The eTwinning project “A Song for Our Souls in an English-Speaking World”, implemented during the 2025–2026 school year, may represent an example of how the emotional and intercultural dimensions can be integrated into English language teaching. Initiated and coordinated by Liceul Teoretic „Radu Vlădescu”, Romania, in partnership with Piraziz Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi, Turkey, the project brings together students and teachers from three countries – Romania, Turkey, and Poland – willing to explore the role of music as an educational, cultural, and therapeutic tool. The participating institutions, including Hasan Aybaba Anadolu Lisesi, Turkey, Pijarskie Liceum Ogólnokształcące Królowej Pokoju w Łowiczu, Poland, and Liceul Teoretic „Nicolae Iorga”, Romania, have contributed actively to the creation of an international learning community based on collaboration, empathy, and creativity.
The project is built on the idea that music is a universal language capable of uniting, inspiring, and healing, transcending linguistic and cultural barriers, and song lyrics can serve as authentic resources for developing linguistic competence, empathy, and critical thinking. Through the analysis of musical texts, personal reflections, and creative activities, the participants learn to express values, emotions, and inner states in English in a natural and meaningful way. Music thus becomes not only a pedagogical tool, but also a form of educational therapy that supports emotional expression and student well-being.
Methodologically, the project follows the principles of the Project-Based Learning, giving students an active and creative role in constructing their own knowledge. The activities are designed to combine cognitive and affective dimensions, allowing learning to take place in a collaborative and intercultural environment. Through the European School Education Platform and online meetings, students and teachers from the three countries interact continuously, discovering and promoting shared values such as friendship, peace, hope, gratitude, and respect. In this way, the project buids bridges between cultures and strengthens the participants’ sense of belonging to a European community based on diversity and solidarity.
A particularly relevant project activity has been the creation of a collaborative Padlet featuring musical recommendations made by the students and teachers. Each contributor selected a representative song, analyzed its message, and explained how it reflected universal values or significant emotional states. In this way, the Padlet became a virtual space for reflection, expression, and mutual learning. The students from Romania, Turkey, and Poland interacted through comments and shared insights, discovering emotional and cultural connections through music. This activity fostered the development of communication skills in English, strengthened critical thinking, and stimulated creativity https://anyflip.com/piljq/fqcs/ .
In addition to the Padlet, the students will take part in multimedia presentations, lyric translations, music reviews, and the creation of open educational resources using digital tools such as Canva, Digipad, LearningApps, WordWall, and TwinSpace. As expected, these activities will have a double impact: on the one hand, they will enhance the students’ linguistic, digital, and social competences, and on the other hand, they will foster a reflective attitude toward learning and a positive classroom climate. The teachers have already noticed a visible increase in their students’ motivation to learn English, as well as deeper engagement in classroom activities. The truth is that whenever the learners feel heard, encouraged, and valued, learning becomes a joyful and deeply personal experience.
From a pedagogical perspective, the project “A Song for Our Souls in an English-Speaking World” illustrates how art and emotion can become essential components of the teaching and learning processes. The interdisciplinary approach, combining language, music, and technology, helps the European students understand that learning a foreign language is not limited to acquiring vocabulary and grammar, but also involves exploring the cultures and emotions expressed through that language. Music facilitates an affective connection to English and transforms classroom lessons into spaces of dialogue and human connection. This approach has significantly contributed to school well-being, an increasingly important dimension of contemporary education.
The results obtained within the project “A Song for Our Souls in an English-Speaking World” already confirm the methodological value of an approach based on creativity, collaboration, and emotion. Our students have become more confident, empathetic, and willing to take risks in both spoken and written communication while the teachers, in turn, have gained new perspectives on how to integrate art and technology into language education, developing an open and reflective pedagogical culture. Through its activities, the project successfully combines linguistic and human dimensions, demonstrating that quality education involves not only the sharing of knowledge but also the nurturing of character, empathy, and emotional balance.
Ultimately, “A Song for Our Souls in an English-Speaking World” is a valuable lesson about the power of music to unite souls and cultures, to inspire creativity, inclusiveness, and to transform learning into a living, authentic, and profound process. In an era increasingly dominated by technology, this project reminds us that emotion and art remain essential resources for a humanistic and balanced education. Through its universality and emotional depth, music becomes the language through which students can discover not only the meaning of words, but also the meaning of their own voices.