The Var Department, who is competent in management of the secondary schools on its territory, has noticed the need to increase and improve the learning of foreign languages. Indeed, with a local economic context and a job market based on tourism and nautical industry, it is necessary for the newly employed to improve their foreign languages skills. It is within this context that the Var Department implements, since 2012, activities in this field of learning relative to the non-formal education. These activities are provided as additional classes in order to generate the young people's motivation for the foreign languages learning and also to lead them to employment. Today, in line with this approach, the Var Department, has decided to get involved in an Erasmus + Partnership project by linking the languages’ learning and the use of digital technologies. To do so, the Department has developed a partnership with the Direction of Education of Lanzarote (Canary Islands, Spain). Indeed, this territory has to deal with similar economic challenges. 3 secondary schools from the Var and 3 secondary schools from Lanzarote have been associated to the project. The objective is to compare, between both countries, the foreign languages' teaching practices and the use of digital technologies. To do so, the students and teachers from each selected secondary schools will work on a collaborative project in order to create a tourist guidebook for the young people. All along the project, the French and Spanish teachers will communicate on their work by using digital tools and mobility. In the project, regarding the study of the learning practices and the development of digital technologies in this project, the Var Department has associated the High Institute of Electronics and Digital Technologies. The Institute will provide an innovative digital tool and will made available, for the project, a sociologist researcher teacher who will study the teachers’ practices. With regards to tourism, the Foreign Promotion Society of Lanzarote has been associated to allow the project participants to have access to the touristic tools and subsequently, to promote the guides.In each secondary school, students involved in the project are organized in groups followed for 2 years (year 9 and 10).The goal is to make young people aware of the importance of mastering foreign languages and improving the use of new digital technologies. The project also aims to allow the development of digital tools in education.Students will travel inside and outside their region in order to know their territory and to promote it abroad. All along the project, activities will be organized in and out the class offering to the students the opportunity to combine the use of foreign languages and digital tools.The study carried out by the sociologist will highlight these different aspects.A digital tourist guidebook, created by the students to reach young people, will be created on both territories.Ultimately, the project aims to promote the optimal use of digital technologies in the education and to make the youth aware of a new and different use of the digital tools and also to make them understand that mastering foreign languages is a real key for the future.
The Var Department, competent as regards secondary schools, from their building up to their functioning, including their financing and the management of educational projects, acknowledged the necessity of developing the learning of foreign languages. Actually,considering the economic context of the territory with a job market orientated towards tourism, boating and the international, it is necessary for the future labour force of this territory to master foreign languages. In this context, from 2012 to 2016, the Var Department offered activities in this field relating to non-formal teaching and as an addition to lessons ,in order to arouse the motivation of young people to learn languages and improve their professional insertion. However, what was missing to this device was the notion of European identity by young people. Without this concept, it was difficult for teachers to motivate their pupils in learning foreign languages. This project, more global on a geographical level as well as on the level of the teachers involved and the duration of the project, could not have been carried out outside a European partnership. So, in 2016, the Var Department,decided, in the continuity of this process, to get involved in an Erasmus + strategic Partnership combining language learning and the use of digital technologies. The Department thus established a partnership with the Lanzarote Administration of Education (Canary Islands, Spain) as the two territories face the same economic issues. 3 secondary schools from Var and 3 secondary schools from Lanzarote were involved. The aim was to compare language teaching methods and the use of digital technologies in both countries. For that, the pupils and teachers of each secondary school worked on a common project, the development of a trilingual tourist guide intended for teenagers. All along the project, the teachers from Var and the Canaries exchanged about their methods thanks to numerical devices and school trips.The teachers learnt from the comparison of their methods with those of the partner country and put the results of this comparison to good use in their teaching. Concerning the study of teaching methods and the development of digital technologies, the Department associated the Toulon « Institut Supérieur de l'Electronique et du Numérique » (Electronics and Digital Technologies Superior Institute). They brought their expertise in digital technologies and provided a sociology research teacher who studied the teachers' methods in that subject . In the field of tourism , the « Lanzarote Society for external promotion »was associated in order to allow the participants to have access to tourist tools and then promote the guide. The group of pupils involved in each secondary school remained the same during the 2 years of the project. These pupils became conscious of the interest of mastering foreign languages and of the usefulness of the numerical devices for a use other than leisure. They went on school trips in order to discover their own territory and make other people discover it .All along the project, activities were organised in class and outside, allowing the pupils to combine the use of foreign languages and numerical devices. The study realized by the sociologist puts forward these different aspects. A Var and Lanzarote trilingual digital tourist guide made by the pupils and intended for young people was produced. The aim on the long term is to promote an optimal use of digital technologies in teaching and to make young people aware of the opportunities offered by these digital technologies apart from the usual use they make of them, and of the interest of mastering languages.