Immersion d’une classe primaire dans une école à l’étranger Erasmus Project

Project Title

Immersion d’une classe primaire dans une école à l’étranger

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 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

During this project, pupils aged between 7 and 10 from a rural, Alpine area of France and an urban suburb in England have had numerous and regular exchanges using a variety of tools and activities (including TICE) as well as a week of immersion in the foreign school.

Objectives:
Establish long term relations and build strong links with the pupils of the partner school
Discover the culture of a foreign country and the different ways of life in a context that has meaning to pupils of that age, eg school life (cultural open-mindedness, tolerance of other cultures and an interest in the other country and their culture)
Improve the English / French language skills of the pupils and the teachers
Motivate and inspire the pupils to study foreign languages (an essential factor in the successful learning of a foreign language)

We were two participating institutions:
The managing institution : The Ecole Pierre Bossy, a small rural school with 2 classes with a majority of pupils from farming families.
The partner institution: Fiddlers Lane Community Primary School : a large urban school with 11 classes from a suburb of Greater Manchester in Salford with a large number of pupils form socially challenging backgrounds.

Description of the principal activities and their delivery:

The project was structured around two astuces over the two years : the interclass exchanges and the period of immersion.

1. Interclass exchanges (before and after the immersion trips):

Over the two years, the pupils established strong links and contacts. They got to know each other by sharing joint projects that required regular weekly exchanges using letters (both paper and electronic), video conferences and the e-Twinning platform.

The focus was on learning French / English both orally and written to be able to communicate more easily. We worked on the following themes : introducing ourselves (name, where from, age) talking about likes and dislikes (sports, food, hobbies… ), describing family (brothers, sisters, pets) and talking about events that have happened (holidays).

The follow ups after the immersion trips :
The pedagogic work started with the creation of a souvenir film by the pupils of their trip abroad. In addition, they wrote a daily journal of their experiences during their stay to elaborate and write up in more detail on return – a great opportunity to work on writing and expression skills in their native language. They also wrote and sent thank you letters to the partner school.
2- The Immersion Trips :
The first year, the French pupils met their English pen pals and discovered the English education system when they were integrated in groups of 3 – 4 into the English school’s classes for a whole week. The second year, the English pupils saw their pen pals for the second time and discovered the life of a rural French school when they were integrated into the classes, also for a week.

During the immersion weeks transnational workshops were organized to help the pupils engage in dialogue, communicate with each other and enrich their language competences.

Several cultural visits were also organized in each country. In England the pupils visited Quarry Bank Mill, the Manchester canals and in France the pupils went rock climbing, hiking and visited the Shepherd’s museum.

All the activities were organized with mixed transnational groups to maximize the opportunities for the pupils to communicate with each other in the both languages.

Results and impact :
This project is an innovative and cooperative way to teach and learn a foreign language. We created real situations for interlingual communication for these young children and gave them the opportunity of being fully immersed in the foreign language. These pupils have considerably improved their competences and their desire to learn a foreign language. This project has allowed them to discover a different culture and language, to overcome their fear of difference and the unknown, and has woken their curiosity.

Long term benefits:
For the pupils, the foreign language skills they have acquired and the cultural opening they have discovered will stay ingrained for life thanks to the unique experience they have lived through this project.

For the French children, this is a considerable advantage for their professional futures in a region where the tourism sector is in full expansion. For the English children, it is a real opportunity for them to experience a way of life outside of their neighbourhood to widen their perspectives and future expectations.

The organizers have benefitted from a better understanding of the management of a project of this scale and type and have the possibility and the motivation to continue this approach to teaching a foreign language in a primary school.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 60405 Eur

Project Coordinator

Ecole-Pierre-Bossy & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Fiddlers Lane Community Primary School