Research & Development

For many years the heads of department at alpha beta piccadilly, together with an international team of experts and partners, have been involved in research and development in the fields of language learning and interculturalism.

At the moment we are working on the following projects:

Self-directed learning

Developing innovative offers for adults in line with the latest research, that movement is particularly beneficial for language learning and that the use of as many senses as possible improves the learning process.

Learning by doing for adults

The development of innovative new learning opportunities for adults in line with the lastest research into language learning, which shows the beneficial effect that movement has on language learning and that the learning process is greatly enhanced by the greatest possible use of many senses.

Task-based and implicit leaning

Developing teaching materials and teacher training modules, with the emphasis on "working with language and unconscious second language acquisition". Strategies related to task and action-oriented learning in foreign language teaching, providing a bridge to "natural", intuitive language learning.

A selection of our projects over the last ten years:

Task-based learning

Development of training and materials for vocational training of foreign language teachers, with the emphasis on learner activation process and competence orientation and the promotion of "natural" language learning.

Healthy Languages

Transnational Leonardo project ( Austria, Italy , Germany, Great Britain, Czech Republic, Slovenia ) for improving the foreign language competencies of health care professionals. Development and testing of teaching material, e.g. Italiano in ospedale.

Language skills and the world of work

Research project in cooperation with the AFI - IPL and the Institute for Social Research and Demoskopie, Apollis, on the topic: "The importance of linguistic skills: the impact on the situation of workers and the competitiveness of South Tyrolean companies".

ELTAE

European Lingua Trainer in Adult Education - Transnational Grundtvig project (Germany, Italy , Hungary, Bulgaria , Lithuania) to develop and test a training course with a final certificate for language teachers who would  like to make the switch from teaching children to teaching adults.

"Integration - a word in search of content: Complementary approaches from the worlds of education and social work"

alpha beta piccadilly dealt with literacy courses and language instruction to immigrants as part of a Grundtvig Learning Partnership.

South Tyrolean dialect

Development and implementation of learning materials with the aim of helping the Italian (or other non- German ) mother tongue population of South Tyrol with the German dialect spoken by the larger part of the population here, as well as bringing them closer to the local, German, culture. A self-study course was developed, with authentic or ad hoc listening segments turned into autonomous learning material.

Teaching technology

Integrating new media into the language classroom.

Autonomous learning

- Development and exploitation of resources, methods and materials for autonomous language learning to create a comprehensive self-learning concept.
- Development of training materials for Italian self-study at high levels (C1 and C2), in co-operation with Dilit Rome.
- Development of a concept for the digitization of teaching materials (Italian and German) for interactive use by learners.
- Tandem Cocktail: a comparison of the effectiveness  of different Tandem mediation and advisory models, in collaboration with the University of Seville and the Tandem Foundation.

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