International Language Learning Projects

Posted on April 15, 2008
Filed under Collaborative Projects, Wikis, language learning and tagged Collaboration, language learning, wikispaces

I wanted to find some collaborative projects that involved language learning. I’ve really enjoyed being part of Voices of The World by Sharon Tonner which involves classes around the world completing a different task each month that involves recording their voices and presenting it in different ways. For one of our tasks – a counting task – I got my Grade 2 class to say the numbers in English and Chinese. you can see the result of that here (ours is the second one down – Hawkesdale College).

Anyway, having been inspired by this project and wanting to create one (or three) that actually involves students presenting in two languages, I’ve come up with the following projects:

The International Lunch Box Project – For students in Prep (K) – 3. Presenting what they have for lunch at school, sharing pictures and maybe a short video or audio in the language they are taught in and the language they are learning.

Little Language Experts – For students in Years 4-6 (and 7). These particular classes of mine are looking at greetings and introductions and the aim is for them to teach other classes some beginning Chinese. The idea is for other classes to make up short (and simple!) language lessons for other schools to introduce the language they are learning. The aim is for students to understand that other students learn languages as well and why different languages are taught in different places.

Ours Schools – For students in Years 8-10. My aim with this project is to have students discuss what the differences and similarities are between their school lives. I think it’s really important for my particular group of Year 8 students (some of whom seem to have an aversion to anything Asian just because it’s Asian) to see that just because people are in a different country, doesn’t mean you don’t have anything in common with them.

Each of these projects will be run through a wiki I have set up for each one. you can visit each one to find out more about the project and how to get involved. I’m still adding a few details to them (esp the Little Language Experts one!) but if I wait until everything is perfect before writing about them, then it might be a while before anyone hears about them!

As part of the projects classes will need to add photos and comments to the wiki and maybe to some student blogs as well. Hopefully there can be live link ups with Skype, but that will depend on time zone differences.

One thing I do stress for each project is that they will change and evolve depending on who gets involved and what they want to contribute. It’s all open for discussion and negotiation, but I will provide a definite structure at the same time – as contradictory as that may sound!

So, if you are interested in being involved, please visit the wiki for the project that suits you, and let me know what you think. Also, pass on the link to this post to anyone else you think might be interested. Looking forward to it!

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3 Responses to “International Language Learning Projects”

stephanie on April 15th, 2008 3:47 pm

Check out eduFire.com. It’s a great interactive, multi-media focused language website that offers educational language videos, fun flashcards in a variety of different languages and one-on-one tutoring via video chat. Visit http://www.eduFire.com and set-up a free profile and have a great time learning a new language or languages.
Andrew J on April 17th, 2008 9:18 pm

Jess,
More great ideas; you’re inspiring! I like the sound of the Little Langauge experts project and am keen to try to get some of my Yr7 students involved with this; making some lessons in Japanese & French.
Keep up the awesome work.
GingerTPLC on April 20th, 2008 1:32 pm

Your years 8-10: how long have they been studying Chinese? If some are new to the Language, it may be nice to have some of my students participate with yours on that. Most of my students have been cursorily studying Spanish, but this would put an emphasis on them learning more.

Likewise, many of my younger students (similar to your Little Language Experts) would do well with that information. It would be nice if we could then partner with a school who spoke Chinese as natives… I think I know just the guy to hook us up…wait. You are cultivating a hook-up right now, aren’t you?

I’m still thinking of how I can give back to you on this project; summer break begins in about a month (after May 22) and I’m planning to do more concentrated thinking then. I am sure I can still get a few kids to participate over the summer, while your school is still in session…and our time constraints would be more flexible! Several of my students would enjoy coming in over break to talk with yours, I’m sure!