21.11.2014

In 2011 21 million tourists from the Russian Federation traveled to Europe. International outbound travel from Russia is forecast to grow on average 6% year-on-year through 2016. 

The project RETOUR, which started on the 1st of January 2014 and will last until the 30th of June 2016, aims to develop, pilot and valorise a training programme for the Russian language addressed to workers in the retailing, restaurant and hotel sectors. More specifically it will be geared towards shopkeepers, porters, receptionists, waiters, barmen etc.

In every partner country there is a national or regional association of retail, hotel and/or restaurants, for a better tailoring of the videos, to find personnel to participate in the pilot and improve dissemination and exploitation at the national level. In Ireland the Irish Hotels Federation is the associated partner to this project. 

 

The training programme includes:

1. 30 short videos on typical situations within the hotel, restaurant and retail sectors. Every video features an introduction in the partner’s language explaining the context of the dialogue with images and graphic elements showing the most important terms and syntax rules. A final test for assessment of comprehension is also included. The videos have been produced in several different versions so as to cater to the level of every learner.

2. Paper based material (30 transcriptions of the dialogues, 6 units with grammar hints and exercises referred to the 30 videos) will be used for teaching in standard learning settings (classes).

3. 6 additional videos will explain how to plan and monitor a personal learning programme to foster self directed learning and will give advice on the intercultural dimensions to be kept in mind when dealing with Russian tourists.

4. 2 guides on how to use the RETOUR materials, one for teachers and one for learners.

A personal space with the possibility to record voices of trainees, an App for Android and a dedicated channel on YouTube have been developed.

The RETOUR training programme is based on the methodology developed in the previous KA2 project L-Pack (www.l-pack.eu) and is structured using learning outcomes (for example: being able to receive and confirm a reservation in Russian). The L-Pack project methodology for self-directed learning of L2, carried out mostly outside the traditional classroom, can be very useful for teaching Russian to people that work most of the time (in restaurants, hotels, retail sector) and don’t have time to attend traditional classes. The goal of the project Retour is to apply this methodology to the teaching of Russian and to bring the learners from 0 to A2 level (CEFR).

 

The RETOUR training programme is addressed to:

  1. People working in the restaurant, hotel and retail sectors

  2. Organisations and L2 teachers training people working in the restaurant, hotel and retail sectors

  3. Others:  Associations of owners of restaurants, hotels and shops, social partners, linguists, language universities, researchers in the field of distance and mobile learning etc.

 

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For more information visit www.russian-for-tourism.

 

 

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