Introduction to the LENTEC project In this section we have tried to give you an overall picture of some of the activities, which took place and also the contents of the face-to-face meetings. You can find documents relating to the whole project. They include the final publication, the interim and final report, a draft report from the first period, the minutes of the second meeting and third meeting and the Leonardo da Vinci completed themes form. You can also find a word document ‘ Activities in three groups’ which demonstrates the arrangements made between partners for their students in the final period of working together. You can also find the student products of these activities under ‘student products’ on this site. In 1999 a group of European teachers successfully completed the Leonardo da Vinci project TENTEC (Teaching English for Technical Purposes) , on the use of Problem-based Learning (PBL) as a didactical concept to teach English to technical students (www.pedc.se/tentec. The countries involved were Sweden, Estonia, France, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Denmark. This was followed by the present project, LENTEC (Learning English for Technical Purposes), which started in 2001 with the same countries participating. www.pedc.se/lentec In this ‘virtual mobility project’ LENTEC students were offered the chance to work with other nationalities, in a common language (in this case English), on common technical problems. Since the start of the project students, language and vocational teachers from different countries have worked together on Problem-Based vocational cases. They did this by using BLACKBOARD, the Digital Learning Environment (DLE) to be found at www.blackboard.com, thereby crossing borders virtually to discuss and solve problems with fellow students in other countries. The cases or problems were designed by groups of teachers from two or three schools, and were then solved by their students working together. In this way we hoped to achieve a more innovative way of motivating technical students to use their English in a technical curriculum through real communicative and vocational tasks. It provided a ‘natural’ reason for communication in a foreign language. During the project we also developed guidelines and curriculum models to equip students in coping with the reality of working within an international work force in a common language (English). Because the project was in essence a language project, one of the aims was to guide the students in assessing their personal vocational English language needs and develop or adjust their language curriculum accordingly. This was done by using a vocational language portfolio based on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEF). Everyone involved in the project agrees that LENTEC has been a stimulating and excellent way of working. Students felt motivated to take part and prefer this way of studying. Link to Word documents The LENTEC Guide to Learning English (PDF file) Interim report Final report Leonardo DA Vinci theme monitoring Report Stage 1 Minutes second meeting Minutes third meeting Activities in three groups Presentation at the EVET conference in Cardiff 2003 (Power Point)