Within the framework of the project “My Latvian Language Portfolio” funded by Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, conversation language club sessions “I Want to Talk to You” have been taking place since September 28, 2024. The sessions are organized in three groups: one A2-level group meets in person, while one A2-level group and one B1-level group take meet online. A total of 39 third-country nationals are participating in the conversation language club “I Want to Talk to You”.
Sessions with the participation of opinion leaders and experts are always highly anticipated and engaging. To maintain a sense of positive intrigue, the educators invited the conversation language club participants to guess which professions the upcoming guest experts would represent before the scheduled meeting.
The in-person conversation language club group was visited by an environmental expert – the Head of the Daugavpils Sector of the Latgale Region Land Reclamation Department, Associate Professor at Daugavpils University, and Doctor of Geological Sciences, Juris Soms. His presentation, titled “Green Lifestyle – Does It Mean Living Green?”, not only raised awareness of environmental issues but also enriched the conversation club participants’ knowledge of the Latvian language. The club’s positive and engaging atmosphere was enhanced by J. Soms’ stories about his experience as a tour guide, as well as the interactive activity of calculating one’s “ecological footprint”, which participants completed using computers. At the same time, they expanded their vocabulary and learned new terms from various areas of daily life.
Meanwhile, participants of the online conversation language club had the opportunity to meet an outstanding scientist – Professor at the University of Tartu, Associate Professor at the University of Latvia, and Doctor of Biology, Indriķis Krams. During the session, through various tasks and conversation games, the expert shared his daily routine and everyday habits, inviting the club participants to name animals, describe their actions, and thereby reinforce their language skills, such as verb forms in the past tense, negative sentence structures, the accusative case, and more.
Professor I. Krams’ travel stories and memorable experiences abroad sparked particular interest among the club participants. The audience actively engaged in the session, taking notes on the travel stories and asking the guest questions about how he became a scientist, his life values, as well as discussing topics related to a healthy lifestyle.
During the sessions, the project’s target audience collaborates with five volunteer native speakers who support the development of communicative competence and the acquisition of new vocabulary.
It is planned that in December, the online conversation language club will be visited by Latvian film director, actor, recipient of the Order of the Three Stars, and Honorary Member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, Jānis Streičs. The conversation club participants are already excited about this event and are preparing for it by watching J. Streičs’ films in their free time, learning about his biography and preparing questions for the club guest.
The conversation language club sessions are organized within the framework of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund 2021-2027 programming period, Activity 13.2. “Inclusion of Third-Country Nationals in the Local Community by Promoting Opportunities for Learning and Using the Latvian Language”, project “My Latvian Language Portfolio”, No. PMIF/13.2./2023/1/10.
CO-FINANCED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION
This publication was created with the support of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.
The Daugavpils University Society “Intellect Park” for Lifelong Learning, Culture, and Science Communication is responsible for the content of this publication.
The publication was prepared and published on November 30, 2024.Šī publikācija ir veidota ar Patvēruma, migrācijas un integrācijas fonda atbalstu.
