Download - Authentic conversations: Using technology to connect foreign language learners to peers abroad

Authentic conversations: Using technology to connect foreign

language learners to peers abroad

Laura Cantor, Nadia Mule, Christopher Thoren, Mike Curtin

Edgemont Junior-Senior High School

Introduction

“An assessment is authentic when it requires that students engage with real-life problems, issues, or tasks for an audience who cares about or has a stake in what students learn. Authentic tasks enable students to make sense of and apply what they have learned and to establish clear connections between what they have learned in schools and the world in which they live.”-Giselle Martin-Kniep, Becoming a Better Teacher

Introduction

In traditional foreign language instruction, a student would most likely spend the vast majority of his/her six years of study talking to two people:

The teacherThe student in the desk next to him/her

Introduction

1993: “Is it possible to support foreign language instruction by giving students the opportunity to have authentic conversations with native speakers in the target language?”

2013: “How is it possible to teach a foreign language without giving the students the opportunity to have authentic conversations with native speakers in the target language?”

Introduction

• January 2012: Nadia visits Mike to inquire about parent/safety concerns surrounding use of ePals

• February 2012: Edgemont School Foundation grant submitted

• July 2012: Attendance at Digital Age Learning Summer Institute and summer PD in Edgemont

• 2012-2013: Ongoing development and assessment

ePals

www.epals.com

• Searchable database of classroom profiles and a safe mechanism for contacting other teachers

• Teacher-monitored email accounts for students

• Web 2.0 collaboration tools

http://www.epals.com/

Laura Cantor School: Edgemont High SchoolRegion: New York, USA, North AmericaProject Language: French# of Students: 41+Age Range: 13-16Collaboration: Email Exchange, Skype / Video ChatAbout my classroom:Bonjour! My name is Laura. I am High School French teacher in a New York public school. I would love to start a correspondence with a French-speaking school. My students are ages 13-16 and they are excited about having conversations in English and French with their peers around the world. Please contact me if you are interested in starting an exchange by e-mail, skype, video-conferencing or other form of collaborative learning.

Laura Cantor: French

• Edgemont High School, Scarsdale, NY: French 2 (9th grade) • Collège Martin Luther King, Buc, France: 8th grade English


formal communication / informal communication


assignments 1. introductory letter2. describe your school3. describe three important people in your life 4. holiday celebrations5. vacation plans6. holiday cards (sent via snail mail)7. video: my winter break8. Valentines Day9. Spring10. final exams11. Summer


travail de classe

Write a letter to your correspondant (e). Tell him/her about three important people in your life. You should include most of the following information for each person: · name· relation to you· Age· Nationality· Where he/she lives (city and country)· What languages he/ she speaks· Job/ occupation· Use adjectives to describe this person

15 points ·quality of information (5) ·grammar (5)·vocabulary (5)


I have loads of important persons in my life. I really like is my grand father, his name is Pierre but I call him Bibi... He is my last grand parent left and I try to spend as much time as possible with him . Sometimes together we go to a dance show and at the restaurant , I like these moments !

Mon grandpère qui est le père de mon père est très important à moi parce qu'il est très intelligent et il me dit de comment il est fier de moi. . Je l'aime rendre visite à Cape Cod tous les étés.

from Jared

from Louise


J'adore le Thanksgiving! En novembre, j'ai celebre le Thanksgiving avec ma famille. Nous sommes alles chez ma tante et mon oncle. J'ai vu mes cousins, ma grand-mere, mes tantes et mes oncles. Nous avons mange la dinde, la sauce, les epinards avec le fromage, et la farce. C'est un tres bon diner.

From Noah

we have the "épiphanie". It's celebrated the first sunday after the new year's day and we eat "galette". After we celebrate the carnival in my school. We disguise and have a lot of fun.

From Damien


Laura Cantor: French 2Videos

Videos and photos have been removed to protect student privacy.

I've just seen your video, i really like it, and your french is good and your accent is good too .I think you're pretty and i'm happy to know how you look like because it was kind of weird to write to someone i didn't know how she looked like! Thanks for the video!

My english teacher gave me the video you made for me ! I was really happy to hear you ! I want to say you thank you ! I hope a will can make a video for you in the year !

From Clara

From Claire

Reactions to videos


Informal

Comment vas-tu? J'ai la Xbox 360 et j'adore jouer aux jeux video. Quel jeux-video as-tu?

From Eric

You play CoD? Maybe you can play with me, I have just MW3. My favorite movie is ALIEN. I like this film because I'm not scared by the Alien, and the film is "funny", I like it very much. have not a favorite singer, but I like the songs by Smosh. The parols are very funny

From Raphael


Informal

How are you after the strong storm Sandy? I hope you don't have to much damage in your home.

From Antoine

L’orage a été très grand. Ma famille et moi ont eu de la chance parce que nous n’ont pas perdu l’électricité. Beaucoup de mes amis ont perdu l’électricité t aujourd’hui, nous sommes allées à l’école (l’école n’a pas eu l’électricité pour 8 jours).

From Zachary


Teacher to teacher

Thank you for your students' mails about the US school system. I made them print their correspondents' mails, so that we could work on the texts and the specific vocabulary such as "grade", sophomore" ...

My students feel as if they were in a "boring" school compared to the campus where you work :-) !

My next unit is about food. My students are fascinated by "French food." It would be great if your students could write a little bit in French about their eating habits and about what they consider to be typical "French food."

From Laura

From Alexandra


Chris Thoren: Spanish

Chris Thoren: SpanishOur partners in Chile:


Chris Thoren: SpanishSpanish 5H:


WOW! This is great, your english is pretty good Alex, and thanks for checking my english by the way! It is great to know more about you and I hope everything is ok with you and your family after the hurricane... I watched the news and I was kind of shocked by the images and videos. We began to worry about you and your classmates, hopefully everything is doing well. Thanks for telling me everything about the university and education, that's gonna help me a lot, you know what?, my wife and I are trying to apply to an university in Utah, but we have to take an english test in january, so it would be awesome if we can go there and meet each other someday, so that's why your information will help us :). I'm sure that you're gonna fulfill your goals and dreams about going to college and travelling around the world!, that would an awesome thing to do. I'll wait for your next email Alex, and take care yourself.

PS: I'll do the same thing with your spanish! ;)

From: Camilo To: Alexandra


¡Hola Camilo!

Me llamo es Alejandra, pero mis amigos me llaman Alex. Tengo diecisiete años y es (la)primer(a) vez que estoy hablando con alguien en Chile, tambien. Tengo un hermano menor y un hermano mayor. Vivo en un apartamento, tambien, con mis padres y mi hermano menor. ¡Tu ingles es casi perfecto! Incluyo correciones pequeños(ñas) en los paréntesis para ayudarte. Para contestar tu pregunto(a) de nuestro(a)educación: tenemos doce años de escuela y despues, la mayoría de (los)estudiantes(van) a una universidad. Tenemos examenes en los estados unidos que se llaman el “SAT” y el “ACT” y estos examenes son obligatorios para matricularse en una universidad. La educación es difícil en mi escuela. Pero, es (buena)preparación para la universidad. ¡Estoy celoso de que tú (visitaste) California! Vivo en los estados unidos todo de mi vida y nunca (visité) California. Cuando termin(e) (la)escuela, es mi sueño a viajar por el mundo y despues de ver países como francia, italia, y muchos otros, quiero viajar por los estados unidos tambien. > >¡Adios! > >¡Por favor, corrija mi español también!

From: Alexandra To: Camilo


A video from New York to Chile



A video from Chile to New York



Correspondence with Italian Schools

Nadia Mule: Italian

Two schools in Italy:Vigevano –in the northern region of LombardyPaternó –in the southern region of Sicily

• Students range in age from 14-18 years old• Correspondence is supported during email writing in the

lab (Teacher assistance and student collaboration)• Responses are spontaneous and vary from email to email.• Students’ emails are not corrected, but rather students

are encouraged to correct their epals’ writing.

Nadia Mule: Italian

Correspondence with Italian Schools (continued)

• Correspondence began with introductory letters including questions to their epals

• Students were encouraged to foster conversation by responding to questions fully and by posing exploratory questions to their epals about their culture and society

• No specific topics were assigned, communication progressed organically

Nadia Mule: Italian

• Virtual visits to our partners’ towns using Google Earth

Preparation for Epals

• Mystery class letters– Students wrote letters to classmates to review structuring

a letter with a proper opening, salutation, and closing– Students were assigned a “mystery” recipient– Letters were typed into each student’s titled document on

Google Drive – Classmates peer edited the letters– Letters were printed and exchanged in class to each

“mystery” recipient

Nadia Mule: Italian

Sample correspondence-introductory lettersCaro Paolo,

Ciao! Come stai? Mi chiamo Katie. Vivo in New York. Sono di Westchester. Di dove sei tu? Io 16 anni. Quanti anni hai? La mia famiglia è di Montenegro. è molto vicino a Italia. Sono nato in America. In America gioco molti sport. Dopo scuola vado a pratica per 3 ore. Tu gioci gli sport?

A presto!

-Katie

Hi Katie I'm Paolo and I'm from Milan; I'm 14 years old, my dad is from Milan and my mother is from Bari, in Puglia,I was born in Italy.In the week I do a lot of sports, almost at school but on saturday I go climbing in Aosta's valley, in winter I really like going skiing.

write me soon, Paolop.s. sorry, I know that I reply you late but I forgot to write you :)

Nadia Mule: Italian

Sample response and correctionCaro Andrea,

Io amo l'Italia. so anche molte lingue. Parlo inglese, spagnolo, un po d'italiano, e un po di francese. Sono andata in Italia tre volte, ma mai a Sicilia. Durante la vacanza, sono andata a Berlin e a l'Inghilterra. Era bellissimo. Io amo New York. C'è sempre molto da fare. Vivo a trenti minuti della città. In quale città abiti in Sicilia? Mi piace la pizza anche. E molto rico. Quale altri cibo ti piace?

Ci sentiamo!

Maya

Ho corretto il tuo inglese:

Dear Maya, I'm sorry for the delay !!! My name is Andrea Messina and I'm 15, I live in Sicily-Italy,I speak italian and I study 3 languageS : German,English, AND French. I have 1 brother and 1 sister. My parents ARE italian. I DON'T HAVE a dog. I have 2 parrots...They are small :) I love pizza, do you like PIZZA? I do not like Italy ! I love New York ! My hair IS brown and my eyes are brown. I love music (Hip Hop) do you like MUSIC ?

TALK TO YOU SOON

Andrea.

Nadia Mule: Italian

Small group correspondence

• Independent study group of three students connected with a personal friend in Italy

• Students used Google Drive to collaborate and organize a detailed letter

• Friend replied about his career (Italian Environmental Agency), hometown and region (Pesaro - Marche region) and history of the region

Nadia Mule: Italian

Conclusion

• What challenges did you encounter in the course of implementing this project? How did you overcome them?

• What is the next step? How will you grow in your use of these conversations to support instruction next year?

Download - Authentic conversations: Using technology to connect foreign language learners to peers abroad

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