Overview LÉEME EN ESPAÑOL
This is the second of a two-year project between two education centres: EOI Hospitalet (Barcelona) and EOI La Seu (Lleida).
Taking into account that the centres follow the curriculum dictated by the Common European Language Framework, we decided on the basic aspects to cover at B2.2 level, so that students practise the necessary language and structures required. Students will be expected to control and master certain abilities and have reached a certain level of fluency and accuracy in their oral and written productions. Therefore, we set up a project which will help them gain a better control over the language at their level, as well as gain a greater insight into the culture of the language they are learning. This project comes out of the need to incorporate real input into the teaching of a foreign language; exchanging common practices and working together. We would like our students to have a critical eye and to make them feel part of a community of learners. By doing that, we want them to be aware that learning goes beyond the walls of our classrooms and schools, beyond the boundaries of our regions and our countries.
In the second year of the project (October 2021- June 2022) the topic for the debate is The Best Weekend Away.
The Best Weekend Away
The aim of this project is to provide our students with real reasons to communicate and give them the chance to interact with one another. The goal is also to learn about different cultures. The two schools work on the same topic with the same objectives.
The topic to be debated is The Best Weekend Away. Each teacher divides their students in different groups of the same level (B2.2). The students choose a city or county from the UK and make arrangements to get the most of a weekend (two nights and two days) in that city/area.
One of the tasks is to write a request email to the tourist information office, museums, tour guides, etc, asking for information about activities, availability, prices, and so on. Find some examples HERE.
There are presentations (in different formats) given by people who live or have first hand knowledge of Machllynleth (in Wales), Wales in general or Manchester, in England.
Huw Hickman Freya Dooley Francis Bailey
Click on each photo to get further some information
Each group makes a presentation on Google Slides with all the information. A debate or video presentation will ensue, where the different groups try to persuade, by means of argumentation, the rest of the students to choose their weekend away.
The digital support for the presentation is Google Slides; each group uses a maximum of four slides.The final product will be a Calameo magazine with the different presentations.
Click on the image to discover the best weekends away in the whole of the UK!
Methodology
Each of the teachers involved in the project worked with different groups of students. One of the aims of the project was to talk about diversity within the same country, i.e the U.K. Hence, each group chose a different part of the country to spend a weekend.
Griselda’s groups in EOI l’Hospitalet planned their weekend to different locations in England and Scotland; one group decided to visit Devon, whereas another chose to go to Bath. A third group took a virtual trip around Leicestershire and the final English lookaround was a tour round Cornwell. Scotland was also given a thorough search by four different groups of students in l’Hospitalet; one group planned a trip to Aberdeen, another decided to spend their weekend in the capital, Edinburgh. A third group worked on the possibilities of Inverness and finally, the city of Glasgow wrapped up Scotland.
In EOI la Seu d’Urgell, a far less populated town than the city of l’Hospitalet -and a much smaller school-, there were two teachers working with three different classes divided into four groups of students. Mercè’s students explored the various aspects of Wales, the North, the South and the capital city of Cardiff. On the other hand, Alex’s group planned a trip to the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland, and its surroundings.
Throughout the process, student’s searched for information about the cities and the specific areas they were interested in; wrote letters to tourist offices requesting information and found out about time tables, schedules and prices. Learned new vocabulary related to particular cultural aspects of the places, food, history and traditions. Some groups had the opportunity to listen to first hand opinions and information through online talks given by natives from the cities they were planning to visit. For instance, the group preparing a weekend trip to Belfast, had the chance to witness and be a part of a conversation between a woman who is currently living in Belfast and her brother, who is now living in Catalonia, but was born and grew up in Northern Ireland. Also, the fact that the film by Kenneth Brannagh about his childhood memories, Belfast, was released to great acclaim at the time, was also a bonus.
Some other friends in the Uk sent us some videos on either the place they live in or England and Scotland in general. Students could watch them from home (or in class), and hear a variety of accents, too.
Here are our other UK helpers ;-))
Stephanie Karen Buckley John Piprani John Keys
LISTEN TO THEM HERE
Freya Dooley also engaged on a little online Meet session with students at EOI La SEu d' Urgell:
Use of language
Apart from being a great opportunity for students to deepen their knowledge of different aspects of the UK, the aim was also to provide a chance to use real, everyday English and put it to use. Students were made to differentiate between registers, formal or informal, depending on who they were addressing their requests to. They also had an interesting view of the way English is spoken in different parts of the UK; from the South of England to the North of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Finally the different groups of students were to present and discuss what the best place to spend a weekend away would be, so they had to make use of persuasive language and argumentative strategies in order to back up their opinions.
