures or learning cultural
facts about a hosting country. A clear example of how these traditional board games
are can be the “Game of the goose”, with a very basic board with boxes easy to be
used by an educator with different aims.

e) Quizzes
They are games on which players or teams have to give answer to different kind of
questions with the aim of evaluation or measure the knowledge that they have about
concrete topics in terms of culture, sports, personality, history, vocabulary, etc. They
can offer questions with no answer options (that must be guessed by players) or
multiple choice solutions among which the players must choose. The topic to ask
about can be easily modified by the educators and related to their goals questions
should be included (E.g. about vocabulary on a second language or how to conjugate
a verb). Besides being suitable to learn about general concepts on a concrete field,
they are also good to improve competences such as concentration, memory, rapidity,
mental agility or just to study the role of each player within a group.

f) Puzzles
Their aim is to put pieces together with the objective of
building an image or figure. Each piece is different and can
only match with others made to fit together. They are a very
good tool to promote among learners psychomotricity or
reinforce their logical spatial intelligence. Pieces shapes and
forms can be used to create dominos or games based on
matching vocabulary (E.g. synonyms and antonyms), concepts (E.g. a word with its
drawing) or languages (E.g. one word in Spanish with its equivalence in English).

g) Bingos
A very funny way to allow learners practicing their pronunciation and especially their
listening skills. They are recommended especially for teaching languages and can be
utilized by using cards composed by drawings or numbers (depending on the learning
goal of the exercise and the educator).

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Modern board games with copyright to be adapted to the learning

process of learners

a) Story cubes

They are special dices with different drawings on

their faces created by O’Connor. Their main aim is to
train imagination and solve problems in a creative
way. They can be used to obtain alternatives to a
conflict proposed through witty solutions, or to
create a story in a cooperative way by merging all the
concepts that appear on the faces of the dices when they are thrown. The game is
usually played with 9 dices with 6 faces each, what offers to players 54 different
possible ideas or icons to deal with. According to O’Connor, “As the brain thinks in
pictures but communicates in words, having a visual aid to creative problem solving
would be advantageous. Using images to trigger stories would help the brain think in
new ways”. It’s a very good tool for exercising vocabulary and oral communication
but it can also be combined with asking the learners to write the story in order to
develop writing skills in the targeted language.

b) Pictionary

This game use drawings as a tool for

communication. Designed by Rob Angel, the target
of the players is to guess words or sentences that are
given to some of them by trying to draw their
content. Each card can include different categories
such as action, object or others. As it can be played
on small teams or groups (some players draw and the
others try to guess) it is a very funny and dynamic
way to practice vocabulary and memory in a non-formal way. It helps to acquire new
concepts by establishing a link between the word and the drawing and allow players
to show or improve at the same time their artistic skills.

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c) Trivial
It is a quiz game on which players aim to collect and
win different color chips by answering in the
appropriate way questions made by other players.
Each color corresponds to one concrete field or topic
such as geography, history, arts and literature,
science, sport and spectacles. Even if it started as an
adults game with a considerable difficulty, different adapted versions have been
developed with the time with a wide variety of difficulty levels or topics. In non-
formal education, the educator can use this game to teach about new concepts and
facts or even ask learners to create their own cards of questions to share what they
already know. It must be also mentioned that even if it is a quite dynamic way of
learning, it requires that the learners have basic linguistics skills and especially
reading skills.

d) Dixit

It is a board and card game created by

Jean-Louis Roubira on which the main
goal is to guess which of the cards with
images on the table corresponds to the
concept or idea that a “storyteller”
describes. “Dixit, the first game published
by Libellud, features high-quality
components and breathtaking artwork. The game includes 84 large-format cards
bearing original illustrations by Marie Cardouat”. The game is very useful to improve
competences related to language, enrich vocabulary, improve memory and understand
how people can see similar things with very different points of view (a basic approach
to acquire the empathy needed when learners are part of a non-formal training).

e) Bangra

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It is a card game thought to make players

feel what a cultural shock is and the
difficulties that could happen when
intercultural communication takes place.
Its implementation is quite easy and is
divided in two main parts. On the first
one, players sitting in groups and different tables must play cards without speaking
and following very concrete rules provided by the educator. After a while, they will
change their positions. The point is that rules change from table to table, so players
appear suddenly in an unknown scenario on which they need to face the decision of
adapting themselves to the new environment or convince the other players that they
are wrong. The second part of the game is a group reflection on which players must
share all the feelings and situations that they experienced but were not able to share as
speaking was forbidden. Even if the game requires some linguistic skills of the
players to run the group reflection properly, it is an excellent technique to promote
empathy towards those immigrants coming from other countries and discuss about
integration problems on local communities. Besides this, the game produce in players
feelings that allow them to experience and learn about how to deal with emotions,
frustration, social inclusion or roles in a community.

f) Scattergories
It consists on playing different rounds on which players
must think and write down words that start with the
same letter. To know which letter rules each round
dices with a lot of faces (one per letter on the alphabet)
are thrown. The words to write are divided by different
categories that make the game more dynamic. It is an excellent tool and technique to
reinforce the already acquired knowledge of learners about the vocabulary of a
language while it reinforces competences such as creativity, fluency, originality,
pressure and rapidity to overcome obstacles and writing skills.

g) Uno

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It is a card game created in the USA which main aim is to get rid of the cards that are
given to each player at the beginning of the game.
Cards contain colors, numbers and actions that
players must respect when putting the cards on the
table (always following a concrete order and
direction). Its use in non-formal education is quite
effective as it allows participants to train in an
enjoyable way basic concepts related to numbers,
colors, counting or basic actions to interact among them.

h) LEGO
It is a block game created by Kirk Kristiansen in
1932 and nowadays sold by the company with the
same name and based in Billund, Denmark. The
company’s philosophy is that “play is a key
element in a person’s growth and development and
stimulates the imagination and the emergence of
ideas and creative expression. All LEGO products are based on this underlying
philosophy of learning and development through play.” In non-formal education it
exists a concrete therapy that use LEGO to create multi-sensory, open-ended
experiences by using blocks and based on building projects tailored to individuals
with concrete needs, such as blindness, deafness, mobility impairment, autism, etc.

3.3.5. Techniques based on the use of handcrafts.

Handcrafts are activities combining physical and mental exercises that stimulate
abilities related to cognitive, socio-affective or psychomotor facets of the individual.
Within the field of non-formal education, their use facilitates and reinforces the
learning process while learners reinforce their visual memory, concentration,
reasoning or creativity.

Having as an objective to create or build an object or product, learners have

traditionally learn handcrafts by a process of observing, imitation and practising from
masters. However, when dealing with non-formal education, the educator must tend to

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present different basic guidelines to work with the raw materials that the learners
should use to develop in an autonomous way and according to his/her creativity or
skills the result expected.

If we focus on the field of language learning by non-formal approaches, handcrafts

can be considered as good alternative at the first stages of the linguistic knowledge
acquisition as they provide a channel and a way to express and share feelings or ideas
in an efficient way. Taking into account that all the processes including handcrafts
involve a physical action, they prepare learners, through very concrete tasks, for
future more complex activities or techniques. Besides this, handcrafts allow the
learners to build their own objects or forms, something quite useful when dealing with
non-formal education (especially with adults) as it tends to encourage learning by
connecting already known concepts, objects or ideas to new ones that need to be
acquired by the learners.

According to all of this, handcrafts are an excellent tool for issues such as:

- Work in teams and learning how to follow instructions (or structure and give
them).
- Expressing ideas from a visual way and avoid abstraction.
- Being a channel for self-reflection and sharing feelings or moods.
- Promote different skills on each learner as the importance is on how the learner
build or understand the result obtained, not on its artistic quality beauty or
dexterity.
Some samples of non-formal techniques based on the use of handcrafts are:

a) Puppets
Its use as a non-formal learning technique is based on two main aspects. On the
one side, their creation by the learners provide them a common task to learn in a
joyful way multidisciplinary fine motor skills (E.g. cutting, painting, designing,
sewing, etc.) and at the same time a framework to interact as a group. On the
other side, performing with puppets help learners to externalise feelings, share
experiences or propose unsettled situations. For new learners of a language, these
cooperative tasks help them to develop skills in speaking, listening, reading and
writing. It allows them to express their ideas creatively, imaginatively and to
communicate with others effectively. The puppets can help to teach and also to

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learn in literacy engaging. They also help to show society roles and behaviours to
be learnt when arriving to a new cultural community (something essential when
dealing with immigrants). According to this, puppets help the learners to express
and see roles or behaviours from an external point of view. This can help in both
ways: 1) allows learners to share their feelings, 2) allows learners to plan
strategies to face personal or professional obstacles, as using the puppets they
disassociate these characters with themselves and make easier to take logical or
needed decisions.

b) Drawing
Painting or drawing is one of the main techniques in non-formal education and is
normally used with several aims. For learners with a limited use of a language or
non-literate, it offers a channel of communication to express themselves while
they use their creativity (reinforcing at the same time their motivation and
amusement). The results obtained are also easier to be shared with other learners
as drawings can be understood in a very fast way. However, drawings can also
offer sometimes ambiguous meanings depending on their interpretation (an
aspect that can be used by the educator to learn by creating, for example, games
on which learners must guess what the others are drawing).

c) Modeling
It is a very good technique to practice
the fine motor and allows using
different kinds of raw materials to
express ideas, feelings or share
something in a creative way. We can
use elements such as plasticise, wax,
clay, gypsum, plaster, etc. Learners
will be invited either to express the same idea by using their creativity (what
allows them to see how different a concept can be depending on the point of view
of a person), or expressing each one a concrete “feedback” (E.g. when doing a
self-reflection, to express how a person feels by showing it shaped from plasticise
figure or composition). It is believed that when the learners of a language have
not a good level on it or enough skills, they learn by imitating the educator.

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According to this, this technique helps the learners by observing the educator’s
modelling process, listening his/her instructions and improving their competences
to reproduce images or concepts. By copying and applying these guidelines they
can learn new vocabulary such as materials, tools, actions, ideas, etc. They can
explain after their own modelling process and objects to the rest of the
participants in order to practice different communication skills. Connecting
vocabulary with the models assists the acquisition of the language especially if
some of the models are funny. Associating new vocabulary with funny or not
models will help the learners to rekindle it in their memory.

d) Collage
It consists of making an artistic composition by mixing different techniques such
as cutting pieces of papers from
magazines or newspapers, drawing,
using natural elements (E.g. grass, rocks,
sticks, etc.) and pasting all in a
framework or paper. It is a very creative
tool and it allows working also in groups
or through a task division within the members of a team (E.g. some can search
images in a newspaper, others can cut, others can paste, others can distribute the
elements on the paper, etc.). As the results of this technique can be very abstract,
depending on the aim of the activity the educator would need to create a time
frame on which learners can explain to the group the meaning of their outputs.
This technique can be very useful for learning a new language and has similar
effects as the modelling. Learners improve their language and communication
skills by using newspapers, magazines, etc. They can start to read, to recognise
words and make connections with the image in order to embrace new aspects of
the language. It is also very useful to understand grammatical structures by
inviting them to create sentences based on words cut from magazines or to learn
everyday life vocabulary using other paper sources (Ex. Using paper ads from
supermarkets and inviting them to create and name their shopping basket).

e) Comic or cartoons

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The use of comics or comic strips is quite well known to tell a concatenation of
facts, episodes or actions linked within the same story or time line. For learners
who aim to share their background or life experience and do not have the
linguistic competences to do it or are not good at speaking in public, it is an
excellent tool. With comic, it is not meant that the learner must previously have
some artistic competences as the drawings can be made with very basic figures.
Another benefit of this technique is that besides a story, learners must also create
characters, what allows them to draw inanimate figures to show or transfer their
own personalities in order to be shared to others without mentioning learners’
personal profile.

f) Origami
It is an ancient Japanese art of centuries
old that consists on building and
creating geometrical figures by folding a
piece of paper. Even if there is a free
style version, most of the figures to be
done follow a concrete list of
instructions in order to achieve the result
expected. The free style version of this
art is commonly used in non-formal
education for the reflection stage of the learning process as it does not only
allow the learners to express by using paper, but also provides the learners an
quiet framework for the reflection that helps to clarify and concentrate his/her
mind on periods of high stress. On the other side, to provide learners concrete
instructions to follow but obtaining an immediate result (a paper figure)
contributes to their attention (something very important when working with
learners who have difficulties of concentration, illiterate or too energetic).
Origami can be made by a single person or can be used as a group technique
on which all the learners must build something together by distributing the
tasks among them. According to this it can be also seen as a team building
activity or to reinforce among learners values such as leadership, active
listening, delegate tasks, etc. Origami can be used for learning languages as it
is a technique that in a calm and easy way, promotes acquiring of new

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vocabulary about different themes and body actions (colours, animals, tools,
actions, hands movements, etc.). Thanks to it, learners can improve the
communicative process when they ask, look into, offer any kind of
explanations and express their stories or experiences done during all the
Origami construction.

3.3.6. Techniques based on the participation in open activities

Except for all the non-formal techniques included on the previous categories, it has
also been considered important, for those educators reading this booklet, to include
information about the importance of involving learners in activities that allow them to
interact with real world (especially if we are dealing with target groups such as
immigrants who are still working on their adaptation to a new community or aim to be
understood by those living in it).

In terms of language learning, such activities can create a safe and secure environment
in which the learners can apply and practice the developed linguistic skills and
interact with native speakers. Moreover the preparation, design and implementation of
these activities contribute to the visibility of foreigners in local societies and make
them face real language and cultural challenges out of the classroom. Even if this kind
of activities cannot be considered as the only tool to teach a language, they offer a
wide variety of dynamic activities that can complement the regular language courses
offered to a group. They are also very useful for those educators aiming to implement
on their language courses a “flipped classroom” model on which the learning
experience must take place at both, inside and outside the classroom and far from the
traditional pedagogical models.

Besides that, the participation in open air activities (especially in groups) promotes a
peer learning model on which learners learn from each other. This is especially
important when dealing with languages and immigrants as this model puts them on
real life scenarios and make possible at the same time that they share they experiences
or methods of adaptation to the new hosting community, its culture and society.

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Last but not least, as most of these activities promote the realization of activities that
could be related to learners’ hobbies or interests (they should be explored and
detected previously by the educator), they reinforce the learners’ motivation, decrease
drop outs and promote the use of learners’ other skills than the linguistic ones.

According to this, two subcategories or potential activities have been proposed to

provide samples of this kind of activities:

a) Active open activities

They are those on which learners are involved in all their processes: preparation,
design, implementation and performing. Learners can acquire during these stages very
different competences while creating a final result which does not only display their
knowledge or skills but it also impacts the local community. (By entertaining its
members or raising their awareness about concrete issues). Some examples of active
open activities that can be proposed to a group of learners can be:

- Film competitions: It is a contest on which participants should get the

triumph using their own recorded films. The films are judged by other people and the
main goal is the learning process of the learners during the preparation and recording
of their films. The learners of a new language can use this activity for discovering
new vocabulary although they can also improve team work, communication,
expressing ideas or personal experiences through the characters of a film.

- Photovoice: It is a method to show a social action or cultural difficulty in

order to be aware of a problem or situation by using photography. Participants should
prepare and share a group of photos which represent a concrete theme. This group of
pictures can include also a narrative part. The most interesting benefit of using
photovoice is the wide variety of points of view that can be showed. It can be used
with the purpose of learning languages in the first stages of the process, when the
users have not enough level to reproduce a speech but they can use the photovoice to
transmit some problems through images.

- Music events: It is a live performance where participants play different

compositions. The learning process is appreciated in the entire musical process such
as how to use different instruments, how to compose a score, the interaction with the
rest of the members of a band, repeating new vocabulary, etc. When coming from

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different cultural backgrounds, music also help the learners to understand each other’s
backgrounds and allows them to discover how to detect and reproduce patterns (that
are also used on grammatical expressions, phonology or oral expression).

- Sport tournaments: It is a competition through different kind of physical

activities. The participants learn and/or improve during the preparation about how to
play, its rules, and they interact with the rest of their colleagues or competitors. This
kind of activities can help to learn a new language through the communication with
the colleagues. Sports are also basic expressions of a culture that could help them to
be integrated in a local community and interact among it. Moreover, sports promote
other values that can be very useful inside the language class (Ex. Respect, work in
teams, entrepreneurship, tolerance, etc.).

- Cooking or food festivals: it is an entertaining event centered in the different

ways to cook, on which participants elaborate different recipes in order to let people
know aspects or characteristics of a concrete theme or culture. As a language learning
tool, this kind of activities are an excellent way to learn all the vocabulary about food,
cooking and shopping, etc. while at the same time the participants acquire cultural
facts related to the hosting country or are able to express those related to their
countries.

b) Passive open activities

As a difference with the previous subcategory, this one includes activities on which
learners do not have a very active role. However, they open them to new realities,
environments and make them interact with other target groups. They are excellent to
create informal learning experiences and open learners to real life. Some examples of
activities in which learners could be included to reinforce their motivation or
knowledge acquisition about different topics could be:

- Study visits: It is an instrument for getting information about some practices

among peers, organizations or people. It consists of visiting and watching the place
where a practice is developed and learn how they are doing it. Both, the visitor and
the host should be involved in the visit in order to make better the interaction between
them and to take advantage for the leaning process. It can help the language learners

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to discover new job positions, industrial processes, public services, etc. and all the
vocabulary or processes related to them.

- Job shadowing: It is a way of training that consists of going to the place of

the hosting entity or body for a while and seeing what the people there are doing in
order to learn how to do or develop a task in a real way. After all the time “in the
shadow”, participants will be ready to imitate and develop by themselves what they
have learnt but on a different context or space. During the job shadowing the learners
can learn and practice job related vocabulary.

- Cultural trips: to make a trip to a cultural place can also help language
learning by promoting their interaction, learning about a concrete theme and better
understanding the culture of a host country in order to interact afterwards better with
its community. It could be a great opportunity for the educator to introduce
vocabulary related to history and culture.

- Lectures, conferences or roundtables: they are events on which participants

listen, debate and/or discuss about a concrete topic. It consists of a speech of someone
with knowledge in front of an audience who asks afterwards to interact with him/her.

- Attend exhibitions of photo or video (also going to the cinema or theatre):

when learners visit an exhibition about a topic or watch an audiovisual material, they
learn by watching what is showed. As it offers a visual support, it helps the learners to
understand new concepts or terms by linking them to images, movements or episodes
seen without having a previous linguistic knowledge about the name of the things that
they are interacting with.

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Dynamics

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4. THE DYNAMICS OF NON FORMAL METHODS IN

ADULT EDUCATION

4.1 Introduction: origins of adult non formal education

The base of the modern concept and approach related to adult education was coined
by the Danish writer, philosopher, religious man, teacher and politician Nikolaj
Frederik Severin Grundtvig in the 19th century (Whose name would be used dozens
of years after to give name to the European program for adult education that was
replaced in 2014 by Erasmus+).

Formal and methodological father of the folk high school model used in Denmark and
replicated afterwards in other European countries, his main concern was to promote
education among students in order to achieve their active participation in society,
politics and community life: to ensure the potential of every man as the citizen that
s/he should be and wish for his/her neighbors. The objective was to open educational
systems to those who traditionally could have not participated on the democratic life
of their society and offer them free education opportunities.

Opposed to exams, academically competitive grades or any kind of compulsory

teaching methods limiting the potential of students, Grundtvig believed that the
acquisition of knowledge should be always based on a freedom on the learning
process and a disciplined creativity that could be transferred to any aspect or level of
the life of an individual. This should not only provide new theoretical knowledge to
students, but also promote human values needed to develop their role as citizens and
balanced human beings on the appropriate way (E.g. equality, wisdom, compassion,
solidarity, etc.). Achieving this learning and education on individuals should at the
same time promote a development of society as a whole. Following these ideas,
Grundtvig’s model was based in several main guidelines that would afterwards be the
starting point of different adult education models based on non-formal approaches:

• There should be a peer education not only among learners as a source of

knowledge, but also based on a fellowship relation with the educators. Both, educators
and learners must always work together and learn in a mutual respect atmosphere.

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• Education must be a preparation for the real life interaction and human
relations in society rather than a formal instruction. It must be based in a combination
of methods opposed to conservative ideals of book-learning literacy and exams
models.

• Humanity has to be considered as a common and horizontal characteristic for

all. However, it is important to understand first one’s culture, language and history in
order to be ready to assume and respect the values represented or offered by others.

Using these points and Grundtvig’s heritage as milestones, adult non formal education
has been developed during the last decades as a platform to promote individuals’
ability and motivation to take responsibility of his/her own learning. On this approach,
the use of non-formal education and techniques has become essential in order to
provide adult learners a framework of cooperation and learning that could allow them
to exchange experiences and use their own ones for the acquisition of new
competences that could be also applicable for their everyday life.

4.2 Non formal adult learners

The criteria set to be considered as an adult change on each culture or society

depending on aspects based on citizenship (E.g. age to vote), duties and
responsibilities (E.g. age to drive or work) or cultural ceremonies (E.g. to become a
hunter in a tribal society). UNESCO (1976) provided a short definition of who could
be seen as an adult: “it is a person regarded as such by the society to which s/he
belongs”.

For some authors such as Nzeneri (2006) “an adult is one who is physically and
psychologically matured and is socially, economically and politically responsible”.
For other such as Houle (1972) and Bown (1979) an adult is “a person who has
achieved full physical development and is expected to have the right to participate as
a responsible home maker, worker and member of a society.”

Taking into account these board definitions and using them as departure point, when
dealing with non-formal education of adults, we should also pay attention to the
profile of each learner but having an holistic approach of his/her situation. For this
reason, several classifications of learners can be proposed.

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Considering the current non formal education systems on each country, adults can be
divided depending on their inclusion to several main target groups:

a) Those early school leavers who dropped out of school due to their lack of
capacity to adapt themselves to the teaching methods used on it. This lack of
adaptation could be based on personal or even family reasons. According to this, the
challenge when dealing with this kind of adults is not only to recover their motivation
to learn again, but also to give them effective strategies that could help them to face
those problems that caused their separation from the educational systems. Some of the
main concrete causes of the early school leaving could be:

- Boredom and lack of motivation for learning.

- Lack of parental support and engagement.

- Family economic needs or lack of money incomes.

- No individualized attention or support inside the class.

- Incompatibility or problems to balance studies with work or family life

(including pregnancy and parenthood).

- No relation or link between studies and the labor market or skills needed to
enter in it.

In this case, the educator of those adults (normally in their early adulthood) must
manage the motivation of the learners on the appropriate way and show them the
importance of their self-education and management. They must understand that they
need much more than a diploma to work; they also need to learn how to manage all
the situations, challenges and feelings that will come after their arrival to the labor
market or middle adulthood.

b) Those who due to different obstacles were never able to go through the formal
educational systems of their communities, labeled as “fewer opportunities learners”.
They are “at a disadvantage compared to their peers because they face one or more
exclusion factors and obstacles” such as health problems, disabilities, learning
difficulties, cultural differences, lack of economic resources, social discrimination or
they are just located on geographical areas with a lack of educational opportunities.

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On these cases, non-formal education must be a tool to both, make their education
possible and promote their social integration. To achieve an effective education for
these adults, the educator should also help them to overcome the different obstacles
they face and to develop their self-esteem and confidence. Some learners have already
completed this process before coming to a class, but some of them would still need to
work on these issues during the first stages of their learning process. As they had
never had a contact with the formal education system before, the educator must
always promote an approach that could allow learners to use the skills acquired in a
normal life experience and limit the use of abstraction. They are more malleable to
practice new methodologies and open to learn in more flexible ways but these
methodologies should always be based on their capacities.

c) Those who, even if they have successfully finished all the formal education
stages available in their communities, aim to acquire further knowledge and lifelong
learning opportunities. They have a constant motivation to learn and are always open
to acquire totally new skills even if they had never had a contact with them before or
are not directly linked with their labor profile. This kind of adults also join sometimes
non formal activities in order to fulfill their agenda and enjoy by interacting with
other peers during their leisure time or once they are retired, being motivated mainly
by the social experiences and interactions with others that these programs offer.

Besides this classification made, taking into account the motivation or aims for
learning on adults, other types of categories of learners such as the ones offered by
Erik Erikson can be applied. For Erikson, there is a constant psychosocial
development since a person is born till s/he dies. According to this, each life stage
would have different priorities. This model would be not only based on age or
physiological aspects, but also on facts related to culture or society.

Taking as reference this approach and omitting those stages related to childhood (that
is out of the topic of this booklet) we can also classified adult learners by:

a) Learners on early adulthood: Close relationships and intimacy are formed

with others at this stage. Here the person reinforces the concepts of family and peers
developed during the adolescence. It is also the time to define what the person wants
to do in life and as a consequence start to build long term strategies to obtain it. In
terms of education, the person must not only be able to create his/her own learning

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spaces, setting objectives or choosing the appropriate subject to learn according to

his/her wishes or needs, but also to develop the capacity of planning and doing it
alone. According to this, when dealing with non-formal education and adults on this
stage, their engagement and motivation to learn by themselves must be deeply
promoted and reinforced. Sometimes, that means that the educator must promote even
more his/her role as guide and partner as learners on early adulthood develop a high
respect for those educators who offer them an active listening and dialogue.

b) Learners on middle adulthood: The adult’s existence spins mainly around

his/her family life and work. On this stage the person begins to evaluate if his/her life
objectives will be potentially fulfilled by going through the experiences already lived.
According to this, the learner will be more effective on self-fulfiment and able to
establish in an easier way his/her learning priorities. For some authors this is the
period on which a person can achieve the highest intellectual and artistic productivity.
According to all of this, this is the period on which a person is able to realize better if
his/her personal plans will be achieved and, if not, how s/he should rearrange his/her
life to get them. Due to these facts, learners tend to be generous at this stage and give
their best to others in terms of values, social relations and work or education. If this
generosity is not properly addressed (at personal level or by adult learners inside the
class), the person can fall in a state of frustration or stagnation that can not only block
the learning process, but also affect his/her physical condition. According to this, it is
important that during a non-formal learning process with adults on this stage,
educators pay special attention on promoting and highlighting the learners’
importance as useful members of the group and empower even more the activities
related to peer learning.

c) Learners on later adulthood: This stage normally coincides with the

retirement and end of the labor life of a person (if any). It is the time to think if one is
satisfied with the life that s/he had or concerned about the low results obtained. It is a
period on which the person acquires his/her highest wisdom and assumes his/her role
of reference and leadership. Concerning adult non formal education, the educator
must especially try to promote on this stage the use of methodologies that could allow
learners to express their “ego integrity”: to comment personal life experiences, to
compare what they are learning with other knowledge acquired in the past or to link it

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with facts and people from the learners’ life. Techniques adapted to the slow and
meticulous rhythms that learners in later adulthood tend to use should be promoted.

About this classification, it must be highlighted that every generation seems to

manifest different behaviors, tendencies or characteristics that seems to be different
from the previous ones. According to this, researchers or studies can become useless
if they are not practically compared with reality or applied on a concrete context or
target group at a specific time.

In all the cases and both systems of classification, when adult learners arrive for the
first time to a non-formal learning environment and are asked to use their own skills
and experiences as base to manage the learning of new concepts, the educator has to
face one potential obstacle: learning new things after a more or less long life can
sometimes perceived by the adults as an indication that there is something wrong or
mistaken on their current situation. That could mean that the adult feel learning as a
threat to his/her current values, personal situation, social statues, etc. It could produce
a feeling of inappropriate behavior that can psychologically affect the learner in a
negative way and must be properly managed with the support of the educator during
the learning experience.

4.3 Benefits of non-formal education for adults

If we consider the basic approach of non-formal education of sharing the learning

responsibility with the learners, an appropriate environment for the learning process
should be created. It must be interactive, attractive and accessible but always taking
into account the limitations of the learners. When dealing with adults, this aspect is
even more important. If this is achieved and the educator knows and serves its role
well and is prepared on the appropriate way, non-formal approaches could have a lot
of potential benefits combining knowledge acquisition with learners’ personal and
professional development (going even further than the impact that formal approaches
could have on learners). The main benefits that can be highlighted are the following:

• Self -motivation. As mentioned on the description of the adult learners’

profiles, the lack of motivation is one of the main characteristics of those
entering in adult education systems. Adult learners need to regain motivation
as they could have left these training structures time ago or even have never

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been part of it. The flexibility of non-formal methodologies and adaptation on

the profile of each learner can increase learners’ motivation to learn and self-
esteem. The strong connection of non-formal learning with learners’ real life
and the practical exercise of knowledge and skills provide motives to learners
as they can easily and immediate see the impact of the learning process on
their lives and problems faced by them. In this way learners are more involved
in the learning process and commit with their full potential. According to this,
the evolution of a learner is not only based on specific objectives set by an
educator, but on personal goals (making easier to focus the training of a person
through pathways that can motivate more him/her and fix short term
objectives based on concrete interests of the learner).
• Self-evaluation. One of the main aspects of non-formal education on adults is
that learners acquire knowledge by experimenting and self-reflection. This
makes the learning process much more effective and allows adapting its
evaluation to the abilities and capacities of the adult. The learners can keep
track of their progress and notice immediately the results, increasing their
motivation to continue on the one hand or changing their stance towards the
learning process on the other hand. As adults need to be independent and be
seen as capable of managing their own stuff, self-evaluation and reflection
offers them this opportunity and creates more positive stances towards the
learning process.
• Non formal education promotes adults active participation. In order to
acquire the deepest benefit and impact of the use of non-formal education in
adults, Freire and Knowles agree on that adult learners cannot be seen as empty
containers waiting to be filed by the knowledge of a teacher; they must have an
active role on the knowledge acquisition. Non formal methodologies totally
respect this fact increasing the quantity and quality of the learning results and the
learners’ satisfaction from the process. According to Horton (1990) “Providing
adult learners with opportunities to learn for themselves by making decisions will
also help teach them the concepts of social equality and freedom of speech”.
Taking into account this, it can be seen how non formal education is not only a
tool to increase motivation to learn, but also a way to provide skills and attitudes

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that can also contribute to their participation on the democratic and social life of
their communities.
• Non formal methodologies respect adults’ background. Non formal adult
education, takes into account not only the learning needs of learners, but also
their current skills, competences, previous experiences and the context on which
they live in order to provide them an optimal educational approach. Taking into
consideration that adults use memories, life experiences and competences that
they already have to understand new ideas and tend to associate them with their
personal or professional background, this characteristic of non-formal learning
improves learning performance and creates the sense of respect for each learners’
background, a needed element for adults learning. This way of acquiring a new
knowledge is not successfully faced by formal education that normally fails when
trying to use methods with adults as these are based on learning by heart or on
theoretical approaches when dealing with new subjects.
• Learning to learn. When working with adult learners, it could happen that due
to their personal background they have never taken part on any educational
system or training. The use of non-formal education in these cases does not only
provide the educator a wide variety of techniques to be adapted to any kind of
learner, but also helps to provide learners strategies to build their own learning
models. Taking into account that the learner has a big responsibility on his/her
learning the learners also gain skills needed to self-manage their learning and
knowledge acquisition and create their own learning models. According to this, to
teach an adult how to learn will potentially provide him/her more training
opportunities as this will provide him/her tools to be used in any field of life and
even when the educator or peers are not there.
• Non formal methods can create a comfortable environment that increases
learning. Of course, the learners need to feel comfortable in order to collaborate.
Creating a positive classroom atmosphere is one of the most significant
advantages of non-formal methods. Creating a nice atmosphere where
communication and mutual respect is the base of every action, takes effort on the
part of the educator and the learners. Non-formal methods reinforce the active
role of everyone equally through creative cooperation. Providing learners with a
learner-centered, low-anxiety classroom environment has a great impact on their

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learning process. It can relax the learners and enhance a friendly atmosphere,
which will increase their desire and attitude to learn and develop skills. The
supportive learning environment and the continuously encouragement in a non-
formal frame, creates an ambience where the learners can feel safe and
comfortable to take chances.
• Non formal methods allow practice in the educational environment.
Adults have many worries and obligations and they are very preoccupied with
serving their different family and social roles. Time is extremely valuable for
them. The opportunities they offer to practice the educational inputs during the
lesson reduces the need for homework and make the whole process more
appealing to adults as they are relieved from the extra burden to study between
their other responsibilities.
• Multitasking skills: One more advantage of non-formal learning is the fact
that learners develop their ability to multi-tasking. All these various
techniques which are being applied and the way the learners are interacting
with them give the opportunity to come in touch and practice many tasks.
Being able to change projects and at the same time learning a new language
system is a very distracting and demanding work for the brain. Nowadays, it is
almost mandatory to be a multi-tasker in order to find a job, to use technology
and to be a part of the global community.

4.4. Benefits of non-formal education for adult immigrants

Taking into account the aim of this booklet and the concrete feedback obtained from
educators and training providers during its preparation, it must be considered that all
the general aspects related to the non-formal education of adults and their benefits
should be also applied in general terms to the work with adult immigrants. However,
considering non formal education as a holistic approach, we should also have into
account the general social and personal situation of this target group when preparing
or managing learning sessions for them.

It must be also highlighted that non formal education aims to cover real, daily and
priority needs that appear in a concrete group. According to this, it is a perfect tool for
immigrant communities that do not only demand regular improvements and short

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term results, but that are also self-organized. Non-formal methods help them to open
their communities to the society they live in.

In any case, when working with immigrants their education may last longer than the
other adults as it must provide them the skills demanded for the rest of their lives in a
foreign society. According to this, when teaching immigrants it is important to get to
know them first in order to develop a long term strategy of learning that could be
sustainable for them in terms of time, space and costs.

As mentioned on previous sections of this booklet, non-formal education for adults

must be adapted as much as possible to their life experiences, learning expectations
and personal circumstances. Beside this, several extra variables should be taken into
account during the design of educational and pedagogical activities if we aim to work
with immigrants and newcomers:

• Individual factors: age, gender, belonging to a minority, time already spent in

the hosting country, religion, etc. Must be seriously taken into account as they
influence different aspects of the course organization and the learning process.
(E.g. some cultures do not tolerate that women and men study together while for
others it is totally accepted). These factors will also condition the way on which
the educator should choose the tools to teach (E.g. some cultures are not so open
to physical contact than others, so theatre or improvisation should be avoided till
a relation of trust is built among the members of the class).
• Status related factors: employment (if any), social or legal status, economic
incomes, previous work experience, etc. can influence the self-esteem of
immigrants when interacting with peers in the class or change their level of
motivation to take part in a training activity (E.g. an immigrant with no legal
status will try to acquire new language skills in the fastest and most efficient
way to obtain a residence permission, while a person who has a full citizenship
and employment will just aim to perfect its knowledge on a language).
• Migration factors: out of the formal life of newcomers in their countries and
their actual situation in the host country, there are other issues that can be seen
as society factors and are directly connected with their new condition as
immigrants. The circumstances of the migration or how those people arrive to
a new country can also influence their learning priorities, interaction with

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peers or capacity to enter in learning programmes. We could also include here

the cultural differences faced upon arrival.
According to all of this, except for the general benefits that non formal education
could have for adults, when talking about immigrants there are some extra issues that
should be mentioned:
• Development of concrete communities. Non formal education offers a system
that can allow implementing activities oriented to the development of a concrete
community and empowerment of its members. According to this, it can promote
the inclusion of those cultural groups on risk of exclusion and help their members
not only to improve their own living areas or neighbourhoods, but also to increase
their sense of belonging to a broader community and their spirit as citizens of
their host country.
• The role of the educator offers support in multiple areas. Taking into
account the social obstacles and adaptation challenges that immigrants have to
face on their everyday life, their learning goals will be based on very concrete
needs linked to their legal situation, family, language skills and labour life.
According to this, the figure of a traditional teacher seems to be insufficient
when educating them. However, the role of the educator offered by non-
formal education provides a much more complete variety of competences and
sub roles that allow the educator to offer a stronger support to the learners
besides the one related to the acquisition of new concepts. The educator acts as
a counsellor or guide on issues inside and out of the class without of course
crossing the red lines by undertaking responsibilities of other professionals
such as social workers, lawyers, psychologists and others.
• Increasing adult citizenship. As new comers in a country, immigrants face
difficulties not only to understand the legal or bureaucratic procedures of the
hosting societies, but also to feel part of them. In this case, non-formal
education becomes an essential tool to provide immigrants knowledge on their
duties and responsibilities as citizens, while they acquire other basic values
that are needed to ensure a peaceful coexistence among the members of a
society (E.g. solidarity, human rights, respect, etc.). The capacity of non-
formal education to transfer democratic and social values can also bring social

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changes in local societies and the cognitive development of its beneficiaries

(especially on those coming from other cultural or ethnic backgrounds).
• Poverty reduction. Different studies made on development countries have
shown the efficiency of non-formal education on reducing poverty and promoting
the improvement of the local societies. Non formal approaches help the learners
obtain skills and attitudes needed for the labour. It must be also highlighted that
non formal education provide adult immigrants constant problem solving
exercises that can help them to face real life situations on their communities and
improving their own living conditions.
• Fighting against homesickness. One of the main challenges that an educator
has to face when working with adult immigrants is to reduce their
homesickness and avoid that it affects their learning process. This aspect is
one of the main obstacles to overcome in order to achieve his/her integration
and, as consequence, happiness on his/her new country. When dealing with
groups of immigrants coming from the same country and culture or in a
similar personal situation, the participative methods offered by non-formal
education can make possible a regular interaction with their peers. This is not
only a good antidote against this nostalgia, but also a motivation for
participation in the courses and a reduction factor of drop outs.
• Improving immigrants’ self-esteem. As it has been already explained, active
participation methodologies and non-formal techniques increase and reinforce
the self-esteem of adult learners. This competence is being improved,
between others, as the immigrant in non-formal education becomes a support
or reference to his/her peers. In the case of adult immigrants, this fact is one of
the most important goals that must be achieved during their first learning
sessions in order to feel comfortable and confident in the learning
environment. It is something especially important when working with
immigrants who have passed and are passing hard and difficult life
experiences.
• Readiness to changes and new obstacles. It must be highlighted that,
especially during their first years in a new country, immigrants need to face a
lot of changes in their way of life and interaction with others. Besides this, the
political tendencies, economic aspects or social reality may be totally different

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in the host country. On this aspect, non-formal education is also an added

value for immigrants, as thanks to its techniques, they regularly develop new
skills and competences for managing and overcoming obstacles. They learn
about improvisation and how to react in a fast way in different and new
situations (E.g. when doing a role play). All this knowledge prepares them for
a quick adaptation to new environments and contexts and also improves their
understanding and acceptance to the different.
• Families and children. Non formal education is normally provided by entities
that do their best to adapt the educational programs as much as possible to its
learners in order to increase their motivation and participation. When working
with immigrants, this flexibility is very important as they normally do not
belong to the group of adults who demand a lifelong learning education, but a
basic one to survive or maintain a family. This can have different
consequences that must be taken into account when implementing a non-
formal educational process and their provision can make easier the work to be
done by the educator or the provider:
a) Family balance: immigrants with children do not have most of the times the
support of their family or friends when they arrive to the host country.
According to this, when they have children under their responsibility
(especially women as in a lot of cultures they are seen as the responsible of
the children caring) it is difficult for them to attend a language course even if
it could bring in a long term a job and a source of income. In this scenario,
non-formal education of immigrants becomes an alternative. On the one
hand, the flexibility of the training providers and their staff allow them to
create training courses adapted to the needs of the target group (in terms of
time and regularity), what helps immigrants to participate.
b) Children interaction: as mentioned on the previous point, the children or
family caring is a fact that must be taken into account when teaching
immigrants. In this context, non-formal education offers also new
possibilities in terms of methodologies that can be adapted to their needs.
Moreover, it can involve interactive techniques and tasks that the learners
can develop together with their children (especially with the youngest ones).
Here, the use of non-formal education could have two main benefits. On the
one side, it promotes the language and cultural learning of parents and

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children at the same time while reinforcing family bonds. On the other side,
it allows that those adults who have to take care of their children and do not
have the capacity to have a person to do that, can attend the courses freely. In
these cases, the educator must understand that the learning process can be
slower and that all the learners must be somehow in the same position (all
must be parents bringing children so all can develop the tasks to complete at
a similar rhythm). Even if these two facts seems to be obstacles for the
learning process at a first sight, they can become an excellent way to open
education and learning to those adult immigrants that could never take part in
a training process if these kind of measures would not be taken.
c) Family and children as a motivation and support: Non formal
methodologies offers to adult immigrants activities, exercises or targets
related to their everyday as a family member (E.g. to use role plays about
shopping on which the learner must simulate to buy clothes for his/her child
and chat with the shop assistant).

• Interaction outside the class and intercultural opening: the use of non-formal
techniques provide also important possibilities towards the integration of adult
immigrants in the local community as it promotes learning outside the class (E.g.
a cooking fair to offer food from different countries during a public event made
by the learners representing several nationalities). These kinds of methods have a
double benefit on adult immigrants. On the one side, they learn and interact with
the local community while they reinforce their self-esteem and show their pride
about their culture and origins (what influences afterwards their active
participation during a course). On the other side, these activities give them the
possibility to open their folklore, gastronomy and traditions to the members of a
local community, making them aware about the importance of a multicultural
understanding, removing potential prejudices and allowing new comers to show
their interest to contribute to the development of a neighbourhood or community
(what could facilitate their acceptance by locals).

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5. THE DYNAMICS OF NON FORMAL METHODS INTO

LANGUAGE LEARNING
Learning a foreign language is an actual demanding task for both the educator and the
learner. Nevertheless, it is true that the process through which the learner will achieve
this challenging but yet not impossible goal, depends on the educator and the
parameters that s/he requires to take into account emerging from the target group. Of
course, there is a great responsibility on behalf of the learner also for the successful
learning.

Non-formal methods can surely take the role of complementary educational and
teaching option in language learning. In this stage we would like to clarify that this
booklet doesn’t aim to persuade educators to abandon traditional teaching techniques
but instead to inspire them to incorporate non formal methods and flourish their
educational activities.

This chapter will shortly describe the dynamics of non-formal methodologies in

language learning offering an insight on the main aspects of a language learning
process that incorporation of non-formal methodologies could have an added value
for the learning process in general and the learning outcomes.

• Non formal learning methods facilitate the development and practice of

different language skills. The main competences of a language is speaking,
listening, writing and reading. These four abilities are widely accepted as
indicators of learner’s capacity to successfully use the target language. The
different kind of exercises that can be developed through non formal
methodologies and techniques allows the practice of all or some of these skills
in one single lesson through a combination of techniques but at the same time
allow the educator to focus in just one skill based on the needs of the learners.
All the necessary language skills are being practiced and consequently the
learners are being taught extensive vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar and
syntax through a communicative approach, but also socio-linguistic and
cultural aspects which are emerged through language. There is a variety of
possibilities and tools that could be applied during the lesson in order to
practice all four of them with a creative and playful way.

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• Non formal methodologies promote learning by practically using the

language. In formal education, people learn through listening or reading,
avoiding mistakes and following rules. But not everything can be taught by
following rules. In many cases, you learn by doing, even if that means that you
will fail. And this is how someone learns the target language in a non-formal
way. By speaking, interacting, taking initiatives and making mistakes.
Actually, the mistakes themselves become highly beneficial. Learners find
with the help of the educator, what is wrong or right by actually using the
language in simulated environments. In other words, they find that some
approaches work better than others. They discard what it does not work,
especially when they realize that they are not being understood, but the act of
trying something and then abandoning it –which traditionally is considered to
be a mistake- actually becomes a valuable part of the learning process of the
target language. In conclusion, they learn not to fear mistakes, but to value
them.
• Non-formal learning is encouraging learners to relate their language
learning to outside interests and activities. In today’s high-tech learning
environment, in which everyone has access, it is fair enough to use technology
in the lesson. An important means of non-formal methods is the technology
applied in many ways and different styles. Listening songs, watching videos,
films or series or reading language web sites leads learners to broaden their
perspective on their language acquisition process. These learning strategies
increase positive attitude and language learner’s motivation levels. Learning
activities can be organized around different areas based on the learners’
interests and hobbies which are easily transformed to ways of language
acquisition and causes for further learning. Combining learners’ interests with
language learning is a very effective method to attract learners’ attention and
commitment and to succeed a joyful learning atmosphere.
• Non formal learning methods have the flexibility to be adjusted to the
learners’ language needs. Undoubtedly, adult immigrants may request
practicing and learning some specific skills or contents more than others. Non-
formal learning has the flexibility to adjust the procedure of learning to the
learners’ language needs. One of the basic principles is to take into

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consideration the motivations and the wishes of the learners. The absence of a
strict curriculum allows the educator to adjust the methodologies and the
contents taught to the real needs of the learners, serving effectively their daily
life. If the main need of everyone is how to make a small talk in everyday life,
then the priority should be to practice speaking, for example. In conclusion, all
the language skills are being practiced but, the educator should always have as
a basic direction the needs of the adult immigrants and the mentality of
adjusting them into the language agenda without following a strict curriculum.
It is the receptive and on time character as well as the structure of non-formal
techniques that consists a valuable tool for the lesson. Of course, it is
important for the educator to get to know the interests and the aspirations of
the learners, in order to include them in the learning procedure. Through the
possibility offered by non-formal techniques for prioritizing specific skills and
contents, learning is facilitated, learners are more satisfied, learning outcomes
are better and drop outs are reduced.
• Non formal methods provide techniques for all kinds of learning styles.
Non-formal methods take into consideration all kind of learning styles and
through effective combination of techniques all of them can be served. Each
person is different and has different learning style and different ways to get
involved in the language learning more effectively. The main categories are
visual learners, the ones who prefer to see the material in order to learn it,
auditory who have to hear information to truly absorb it and kinesthetic who
tend to move while learning. The thing is that people learn far better if the
learning activities are close to their style and non-formal methods provide this
opportunity. The variation of techniques existing in non-formal education can
satisfy all the styles increasing the learning outcomes and satisfaction. As
mentioned in previous units of this booklet, the educator can use videos, audio
material, and activities that require moving while learning either in the class or
outdoors. The variety of non-formal techniques is a way to satisfy all the
learning styles by practicing different tasks. In this way, they conceive and
assimilate the language more quickly and more effectively, and also in a way
that suits all kinds of personalities.

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• Non formal methods can become a response to the language heterogeneity

observed in a class of immigrants. Non-formal learning promotes the
knowledge in a way that different people, with different backgrounds and
language levels have the chance to co-exist without feeling superior or inferior
comparing with others. The knowledge is not being transferred but it is being
discovered with the contribution of all. Specifically, heterogeneity related to
the level of acquisition of the target language, is very common and usually
causes headache to the educators. In the same class, there may be learners who
do not speak the target language at all and who are acknowledged as
beginners. At the same time there may be learners who are also considered
beginners because they cannot write, but they are able to communicate orally
using basic vocabulary for example. Hence, the educator, in order to
correspond successfully to all different levels at the same time, has to use
particular approaches, tools or techniques, available in non-formal
methodology, which lead in an effective teaching. What is offered through
non-formal methods can be decisively valuable, as they provide a great
amount of graded activities which can be applied for learners of all levels. A
particular exercise can refer to different levels at the same time, or the same
material can be used in different ways at the same class. Additionally, the fact
that non-formal methods reinforce the co-operation among the members,
which is unquestionable necessary in these multilevel environments, allows
learners to learn from each other. This is efficient for the advanced learners –
by consolidating the knowledge and feeling useful- and for the learners who
are being helped –by learning through a classmate in a safe environment.
Moreover techniques such as games, handcrafts etc., that language is not the
main means of communication, is extremely useful in the first stages and
when we have in the class learners that they do not speak a common language
that can be used as medium and instruction language.
• Non formal methods can transform language learning to a “social
school”. After all, non-formal method is a kind of education that encourages
the values which are essential for life in general. It is a way to contribute to
social change and build a democratic world where citizens can cooperate and
work with each other as equal. Non-formal techniques give emphasis mostly

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to intrinsic motivation of the learner, voluntary participation, critical thinking

and energetic role through democratic procedures. All these competences are
being developed and practiced applying non-formal methods through language
learning. It is a language class of course, but learning a language does not only
mean grammar, syntax and vocabulary. Especially when non-formal methods
are being used, learners far from the ability to write and speak the language
they also gain social and political skills. So, language learning allows the
learners to become participative citizens, create a new dimension of active
citizenship and last but not least encourages integration.
• Non formal methods reduce language performance anxiety: Furthermore,
it is important to keep always in mind that adult immigrants are a vulnerable
group. They have left their home country for serious reasons, a lot of them are
unemployed or they are separated from their families. They suffer from stress
and agony about their lives and their families and they feel insecurity in a new
environment with an unknown language and different culture. Non-formal
methods have the advantage to decrease anxiety and pressure that a formal
method with strict tests and evaluation may cause. The reward and the rating
come through applying the language they learn in everyday life. The feedback
they get from their experiences out of the class is stronger and has greater
results than a test in the class. Also, in the classroom there are equivalent
situations where learners can check themselves in a safer situation.
• Non formal methods allow language practice in the educational
environment. Non-formal learning not necessary includes homework or extra
work, if it is impossible for learners to respond. The practicing and
progressing of the language is a procedure that is being achieved during the
lessons and in real life. In this way there is no pressure which is helpful and
relieving for the learners, as pressure many times works adversely.
• Non formal methods increase confidence to use the target language. Using
a new language is like being someone else, getting a new identity, having a
new role in the world or to yourself. This is because of the different cultural
associations tied up with each language and the different aspect of the world
that a language expresses. Non-formal activities can enforce self-confidence as
they associate learners with communicative competences in the target

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language. Learning something as difficult as a language through a playful and

an enlightening approach helps learners to feel satisfied with themselves and
the progress they make during the whole process. As a result, self-confidence
brings better learning outcomes which by the way build a stronger self-esteem
and so on. Creating communication circumstances close to the real ones
through simulations, role playing and other techniques prepare the learners for
the actual use of the language and decrease their anxiety to do so with native
speakers.
• Non formal education connects language learning with real daily
situations. Learners need language to talk and to communicate with others, to
read and understand, to express their thoughts and feelings and to be able to do
that both orally and written. That is to say, they need to use the target language
in the “real world”, to search for a job, go to a doctor, visit the market etc.
Non-formal method is using very often simulations of real situations and real
problems. A technique such as the role-playing could really help the learners
to adjust real life conditions. Moreover, in real life problems simulations more
than one solution is provided and cooperation is more effective. Through
participative methods and group working, learners learn to work together,
listen to others and try to do their best to communicate and comprehend each
condition. So, they are learning real-life language skills and how to adapt to
changing circumstances.
• Non formal methodologies allow language practice in real environments.
Additionally, non-formal methods provide a variety of environments where
language learning can take place. Going outdoors, for example, learners are
being more active during the learning process, questions are emerging and
especially vocabulary connected with the real object or concept is usually
better consolidated. Furthermore, they have the chance to interact with native
speakers of the target language, practice speaking and listening and evaluate
themselves by noticing the difficulties they may face during their contact.
• Non formal methodologies encourage intercultural comprehension.
Learning just a language, basic concepts, grammar rules, vocabulary,
pronunciation etc., is not enough for an effective communication.
Communication requires skills like intervention and intercultural

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comprehension. The activities used in non-formal learning promote the

interaction and the respect among people with different cultures. More clearly,
learning the target language in a non-formal environment encourages
intercultural comprehension and dialogue which is the base for building a
positive attitude towards the target language and the heterogeneous group of
the learners. Actually, systematic application of attitude issues in language
learning is very important, can make the course more interesting and have
better learning outcomes.

In conclusion, using non-formal methods in language learning for adult immigrants is

considered to be a great complementary power for achieving immense outcomes. As
mentioned, non-formal learning has a playful and communicative character and that’s
why there is misconception about its effectiveness. The truth is that because of this
interactive and lively structure of the activities, a lesson plan must be carefully
planned and organized.

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6. NON FORMAL LANGUAGE LEARNING ACTIVITIES

In this part one can find a number of original teaching activities based on the
principles of non-formal education for language teaching.

All the activities described came as a result of the workshops held in the context of
the project “Incorporate Non- formal Methods into language education for adult
Immigrants”. In these workshops people who already teach a language to adult
immigrants or people who are interested in this field participated and they had very
creative discussions, exchanged opinions and points of views about teaching a
language to adult immigrants. Furthermore, they proposed and designed different
activities taking into account the frame of non-formal education and the needs of the
learners. The activities were revised by experienced staff in the next stages of the
project, tested with real learners in the learning environment and their final format is
presented below.

It is important to mention that these activities are indicative in order to offer the
readers a practical insight on the theory presented in the previous chapters of the
current material. They can be used as they are or modified according to the needs and
skills of the learners, the educational aim and the wishes of the educator. Each
educator depending where s/he works, his/her experience, the learning styles of the
group can apply some or all of the activities in a way that is more suitable. Moreover,
s/he can be inspired and create more activities for each group of learners.

The main goal is the qualitative improvement of teaching the language in a way that
teaching and learning will be more interesting and appealing and thus more effective.

It is being recommended before reading the following activities, to first have a look to
the booklet in general. It is not necessary to read it all, you could choose parts which
one could find more appropriate for his/her work.

Before we present the activities we consider as very important to clarify the following
points related to them:

✓ The time suggested in each activity should not be considered as something

extremely strict. Depending on the size and the dynamics of each group the
time of implementation could change.

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✓ There are 30 activities addressed to different language levels. There are some
for the beginners, but also for more high leveled learners. There are even some
which can be adjusted to different levels. Each educator has the possibility to
choose depending on the level of his/her group or even make some mixtures.
✓ When an educator chooses to follow one of the activities, is essential to be
well organized and take into consideration all the parts. One should keep in
mind that every person and every group reacts in varied ways. During the
implementation of each activity, flexibility should be one of the priorities.
Maybe more instructions will be needed in a group and less in another, or
some changes may be considered necessary for retaining the flow and the
balance of the learning procedure.
✓ The proposed activities do not form a sequence of lessons. Each one is a
unique activity with a different topic and educational aim.
✓ Some of the proposed activities’ implementation presupposes that some other
elements of the language have been taught in previous lessons. The educator
should effectively choose the right time for their incorporation in the courses.
✓ Most of the activities can form a complete lesson but they can also be
combined with more traditional teaching techniques. In this way they can
serve the role of the practical exercise of knowledge gained before.
✓ The aims of each activity are multidimensional and cover also areas other than
the language acquisition and related to the personal and social development of
the learners. Nevertheless, in their presentation only the most important ones
are presented and the ones mainly related with the language learning.

30
LANGUAGE LEARNING
ACTIVITIES
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1. MONDAY TO FRIDAY

LEVEL Beginners
TIME 60 minutes
MATERIALS • Hats / cups
• Cut papers with sentences describing a weekly
program
LEARNING • Pedagogical game
TECHNIQUES • Speed dating
OBJECTIVES • Practice the days of the week
• Practice verbs in simple present
• Be able to talk about the weekly program and know
each other better
• Learn new verbs/practice known ones
• Practice reading, listening and speaking
IMPLEMENTATION Before the activity
OF ACTIVITY • Write down 2-3 different weekly programs
(depending on the number of the learners) using
sentences with the days of the week (e.g. On
Monday I work, On Tuesday I clean my house, On
Wednesday I go to the super-market, On Saturday I
go out etc.). Daily activities chosen should be as
close as possible to the reality.
• Cut the sentences and put them in the hats or cups.
Each hat/cup must have 7 different sentences with
all the days of the week.
During the activity
• Divide the class into 2-3 groups and give each a
hat/cup with the sentences. Explain them that there
are some sentences with daily tasks in the hat/cup
and they have to put them in the correct order to
form the whole week.
• Give the learners some time to read the sentences
and to cooperate to put the daily tasks in order.
• When they finish ask the groups one by one to
present their weekly program reading it loud and
make any corrections.
• Sum up the vocabulary by writing on the board the
days of the week.
• Speed dating: Divide learners in pairs and let them
for a few minutes to share with each other one
daily task by using the format “On……… ( day) I
do ………… (task)”
• Shift the pairs as many times as you wish.

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2. MY FEELINGS

LEVEL Beginners
TIME 40 minutes
MATERIALS • Cards with faces having different expressions
• Vocabulary Cards expressing feelings (happy, sad,
angry etc.)
OBJECTIVES • Learn vocabulary related to feelings
• Connect expressions with words.
• Enhance learners’ creativity.
• Promote communication through body language
LEARNING • Pedagogical game
TECHNIQUES • Use of photos
• Mimic
IMPLEMENTATION • Stick the cards with the faces on the wall. Below
OF ACTIVITY each one stick the word card that matches with the
feeling expressed in the relevant face card.
• Let the learners observe for some minutes the cards
and then take the face cards and put them on a
table.
• Ask the learners to stand up one by one and take by
luck one face card.
• After examining the card, s/he has 5 minutes
maximum to do a pantomime describing that
feeling. Speaking is totally forbidden.
• When the audience guesses correctly the feeling the
learner sticks the face above the right word card on
the wall and the next one stands up.
• Continue till all the face cards have been played.
• Sum up the daily vocabulary.

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3. GROCERY SHOPPING
LEVEL Beginners
TIME 2 hours
MATERIALS • Photos of vegetables and fruits and word cards
• A quiz on fruits and vegetables (for the educator)
• Color cards (color-word)
• Video with dialogue for grocery shopping
LEARNING • Interactive quiz
TECHNIQUES • Audiovisual material
• Simulation
• Experiential learning
OBJECTIVES • Learn vocabulary related to fruits & vegetables and
colors
• Practice basic phrases related to grocery shopping
• Practice listening and communicative skills
• Prepare the learners to do their shopping in the
grocery and prepare the shopping list.
• Improve writing skills
IMPLEMENTATION Before the activity
OF ACTIVITY • Stick on the walls the fruits and vegetable photos
and the color ones accompanied by the related word
cards.
1st stage: Interactive quiz
• Let the learners observe the images and the words
on the walls for a few minutes.
• Ask the learners questions like “it is red and we use
it for salads” and let them find the correct fruit or
vegetable.
• Each learner that guesses correct takes the picture.
• Continue till all the pictures have been taken.
nd
2 stage: matching colors
• Give one color card to everyone randomly. By
making questions to each other they have to find
and take the equivalent color card with their fruit or
vegetable. For example if someone has a tomato but
has a green color card s/he could say: “I have a
tomato, I want the red card” or “I have the green
color card, who wants it?”
• When everyone has the correct color card let them
speak. Each one has to say the fruit/vegetable and
its color that holds. “I have a red tomato” etc.
3rd stage: grocery shopping
• Play a short video in the fruit & vegetable market
with a dialogue of a grocery man and a customer.
Write the important phrases on the board (how
much is it? I would like some tomatoes etc.) and
explain if there are any unknown words.
• Make groups of 2 and give each a role. The one is

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the customer and the other is the grocery man. Let

them practice the dialogues. Circulate and help
them. They can use the phrases from the board.
• Tell the learners to write a shopping list with fruits
& vegetables that they need to buy.
• Go altogether to a nearby grocery store to practice
the dialogues.

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4. LOST IN THE STREETS OF A CITY…

LEVEL Beginners
TIME 1 hour
MATERIALS • Pictures of road signs or direction signs
• Papers with instructions equivalent to the road/
direction pictures
• Papers with names of buildings in the target
language
• LEGO Blocks
• A pawn
LEARNING • Block construction
TECHNIQUES • Team learning
OBJECTIVES • Increase learners’ ability to ask and give
information about directions
• Learn and practice basic words and phrases on the
topic.
• Improve their pronunciation and speaking in the
target language.
• Increase learners’ confidence to ask direction
instructions in real life.
• Improve learners’ cooperative and creative skills
IMPLEMENTATION • Give the set of the blocks to the learners and help
OF ACTIVITY them to create a model of a neighbor with streets
and buildings.
• Make groups of two. The one should have the
direction pictures and the other the instruction
papers. They have to collaborate in order to match
each picture with the correct instruction (e.g. arrow
showing on the right – Turn right). Check the
correct answers.
• In between the educator sets a starting point in the
model and puts a name paper on the buildings. You
let the learners some time to examine the buildings
in the model.
• Now the learners divided in pairs should move the
pawn to a chosen building. One learner is the guide
that gives directions (e.g. go forward, and then turn
right”) and the other moves the pawn based on the
directions given. If there is time the roles can
change between the pairs. The learner that gives
directions selects the destination building without
informing the one moving the pawn.

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5. PLAYING WITH LETTERS

LEVEL Beginners
TIME 50 minutes
MATERIALS • Plastic capital and small letters of the alphabet
LEARNING • Pedagogical game
TECHNIQUES • Group exercise
OBJECTIVES • To learn or practice the alphabet (capital &
small letters)

• To promote team building

• To increase learners’ ability to introduce and

write their names

• To get to know each other better

• To be able to distinguish capital and small

letters.

IMPLEMENTATION • Divide the learners in groups of 4 and give to

OF ACTIVITY each group the plastic letters (capital and small
ones). Explain them that they have to put the
capital letters of the alphabet in the correct order
and then match them with the small ones. It’s not
necessary all the groups to have all the letters
(one group can have from A-K, another one
from L-T etc.)
• Check all together the alphabets and make any
needed corrections. Help the learners to choose
the right letters in order to write their names in
the target language.
• Then collect all the letters and distribute them
equally but randomly to each learner. (based on
the names of your learners be sure that all the
needed letters to form their names are included).
• Scatter the learners in the class randomly.
• Explain the learners that they will have around
10 minutes to go around the class, meet as many
people as possible and ask letters in order to
write their name in the target language. The
dialogue should be like this: My name is
Mohammed and I need an “a”. (You can make it
more difficult by asking the learners to write
their names with a capital letter in the beginning
or easier by asking them to write it only in
capital or small letters).
• After the time indicated the learners should form
their names by putting in the correct order the

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letters they will have collected during the

activity and ask aloud any missing ones (eg. I
need “M”)

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6. The orchestra director

LEVEL Beginners

TIME 60 minutes

MATERIALS None

LEARNING • Pedagogical game

TECHNIQUES • Imitation

OBJECTIVES • To practice fast questions and answers, positive

and negative.
• To learn the verb “to be”.
• To create a teambuilding spirit on the group and
have fun.
IMPLEMENTATION • Before starting the activity, the educator writes
OF ACTIVITY and explains on the board the verb “to be” and
how to ask and answer direct questions. e.g.
“Are you John? No, I am not”.

• Once these questions have been practiced with

all the persons (I, you, s/he, we, they), the
learners will sit down in a circle.

• Explain that you are going to play a game using

the verb “to be”. One learner should go out of
the room and the rest should form an orchestra
and select a director. The director should choose
an instrument to start with. The learners imitate
playing this instrument when the volunteer is
asked to return to the classroom. The director
should carefully change instruments and the rest
of the learners should quickly imitate playing
the new instruments. The volunteer should ask
different learners the following question: “Are
you the director?” Each learner based on his her
identity should reply either “Yes, I am” or “No,
I am not”

• Now select a volunteer who must go out of the

room. During the time that s/he is out, the group
will choose an “Orchestra director”.

• Ask the volunteer to enter in the room and stand

in the center of the circle.

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• Let the learners imitate the orchestra till the

volunteer finds the director.

• Repeat the activity with different volunteers and

directors.

7. UNO, DUO, TRES

LEVEL Beginner

TIME 40 minutes

MATERIALS • A block of UNO cards

LEARNING • Game
TECHNIQUES

OBJECTIVES • Learn the numbers and the colors

• Enjoy while learning

• Create bonds between the learners

IMPLEMENTATION Note: this activity is very simple and intends to help the
OF ACTIVITY learners to learn the numbers and the colors in an
enjoyable way and in the first stages of the learning
process that their language skills are very low.

• Explain the rules of the UNO game in a medium

language.
• Let the learners play the game some rounds and you
should indicate the numbers and the colors in the
target language.
• After some rounds let the learners to say loud both
the numbers and the colors.
• Sum up in the board the vocabulary of the day.

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8. Place the block in the right place

LEVEL Beginners

TIME 50 minutes
MATERIALS • A paper with written instructions on how to build
a simple shape with Lego.
• LEGO sets
LEARNING • LEGO construction
TECHNIQUES • Experiential learning
• Group exercise
OBJECTIVES • Learn and practice location words vocabulary
• Improve learners perceptional and writing skills
• Improve learners creativity and fine skills
IMPLEMENTATION Before the activity:
OF ACTIVITY • Prepare a paper with simple instructions on how to
form a simple design with Lego. e.g. put a block on
the one you already have, place the next block next
to the previous one e.t.c. (Emphasis should be given
on the location words).
During the activity:
• Give the learners the instructions and some time to
read them.
• Start forming by following one by one the
instructions. Make sure that learners carefully
watch your moves and do not forget to say aloud
each step in order to connect the move with the
location word.
• Now ask the learners to form on their own by
following the instructions, circulate and facilitate
them if needed.
• When all the learners have finished their designs
check if the instructions have been followed and
clarify any misunderstandings.
• Divide the learners in groups and ask them to
prepare a very simple design of their favor and
write down the instructions for forming it.

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9. BE A MIME
LEVEL Beginner - Pre-intermediate
TIME 45 minutes
MATERIALS • Videos with daily activities and hobbies
LEARNING • use of audiovisual materials
TECHNIQUES • Pantomime

OBJECTIVES • Practice present tense

• Learn hobby and daily activities vocabulary
• Enhance learner’ creativity
• Promote body language expression

IMPLEMENTATION • Show the video with daily activities and hobbies. In

OF ACTIVITY each pause ask them what the people are doing. If
there are any unknown words write them on the
board and explain.
• Then you can tell your daily activities and hobbies
using the present tense and ask them to tell their
own.
• All of them have to stand up in a circle. Explain
them that each, one by one has to mime an activity
or hobby. You start miming an activity (brushing
your teeth). The person on your right has to find
and shout the activity/hobby in the target language.
The one on the right, who found it, is the one who
must mime another activity/hobby and the one
besides him/her has to do the same. This goes on
until all the learners participate. It is better not to
repeat the same activities.

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10. TREASURE HUNTING

LEVEL Beginner-Intermediate
TIME Before the activity: 1 hour
During the activity: 45 minutes (or more depending the
number of the clues)
MATERIALS • Piece of papers with written clues
• A “treasure” (chocolate, book etc.)
LEARNING • Experiential learning
TECHNIQUES • Pedagogical game
• Group exercise
OBJECTIVES • Practice instructions and reading comprehension
• Increase collaboration between the learners
• Enhance their vocabulary
• Increase their communicating skills
IMPLEMENTATION Before the activity:
OF ACTIVITY • The educator must find some hiding places in and
outside of the classroom (a corridor, a yard or even
shops you can find around the neighborhood).
• Write on pieces of papers clues that will help the
learners to find the hiding places in order to find the
treasure in the end. For example: “Outside of the
class there is a poster with a bus” behind the poster
with the bus you will stick another piece of paper:
“Go to the place where a tomato could find a
potato” meaning the grocery store. In this case the
grocer man should be informed in order to give
them the next clue.
• Choose what the treasure would be. Chocolate/ a
meal / a book in the target language / a fancy
notebook etc.
During the activity:
• Separate the learners into groups of 3-4. Explain
them that they have to find a treasure by reading and
following instructions from one place to another
even outside of the class. To avoid all groups
starting at the same time following each other, give
each a different clue in the beginning so they will go
around in a different order.
You explain that after 30 minutes (or more) they have to be
back even if they did not find the treasure.
• When all are back you discuss about the experience
and ask if there were any unknown words or any
kind of difficulties.

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11. MY FAMILY TREE

LEVEL Beginner - Pre-intermediate

TIME 1 hour

MATERIALS • A short video related to family in the target

language
• Educator and learners’ family photos (they have
been asked from the previous lesson)
• Colorful papers and markers
• Glue
LEARNING • Use of audiovisual materials
TECHNIQUES • Use of personal photos
• Interviews
• Drawing
OBJECTIVES • Learn vocabulary related to family members and
relationships.
• Exchange information about their families and
create bonds between the team members.
• Increase learners’ listening and speaking ability in
the target language.
• Create their own family tree
IMPLEMENTATION • Play the video related to family.
OF THE ACTIVITY • Ask the learners to say the words related to family
relations that they understood from the video and
write them on the board.
• Show them your family photo and describe your
relations with the members. (He is my father. His
name is… etc.).
• Divide the learners in pairs and ask them to
interview their pair, asking questions about their
photo and the people displayed on them.
• Write down any new words related to the topic
expressed by the learners.
• Explain them that they are going to make their own
family tree. Give them colorful papers and markers.
• First of all they can write down a list with the
family members they want to include. By being an
example you start drawing your family tree on the
board. Write down your name on the base and then
draw a line to the name of your mother and another
line to the name of your father. Draw a horizontal
line connecting your parents. They can even glue a
photo for each member. You continue with siblings,
grandparents etc. depending the needs of the
learners.

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12. CHINESE WHISPERS

LEVEL Beginners - Intermediate

TIME 50 minutes
MATERIALS • Pictures of people
LEARNING • pedagogical game (adapted Chinese Whispers)
TECHNIQUES • Group exercise
OBJECTIVES • Learn adjectives and vocabulary related to the
appearance.
• Learn to describe a person’s appearance in the
target language
• Improve writing, listening and speaking skills
IMPLEMENTATION OF Preparation before the activity
ACTIVITY • Put the pictures with people on the wall. Each
picture has a name and a characteristic figure (e.g.
a very tall person)
• Write the adjectives and some vocabulary of
description on the board (e.g. tall-short,
handsome-ugly, long-short hair etc.)
During the activity:
• You show the pictures to the learners and you ask
them to describe them by collecting the right
words from the ones written on the board. (e.g. His
name is John, he is tall, thin and he has short hair).
• After some practice, you tell the learners to choose
a picture without saying which and write down a
description of the person in the particular picture
(minimum 3 characteristics). Circulate and help
them if they need it.
• When they finish ask them to give you the
description.
• Separate the learners in groups and ask them to
stand one next to the other.
• Give to each learner in each group a paper with a
description from the ones the learners wrote in the
previous stage.
• Ask the first learner to read the description on the
paper and then say the description to the learner
on his/her right secretly (in the ear) without being
heard.
• The second one should do the same and so on.
• The last one should say out loud what s/he heard
and show the picture that s/he believes matches
the description.
• Read and compare the written description by
reading it out loud. Repeat the game with different
descriptions.

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13. LOOKING FOR WORDS…

LEVEL Beginners - Advanced
TIME 50 minutes
MATERIALS • Papers with word categories
• Scattergories game (if the letters are not given by the
educator)
• Pens

LEARNING • Pedagogical game

TECHNIQUES • Group exercise
OBJECTIVES • To enhance vocabulary
• To recall words
• To list words by theme
• To cooperate

IMPLEMENTATION Before the activity:

OF ACTIVITY • Divide the board in categories based on the
educational aims of your course. An example could
be fruits, colors, countries, clothes etc.
• Prepare papers with the same categories for the
learners.
During:
• Divide the learners in groups of 2-3 and give each
group a paper with the categories.
• Play the game scattergories/ give randomly letters of
the alphabet to the learners.
• The groups should write, each time a letter is given,
a word of each category starting from this letter.
Give 5 minutes for each letter.
• When they finish one representative of each group
should say aloud the words of each category.
• Each word is one point. If more than one group has
the same word none of them takes a point.
• The group that will collect the more points will be
the winner of the game.

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14. SHOPPING TIME!

LEVEL Pre- Intermediate
TIME 1 hour
MATERIALS • PowerPoint with shopping vocabulary
• Pictures of different shops and buildings (post
office, bakery, pharmacy etc.)
• Shopping lists
• Real or fake shopping products or toys (plastic
bread, aspirins, a piece of cloth etc.) based on
the shopping lists

LEARNING • Team learning

TECHNIQUES • Role playing
• Simulation
OBJECTIVES • Practice and increase communicative skills
• Learn and practice vocabulary about shopping
• Promote interaction and team building
• Simulate an everyday situation
• Be able to ask and give information about
products

IMPLEMENTATIONS • Show the power point of shopping vocabulary.

OF ACTIVITY Ask them if they know the words and write them
on the board and practice.
• Distribute the tables in the class. Each table is a
different shop (bakery, pharmacy, etc.). Put on
the tables the pictures (of the bakery, pharmacy
etc.) and the different products or toys to make
the simulation more real.
• Nominate some of the learners to run each shop
and give to the rest a shopping list with things
they have to buy from different shops. Each
learner should visit the different shops and ask
for the items on their list. Let them interact and
speak to each other.
• After a while, ask the learners to change the
roles (shopkeepers will be customers and
customers shopkeepers) and repeat the activity.

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15. LEARNING ABOUT JOBS

LEVEL Pre-intermediate
TIME 40 minutes
MATERIALS • Job flash cards
• Tools/objects flash cards (related to the jobs)
LEARNING • Visual learning
TECHNIQUES
• Group exercise

OBJECTIVES • Learn job vocabulary

• Improve reading and speaking
• Exercise yes/no questions
• Encourage group cooperation

IMPLEMENTATION Note: It would be better if the jobs presented are based on

OF ACTIVITY the learners’ profession and interests.
• Show the flash-cards in pairs (job-tool/object) to
the learners and ask them if they know the
vocabulary. Either the job (e.g. taxi-driver) or the
object. Write the words on the board.
• Ask them again. Now it will be easier and they will
find the correct word on the board.
• Put the flash-cards with the jobs on the wall or on
the board the one below the other and give the
learners the flash-cards with the tools/objects. Ask
them to stand up and match the object with the
related job on the board (e.g. chef – food). When
they match it, they must say out loud the job and
the object. If they do not remember it, the others
can help them.
• Take all the flash-cards and give one to each
learner. The others mustn’t see. Some of them have
the job flash-cards some of them the object flash-
cards. They have to find their pair by asking yes/no
questions. They can circulate around the class and
ask everyone (e.g. are you working outdoors? do
you cook? etc.)

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16. MULTICOLOR SALAD

LEVEL Pre intermediate - Intermediate

TIME Preparation time: 1 hour

Activity time: 2 hours

MATERIALS •
Cooked food (from the learners and the educator)
•
Spoons, forks, knives, dishes and napkins
•
Pictures of food and cookware materials with the
words in the target language
• Menus
• Worksheet with a dialogue
• Audio with the dialogue of the worksheet
LEARNING • Experiential method – cooking and eating
TECHNIQUES • use of audiovisual materials
• Simulation
• Role playing
• Group Discussion
OBJECTIVES • Increase learners’ familiarity with vocabulary
related to food and cookware.
• Prepare the learners to perform dialogues in a
restaurant.
• Improve learners’ communicative and
comprehensible skills through reading, listening
and speaking.
• Improve their skills on asking and answering
questions about recipes, traditional foods, culture
and customs related to food.
• Practice the Imperative form.
• Feel more comfortable to go to a real restaurant and
speak the target language.
IMPLEMENTATION Preparation before the activity:
OF ACTIVITY • Ask the learners, in a previous lesson, to cook a
traditional or their favorite dish and bring it in the
classroom.
• Arrange the classroom like in a restaurant and
decorate the walls with the pictures of food and
cookware materials accompanied by the word in the
target language.
• Prepare menus based on the cooked foods and leave
them in each table as in a restaurant.
• Prepare a table where they can place their foods.

During the activity:

• Guide the learners to leave the foods in a particular
table.

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• They should seat as in a restaurant forming groups

of 2-3 people (or more) in each table with a menu.
• Demonstrate the pictures on the wall and discuss
about the topic. Make sure they understand and
write some words on the board.
• Give them a worksheet with an authentic dialogue
of ordering in a restaurant. Give them 5 minutes to
have a look and then play the audio with this exact
dialogue. Ask if they understand or they have any
unknown words.
• Explain them that now they will have a role. In
each group one is the waiter and the other (or
others) is the customer.
• For 15 minutes they have to act like they are in a
restaurant, check the menu, ask questions to the
waiters about the dishes and order the one they like.
(By that time you are moving and checking each
group, helping them and correcting them when it is
necessary).
• Now everyone can serve him/herself with the food
and enjoy the meal for half an hour, discussing
about food, culture and customs.
• While eating the educator asks them to tell the
recipes. S/he could begin by his/ her own using the
Imperative form.
• Encourage the learners to do the same (again using
the Imperative form).

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17. A DAY IN THE LIFE

LEVEL Pre-Intermediate - Intermediate

TIME 2 hours
MATERIALS • A carton- board where a circle is drawn with some
spots on it with pictures or drawings of the main
services, shops that an immigrant access in his/her
everyday life (e.g. super market, banks,
transportation, school. employment agency,
migration office, hospital, post office, restaurant
etc.). The first spot is the house, where all the
learners begin. (a board of another game may also
be properly adapted)
• Pawns with different colors depending on the
number of learners (one pawn for a group of
two/three learners)
• Task cards related to each place on the board.
LEARNING • Board game
TECHNIQUES • Simulation
• Group exercise
OBJECTIVES • Practice basic dialogues that learners use in their
daily life.
• Reinforce learners’ communication skills
• Promote learners’ familiarity with the local context
in the host country (shops, public services etc.)
• Increase learners’ confidence to conduct everyday
conversations and consolidate their knowledge
• Enable learners to manage everyday tasks more
easily
IMPLEMENTATION OF • Put the board in a place where is approachable for
ACTIVITY everyone (e.g. in the center of a big table) and
place all the pawns in the “house” (the first spot).
• Let the learners have some time to observe and
read the board. On the board each spot has a
picture/drawing and a word. (Super-market, post
office, restaurant, transportation, fruit and
vegetable market, bank etc.).
• Divide the learners into groups of two/three, give
each a pawn and explain them that the goal is to
visit all the places and be able to fulfill the task that
it is written on the equivalent card. In the end they
can return back home. The learners of each group
will have to co-operate.
• Begin to play. When the first group visits a place
give them a task card, let them read it out loud and
then exercise the dialogue. In this stage the
educator is their communication couple.

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• After all the groups have played once, continue

playing till all the places have been visited but after
the first round the communication couples should
be consisted of two learners and the educator
should only facilitate the process.
• If the goal is not completed then they will have to
repeat it, but in the next round.
• Each group has the right to visit one place at a
time.
• Every time a group visits a place and completes the
task, then the next one continues.
If the group is consisted of 3, then they should change
roles in every round. In this way all of them will practice.

Ideas/examples for the task cards:

Super-market
You want to buy 500 gr of cheese (choose a kind you prefer). Make a dialogue with
the other learner of your team.

Post office
You want to send a package of 3, 5 kg in a foreign country. Make a dialogue with the
other learner of your team.

Transportation
You want to buy a ticket in the metro. Make a dialogue with the other learner of your
team.
Or
You want to go to your house by taxi. Make a dialogue with the other learner of your
team (one of them is the taxi driver.)

Fruits and vegetables market

You want to know the price and buy some potatoes and some onions. Make a
dialogue with the other learner of your team.

Bank
You want to deposit 352 euros to another account and to withdraw 500 euro. Make a
dialogue with the other learner of your team.

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18. CULTURAL ASPECTS

LEVEL Pre intermediate- Advanced

TIME 40 - 50 minutes
MATERIALS • Small blank papers
• A small box
LEARNING METHODS • Team learning
• Performing sketches
• Group discussion
OBJECTIVES • Increase learner’s ability to make a performance
• Consolidate the knowledge of words/phrases
already known
• Reinforce improvisation and body language of
learners by performing
• Promote the team building.
• Increase learners’ knowledge on the host
country’s culture.
IMPLEMENTATION OF • Divide the learners in groups of 2-3.
ACTIVITY • Give each group a small blank paper and explain
them that they have to write a word/phrase in
the target language related to a host country’s
traditional event (e.g. Easter, Christmas,
national holidays etc.)
• Then they have to fold the papers and put them
all in a box.
• Each group should select one paper from the
box and read it without showing to the others.
• Give each group 15 minutes to prepare a small
scene related to the phrase/word written in the
paper they chose.
• Let each group perform the scene in front of the
others.
• When all the groups have finished have a short
group discussion about the experience and the
cultural aspects referred.

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19. EMPLOYMENT AGENCY

LEVEL Intermediate
TIME 60 minutes
MATERIALS • Job announcements
• A simple CV model

LEARNING • Use of visual materials

TECHNIQUES • Simulation

OBJECTIVES • Learn vocabulary related to the labor market

• Familiarize the learners with job announcements.
• Increase learners knowledge and skills related to
drafting a CV.
• Facilitate the learners’ job searching process
• Increase learners’ comprehensible and writing skills
• Increase learners’ ability to write a formal e-mail in the
target language.

IMPLEMENTATION • Stick all the job announcements on the wall.

OF ACTIVITY • Let the learners go around, read the announcements
and select the one closer to their profile.
• Shortly discuss the choice of each announcement.
• Give the learners a simple CV in the target language
and explain the structure and any unknown words.
• Ask them to prepare their own CV.
• When they finish they will have to send an e-mail to
one of their peers with their CV and a small
introductory text.
• Write on the board an example of such a text and then
ask them to write their own and send the e-mail.

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20. Following their footsteps

LEVEL Intermediate
TIME 60 minutes
MATERIALS • Photos of different means of transport
• laptops/pc/mobile phones/internet
• A blog created by the educator
LEARNING • Human Libraries
TECHNIQUES • Blogging
OBJECTIVES • Learn new vocabulary about the main means of
transportation.
• Improve learners’ speaking, listening and writing
skills
• Promote the sharing of personal experiences and
empathy between the learners
• Learn the past tense
IMPLEMENTATION • Show the learners pictures of different means of
OF ACTIVITY transport.
• Stick the pictures on the board and write the
names of each mean of transport beside the
picture.
• Give the learners some time to examine the words.
• Now you have to implement the Human library
technique. Ask the learners who would like to be
the “human books” and select some of them to
undertake this role. Spread the “human books” in
the room.
• Now the rest of the learners with the educator
have to visit the human library and learn how the
“human books” have travelled to the host country.
Learners should ask each human book which
means of transport used to come to the host
country. The educator should support both the
human books and the other learners during the
process.
• When all the “human books” have been “read”
grab the opportunity to teach/revise the basic
grammar on the past tense.
• In the last stage the learners will be asked to write
a short paragraph in a blog about their travel
experience to the host country using the grammar
and vocabulary taught in the previous stages.

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21. RENTING AN APARTMENT

LEVEL Intermediate
TIME 45 minutes
MATERIALS • Original announcements for renting a house cut from a
newspaper or printed from the internet
• Numbered pictures with apartments which are equivalent
to the announcements
• A worksheet with small stories of people who wants to rent
a house (only for the educator!)
• Phones (if you want to make it more realistic)
LEARNING • Learning with original materials
TECHNIQUES • Use of visual materials
• Group exercise
• Simulation
OBJECTIVES • Learn vocabulary about renting an apartment
• Feel confident to search for an apartment
• Recognize what is an announcement and where they can
look for it
• Practice listening and speaking
• Increase their ability to collaborate
IMPLEMENTATION • Give the learners original announcements for renting a
OF ACTIVITY house from a newspaper or the internet. Each has a
different one. Give them some time to read and underline
the unknown words. Explain the words and shortly discuss
about the sources where the learners can find such
announcements.
• Put the numbered apartment pictures on the wall. Separate
the learners in groups of 2 and tell them to try to match
each apartment (number of the picture) with the correct
announcement. Go around the class to help.
• Each team must stick the announcement to the correct
apartment.
• Now tell/read different stories about a person that wants to
rent an apartment, like: “Mary wants to rent a house with
her husband in the center of the city because all their
friends are living there. They do not mind if it is small, but it
is important to be cheap.”
• Ask which is the best for them and give some time to think
about it. Each learner who answers should explain why s/he
chose the particular apartment.
• Choose some learners and ask them to make a simulated
call in order to close an appointment for visiting the
apartment. Another learner should respond the call.

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22. THE GREAT RESOLVERS

LEVEL Intermediate - Advanced
TIME 2 hours
MATERIALS • Mobile phones/ cameras/notebooks
• A blog created by the educator
• Laptops/PCs/internet
LEARNING • Brainstorming
TECHNIQUES • Presentation
• Blogging
• Group exercise
OBJECTIVES • Familiarize learners with the local area
• Find possible solutions to problems and
difficulties they face in the host country.
• Learn new vocabulary and improve their
speaking skills in the target language.
• Learn how to write an article
• Improve learners’ problem solving skills
• Increase learners’ confidence to use the language
and express their thoughts
IMPLEMENTATION • Explain to the learners that you are going for a
OF ACTIVITY short walk around the neighborhood. They
should take photos/ keep notes of something that
they consider as a problem or difficulty in the
city (e.g. homeless people, a lot of garbage,
broken traffic lights, traffic jam etc.). Take the
group and go for a walk around the area.
• Return to the classroom and ask each learner to
show the photo/ present the problem.
• Write on the board “Problems or difficulties in
the city I live” and during the learners’
presentations write key words on the board
around the problems being presented.
• When all the learners have finished start a
brainstorming activity on solutions in some of
the problems. (Let the learners express
themselves freely and interact with each other).
• Ask the learners to write a short article in a blog,
(the most two paragraphs long) which is going to
be published on the internet. They should write
about a problem and suggest solutions.

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23. A NEW LIFE….

LEVEL Intermediate - Advanced

TIME 1 hour
MATERIALS • Blank pages
• Pens
LEARNING • Creative writing
TECHNIQUES • Cooperative stories
OBJECTIVES • Increase learners’ ability to write, read and
comprehend a story
• Promote creativity and improvisation skills
• Practice future tense
• Learn and practice new vocabulary
• Enhance team spirit
IMPLEMENTATION • Write a title on the board “My new life” and
OF ACTIVITY explain to the learners that they are going to
write a story about a new life in the future.
• Sit down in a circle.
• Give to each learner a piece of paper and a pen.
On the top of the papers should be written by the
educator the beginning of the story using future
tense.
• Ask each learner to continue the story with one
sentence.
• When they finish ask them to fold the paper in a
way that the first sentence is covered and cannot
be read by the next learner.
• Then, ask each to pass the paper to the next
person on his/her left (clockwise). S/he should
continue the story with a new sentence. This
learner should again fold the paper in a way that
only the last sentence is apparent to the next
learner on his/her left.
• Continue in this way till each learner has written
one sentence in each paper. (do not forget that as
the papers are passed from one learner to another
only the last sentence written should be
apparent)
• The last learner writing a sentence in each paper
must write an end of the story. S/he should
unfold the paper and read the story to the rest of
the group.
• Discuss the stories and any unknown
vocabulary.

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24. FAMILY ROLES

LEVEL Intermediate - Advanced

TIME 1 hour
MATERIALS • A video with a family scene
• Role-cards with family roles
LEARNING TECHNIQUES • Audio-visual method
• Role playing
• Culture tandem
• Group exercise
OBJECTIVES • To increase learners empathy and assertive
communication skills (to put ourselves in the
shoes of another person).
• To promote or explore different cultural or social
values of the learners involved and their cultural
and social/family roles.
• To reinforce learners’ creativity, body and
pronunciation skills.
• To improve learners’ communication and
speaking abilities.
• To improve learners’ skills to express their
opinions and points of views.
IMPLEMENTATION OF IMPORTANT: this exercise will explore different roles
ACTIVITY within the family, society, etc. According to this, this can
be a very sensitive exercise, so it can be used to promote
other values such as gender equality or intergenerational
relations. In order to avoid risks during its
implementation, it is recommended that the educator is
aware about the cultural background of the learners and
tries to avoid hard conflicts or situations if the confidence
among the group members is not very deep. The priority
is to make learners feel safe, not ashamed or
embarrassed.
• Show a video about a family situation a bit
excessive, like a quarrel. (e.g. a son/daughter who
wants to return home late at night or to go on
holidays by himself/herself and fights with a
parent because they do not agree)
• Separate the learners in small groups (3-5 people
each) and give each learner a role-card based on
the video they watched. (For example if the video
is about a son and a mother then the role-cards
would be a son and a mother although more
roles can be shared).
• Give them 10 minutes to think about it and in
small groups ask them to play the roles. Circulate,
listen and help.

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• Repeat the activity by changing roles within the

same group.
• Organize a culture tandem. Separate the learners
in pairs and give them a few minutes to have a
small dialogue about the traditional roles in their
culture. Change the pairs as many times as you
want.

25. CREATING A STORY

LEVEL Intermediate - Advanced
TIME 45 minutes
MATERIALS • Different kind of objects like a key, an identity card
(a fake one), a bottle of water, a doll, a watch etc. or
the story cubes game
• Pictures of people
• Pictures of places
LEARNING • Story telling/ Story cubes game
TECHNIQUES
OBJECTIVES • Increase learners’ speaking skills
• Increase learners’ capacity to reproduce a story and
improve their memory
• Promote a team spirit.
• Enhance learners’ creativity
• Flourish vocabulary in the target language and
practice the already known one.
IMPLEMENTATION • Give each learner at least, one picture of a person
OF ACTIVITY and one of a place and at least 2 objects. They have
to make a story with all these included. Give some
time to think. They shouldn’t write the whole story
but if they want they can keep some notes.
• You can write on the board some words which they
can use in order to help them. Try to include a
mixture of words like adjectives, verbs, nouns etc.
• Divide the learners into pairs. Each one in the pair
has to tell his/her story to the other and give him/her
the objects and the pictures. The listener must be
very careful because afterwards s/he should tell the
story to somebody else.
• Change the pairs. Now each learner has to tell the
story s/he heard to someone else. The objects and
the pictures related to the story will help him /her
remember it. Go around, check and help.

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26. EMPLOYMENT AGENCY, volume 2

LEVEL Intermediate - Advanced

TIME 50 minutes
MATERIALS • Job announcements
• Question cards for the interviewer- employer
LEARNING • Simulation
TECHNIQUES • Experiential learning
OBJECTIVES • Learn vocabulary related to the labor market
• Familiarize the learners with job announcements and
job interviews.
• Facilitate the learners’ job searching process
• Increase learners’ comprehensible and speaking skills
• Increase learners’ ability to effectively present
themselves in a job interview
IMPLEMENTATION • Stick all the job announcements on the wall.
OF ACTIVITY • Let the learners go around, read the announcements
and select the one closer to their profile.
• Shortly discuss the choice of each announcement.
• Choose some learners that they will have a job
interview for the announcement they have chosen and
some learners that will be the employers.
• Simulate the situation. The employers will have a
question card which they should follow but the
employees should freely respond.
• The rest of the learners will observe and keep notes.
• Have a short group discussion about the experience
and how they felt in each role.

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27. THE STORY BEHIND THE PORTRAITS

LEVEL Upper-Intermediate - Advanced

TIME 2 hours
MATERIALS • A notebook and a pencil/pen for each
LEARNING • Outdoor activity
TECHNIQUES • Cultural visit
• Group exercise
• Story telling

OBJECTIVES • Feel creative using the target language

• Increase learners ability to express their feelings and
thoughts in the target language
• Increase learners’ comprehensive and speaking skills
• Raise learners’ cultural awareness

IMPLEMENTAITON You have organized a visit in An exhibition/museum of the city

OF ACTIVITY where you can find portraits (photos or paintings)
• Before entering the museum you explain that they
have to observe the works of art and write down notes
on what they see and how they feel during their visit.
Encourage them to choose portraits. If it is allowed
they could even take some photos. Give them some
time to go around the exhibits.
• Gather all the learners in a place inside or outside the
building where you can discuss. Each one must describe
a portrait that s/he saw in the museum and express
how s/he felt. If there is a photo s/he can show it to all.
• Now they must imagine a story hiding behind the
portrait. The story can be anything (a simple daily story,
a crime or anything else). The person in the portrait is
the main character. Give them some time to think
about it and make notes if they need to.
• Make groups of two. Each one has to narrate the story
to the other. Circulate, listen and help.

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28. INTERVIEWING A FAMOUS PERSON

LEVEL Intermediate – Advanced
TIME 1,5 hour
MATERIALS • An interview video
• Notebooks
• Laptops/PCs/mobile phones/internet
• A facebook group
LEARNING • Video
TECHNIQUES • Role playing
• Simulation
• peer learning
OBJECTIVES • Practice indirect speech
• Improve the pronunciation and intonation while
speaking
• Increase learners ability to orally express themselves
• Enhance team building
• Familiarize the learners with social media

IMPLEMENTATION • Show a video with an interview of a person in the

OF ACTIVITY target language. It is recommended to choose a
person that your class is interested in or they have
heard about.
• Ask them questions in order to answer with indirect
speech (e.g. what did s/he say about her/his
children? What did the journalist ask her/him about
traveling? etc.).
• Divide the learners into two big groups. One person
of each group must be a famous person whom they
would like to interview. These two famous people
should decide their identity (e.g. I am the famous
painter Van Gogh, the famous footballer Lionel
Messi, or a total fake identity). They should inform
the rest of the group about their identity and discuss
what they could say in an interview. The rest
learners are journalists. Give them some time to
think what kind of questions they want to ask.
• The famous people should seat either in the center
and the journalists should form a circle around them
or in front of the board like a press conference. The
journalists can start asking questions. When they
finish everyone can sit in their seats.
• Now they have to create with the help of the
educator a facebook group and write a report for the
interview using indirect speech.

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29. ALL WE NEED IS MUSIC

LEVEL Intermediate-Proficiency
TIME 40 minutes
MATERIALS • A song / a video clip of the song
• Lyrics of the song with some gaps to fill in
LEARNING • Audiovisual learning
TECHNIQUES • Using music
OBJECTIVES • Increase learners listening ability
• Practice a particular grammar category (past tense,
prepositions etc.)
• Learn new vocabulary
• Enjoy music
IMPLEMENTATION Before the activity:
OF ACTIVITY • Select a song carefully thinking about the interests
of the learners, their level, cultural backgrounds and the
activity’s learning objective
• During the activity:
• You can have some music while the learners enter
the class in order to settle a relaxed and nice
atmosphere.
• Ask them if they listen to the music in the target
language and what kind they prefer.
• Listen to the song / watch the video clip and enjoy.
• The second time they will listen, give them the
lyrics and tell them that they have to fill in the
words that are missing, they shouldn’t be more than
8. It is better to choose a word category (e.g. all the
words missing will be verbs in past tense, or
prepositions etc.) and inform the learners for this.
Check the correct words.
• In the end each one can try to write a new verse
which could fit in the song. These lyrics can be
presented in the class and vote for the best.
• Listen the song again and sing all together.

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30. FIND THE WORD!

LEVEL All levels

TIME 40 minutes
MATERIALS • Timer
• Power point presentation with words

LEARNING • Pedagogical game

TECHNIQUES • Group exercise

OBJECTIVES • Practice vocabulary

• Be able to describe, relate things or give a
definition of a word
• Improve speaking, listening and comprehensive
abilities
• Promote team building

IMPLEMENTATION OF Before the activity:

ACTIVITY • You make a power point presentation with each
slide containing a word
During the activity:
• Divide learners into two groups. A learner from the
first team stands with his/her back to the Power
Point in a way that s/he cannot see it. The rest
learners of his/her team must say sentences in
order to describe the word. When s/he guesses
correctly the educator has to change the slide. This
goes on until the timer stops (for example 1 or 2
minutes).
• The other team does the same and the learners
guessing the words are changing in each round.
The game is over when all the words have been
guessed.

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PRESENTATION OF THE PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS

NGO CIVIS PLUS

NGO CIVISplus was founded in 2011 and it was established in January 2012 with the
aim of fighting against social exclusion, poverty, social inequality, as well as
protecting the natural and social environment, thus contributing to the endeavours of
Civil Society towards social prosperity and sustainability.

Purpose of M.K.O. CIVIS PLUS is the implementation of programs of humanitarian

and public benefit having as their object the defence of human rights regardless of
race, nationality, gender, creed and cultural background as described by the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.

• The supply of urgent humanitarian, food and development aids to the population of
developing countries through actions contributing to their economical and social
growth, particularly in the fields of health, education, basic social infrastructures, as
well as to the strengthening of their institutions and to the promotion of the respect of
human rights.

• The creation of programs to promote equality between the two genders according to
the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discriminations
against Women of the UN.

• The creation of programs for the enhancement of quality of life and for the
protection of social and natural environment.

NGO CIVIS PLUS has implemented the last years a lot of project on migration issues
and runs an educational structure for immigrant children and their parents. More than
40 volunteers are actively contributing in this structure which offers, between others,
support lessons for immigrant/refugee children, language courses for adults and
unaccompanied minors, art lessons for the children, social services and outdoor
activities. More information about our projects and activities at www.civisplus.gr

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EUROCULTURE
EUROCULTURE/ EVROPOLITISMOS was founded in 2009. In the past few years,
EUROCULTURE has participated in 3 EU Grundtvig projects gaining very important
experiences in the areas of intergenerational gap, project management, social and
cultural differences among nations, labor and training (strong and weak areas),
prospects and possibilities of the EU labor market, VET, etc. EUROCULTURE is in
close cooperation with public offices like the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of
Labor and Social Insurance, the Ministry of Agriculture, municipalities,
unemployment offices, agriculture unions, VET promoters and Trainers and Trainees.
The EUROCULTURE Board consists of professionals, such as Economists, Lawyers,
IT experts and Qualified Trainers, with interests in Educational and Cultural matters.
The EUROCULTURE office harmonizes and enhances the implementation of broad
tasks and aims, according to the rules of law and government decisions.

More information about our projects and activities at www.euroculture.com.cy

NEO SAPIENS
NEO SAPIENS is a European mobility and training company which main aim is the
design, management and implementation of educational, training, entertainment,
culture and transnational mobility projects. With its main office in the city of Logroño
(La Rioja), the company also offers consulting services focused on implementing this
kind of activities and the development of pedagogic and learning materials related to
them. With a social approach, Neo Sapiens provides to public entities, private
companies, non-profit organizations and individuals of any age or background,
services to carry out projects for education, social development or/and transnational
mobility, and facilitates the staff and sources needed for their implementation. To
develop these services, the entity counts on the support of a professional team with a
wide experience in the field of training, European programs, management, working
with fewer opportunities users, intercultural values, translation, communication and
development of formal and non -formal teaching methodologies.

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The members of the organization also have a wide experience on the development of
visibility events and dissemination of results systems for transnational projects and
are experts on the management of intercultural groups.

More information about our projects and activities at www.neo-sapiens.com

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