To get to know each other leads to better mutual understanding

The LEA (Language Educator Awareness) training kit comprises a set of practical instruments designed to help teacher educators introduce the essential aspects of plurilingualism and pluriculturalism to language teachers and learners. It consists of a printed booklet setting out the rationale for a series of training activities, which are contained on an accompanying CD-Rom.

The kit encourages language teachers to reflect on the notion of diversity, which is so fundamental an element in the process of linguistic and communicative education - the "dialogue with the other". Its ultimate goal is to contribute towards building a school capable of providing local and global perspectives on the language curriculum, of offering communication opportunities with peoples and cultures from far away as well as nearby and of promoting the ability to speak languages with different statuses and functions.

The co-ordinating team of experts and all those who took part in LEA project run at the ECML between 2004 and 2007 hope that this publication will help raise educators' awareness of the need to build up fairer and more democratic societies, enhancing the concepts of mutual respect and the promotion of linguistic and cultural diversity as principles to be followed in language teacher education.