CHEFS is the acronym to “Cultural Heritage through the learning of English, French and Spanish as a foreign language”, an European project that starts in September 2018 and should have end in August 2020, but due to the pandemic has been extended until August 2021.
This project is aimed at mainly adult learners but also youngsters, paying special attention to those with special needs, seniors, immigrants and refugees for whom it is important to promote autonomous learning, understanding sociocultural diversity, and improving their communicative competence. The previously mentioned needs are meant to be met by helping students to acquire the strategies to perform in a variety of communicative contexts; to create intercultural bonds and to improve oral comprehension, expression and interaction. As per specific objectives, students are expected to expand cultural heritage vocabulary, exchange cultural heritage knowledge, discover local and classic artists in the countries involved, improve oral communication, participate in virtual environments to exchange opinions, and know the background of selected works of art.
The participants in the project are countries with a relevant cultural heritage: Italy, Greece, Belgium and Spain, representing different types of organisations such as Third Age University, NGO and public and private school of languages. This partnership combines both expertise and inexperience in European projects so that there will be a continuous exchange of ways of working and learning from each other.