ClipFlair. Foreign Language Learning through Interactive Revoicing and Captioning of Clips Final Report Public Part

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ClipFlair: Foreign Language Learning through Interactive Revoicing and Captioning of Clips

Project information

Project acronym: ClipFlair

Project title: Foreign Language Learning through Interactive Revoicing

and Captioning of Clips

Project number: 519085-LLP-1-2011-1-ES-KA2-KA2MP

Sub-programme or KA: KA2 Languages

Project website: http://clipflair.net

Reporting period: From 01/12/2011

To 31/07/2014

Report version: 1

Date of preparation: 31/07/2014

Beneficiary organisation: Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Project coordinator: Patrick Zabalbeascoa

Project coordinator organisation: Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Project coordinator telephone number: +34 935421249

Project coordinator email address: patrick.zabalbeascoa@upf.edu

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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ClipFlair: Foreign Language Learning through Interactive Revoicing and Captioning of Clips

© 2008 Copyright Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency. The document may be freely copied and distributed provided that no modifications are made, that the source is acknowledged and that this copyright notice is included.

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ClipFlair: Foreign Language Learning through Interactive Revoicing and Captioning of Clips

Executive Summary

Using audiovisual material in the foreign language classroom is a common resource for teachers since it introduces variety, it provides exposure to nonverbal cultural elements and, most importantly, it presents linguistic and cultural aspects of communication in their context. However, teachers using this resource face the difficulty of finding active tasks that will engage learners and discourage passive viewing.

ClipFlair proposes working with AV material productively while also motivating learners by getting them to revoice or caption a clip. Revoicing is a term used to refer to (re)recording voice onto a clip, as in dubbing, free commentary, audio description and karaoke singing. The term captioning refers to adding written text to a clip, such as standard subtitles, annotations and intertitles. Clips can be short video or audio files, including documentaries, film scenes, news pieces, animations and songs.

ClipFlair develops materials that enable foreign language learners to practice all four standard CEFR skills: writing, speaking, listening and reading. ClipFlair also defines audiovisual-specific skills, namely watching, audiovisual speaking (i.e. revoicing) and audiovisual writing (i.e. captioning). Within the project’s scope, material for 15 languages has been created, including English, Spanish and Portuguese, but focus is placed on less widely taught languages, namely Estonian, Greek, Romanian and Polish, as well as minority languages, i.e. Basque, Catalan and Irish. Non-European languages, namely Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Ukrainian are also included. In the long term, the project intends to develop materials that can potentially be used by any FL learner by expanding the community to include any language, level or age.

The ClipFlair platform has three main areas: the Clipflair Social, the ClipFlair Studio, and the ClipFlair Gallery.

At the Social Network, users can find materials – including activities, clips and tutorials – collaborate through groups, send feedback through forums and find information about the project.

The Studio provides the captioning and revoicing tools needed by activity authors to create activities. It is also the space where learners can practice and learn languages by using these activities.

The Gallery offers more than 350 ready-made activities, which involve captioning and/or revoicing of clips, created by the members of the partnership. Other reusable materials such as clips and images are also provided.

The consortium consists of ten institutions from eight European countries, with proven experience and competences to undertake the tasks in their field of expertise and to create materials for 15 languages. There is a balance between experts in the three fields involved: (i) Language Teaching, (ii) Audiovisual Translation and Accessibility, (iii) Information and Communication technologies.

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ClipFlair: Foreign Language Learning through Interactive Revoicing and Captioning of Clips

Table of Contents

1. PROJECT OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................. 6

2. PROJECT APPROACH .................................................................................................. 7

3. PROJECT OUTCOMES & RESULTS ............................................................................. 11

4. PARTNERSHIPS ........................................................................................................ 21

5. PLANS FOR THE FUTURE .......................................................................................... 23

6. CONTRIBUTION TO EU POLICIES ............................................................................... 25

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1. Project Objectives

According to the European barometer survey Europeans and Languages (2005) there are three main factors for discouraging language learning: time, motivation and the cost of language classes. The project aims to counter these factors by providing a free-of-charge motivating, open, easily accessible application for foreign-language learning through revoicing (including dubbing, audio description, karaoke singing and reciting) and captioning (including subtitling, and video annotations).

Subtitling as a language learning activity was first introduced by the LeViS project. According to its evaluation report, learners not only developed and improved their linguistic skills, they were also very enthusiastic by the innovative nature of the subtitling activities. ClipFlair aims to build on LeViS’s success by:

a) finding new ways to interact with video-clips and by offering ready-to-use revoicing activities

b) promoting an ever-growing library (Gallery) of activities, and

c) establishing a community of authors and learners.

The methodological goal is to establish a methodological framework for FLL through the interaction of words (written and spoken), image (still or moving) and sound.

The main objective of the project is to develop educational materials for FL learning by covering the four skills (reading, listening, writing and speaking) while reinforcing cultural awareness. These materials include the web application ClipFlair Studio which offers the revoicing and captioning tools for the creation and use of activities. The clips and activities for all CEFR levels of the target languages, along with their metadata, are available at the ClipFlair Gallery. Instructors can choose between creating their own activities, using the ones already available, or adapting them according to specific needs. The online access to the Studio and the Social Network not only addresses the incompatibility and software installation issues faced previously, but also promotes the use of ClipFlair as a tool for online teaching and learning. Through the Social Network, the project aims to form a wide web-community of learners, teachers and students; enable them to cooperate with other users; and provide their own input to the process. Finally, the project aims to exploit and disseminate project outcomes and products.

Language learners and teachers are directly benefited from their involvement in the project. Tutors from the partner institutions are actively involved in the development of the web platform by testing and evaluating its versions during the first stage of the project and contributing to the overall design. They also act as providers or authors of activities they can use in their classrooms. The activities are meant to be used by learners as best suits their settings (classroom, distance and self-learning).

The Social Network and the Studio are open to all, free of charge, which means that teachers and learners outside the consortium are directly benefited, as they can freely access and use the material. Dissemination and social media are expected to reach wider audiences. Researchers in the field are also expected to benefit, as the use of revoicing in language learning is innovative and interesting research results and opportunities may arise.

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2. Project Approach

The Work Programme has been carefully developed by a thorough analysis of the work needed to achieve the project’s aims and objectives according to the triptych Tasks-Methodology-Task assignment. Each task is clearly defined in relation to the project’s needs and is assigned to qualified partners with the necessary and demonstrated expertise to accomplish the task at hand. Tasks are clearly scheduled according to the appropriate order of events; and timeframes for the educational and technical demands of the project and indicators to measure work progress have been designated, which will also assist in the effective management of the overall project.

The approach adopted by the consortium to develop the work of the project is through Combined Management (Project Coordinator and Local Coordinators). The management model of the project is two-tiered. On one level, UPF, as the coordinating institution undertakes the overall management of the project covering administrative issues, monitoring the global progress of the project and the coordination of the partner activities. On the other level, leading roles within different work packages have been allocated to different partners.

In accordance with the particular partner’s expertise the roles in the project are distributed as follows:

- Project Coordinator: the coordination and monitoring of the project activities has been assigned to UPF with longstanding experience in coordinating and participating in numerous European projects.

- ICT & Educational Technology Expert: Computer Technology Institute & Press “Diophantus” has a longstanding expertise and interest in educational technology and its pedagogical exploitation in the educational process in school, design and development of educational software and educational activities, teacher training, distance learning techniques and practices, design & development of www applications and complex information systems.

- Domain Expert (for designing the pedagogical methodology): all project partners have this role since every participating institution has established experience in language teaching and can provide valid pedagogical material for the target languages. All partners contribute to the educational specifications of the project outcomes. The partnership includes academically renowned experts in audiovisual translation and accessibility, who offer their input and expertise.

- Activity Developer: this role applies to all project partners. Following the guidelines as they have been formulated within the project, partners create language-learning activities according to the different needs of identified target groups.

- Local coordinator: UPF, UAB, ICL and NUI have established connections with the Associate Partners involved and guide them through the piloting task.

- Evaluator: the project validation/evaluation task has been undertaken by the University of Deusto, which has extensive experience in ICT and multimedia in education. UD has produced a detailed plan on the methodologies and tools used (e.g. questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, laboratory observations) including the

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milestones for assessing the material and provided continuous feedback to partners. The summative evaluation has been subcontracted in order to guarantee an objective and independent view. It is the responsibility of Joselia Neves, a renowned expert in Audiovisual Translation and Language Learning.

Four face-to-face project meetings have been held, as well as one online meeting which was recorded and several Google hangouts.

The partners also use the collaboration platform http://colsrv.cti.gr which was activated right from the beginning of the project for one-to-one and one-to-many communication. Since the Beta version release, project partners also collaborate through the ClipFlair Social Network (http://social.clipflair.net) Phone, e-mail and chat tools are used on a daily basis.

ClipFlair is committed to serving the general public interest, to education in general and in particular to the notion and promotion of literacy. The effort is to make activities fun without ever forsaking the focus on the seriousness of working towards helping citizens improve their understanding of each other and the world around them.

ClipFlair has a well-defined approach to foreign-language learning, which is aware of the importance of applying ICT to educational environments (Liu et al. 2002, Chapelle, 1990, 1994, 1997) by producing innovative educational technology and tools. This approach regards audiovisuals as semiotically rich texts, which behave like texts (i.e. they have textuality) and can be studied and “read” as texts.

The project’s approach to learning is based on well-documented and argued principles of learning (e.g. Graham 1997) and on ideas such as the importance of motivation, collaborative work, development of communicative and learning competences, learning how to learn, and making the most of resources available through an eclectic contingent-sensitive methodology. Its main aim is to provide learning materials, resources and tools that can be accessed and used even after the funding period has finished. Emphasis is placed on the importance of assessment and feedback in any learning environment (Bruning et al., 1999; Eggen & Kauchak, 2004). Different types of learners are catered for, but learners who are active and autonomous, computer-literate and motivated to work with “virtual” course mates (Vygotsky (1978) are more likely to be benefited.

The material produced is mainly for lesser learned languages such as Greek, Portuguese, Estonian, Polish, Catalan and Basque, as the project is in favour of intercultural awareness and multilingualism in Europe.

The methodology includes communicative approaches to foreign-language learning, but also functional and tasked-based proposals. In a sense, it also allows for a range of different teaching techniques Schwartz (1995), such as project work, and findings from content and language integrated learning.

The basic unit of learning is the activity, and ClipFlair is based on the idea of compiling a rich resource bank of activities (e.g. Bygate, Skehan, and Swain 2001; Ellis 2003; Van den Branden, Bygate, and Norris 2009), the ClipFlair Gallery. The basic material for ClipFlair is the clip, the audiovisual material, and the software which is specifically designed to make revoicing and subtitling possible for such activities.

ClipFlair aims to motivate learners in the following ways: (i) bringing together potentially isolated learners by means of a social platform, thus providing a sense of togetherness and belonging to a community; (ii) using attractive audiovisual materials which are not too long

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to become tedious; (iii) allowing for a great variety of different activities adapted to level and the needs of each language; (iv) providing an easy-to-use, attractive software tool that integrates materials and activities (Beale and Sharples, 2002), and feedback systems (answer keys, or peer evaluation). The system is also flexible enough to allow users to upload their own materials and (for teachers) their own exercises and thus enhance the learning experience by making it more tailor-made (Stepp-Greany, 2002). It is also free of charge, open and easily accessible from any computer and a number of different types of portable devices. It can be used by learners without a teacher, or by teachers who wish to add variety to their classes.

The idea is for learners to learn by doing (hands on), and this case what they are doing is revoicing or captioning clips. Clips are brief audiovisual files, and revoicing refers to changing the voice, or adding voice by dubbing and recording techniques. Captioning refers to a whole range of different formats for inserting written words on the screen (e.g. subtitles, speech bubbles). It is important to point out here that the pedagogical aim has nothing to do with training future professional translators for film dubbing or subtitling.

The inclusion of Web 2.0 features such as forum, blogs and wikis in the platform allows for the psychodynamic setting to be represented. Social interaction and feedback helps learners to be more motivated and focused on the task. The possibility of discussing the development of the task between group members and the teacher improves the learning process.

References

Beale, R. and Sharples, M. (2002) Dsign Guide for Developers of Educational Software. Report produced for BECTA. Available at http://www.becta.org.uk/technology/software/curriculum/reports_pdf/designguide.pdf.

Bruning, Roger H., Gregory J. Schraw, and Royce R. Ronning. (Eds) Methodology in language teaching. Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. Third Edition. Columbus: Prentice-Hall.

Bygate, M., Norris, J.M., Van den Branden, K. (2009) Task-Based language Teaching John Benjamins Pub.

Bygate, M., Skehan, P., Swain, M. (2001) Researching Pedagogic Tasks: 2nd Language Learning, Teaching and Testing. Pearson Education.

Chapelle, C. (1990). «The discourse of computer-assisted language learning: Toward a context for descriptive research». TESOL Quarterly, 24(2): 199-225.

Chapelle, C. (1994). « CALL activities: Are they all the same? System, 22(1): 33-45.

Chapelle, C. (1997). «CALL in the year 2000: Still in search of research paradigms?» Language Learning and Technology, 1(1): 19-43.

Eggen, P. & Kauchak, D.P. (2004). Instructor's Manual and Media Guide to accompany Educational Psychology: windows on classrooms. Pearson Education.

Ellis, R. (2003) “Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching”. Oxford. Foreign Language Annals, 28(4), 527-535.

Graham, Suzanne (1997) Effective Language Learning: Positive Strategies for Advanced Level Language Learning Modern Languages in Practice. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters

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Liu, M.; Moore, Z.; Graham, L.; Lee, S. (2002). «A Look at the Research on Computer-Based Technology Use in Second Language Learning: A Review of the Literature from 1990-2000». Journal of Research on Technology in Education, v34 n3: 250-73.

Schwartz, M. (1995). Computers and the language laboratory: Learning from history.

Stepp-Greany J. (2002) "Student perceptions on language learning in a technological environment: implications for the new millennium", Language Learning & Technology 6, 1: 165-180.

Van den Branden, K. (2009), “Mediating between predetermined order and chaos: the role of the teacher in task-based language education”. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 19: 264–285.

Vygotsky, L. (1978) Mind in society. The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Harvard University Press.

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3. Project Outcomes & Results

The project outcomes and results are the following:

The Conceptual Framework and Pedagogical Methodology

Before being able to design the online platform and activities for FLL through captioning and revoicing, it was essential to establish the conceptual framework and the pedagogical methodology for this project. This involved researching the existing literature on FLL and audiovisual translation, and investigating relevant educational projects in this field. It soon became clear that one of the main tasks would be defining key terms to avoid misunderstandings and ensure consistency throughout the project. For instance, in ClipFlair, the terms “captioning” and “revoicing” are used as hyperonyms to refer to the insertion of text (captioning) or a voice recording (revoicing) in a clip with the purpose of learning a foreign language. Captioning involves adding subtitles, inserts and speech bubbles to a clip, for example, whereas revoicing involves adding a free commentary or narration to a clip, or dubbing (making sure the dialogue fits with the lip movements of characters on screen) it. During the development of the conceptual framework, project members contributed to establishing the following key aspects: types of learners targeted in ClipFlair (teacher-driven, guided, and independent learners), types of skills to be learned through ClipFlair activities, guidelines to source audiovisual material, general guidelines for activity authors, pedagogical approaches and suppositions when using revoicing and captioning in FLL, etc. Discussions around these topics were essential to have a clear idea of what we wanted to achieve and, ultimately, to produce the specifications and technical requirements for the creation of the online platform to caption and revoice clips (ClipFlair Studio).

ClipFlair’s conceptual and methodological framework, which is available online, is crucial to understand the principles that have guided the whole project. It is hoped that this document will be used as an additional resource by tutors and researchers wanting to investigate the use of audiovisual translation in FLL. One of the main challenges faced when developing the framework was reflecting the needs of all tutors and language learners, as well as the complex nature of audiovisual texts. The latter led us to suggest a further set of audiovisual skills (such as “literate” watching, audiovisual speaking or audiovisual writing) and to classify the type of responses expected from learners in addition to the four language learning skills traditionally used and adopted by the CEFR (writing, speaking, reading and listening). Although we understand that some FL tutors might find these additions complex, we believe that they are essential to reflect the range of communicative possibilities offered by multimedia material.

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The ClipFlair Social Network

Given that learning is a unique and individual process, the fact that learners learn at different paces is also taken into account: ClipFlair allows learners to follow instructions and repeat videos as many times as they need to in order to complete an activity. However, since learning is also a social process, the platform also provides collaboration tools through ClipFlair social network including forums, groups and blogs to allow for different levels of learner involvement. At the time of writing this report, ClipFlair social network has 1,504 registered members, and this number is expected to increase in the near future as more tutors and learners join the ClipFlair community.

The ClipFlair Social Network and content management system aim to enable users to

• form online communities to collaborate, interact and share materials through Groups and Forums

• access revoicing and captioning activities, clips and other resources through the Gallery

• provide feedback to software developers of the web application (ClipFlair Studio)

• watch and read tutorials on how to use or create activities

• study guidelines for activity creation and evaluation

To achieve these goals the Social Network provides Groups, Wall and Forum engines where users can publish and share their work and get rated for their activities. They can use the dedicated Feedback Forum to provide feedback to software developers both for the Studio and the Social Network itself. The Gallery lists activities, clips and other materials accompanied by metadata.

Its main targeted audience consists of learners, teachers and activity authors. Both teachers and learners can act as authors and create their own activities.

Figure 1: The Social Network’s targeted audience

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Figure 2: ClipFlair Social Network Screenshot

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The ClipFlair Studio

ClipFlair Studio, the online application to create and use FLL activities that involve captioning and revoicing, is one of the main outcomes of the project. Unlike other tools available for captioning and revoicing clips, ClipFlair Studio is free of charge, very flexible and easy to use, and it provides all the necessary components in a single area or container. With a detailed online user guide available in 12 languages and video tutorials explaining ClipFlair Studio basics, learning to create new activities and to use existing ones is very simple, which was one of the aims of the project.

It is basically a zoomable area, the Container, where activity parts are added, the Components.

Figure 3: ClipFlair Studio screenshot

There are six types of components:

- the clip component, for loading and reproducing clips;

- the text component, for viewing and editing text such as instructions or other information;

- the captions component, for adding and deleting captions, as well as editing timing and content of captions;

- the revoicing component, for recording voice, as well as saving and listening to saved recordings;

- and the image and map component, for loading and viewing images and maps respectively.

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Each component is editable regarding size, zoom and features to suit the objectives of each activity, depending on the learner’s level and needs. When the activity design is completed these options can be locked so that the learner can focus only on the content of the activity.

The online platform, designed to be free, open source and with both online and offline access, needed to be developed from scratch, as a completely new and innovative product. The first step in this process involved establishing the functional specifications of the online platform, based on the above-mentioned educational specifications. This was followed by the creation of the alpha and beta versions of the platform. Project members, who provided detailed feedback to developers, tested both versions. During testing, users were able to report all kinds of issues, from technical defects to suggestions for improvements in functionality, posting relevant messages on ClipFlair social network. Effective communication between project members was essential at this stage: less tech savvy members had to make sure developers understood how to implement the feedback given, and developers needed to make sure project members understood their limitations, considering the time and budget available. Through the development stages great emphasis was laid on user experience with one of the main priorities being the user-friendliness of the platform. The aim was to ensure that the beta version, which would be tested by learners and tutors during the pilot phase, was as functional and user-friendly as possible. During the pilot phases, feedback was gathered both on the specific activity piloted and on the performance of ClipFlair Studio and/or ClipFlair social network. For example, as a result of the feedback provided, developers worked on enabling text directionality for Arabic, and implemented a feature that allowed loading clips locally in addition to using clips available online.

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The ClipFlair Gallery

The Gallery is the library of resources and it is available through the ClipFlair Social Network. It contains revoicing and captioning activities for foreign language learning, as well as reusable material for the creation of activities, namely clips, images and texts. Given the component-based nature of the ClipFlair Studio, the same material can be mixed differently for different activities in different languages. For example, the same clip may be exploited differently for other levels, or the same set of instructions can be used in similar activities. Each item in the Gallery is accompanied by relevant metadata, which facilitates searching and identifying. The Gallery also contains tutorials in the form of short clips.

For the compilation of the Video Gallery, the issue of copyright was investigated and project members were informed about the type of licenses videos should comply with (e.g. Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike, educational purpose license under the Berne convention) and the process to be followed to request the use of copyrighted materials. A list of online websites where videos meeting these criteria could be downloaded was compiled, and project members were encouraged to upload as many relevant clips as possible, using the appropriate forum in the ClipFlair social network to suggest material. A clip metadata form was filled in for each of the uploaded videos (to include the language of the clip, duration, description, genre, etc.), to ensure users will be able to search for videos at a later stage in a user-friendly way.

A similar process was followed for the creation of activities and the Activity Gallery. Project members were involved in the design of over 350 activities for the 15 languages targeted in the project. Design was informed by the considerations and guidelines produced when determining the project conceptual and methodological framework. Activities include media (clip) files, instructions for the completion of requested tasks, captioning and/or revoicing panels, and any additional text, image or media component deemed necessary by the authors. As with video clips, authors were requested to fill in a form providing necessary metadata such as the title of the activity, name of the author(s), keywords, aims, estimated time for completion of tasks, languages, level according to the Common European Framework (CEFR), skills acquired, mode of feedback to learners, etc. Activities were created through different stages of the project, and the own designers reviewed them constantly. This was essential not only for quality assurance purposes, but also to have the opportunity to integrate the new features developed in ClipFlair Studio and the social network in existing activities. In addition, all activities underwent a peer-review process and, during the pilot phase, 84 activities were tested in language courses in varied FLL environments, mainly in higher and secondary education institutions. Most activities were piloted in classroom sessions together with the teacher, while some of them were piloted without teacher supervision, either in a language lab or at home. During this pilot phase, feedback on the platform and the activities was gathered from both learners and tutors.

As can be seen when visiting ClipFlair Gallery, ClipFlair caters for different levels of participation, depending on the learner needs and level, from the minimum level of activity complexity (e.g. watching a video, fill in the gaps in the subtitles) to the maximum (e.g. subtitling in L2 without a script) difficulty or multitasking involved. Some ClipFlair activities require learners to simulate the work of audiovisual translators (e.g. to subtitle or dub a clip from one language to another, to subtitle within the same language for deaf and Hard-of-Hearing viewers, or to provide an audio description for blind and visually impaired viewers), whereas others might not involve translation as such, but require learners to produce a text

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to be narrated at a later stage. Tasks can be more or less time-consuming and may require more or less technical knowhow on the part of the learner.

FL tutors may use a ready-made activity, as it is, adapt it to their needs or create their own using a video from the ClipFlair Gallery. At the time of writing this paper, the Gallery contains a wide range of video clips (Video Gallery), images (Image Gallery) and over 350 revoicing and captioning activities, covering all CEFR levels, to learn 19 languages (Activity Gallery). Thanks to the gathering of metadata for videos and activities mentioned above, tutors and learners can search the gallery to find activities or videos that suit their needs. It is expected that the number of activities, videos and languages will increase as more members join the ClipFlair community.

Each activity in the Gallery has its own link which tutors can easily share with learners, for example, http://studio.clipflair.net/?activity=Tutorial.clipflair .

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Figure 4: ClipFlair Gallery of Language Learning Activities (screenshot and filters)

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The ClipFlair online community

As regards the feedback received from FL tutors, teachers, and learners so far, it is worth mentioning briefly the results of ClipFlair pilot phase. This phase lasted approximately one year and involved 37 tutors and 1,213 learners, who tested 84 language learning activities for 12 languages (English, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Catalan, Romanian, Polish, Basque, Irish, Estonian and Italian), mainly in higher and secondary education institutions. The fact that only 23% of the tutors reported experiencing technical issues is encouraging, especially considering that this was done on the beta version of the platform. Regarding learners’ feedback, it should be noted that more than 80% found the activities used interesting and useful for language learning, and reported that they would like to work on similar activities to learn foreign languages. In addition, the majority considered the activity fun. Over 80% of the learners had no technical difficulties while using ClipFlair Studio, and a similar percentage considered it to be user-friendly. Although the survey reveals that the attractiveness of the interface could be improved (the answers were divided between “attractive” and “more or less attractive”), the overall response from students was very positive, with over 80% acknowledging having enjoyed working with ClipFlair.

During the pilot phase most activities were tested in class together with the teacher (70%), but the project has shown that the learning context where ClipFlair can be used is flexible. In the case of teacher-driven learners who follow a course with predefined units and lessons, the tutor can decide how learners can best use ClipFlair for activities integrated in the syllabus, as supplementary material, or otherwise (remedial work, voluntary work, further reference, etc.). At the other end of the continuum, independent learners selecting and organising their own learning path, goals and strategies, are able to use ClipFlair activities freely, to modify and adapt them for their needs or even create their own.

The community of users of the ClipFlair Studio, including teachers, learners, activity authors and researchers interested in the field, collaborate, communicate and interact and form Groups at the Social Network.

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Figure 5: ClipFlair online community screenshot. Call for associate partners

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4. Partnerships

The project has a European dimension because it addresses specific EU educational policies of a common European concern by generating results that have an impact on a European level, aiming to promote Foreign Language Learning. The project focuses on creating learning material for less widely used and taught languages, namely Estonian, Greek, Polish and Romanian as target languages, including minority languages, namely Catalan, Basque and Irish.

To this end, the project mobilizes appropriate institutions from 8 European countries bringing together a critical mass with complementary educational expertise. A diverse number of learners are brought together from countries with different educational policies and different needs in Foreign Language Learning given their geographical location, affiliations and culture. Specialists from the fields of Foreign Language Learning, Audiovisual Translation and ICT, provide their field knowledge and practical observations on culture specific information in the process of translation and its use in education.

The results of the project were conceived and are implemented under the consideration that they are meant to be used by anybody wishing to learn a foreign language, in the EU or elsewhere. The consortium has concluded a set of services and educational processes that are expected to satisfy the learning needs and educational conventions of participants, regardless of their nationality. As a technical feature, the project aims at providing a centralized learning system that can be used in any EU country through the existing technical infrastructure. Furthermore, the dissemination and use of the results after the end of the project, as well as the actions during the lifetime of the project are expected to help to improve the current situation in language learning in several European countries. It is also expected to affect the attitude of learners towards learning lesser-used languages, given that they will have access to high quality material.

The consortium consists of institutions that have proven experience and competence to undertake the tasks in their field of expertise and there is a balance between experts in the three fields involved, as stated below. The following institutions (Table 2) are associate partners of the project. Table 1: Associate partners

Institution Name City Contact person's name

University of Pavia Pavia Cristina Mariotti

EUROPASS Centro Studi Europeo Florence, Italy David Baroni

1st Primary School of Polygyros Polygyros, Chalkidiki, Greece Ms Domniki Vafeiadou

Seminarul Teologic Ortodox STO Cluj-Napoca Nicoleta Popa

Colegiul Național „Emil Racoviță” - CNER Cluj-Napoca Diana Todoran UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE EDUCACIÓN A DISTANCIA, UNED Madrid Noa Talaván

Kurutziaga Ikastola Durango Gaizka Uriarte

IES Esteve Terradas i Illa Barcelona Dora Garde

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ClipFlair: Foreign Language Learning through Interactive Revoicing and Captioning of Clips

Institution Name City Contact person's name

Instituto Federal do Piaui- Brasil Teresina Giselda Costa

University of Roehampton London Inma Pedregosa

Università degli Studi di Palermo Palermo Carmela Dell'Aria

TELLConsult Vleuten Ton Koenraad

Colegiul National Emil Racovita Cluj-Napoca Diana Todoran

Dublin Institute of Technology Dublin, Republic of Ireland Susanna Nocchi

3rd Primary School of Sitia Sitia-Crete-Greece Despina Kavalaraki

ATI- Association of Teachers of Italian (Ireland) Dublin Dara Mac Namara

One Voice for Languages Republic of Ireland Susanna Nocchi

1. Protypo Peiramatiko Dimotiko Alexandorupolis Alexandroupolis, Greece Kapoglou Chrysovalandou

Liceul Teoretic Mihai Eminescu Cluj-Napoca Irina Nadasan

Scoala Gimnaziala Nr. 1 Ramnicu Sarat Cornelia Bertesteanu

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ClipFlair: Foreign Language Learning through Interactive Revoicing and Captioning of Clips

5. Plans for the Future

Dissemination and Exploitation

Project members will continue dissemination activities as planned and will present the project results to the academic community, stakeholders and target users. All the dissemination tools produced during the project (web portal, social network, video animation, bookmark, leaflet) will continue to be used.

The quality of the materials – guaranteed by the expertise and quality of the consortium as well as the project design and its quality cycles – is expected to enhance the project’s long-term impact. Results are also expected to be spread by word of mouth and enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.

Mainstreaming and Multiplication

Mainstreaming and multiplication have been achieved through the integration of the project results in the curriculum of the universities, secondary schools and adult education providers involved, according to the Exploitation Plan of the project. Meetings organised by the partners in each country with national and regional education authorities and policy makers have also helped in that direction and the effort will be continued. Moreover, connections established with other projects as well as the partnership with European Networks will be further exploited.

Two major steps are already being taken towards mainstreaming. In the case of Greece, the first step towards informing national educational authorities had already been made before starting the project, as the idea of exploiting subtitling activities for FLL (developed by the LEVIS project) in secondary education had been recently added to a long-term agreement between CTI and the Greek Ministry of Education. This effort was continued with meetings with representatives of the Greek Ministry of Education to inform them about ClipFlair.

In the case of Portugal, there is an on-going effort to include ClpiFlair in the English-language guidelines. These guidelines can contain examples of activities and suggestions for working on the themes and contents of the official syllabus. Therefore, in this respect, ClipFlair can be mentioned and examples of activities given to illustrate the value of audiovisual materials in foreign-language learning/teaching. The scope of dissemination and usage of ClipFlair will be on a very large scale, considering it is a national and obligatory document for all schools. These official guidelines are to be followed by all public-school teachers in their classes of students aged 10-15 (covering ages 5 to 9 at intermediate-level education).

Sustainability

From a technical point of view, the infrastructure used for the deployment of the application ensures its viability as far as operational requirements and associated costs are concerned, beyond the project lifetime. CTI, which is the institution responsible for developing the web platform, utilizes a state-of-the-art computing infrastructure, hosted in its certified Computer Center. Its infrastructure currently hosts several critical services, e.g. the Greek School Network’s computing facilities, several information systems on behalf of the Greek Ministry of Education, supported by qualified personnel with technical know-how. These characteristics, together with the fact that the equipment purchased within the project (WP3, equipment) will be used exclusively for hosting the ClipFlair web platform, guarantee

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ClipFlair: Foreign Language Learning through Interactive Revoicing and Captioning of Clips

that the web platform will be maintained and fully operational for at least five years after the end of the funding period.

Access to the platform (http://clipflair.net ) and all the resources (Studio, Gallery, Social Network) produced during the eligible period will be free of charge during and beyond the project lifetime. The main project results will continue to be distributed and will be obtained easily through the web. Beyond that, the partners will consider developing a business model to finance the staffing necessary to support new users after the project (e.g. for developing new activities), either by partially commercialising the web platform or by finding private sponsors.

From the educational point of view, the project outputs, i.e. methodology, web-platform and library of activities, will be integrated in the participating universities and associated partners’ language courses.

Participation does not require advanced technological knowledge or equipment from the users, which automatically allows a large number of people to use the outputs. The project will also offer valuable educational material along with specific guidelines for its exploitation for lesser used languages and third country languages. The social networking potential of this venture, together with the ability to share activities in other social networking sites, will create a solid network for the dissemination of the project.

Partners will consider developing a business model to finance the staffing necessary to support new users after the project (e.g. for developing new activities), either by partially commercializing the web platform or by finding private sponsors, e.g. through crowdfunding. ClipFlair’s contact with the LLP project MyStory (see section 3.2.5) has shown that the platform can be exploited not only for language learning, but also for video hosting and serving when there is a need to accompany video with text, images, maps, captions and/voice-recordings.

Conclusion

Although the funding period for the ClipFlair project has drawn to an end, we hope this is just the beginning of a long and exciting journey for the ClipFlair community and for all the concepts and approaches it embraces. In addition, it is worth noting that the platform will be maintained and fully operational for at least five years after the end of the funding period. The aim of the ClipFlair consortium has been to consolidate and pave the way for future research, projects and applications to come, contributing with tangible results. We hope to have increased awareness and to have provided useful resources and a flexible and user-friendly platform to exploit the great potential of captioning and revoicing for FLL.

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ClipFlair: Foreign Language Learning through Interactive Revoicing and Captioning of Clips

6. Contribution to EU policies

The project addresses the issue of foreign language learning through revoicing and captioning activities, targeting a wide group including virtually any public/private educational body or individual with Internet access. The foreseeable impact is significant and completely in-line to the objectives of LLP Key Activity 2 (Languages) because:

1. The consortium proposes the development of a considerable number of high-quality, innovative activities, ready to be used by FL learners and teachers,

2. The material is available through a state-of-the-art web networking platform, allowing for improved, easy editing and access (search, storage and handling). The envisaged impact of the suggested social platform is a maximized awareness-raising effect within a live, continuously growing FLL community. It will continue to serve as a common link among people interested in learning lesser-used languages. Foreign language students are familiarized with accessibility issues, since several tasks will have deaf (through Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing) and blind (through Audio Description) people as intended audiences.

3. The language learning activities cover a wide range of languages, including LWULT ones, carefully represented by competent partners in the consortium who actually utilize and assess the proposed framework in class.

ClipFlair tackles most challenges identified by the First European Survey on Language Competences, especially Challenge 2: “Language policies should promote informal learning opportunities outside school, and consider the exposure to language through traditional and new media, including the effects of using dubbing or subtitles”.

The project promotes European cooperation, involving 8 EU countries, in fields covering three sectoral sub-programmes: Erasmus, Comenius and Grundtvig. The project results (web platform and activities) have initially been targeted to learners of foreign languages at higher education, secondary education and adult learners. The project intends to develop materials that can potentially be used by any FL learner by expanding the community to include any level or age.

Learners have involved in the pilot use phase of the project as follows:

- University learners through 9 project partners;

- Secondary education learners through the secondary schools participating as associate partners;

- Adult learners through the adult education providers participating as associate partners.

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