The Implementation of Educational Projects in Social-action-based Learning

Abstract

CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) sets the goal of training social
actors in language teaching, which implies a shift from the communication paradigm to the social action
paradigm or from training successful communicators, who are involved in exchange of information in
contact situations, to training social actors, who can live together harmoniously and act together
effectively in their multilingual and multicultural societies, but the same CEFR does not elaborate on
how to realize this rupture in and/or outside the classroom. This paper proposes that there are two ways
of training social actors: mini-projects, which can be employed by language textbooks or curricula, and
educational projects, in which the students are involved as autonomously as possible in their design,
implementation, and evaluation. The paper focuses on the distinctive characteristics of educational
projects which differentiate them from the communicative tasks and then presents the stages of the
application of educational projects in social-action-based learning (the action-oriented approach).