Videoconferencing for language learning in primary schools

Videoconferencing for language learning in primary schools

Nathalie Terrades, Ministry of Education, France, subdirectorate of ICT

The project

September 2007 : the Minister of Education announced the project. Launched in November.

Videoconferencing with anglophone native speakers to support the early learning of english

Principles

In addition to the english class, should not replace it

Language learning is in the curriculum in elementary school

So far …

Letters or emails

With the internet tools : new opportunities

Real communication, synchronous, interactive, more dynamic

Technical requirements

Computer / internet Headphones Microphone Webcam

Little groups

can communicate

Lavoisier elementary school, Tourcoing

a camcorder an IWB

Let us add …

loudspeakers

=> the whole class can communicate with another class

And …

The steering committee

• Subdirectorate of ICT• Schools directorate• General Inspectorate• Local inspectorate• ICT advisors• Language advisors

The two stages of the project

Select 20 schools in the first stage (nov 2007 – jan 2008)

980 schools in the second stage

(may 2008)

First stage :

A call for project was published on the Ministry website, and sent to rectors and local inspectors,

Pedagogical and technical specifications were also published

First stage (2) :

The schools that were interested had to fill an application form to describe their project, and sent it to their local education authority.

Each local education authority could send up to 5 projects to the Ministry

The criteria :

The french teacher already teaching english, and preferably with an experience of videoconferencing

The technical diversity : it was interesting to see different technical solutions being experimented. Both solutions (French school and partner school) had to interoperate

The criteria : pedagogical project The French school finds another school, in any

Anglophone country. Can be based on an existing partnership (etwinning)

Or, the French school works with an anglophone teacher. Some private businesses have released a complete offer : the software for videoconference, the teacher who is an Anglophone native speaker, and the pedagogical material (exercises and so on)

Financing the project

40 projects were selected (instead of 20 initially)

The Ministry payed for the videoconferencing equipment The software A subscription with a private company

sometimes.

Budget : 300 000 euros

Second stage (may 2008)

960 schools should be equipped

Languages to be used : English, German, Spanish, Italian

The municipalities provide the equipment

The local education authorities

They manage the project

They choose the schools

One person in charge

Evaluation

The french teachers said that :

Partnering with a class takes more time to prepare the sessions, but it’s more rewarding and the pupils learn more about the culture

Partnering with a teacher : the pupils learn more about the language, but less cultural openness.

Evaluation (2)

In both cases, their accent improved

The pupils are more motivated when partnering with a class

Additional budget

An additional budget has recently been allocated by the Ministry (1 500 000 euros) for 500 new schools to become part of the project

Technical advice

It’s much better for the teacher is somebody can assist him/her with the technical aspects, so that he/she can concentrate fully on the pedagogy.

it’s better to use the same device for all the schools of the local education authority, for ex. on a same web portal.

Activities

presenting oneself, the school, the city teaching songs to the other class playing Simon Says, bingo, pictionary celebrations (christmas ...) ordering in a restaurant describing someone or something debating on a subject ....

In the papers

Learning a song using videoconference …

Miannay elementary School, Abbeville

Contact

Project manager : dorothee.danielewski@education.gouv.fr

Contact EUN France nathalie.terrades@education.gouv.fr