PPLI Spotlight on Schools Language Exchange on Borders- Faut-il supprimer les frontières? - Flipbook - Page 2
Mount Carmel Secondary School, Dublin
Language Exchange on Borders: Faut-il supprimer les frontières?
What are the aims of the project/activity?
This project was a language exchange between 6th year students in an Irish school and students of a similar age in a
French school.
It gave me the opportunity to collaborate with a French colleague and old friend of mine, François Massot, who works
in Lycée Polyvalent Napoléon, L’Aigle. This was something we had been hoping to do for some time, but we had
previously lacked an overarching theme to tie a project together.
In September 2019, we began brainstorming and came up with the idea of focusing on the question ‘Should borders
be abolished? / Faut-il supprimer les frontières?’ which allowed us to tackle relevant themes such as the migrant crisis,
racism, and Brexit/the Northern Irish border.
Our project had several aims:
•
to develop students’ oral skills and confidence in speaking
•
to expand students’ cultural and geopolitical awareness
•
to encourage students to give their opinion on topics relevant for the Irish Leaving Certificate/the French
baccalaureate
How did you plan for it and organise it?
Use of FlipGrid:
The project lasted roughly two months with half of the
weekly classes per week spent working on particular
aspects of the project and was unfortunately cut short
due to school closures caused by the COVID-19
pandemic. Most of the work was completed in class and
we did not get a chance to do a live video call which
would have been our plan if not for the school closures.
To begin with, François and I introduced ourselves and
our schools in our respective target languages (French
for me and English for François) to give students an idea
of what we expected of them.
We shared authentic materials (news articles / podcasts
/ poems / cartoons) with one another which we were
then able to explore with our students in class.
We used websites and apps such as Mentimeter and
FlipGrid to communicate using the target language
(French/English) in an authentic manner. The latter app,
in particular, proved very motivating for students.
Once we had permission slips signed by the students’
parents/guardians, we asked students to present
themselves in small groups and to respond to the
prompt: "What borders mean to me"/”Ce que les
frontières signifient pour moi”.
Recording themselves via FlipGrid students can add
text, emojis and a variety of effects and filters to
enhance what they are saying. They can also edit and
trim their video. When they are happy with the result,
they can submit their video.
Having reviewed the students’ work I was then able to
make the videos available for other members of the
group to watch. My students enjoyed watching their
French peers present themselves and their ideas in
English and vice versa.
FlipGrid also allows students – depending on the
settings chosen by the teacher when setting up the
topic – to interact with one another’s videos by liking or
leaving comments.
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