Open window onto the world: foreign languages, multimodal creativity and pedagogical innovation in higher education (JASM)

Pedagogical innovation is at the centre of Higher Education (HE) priorities, with a view to renewing its practices and thus motivating students and providing experiences in line with their professional context. Improvement in foreign languages (FL), especially with students who are not likely to receive further language training, requires awareness of this query, inasmuch as competences in FL in the work environment are unanimously recognized as vital and so rightly included in the training plans. The Project-based learning approach in an interdisciplinary and collaborative work perspective, using multimodality in communication, a consistent asset allows for work to be carried out, comprising the various dimensions of language in French and English, in their connections with cognitive representations. JASM project aims to develop an experience of active pedagogy at the School of Education of Viseu with students of the 1st cycle in Media Studies enrolled in the various FL curricular units. The project enhances the acquisition of multilingual skills and the development of a plurilingual conscience, due to attention given to the various dimensions of language (aesthetic and emotional, in addition to cognitive), in a creative, collaborative and interdisciplinary work environment. In this project, the topic of interdisciplinarity is highlighted, combining FL with digital art.

The JASM project consists of an innovation experience (plural and creative approaches to diversity) held with students of the Media Studies course (1st and 2nd years) at the Escola Superior de Educação de Viseu - The research hypothesis is that the use of active learning methodologies, compared with traditional strategies, makes it possible to increase student motivation and autonomy, to improve interaction among students and teachers and increase the acquisition of knowledge/skills in Foreign languages.