Sabancı University School of Languages is a secondary partner in the European Profiling Grid (EPG) project (http://www.epg-project.eu/), a two-year Leonardo da Vinci ‘transfer of innovation’ project co-funded by the French national agency 2E2F. It involves a consortium of 11 European partners led by the Centre International d’Etudes Pédagogiques (CIEP), an EAQUALS Associate Member and where EAQUALS is a key partner. The 10 other EPG Project Partners are: Centre international d'études pédagogiques (CIEP), France; Evaluation & Accreditation of Quality in Language Services, EAQUALS; British Council, UK; Instituto Cervantes, Spain; Bulgarian Association for Quality Language Services (Optima), Bulgaria; Goethe-Institut e.V., Germany; Center für berufsbezogen Sprachen (CEBS), Austria; ELS-Bell Education Ltd (ELS Bell), Poland; Università per Stranieri di Siena, Italy; Hogeschool van Amsterdam DOO, Netherlands.
The aim of the European Profiling Grid (EPG) project is to help improve the quality and effectiveness of language training by providing an instrument (initially developed by EAQUALS and Optima) that will focus on language teaching competences and aid the supply and mobility of language teachers. Through large-scale field testing activities, the EPG Group have tested the grid among employers of language teachers, language teacher trainers and teachers themselves, so that a definitive version of the Grid and a User Guide can be developed. It is believed that the final version of the European Profiling Grid that comes out of the EPG project will be a unique tool containing an overview of the key competencies required to teach foreign languages effectively.
On November 6-7-8, 2012, Dr. Deniz Kurtoğlu Eken represented Sabancı University School of Languages at the 2nd Consortium Meeting and Valorisation Seminar held at the Goethe Institut in Munich. On the first two days, the group discussed and revisited the roles, tasks and workload of each partner; targets achieved in Year 1; the preliminary results of the large-scale field testing activities; further developments to be made and plans for the 3rd consortium meeting, training courses and the final seminar. On November 8th, the EPG Group were involved in a Valorisation Seminar which aimed to familiarize participants with the EPG in its pilot form and its potential purposes, to share information on the aims and phases of the project, to present the preliminary results of the field testing, and to consult participants through discussion on specific uses of the Grid in wider contexts and their suggestions for refinement. Both the meetings and the Valorisation Seminar (attended by over 60 participants from approximately 15 countries) were highly productive in terms of dissemination and discussion of ideas.
