This project is an exceptional opportunity for the pupils and staff of two primary schools: a French rural, alpine school and an English inner city school, to develop cross-curricular skills and confidence in a foreign language using real life situations. It is also a unique and unprecedented opportunity to experience an environment completely opposite to their current knowledge of the world. Over the duration of the project, the pupils will use a variety of tools and activities over numerous exchanges (including IT) and each will experience a full week immersion in the partner primary school. This will enable them to establish long term relationships with foreign children, discover, first hand, the culture of a different country, different life styles and develop their life chance aspirations. The project has been designed to be a progressive evolution over two years. There are two main elements to the project : classroom exchanges and immersion visits. 1. Classrooms exchanges During the first year, the pupils will establish contact to get to know each other and share common projects ensuring regular exchanges using a range of tools including: paper and post, email, video-conferences and the eTwinning platform for sharing. The shared projects will include mathematic and scientific challenges, sending and receiving parcels with cultural artifacts, film and audio productions shared online and used in classes. The focus will be on learning English/French, both oral and written, to enable pupils to communicate more easily. For the second year the pupils will deepen their foreign language skills through shared cross-curricular projects (sciences, maths, sport) in preparation for the second immersion visit (English pupils in French school). For example: comparing flora and fauna of the different regions. After the immersion visits, the children will produce films of their visits to consolidate their experiences and demonstrate what they have learned. The diffusion of these films will enable us to highlight the benefits of the project to parents and the local community and to other schools on a departmental level via teacher training from the ‘Inspection Academique’ and via Headteachers meetings. They will also be shared on social media and the schools' websites. 2. The immersion Visits: During the first year, the French children will meet their English correspondents and discover the English education system in an inner city school. They will be immersed in English classes with 3 to 4 pupils per class for a full week. The following year, the English children will meet up with their French correspondents for the second time and discover life in a small alpine French school also for a full school week. Transnational workshops will be organised in the classroom over the two visits to enable the children to engage in dialogue and communicate between themselves, thus enriching their language competences. A number of cultural visits will also be organised during the visits to compliment the joint projects studied over the course of the project. For example, visiting a farm in France linked to the shared transnational project ‘from the farm to the fork’. When the English pupils visit France they will be hosted in the partner school as well being invited to other rural schools in the vicinity. This will enable the partnership to grow and make the project longer term incorporating future candidate schools for a linguistic immersion trip. Evaluation There will be an evaluation of pupils’ foreign language competence before, during and after the project in addition to using the results of academic evaluations. This project is a cooperative and innovative approach to learning foreign languages by providing young children with regular and real life situations to communicate and to be surrounded by foreign language, which we believe is the most effective method of inspiring motivation for and learning a foreign language. For the French children, this is a considerable advantage for the professional futures of the pupils who live in a region where the tourist and service sector is rapidly growing. For the English children who are from an area of high deprivation it is an exceptional opportunity to experience life outside their area with the aim of raising their aspirations and improve their life chances. To discover another culture and language will also help to overcome preconceptions, fear of difference and the unknown and awaken curiosity. This project will also give us the chance to study the best approaches to learning a modern foreign language.
During this project, pupils aged between 7 and 10 from a rural, Alpine area of France and an urban suburb in England have had numerous and regular exchanges using a variety of tools and activities (including TICE) as well as a week of immersion in the foreign school. Objectives: Establish long term relations and build strong links with the pupils of the partner school Discover the culture of a foreign country and the different ways of life in a context that has meaning to pupils of that age, eg school life (cultural open-mindedness, tolerance of other cultures and an interest in the other country and their culture) Improve the English / French language skills of the pupils and the teachers Motivate and inspire the pupils to study foreign languages (an essential factor in the successful learning of a foreign language) We were two participating institutions: The managing institution : The Ecole Pierre Bossy, a small rural school with 2 classes with a majority of pupils from farming families. The partner institution: Fiddlers Lane Community Primary School : a large urban school with 11 classes from a suburb of Greater Manchester in Salford with a large number of pupils form socially challenging backgrounds. Description of the principal activities and their delivery: The project was structured around two astuces over the two years : the interclass exchanges and the period of immersion. 1. Interclass exchanges (before and after the immersion trips): Over the two years, the pupils established strong links and contacts. They got to know each other by sharing joint projects that required regular weekly exchanges using letters (both paper and electronic), video conferences and the e-Twinning platform. The focus was on learning French / English both orally and written to be able to communicate more easily. We worked on the following themes : introducing ourselves (name, where from, age) talking about likes and dislikes (sports, food, hobbies… ), describing family (brothers, sisters, pets) and talking about events that have happened (holidays). The follow ups after the immersion trips : The pedagogic work started with the creation of a souvenir film by the pupils of their trip abroad. In addition, they wrote a daily journal of their experiences during their stay to elaborate and write up in more detail on return – a great opportunity to work on writing and expression skills in their native language. They also wrote and sent thank you letters to the partner school. 2- The Immersion Trips : The first year, the French pupils met their English pen pals and discovered the English education system when they were integrated in groups of 3 - 4 into the English school’s classes for a whole week. The second year, the English pupils saw their pen pals for the second time and discovered the life of a rural French school when they were integrated into the classes, also for a week. During the immersion weeks transnational workshops were organized to help the pupils engage in dialogue, communicate with each other and enrich their language competences. Several cultural visits were also organized in each country. In England the pupils visited Quarry Bank Mill, the Manchester canals and in France the pupils went rock climbing, hiking and visited the Shepherd’s museum. All the activities were organized with mixed transnational groups to maximize the opportunities for the pupils to communicate with each other in the both languages. Results and impact : This project is an innovative and cooperative way to teach and learn a foreign language. We created real situations for interlingual communication for these young children and gave them the opportunity of being fully immersed in the foreign language. These pupils have considerably improved their competences and their desire to learn a foreign language. This project has allowed them to discover a different culture and language, to overcome their fear of difference and the unknown, and has woken their curiosity. Long term benefits: For the pupils, the foreign language skills they have acquired and the cultural opening they have discovered will stay ingrained for life thanks to the unique experience they have lived through this project. For the French children, this is a considerable advantage for their professional futures in a region where the tourism sector is in full expansion. For the English children, it is a real opportunity for them to experience a way of life outside of their neighbourhood to widen their perspectives and future expectations. The organizers have benefitted from a better understanding of the management of a project of this scale and type and have the possibility and the motivation to continue this approach to teaching a foreign language in a primary school.