About the Project

The Linguacuisine project is about equality of access and participation in learning, focusing on digital and language skills. The project is a collaboration between Newcastle University, Action Foundation (UK), Hellenic Open University (Greece), Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia (Italy) and the Workers’ Educational Association (UK). The 3-year project is funded by an Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnership grant.

The Linguacuisine project promotes learning of digital literacy, languages, cuisines and cultures. It does this through co-design of downloadable apps and social recipes, using an authoring tool to develop an online community of practice. We are aiming for widespread adoption of these learning materials with a focus on social inclusion.

Our inspiration

We were previously involved in the very successful LLP-funded ‘LANCOOK’ project,  which produced sensorised digital kitchen equipment. This inspired us with Linguacuisine to create  free downloadable smartphone and tablet apps (Android and Apple). These will enable users to be guided through cooking a range of recipes in six different European languages. The phone or tablet will speak to the users in the foreign language and offer multimedia help to users in terms of photos and videos. Users will be able to access different levels of help to support their language learning. As no sensors are involved, users will let the phone or tablet know when they are ready to move to the next step.

Our objectives

  • To produce a downloadable tablet and smartphone app (android and iphone) which will enable users to be guided through cooking a recipe in six official EU languages. Further languages can easily be added using the authoring tool.
  • To create an online community of practice with access via the apps. Participants will learn aspects of a foreign languages, cuisines and cultures by using the apps.
  • To develop a certification system for the digital competence which participants develop. The needs addressed are: improving basic skills, specifically digital competence, and engaging digitally marginalized groups (including refugees and migrants) with technology; certifying and assessing levels of digital competence; learning foreign languages, cultures and cuisines.

The aims of our app project

  • The main aim is to create a sustainable model for the production and use of multimedia materials for learning languages, cuisines and cultures based on user-generated content in support of a community of practice in those areas.
  • We will involve 40 digitally marginalized project participants with little or no digital experience, including migrants and refugees.
  • We firstly provide them with digital, transferable and language skills.
  • We will co-design the app and authoring tool with them, thus ensuring that the apps will be usable by most social groups in the EU.
  • Then we enable them to use the authoring tool to author a multimedia social recipe for language learning. The ‘authoring tool’ is a software system that allows both technical and non-technical people to programme content for use in the app by:
    • a) writing an existing cooking recipe onto the system in short, simple stages using the authoring tool
    • b) creating audio files for spoken instructions
    • c) creating photos and videos together with subtitles as help facilities.
  • We will disseminate the social recipes through the development of online communities of practice in six EU languages which bring people together in sharing and cooking the recipes. Dissemination activities will ensure that people across the EU will share and author social recipes themselves.