Providing real opportunities for communication in a foreign

language class

Amelia Sevilla-Martin and Odile De Troy

Tell me and I will forget, show me and I will understand, involve me and I will remember

(Confucius)

● in our multilingual society, importance of cross-cultural communication for mutual understanding.

● real life activities.● creative technological tools. ● opportunities for students’ engagement, and collaboration.

We need to educate the ‘net generation’ differently not so much because ‘they’ are

different, but because the world is different.

Dr. ERIC BRUNSELL

College of Education and Human Services

University of Wisconsin

Flattening the classroom

The aim of global collaboration in education is to improve learning, break down classroom walls, and

develop authentic audiences. A global collaborative classroom is able to connect, collaborate, and

create product or artifacts with other classrooms anywhere in the world. Furthermore, the use of Web

2.0 has given us a whole new focus and meaning for global collaboration by providing collaborative

tools that connect and support asynchronous and synchronous work.

Julie Lindsey, Vicky Davies

Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds: Move to Global Collaboration One Step at a Time

(Pearson Resources for 21st Century Learning)

Useful resources for teachersTo participate in global collaborative projects:

. Mystery Skype https://education.skype.com/mysteryskype

. Flat Classroom Project http://www.flatclassroomproject.org/

. Twictee @twicteeofficiel

To find partner schools:

. Prof-inet: http://www.prof-inet.com/autres-ressources/jumelage-deleves/

. Cartables (French): http://www.cartables.net/corres/

. Skolinks (French): http://www.skolinks.com

. Students of the world: http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/forums/forum_fr.php?Table=forumprofs

Why is it important to develop oral communication skills?

Promoting verbal interactions in class

. Spoken language naturally comes before written language.

. Oral language has an important role in the development of literacy skills (Scarborough 1998).

. It is extremely difficult to read a language that still is incomprehensible to the ear.

Rachel Hawkes: 7 ideas today… to enhance classroom talk tomorrow

How? Comment ? ¿Cómo?● Successful language learning is to a very great extent a matter of

understanding and remembering collocational tendencies and prefabricated multi-word expressions (i.e. memorised phrases) (e.g. Nattinger and DeCarrico 1992; Pawley and Syder 1983; Schmitt 2004).

● The principal rationale ---> that increases language fluency, especially in unplanned, spontaneous interaction where deployment of rule-like knowledge of syntax and morphology proceeds too slowly (Pawley and Syder 1976 ; Skehan 1998).

● “enabling devices” (Moon 1997).

InforméAlors… Ca veut dire… Comment dit-on… en français ? Je ne comprends pas trop… J’ai des doutes… Comment est-ce qu’on fait pour… ? C’est mon tour ! C’est à moi !

Audacieux

Est-ce que je peux……aller aux toilettes ?

…boire de l’eau ?…allumer/ éteindre les lumières ?

…lire ma réponse ? Tu te moques de moi ? J’en ai marre de… Ne triche pas ! Tu me gonfles !

Altruiste

S’il te/ vous plaît Merci / De rien Excusez-moi Pardon Est-ce que tu peux…

…me passer un stylo ?… partager la fiche avec moi ?

Bonne chance ! Bon courage ! Tant mieux !

Réfléchi Aujourdh’hui nous avons…

… appris… essayé de

… écrit… parlé de

C’était… surtout quand… J’ai réussi à … Je voudrais savoir… Je dois réviser/ étudier…

Chercheur

Où ?

Pourquoi ?

Comment ?

Qui ?

Quand ?

Lequel(le) ?

Communicatif

Qu’est-ce que…… tu fais ?

… tu écoutes ?… tu écris ?

Tout va bien / Ca roule ! Quelle horreur ! Oh mon Dieu !

J’ai gagné !/ j’ai perdu ! C’est vraiment génial ! C’est top/ cool !

Adapted from Paula Wingate’s chart

How do you promote vocabulary build-up ?

What else can we do to promote vocabulary build-up ?

● Language acquisition is a cognitive processing that concerns memory.

● Dual coding theory and levels-of processing theory.

● In dual coding theory (Clark and Paivio 1991; Paivio 1971, 1986) it is held that association (through figurative thought) of verbal information with a mental image facilitates recall.

● According to the levels of processing theory, the deeper the level at which information is mentally processed, the more likely the information is to be committed to long term memory (e.g. Cermak and Craik 1979; Cohen, Eysenck, and LeVoi 1986).

● VISIBLE THINKING ROUTINES

Chalk Talk

C S ICouleur Symbole Image

J’ai choisi la couleur vert parce que cette couleur représente les choses qui sont sûres et j’aime prévoir les choses.

J’ai choisi les feux de circulation parce que j’aime voyager en voiture et les voiture utilisent les feux de circulation.

J’ai choisi l’image de la mer parce que j’aime voyager à la mer et jouer avec l’eau.

Les Voyages et Moi !

A typical task to develop/ assess students’ fluency:

How to describe a picture ?

I see, I think, I wonder

To finishI used to think/ know…

… Now I think/ know