PPLI Spotlight on Schools Language Exchange on Borders- Faut-il supprimer les frontières? - Flipbook - Page 3
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How was the project successful?
As mentioned above, students were introduced to authentic French texts and had valuable opportunities to practice
their oral language skills with native speakers. Having the possibility to interact with their French peers improved their
motivation significantly – they could directly see the benefits of speaking a foreign language. As a result, they became
more confident speakers and improved their fluency and in particular their pronunciation.
Using the website Mentimeter as a starting point, students were able to express in writing their opinions on borders.
This was a nice entry point to a complex debate and allowed students to say what they thought anonymously. Students
were able to practice giving and defending their opinion.
One of the most important benefits to students was in terms of cultural awareness. Students developed a more global
perspective and learned about important issues that many of them were only vaguely familiar with such as the migrant
crisis. For instance, they had not heard of the ‘jungle’ in Calais and were shocked to learn
about the living conditions there and the repercussions of its closure.
Furthermore, students were asked to reflect on the concept of borders and to
think about their utility and their limitations in a way they never had before.
Higher order thinking skills such as evaluating and analysing were
developed.
To sum up, students’ language learning benefitted in terms of their oral and
written fluency, while they also gained a broader and deeper
understanding of issues surrounding the theme of borders.
Any additional information you would like to mention:
“The project lasted roughly two months with half of the weekly classes 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 didn’t get a chance to do a live video call which would
have been our plan if not for the school closures.”
Niall Gunning
was selected to present at
Créativité et Numérique :
Le prof de français derrière son
écran en Irlande for the Journée
Internationale du Professeur de
Français 2020/ International
French Teacher Day 2020.
To see the webinar where Niall
explains the project:
Click HERE
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