Are we really what we eat? Food and language as inseparable intercultural and linguistic indicators to facilitate understanding between countries. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Are we really what we eat? Food and language as inseparable intercultural and linguistic indicators to facilitate understanding between countries.

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

CONTEXT / BACKGROUND We wanted to use the context of food to encourage our learners of the two languages to think about a basic common need and is often something that people of these pupils’ age (troisieme/ Year 10) find particularly interesting. As an English school with a French school partner, this fed directly into the stereotypes of “English food bad / French food good” that children in those year groups would have had exposure to. So we started from a language acquisition standpoint, but it was important to include cultural implications, both of everyday food and celebration food, because culture and language inform each other, as well as making each other ‘interesting’.
Note: Senior Management in both schools of course must ensure that children are receiving a balanced education, and that context was also important for us – they could not give us more time than that involved in timetabled language lessons and homeworks, apart from the week that each group of children spent in the others’ school. This meant that some of the multiple activities that might have followed on from much of what we did were not possible in the context of the time available.

OBJECTIVES The objectives did not change radically so the wording here is mostly similar to that in our proposal.
(1) to encourage pupils to consider and learn from information that they acquired by preparing joint presentations with their counterparts in the other school.
(2) to enable pupils to increase and develop their use of the other language, by a combination of guided activities, independent research, regular correspondence with pupils in the other school, and an exchange during which the pupils spent a week living with a family in the other country.
(3) To allow pupils to discover that they can work with other young people in a different country despite not being completely fluent in each others’ language. [This latter objective was even more successful than we had anticipated – more in RESULTS.]
There were 45 participants in total, with a total of 5 accompanying teachers. The pupils were from different backgrounds, a really good social and educational mix. They were in Year 10 / troisième in 2017/2018, and already learning each others’ language at school.

ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN
Details of these are included in Implementation below.
• Questionnaires and surveys
• VIDEO PRESENTATIONS.
• DESCRIPTION / TRANSLATION OF TYPICAL DISHES.
• PRESENTATION TO WIDER COMMUNITY.
• FINAL DOCUMENT
• VISIT TO PROFESSIONAL TEACHING KITCHEN IN BORDEAUX
• INSTRUCTION FROM PROFESSIONAL CHEF AT SCHOOL IN COGNAC
• CREATION OF DESSERT FOR PRESENTATION IN COGNAC
• CHARENTE MEAL IN SCHOOL
• JUNK FOOD TASTING
• Welcome BRUNCH at Warminster
• TOUR OF WESTCOMBE DAIRY
• WAITROSE COOKING SCHOOL
• EASTER FOOD DISPLAYS
• FOOD IN BATH
• MAKING BRITISH AFTERNOON TEA

RESULTS AND IMPACT
INNOVATIVE PRACTICES FOR THE FUTURE. Discussed at the Transnational Project Meeting.
DOCUMENTS FOR PUBLIC DISSEMINATION. Our project was presented more than once on the Warminster School website as well as on the Elisee Mousnier website. See Annexe 2 for screenshots and URLs.
BROADENING OF HORIZONS/ LINGUISTIC IMPROVEMENT. Horizons were definitely broadened as pupils from both countries were exposed to different styles of food, both cooking and eating as well as an appreciation of the cultural aspects of food. Linguistically the English and French pupils participated in several cooking activities in both countries with their partners which meant that they had to communicate in order to produce the finished result, and this was one of the best results of our project. Pupils began to understand that you can communicate effectively even if you don’t speak a language perfectly – it is the fear of not speaking a language perfectly that often holds back pupils, and this was a huge step forward. This was particularly so in Warminster School where pupils in Year 10, who are obliged to learn a language, often feel that there is no point trying because they think they will never be fluent. In the Collège Elisée Mousnier the understanding about effective communication was still evident, but French pupils generally need less persuading of the value of learning a foreign language.
STAFF OBSERVATION. Accompanying members of staff in both schools took back to their schools ideas from having observed lessons in the partner school. For example, Warminster School staff have introduced a more rigorous behaviour policy in language lessons, insisting on a more French system of respect for the learning environment. Elisee Mousnier staff took back to their school ideas for more active learning activities.
RECIPE BOOK – this was the most tangible result of our year’s collaboration. Favourite recipes were chosen by pupils, translated into the other language and were printed professionally as a book and distributed to families and friends, as well as being displayed in local libraries in both towns.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 44265 Eur

Project Coordinator

Warminster School & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Collège Élisée Mousnier