Project for International Communication with Universal Signs

 

The basic idea in this project is:

To foster  the knowledge and the use of the universal signs by the people of different countries in order to get a better communication.

The universal signs YoGoTe were developed from the collection of international gestures published by the the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) under the name of Gestuno. Speaking people can also use these signs at the same time that they speak in their own language or in a foreign language. The signs, being universal, help that people from different languages understand the message.

All the information about this project can be seen in the Internet at  www.yogote.net . This site holds also an audiovisual dictionary of the signs as well as a collection of videos explaining the experiences that were made at all the teaching levels and in different countries.

The project is now being implemented in UNESCO-Associated Schools in several countries of Europe, Africa and America. The Latin-American Parliament (Parlatino) is supporting this project at its Commission for Education, that has emitted some resolutions supporting it (the Appendix at the end shows a draft English translation of the original texts in Spanish)

 

We would like to present the Commission of Education and Culture of the European Parliament the following cultural and teaching proposals that are based in this idea:

-To analyse the educational interest of this project (and to study the opportunity of emitting a resolution supporting it), specially at the following fields:

Education in Human Rights and Values (because it is respectful with all the languages and cultures), Multilinguistic and International Communication (because the sign language does not substitute the spoken language, but instead is a complement to it), Plastic and Audiovisual Expression (because the signs are very expressive and they have also a great affective charge), Integration of people with discapacities (because deaf people usually use sign languages in their communication).

-To recommend the organisms with competences in education to take into account the use of universal signs at the school activities, specially in those that are related to the above mentioned areas.

-To propose the institutions that are devoted to the fostering of  multilinguism in Europe the development of a common methodology for the introduction to every European language, based on the use of the universal signs as teaching material.

-To spread  among the educational or socio-pedagogic associations in Europe the existence of this project, encouraging them to take part in it in the way that they want. It should be fundamental for this purpose to start a web page specifically oriented to this objective.

-To study the possibility of a collaboration with the UNESCO-Associated Schools Network in order to start a project devoted specifically to the European countries, a project whose guidelines are briefly exposed in the following page.

 


 

Anthology of European Poetry for Education in Values

 

Objective: A collection of poems or songs that show to all of Europe (and afterwards to the world, in the frame of a World Anthology) the community of human values that has developed throughout history in Europe, into the great variety of languages and cultures that exist in the European Continent. The text will stand in their original versions, and the universal signs will act as an explanation of the main ideas.

Those signs will be presented by students of the participating schools into a very visual format because  the signs are very expressive.

 

 

Participants: UNESCO-Associated Schools from all the European countries (and eventually from neighbour countries).

Levels: A Primary School and a Secondary School for every country or community with an own language.

Teachers: Voluntaries (in  Secondary Schools, language teachers).

 

 

Phases:

-Informing the UNESCO- ASP Schools Coordinators in all the European countries, with an invitation to take part in this project, in order to inform the schools and select the participants.

-Teachers´ meeting in a centric European place, such as Paris, Brussels or Strasbourg, for example, The objective is to establish the activities and timetables. 40 teachers from the participating schools, during 3 days.

-Producing the Anthology, Audiovisual Presentation in video and Students´ meeting from every participating country. We propose to implement a specific Socrates Project to do those activities, if possible with the support  of the European Parliament.

Main parts of the Socrates Project:

 

-Materials for video edition in a common format, for every participating schools. This will allow them to produce a Poetic Anthology with  audiovisual and multimedia characteristics with the contributions of every school, in a standardized format.

-Opening and maintenance of a teaching gate in which to exchange the materials that are being produced and the ideas that will be appearing.

-Meeting/Exhibition (80 students and 40 teachers, during 5 days). This Meeting will be in itself an opportunity to check the communicative skills developed by the students from the different European countries, as well as to analyse the advantages offered by the universal signs in order to confront situations where the various European languages come into coexistence. Those situations will be more and more frequent due to the speed of the integration process that is being developed in this part of the world. The Exhibition will allow us to check directly the plastic expression, the choreographic and audiovisual liveliness of the poetic texts when the students join them with the universal signs in a climate of harmonic communication among all the European countries.