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by Sanda Gabor, ”Gh. Sincai”High School, Cluj-Napoca

Key words: Project, eTwinning, chat, collaborative writing, communication

Abstract
An effective teaching cannot take place only in a class environment however good that might be. Life is beyond the classroom walls and students have to try their skills even beyond the borders of the country. Skills such as reading writing, speaking or listening are better shaped and enhanced once the classroom expands into the world. eTwinning projects with their functional platforms offer the possibility to connect to the world, allowing a monocultural class to become multicultural both teaching and learning reach new dimensions. The present article tries to unravel this new dimension and bring them to the attention of the teachers.

When we teach a language we most frequently do it in class trying to create a learning environment that replicates life with its issues. Our students communicate with each other on different issues, negotiate work tasks, debate upon ideas. It is a good language learning process which has been proved to lead to efficient language acquisition. But is it enough?
During a class, each lessonis a simulated ecosystem which has pre-defined organization and the outcomes are predictable. The task of an exercise is achieved because the teacher coordinates and leads, avoiding or correcting any deviations or misunderstandings. The teacher is also there for support in case of failure of communication. But what happens when all these secure elements are missing?
To answer this question, I will refer to a stage of an eTwinning international project conducted with the 10th grade in partnership with a class of the same level from France. The project entitled A True Tell-Tale Art presented the students with the task of writing a story in the form of a parody on Dracula and Bluebeard, using collaborative writing. We chose collaborative writing because it allowed us to facilitate the exercise of several life skills along with language skills. Apart of research skills, evaluating information and reading writing and speaking skills, we, as teachers, were interested in developing the spontaneity, so characteristic to real life communication and also the language analogy. When English is used in a non-native communication it is subject to mother tongue influences, especially if the context is one of oral communication or chat in virtual world, with its quick pace and relying so much on the spontaneous response with the variable of pronunciation and linguistic variations. None of the students involved had ever been in an international project which required fulfilling a working task while using English as a medium. What is more, Romanian students have little if no multicultural experience due to the monocultural environment of the country, therefore communicating both academically and socially presents a challenge they discovered while the project developed.
During the first stage of the project the students were told to do an internet research on Vlad Tepes, Dracula and Bluebeard, research guided by the two teachers. The materials varied from documents to YouTube documentaries. On both sides students were exposed to BBC English, academic internet documentation, internet neutral style, and internet short notes. They were instructed to take notes with the most interesting information and formulate questions for a deeper understanding of the characters or the historical environment.The interaction was to take place on aneTwinning chat. During this research both groups practiced reading and comprehension but this time triggered by individual curiosity and perception with no pre-set questions. The new vocabulary was assimilated in accordance with an individual need to process the information and varied from student to student. Once the research was done on both sides a chat was organized as a web conference with audio only. The French students asked their questions and the Romanian students answered them and vice versa. Some of the things that occurred could have been predicted others where just something we couldn’t have foreseen. Previously we have been concerned only about the level of English of our groups and their capacity to use it in an audio only chat.
Well, that went better than expected. But, there were other variables we had never thought of. The French had a strong accent which changed the pronunciation of some words and the Romanian students had to overpass this hurdle quickly so the communication was kept going. On the other side some Romanian students lacked a spontaneous use of the language even if their class results didn’t show that. I also noticed in Romanian students, by comparison with their French counterparts, a shyness in approaching the French students which I consider a result of a monocultural education. Suddenly both sides had to think and react quickly in a second language, triggering complex mind processes which they had not been previously activated. Language was no longer a purpose but a way towards accomplishing a purpose. Improvisation in a foreign language replaced the neat class language, the element of predictability having been reduced to minimum. We both could observe that it was a whole new lesson for all.
In the third stage they had to negotiate the structure of the story, plot, characters and decide upon group tasks. This negotiation took place on chat as well, and went better because both sides had the experience of the first chat and were now kind of ready for any surprise element. Therefore, they easily managed to reach an agreement and proceed to writing together the story. Even the minor cultural differences were surpassed easily so that the groups could well work together.
In conclusion, if we look around we see that the global world requires a global citizen with new skills. English language has become more than the language of the Anglo-Saxon world. It is the language of a global communication that includes more non-native speakers than native speakers and while reaching this level of internationality the language suffers alterations. The non-native speaker has to grasp a meaning even if it bears the touch of another culture. Because the text books currently in use reflect mostly the English of the native speaker, with good reason, it would be advisable that the learning also take place beyond the class and through direct contact with as many different language users as possible. eTwinning platform offers such a possibility. Teachers can initiate projects and find partners all around Europe, facilitating in this way the access to real life practice.More than that, being involved in an international team the student wants to learn a better language so that his ideas are conveyed better, while he learns to tolerate and understand the mind of the other. Cultures and different mental models come together in such a project, in the benefit of students.

 

Biodata

Sanda Gabor has been teaching English for 30 years now and during these years she has travelled along with her teaching through the development of the country, starting with English an isolated cell during communism to globalization of the subject at the same pace with the country’s integration into a global world. Today she feels teaching has reached a full freedom of expression and maybe that’s why I feel so compelled to bring to my class all that is a gadget. I am interested in teaching through technology, using smartboard, the tablet or the phone in most of my lessons. My students are digital natives so she strongly believes she has to live in their world and teach.