Students who have had language classes for several years at middle school and high school start language classes at university hoping to ‘do something different’ and are often disappointed because , even though the content taught is often different, the methods remain the same. Although students have access to lots of authentic English materials by watching movies in English or listening to songs in English, except for some more fortunate learners , many have had little or no opportunity to use English as a foreign language outside the classroom.
Communicating with students from across the world has become possible thanks to the widespread use of web 2.0 tools . By integrating cross cultural collaborative projects into the language curriculum, students have the opportunity to communicate with their peers from other countries, use English as a ‘lingua franca’ to solve problems and complete tasks with a specific purpose. Not only can they practice the foreign language, but they can also learn about their peers’ culture and create friendships that last beyond the completion of the project.
Such initiatives motivate students and have a positive impact on their personal investment in more traditional classroom activities as well.
To learn more about the projects I have led, you can read the description of :
Let’s Blog: How European university students see the world! (see fiche pedagogique)
and read about the European Dialogue Project in Handbook of Research on Innovative Pedagogies and Technologies for Online Learning in Higher Education
by Carl Moore, Scott Fredrickson, Phu Vu
Publisher: IGI Global
Release Date: December 2016
ISBN: 9781522518518
ttps://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/handbook-of-research/9781522518518/#toc-start
Or contact me at: csilla.ducrocq@u-psud.fr