”Having a knowledge of several languages can provide new perspectives on the surrounding world, enhanced opportunities to create contacts and greater understanding of different ways of living.”
(Curriculum for the compulsory school system, … Skolverket 2011, p.73)
It has never been so easy due to the ICT taking the world into class Maria Estling Vannestål claims in Teaching English on the Internet (2009); opportunities to bring authentic materials in English teaching is virtually unlimited. It's also positive in economic terms: a lot is free.
An idea pops up. I've read somewhere that the municipality where I'm teaching has a twin town in Italy, which obviously must have students in the same age my local authorities run school daily. Pupils that could get in touch with each other in pure curiosity about one another's life situations, for the sake of education, on class time.
Why not establish an eTwinning partnership with the intention of learning/sharing Italian as a ”modern language within the framework of language options” (Curriculum .. 2011, pp.74-75) and sharing/ teaching Swedish through English; two native languages using the English as the language of communication, the lingua franca; becoming an e-twinned school partner with a group of students who in a corresponding way to Swedish pupils have English language as a compulsory subject in their school and are keen on sharing modern teen life in Sweden and Italy - in three languages! A digital multilin-gual and cross-cultural collaboration with English as the language of instruction.
A MULTILINGUAL eTWINNED PROJECT PROPOSAL
”The school is responsible for ensuring that each pupil // can communicate in English // and also be given opportunities to communicate in some other foreign language.” (Ibid., p.15)
”They [pupils] should also be equipped to be able to use different tools for learning, understanding, being creative and communicating. Teaching should encourage pupils to develop an interest in languages and culture, and convey the benefits of language skills and knowledge.” (Ibid., p.32)
I surf on to my municipality's web site, www.haninge.se, where I use the search bar looking up ”twinning¨, shortly I get some results and I link myself to a page where the following can be read:
“A twinning is the coming together of two communities seeking, in this way, to take action with a European perspective and with the aim of facing their problems and developing between themselves closer and closer ties of friendship. Formia is the southernmost twinning of Haninge [other twin cities are located in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Sweden] and has a very strategic location, 100 km south of Rome and 10 km north of Naples, on the Italian west coast." (Haninge Municipality, 2012)
The Italian language is one of Europe's fourth largest Wikipedia (2012) claims, and often figures as the subject “modern language” in swedish upper secondary schools, in e.g. Stockholm (Stockholm Municipality, 2102). Even one or another secondary school (from the 6 or 7th school year) offers that choice a, e.g. Abrahamsbergsskolan in Stockholm (ibid).
eTWINNING - A PLATFORM FOR MULTILINGUALISM
”Pupil and student exchanges are often one of the high points of a partnership, and can help to stimulate interest in learning the language of the partner country.” (CEMR, 2012)
My idea is about trying to conduct a twinning on the Internet in order to develop a multilingual mutually cooperation in sharing and learn one another's native languages. Using English as the lingua franca, on subjects related to the concept of twinning, students will alternately present and publish issues from their own town in a shared wiki page*: in texts, audios and video files in their mother tongues, simultaneously literally translated into English. The recipients translate the presented topics into their native language through the English, both in text, audio and video, and they add it to the same wiki page, right next to the original text. In this way it's possible within a single web page, to see, read and listen about multilingually and cross-culturally shared matters in three languages!
* A wiki is a website which allows its users/members to add, modify, or delete its content via a web browser. It invites all users to work collaboratively, to compose and edit any page within the wiki Web site. It seeks to involve the members in an ongoing process of creation and collaboration that constantly changes the Web site landscape, such as http://en.wikipedia.org/ or similar.
A way of getting started could be to display digital pictures on topics or events one wants to recount. What the images are showing will be described by letting visual and speaking voki avatars* present in two languages, in mother tongue and English. The recipient twin town then completes the event by adding their native tongue, completing thus the adventure to a total of three languages. An example of a first multilingual collaborated draft could look something like this: http://multilingualetwinnedproject.blogspot.se/2012/12/pezzi-di-ghiaccio-un-isola-distanza.html
*"Voki Enables users to express themselves on the Web in Their Own voice using a talking character. Your Voki can speak with your own voice [or using speech synthesis while typing] text-to-speech. " (Oddcasts Inc., 2012)
The point of a shared wiki in class is that students collaborate in a democratic way of working on language acquisition topics, about matters they care of. These are fundamental values and tasks of the school. “By taking part in the planning and evaluation of their daily teaching // pupils will develop their ability to exercise influence and take responsibility” (Curriculum .. 2011, p.9). Students with a developed command of language can serve as mentors to other pupils who yet haven't achieved the same level of knowledge; the zone of proximal development, the psychologist Lev Vygotsky claims (as cited in Dysthe, 2003 pp. 31-), is the gap between what a learner has already mastered and what he or she can achieve when provided with educational support.
In this way, the pupils' general development of language will be supported and will broaden their
linguistic resources which leads to an in-depth and more complex capability to communicate, and thus favourable, Hoffmann (1991) claims, in our increasingly international network. A skill that paves the way for a students multilingual future and her broadened cultural competence. This is a concept that ought to be be fully in line with the EU's language policy of the need of measures to preserve linguistic diversity and multilingualism, both within national minority languages and cross-border communi-cation. "Respect for cultural and linguistic diversity and language learning for all are fundamental principles … The ability to understand and use several languages helps citizens achieve their full potential, both socially and professionally. Language skills are essential for equity and integration.” European Commission and Council of Europe sign declaration on multilingualism”. (EC, 2012)
INTERACTIVE eTWINNED TASKS SUPPORTING MULTILINGUALISM
To get started on such a project I imagine three alternating multilingual relations - the mother tongue, English and the foreign language - in order to the twinning idea:
AN OPEN DIARY
This one concerns personal presentations about the community, a kind of an open interactive and shared diary, a collaboration where the students share any kind of event about weekdays and weekends in their neighbourhood blocks. The twin town students trade and interweave one another's causeries and tragedies, the hand off point for the sender is (as in a relay) the taking off zone for the next to come, at the current date and time, on the sidewalk, at the kitchen table, on the bus; in short, a relay diary, in a concrete situation of any kind.
In this way it's possible to build friendship by sharing familiar cultural sequences and crossing language boundaries; making open diary topics available in three languages, the mother tongue, the English and the modern language.
The receivers translates the matter into their own native language and process it into a text (or similar) and post it next to the original on the wiki page. The receivers task is then to become senders, and to present and post a piece of an open diary note, from where the former sender ended her diary lines.
”It is important to have an international perspective, to be able to understand one’s own reality in a global context and to create international solidarity, as well as prepare for a society with close contacts across cultural and national borders. Having an international perspective also involves developing an understanding of cultural diversity within the country.” (Curriculum .. 2011, p.12)
A WEBZINE
Estling Vannestål (2009) claims that there are many benefits of using ICT in various subjects and she points out that in English teaching it provides variation and increased motivation, which in its turn results in an increased learning.
The second cooperation involves introducing one another's town or village in a wiki webzine, with possible topics such as School, Leisure, History, Neighbourhood & Nature; a kind of an art journalism, in which students work together in groups. This is about introducing issues that the twin town responds to by first translating the articles into their native language and then describe and present the corresponding area in their community.
If the pupils are using an Internet forum, where it's possible to add comments, supplementary questions or similar could multilingually be put, both by the students themselves or by the public, in three languages! The chat may give the editors ideas and suggestions on developing their multilingual webzine. Who knows, maybe a fourth language would like to join ... "The future is multimodal and multilingual rather than monomodal and monolingual" Björkvall & Engbom state in "Multilingualism, identity, and learning" (Musk & Wedin [red] 2010, p. 209).
COLLABORATING OFFICIAL WIKI SITES
A next educational step could be to collaborate and let the e-twinned cooperation enter as official wiki editors, by updating and widen parts of Wikipedia (e.g.) that deals with the eTwinning communities and countries in question (and why not using knowledge from the Diary and the Zine), in mother tongue, english and the modern language.
“The English language surrounds us in our daily lives and is used in such diverse areas as politics, education and economics. Knowledge of English thus increases the individual’s opportunities to participate in different social and cultural contexts, as well as in international studies and working life”. (Curriculum .. 2011, p.32)
”The school is responsible for ensuring that each pupil on completing compulsory school: can interact with other people based on knowledge of similarities and differences in living conditions, culture, language, religion and history, can communicate in English, both in the spoken and written language, and also be given opportunities to communicate in some other foreign language in a functional way, can use modern technology as a tool in the search for knowledge, communication, creativity and learning”. (Curriculum .. 2011, pp.15-16)
>> tap/click >> Other ICT Resources in the teaching of English
>> ICT & BROADCASTING LIVE VIDEO USING SMARTPHONE
>> ICT in the teaching of English I >> II >> III >> IV >> V
ECONOMIC RESOURCES & EQUIPMENT
The best basis to start and develop a twinning contact in the above described language sharing program is that the local school together with the authorities provide the idea with financial means which enables a pilot project during one academic year, from September to May, for about 5 students, if, say, five hours a week.
One approach could be that the principal before a new school year introduces the project as a pupils' option*, and uses some pool hours of the schools' option*. In conjunction with the presentation of the idea one obviously put up commercials about the twinning idea under a slogan such as ”Learn the basics in Italian through ICT in the teaching of english”. During the semester, the project will be evaluated together with the twin town, in consultation with the municipal contact, in relation to the idea, plan and implementation.
* Pupils’ options mean that individual pupils can deepen their studies in one or more subjects. Individual schools may also, within certain limits, develop a distinctive profile of their own by allocating more hours to specific subjects, such as foreign languages. (SFS 2011:185, SFS 2010:800)
It exists a risk, of course, that one will not find a twinning partner who is willing to learn Swedish or for that matter nor students at the present school wishing to learn Italian. Then one can embrace a plan B with the aim to build a partnership for multilingualism in general: finding a group of students anywhere in Italy who would like to learn Swedish in the above premises, or seeking contact with a group of students anywhere in the world, in any other language.
Expenses of a first years project is negligible because the group can use the school's existing IT equipment, such as computers and cameras, and be supervised by one or two teachers. Over time, however, one needs adding additional staff (if the project will carry on or if it's expanding) and renew the stable of technology with smart boards, smart phones and laptops. Today (20130105) the costs of the very smart board equipment (that covers at least 20 participating students during one lesson) is approx. 6000€ (e.g. SBX885IX SMARTBOARD X885 PROJECTOR WITH UX60). If a working group of pupils consists of about five students, they need maybe 2 pcs. smart phones (e.g. HTC DESIRE € 200 each) and 5 pcs. laptops (e.g. ASUS K53U € 300 each). An equipment that of course can alternate among 40 students during a week (= 40 hours [a school week] divided by 5 hours [pupils' choice a week] and multiplied with 5 pupils (a group of students attending the pupils' choice). The total cost will be about € 8000 = 1 * 6000 +2 * 200 +5 * 300 (Dustin AB, 2012) and approx. cover a couple of years.
THE START OF a PROJECT
If the project receives clearance from both principal and pupils, one ensures that the team of students and responsible teachers will meet for a take off at the beginning of the academic year.
The first thing to agree upon is the contents of the information letter which is to be sent out to potential schools and groups of students in Formia, Italy. A letter which is written in English and of course simultaneously translated into Swedish, as well as a video recording of it (e.g. a voki avatar video as above).
The teacher creates a group account on Facebook (e.g.) where he enables schools to register informal interest. The former group also notifies the municipal twinning contact individual about the project and ask them to forward information and the proposal in its entirety (this essay!) to the corresponding contact person in the twin town.
The students begin a web based introductory course in Italian on the basis of English, such as http://www.ielanguages.com/italian.html or equivalent and make use of http://www.voki.com/ , e.g. in writing that welcoming letter:
Hi!
We are a small pioneer group of five younger teenagers (and some teachers) at [name of the school] in your twin town Haninge in Sweden, http://haninge.se/sv/ and http://www.facebook.com/Haninge.seref=ts. We would like to invite you to a joint project of a cooperation on the basis of the ideas that twinning is built upon, http://www.twinning.org/en/page/a-quick-overview.html and http://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/index.htm.
Our idea is to create fellowship by sharing our respective mother tongues. We would like to share languages with you through the ICT in the teaching of English, we'll teach you Swedish, http://www.ielanguages.com/swedish1.html, and you'll teach us Italian, like http://www.voki.com/ such as http://travelaround.wikispaces.com/Amanda.
Don't you think that's a brilliant idea! However, we'll use English as the administrative language. If you think it's cool, you just surf into our Facebook page [web address] and sign up your interest!
Our first contribution of our partnership in language sharing - and to give you an idea what's it all about - is a short little triplet-avatar-viki-video-presentation about [one of] ourselves, speech and text, in Swedish, English and a try in Italian. Please, check it out...
http://multilingualetwinnedproject.blogspot.se/2012/12/listen-to-multilingual-personal.html
Why not correct our Italian presentation (at the web site above, voki.com). To give it a try and work it out, click one of the links below (or copy it into your browser); they are each a copy of “Tommaso”.
Don't forget to post us your speaking avatar! And we'll insert your "voki-Tommaso" together with his multiple brothers at the web site where he belongs (above). If a link doesn't work above just simply send us the italian text-version of the presentation!
We are eagerly awaiting your response!
The Very Best Regards - Students and Teachers [email addresses & links to school, Facebook etc.]
[end of letter]
The municipality has of course, on its homepage, information about the eTwinning project and a link to the group's informal Facebook page.
Which formal workspace to use is agreed later on; either using the existing portal or choose a website which is directly adapted for twinning, such as
http://www.twinning.org/
http://www.etwinning.net/, and wiki writing http://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/get_support/help/how_to_use_the_twinspace.htm or http://www.wikispaces.com/
Estling Vannestål (2009) points out that computer usage benefits as well advanced pupils as those students who have difficulties to attain goals, partly because it increases the ability to individualize teaching and partly to the ranged selection of computer programs which more satisfies additional learning styles than traditional teaching. The author also expresses the importance of following the technical progress in society since it's being currently updated and developed daily.
It is also mentioned by Estling Vannestål (2009) that ICT as well might be a way for teachers to get closer to the students because the latter spend a great deal of time in front of a computer [or a smartphone].
THE FUTURE FACE OF MULTILINGUAL EDUCATION
The project would also provide an opportunity to somewhat evaluate ICT in the teaching of english as a regular platform for all modern language teaching at the compulsory schools in the municipal of Haninge.
How well does a student's general language development benefits in a twinning where English is used as a lingua franca? What opportunities exists for introducing additional modern languages other than the traditionals? What are the positive impacts of a student's increased multilingualism on their advancement of knowledge in general, concerning subjects in the compulsory school? Could English be a possible platform in an ICT project to begin an education in any other language?
“The internationalization of Swedish society and increasing cross border mobility place high demands on the ability of people to live with and appreciate the values inherent in cultural diversity. Awareness of one’s own cultural origins and sharing in a common cultural heritage provides a secure identity which it is important to develop, together with the ability to understand and empathize with the values and conditions of others. The school is a social and cultural meeting place with both the opportunity and the responsibility to strengthen this ability among all who work there.” (Curriculum .. 2011, p.9)
Perhaps the local authority may discover opportunities for young teenage students, regardless of place of residence, to start a relatively early formal training in modern languages like Mandarin or Arabic, language learnings that today are practicable solely in big city schools or at universities.
Mandarin is, wikipedia (2012) states, the world's largest language spoken by nearly 1 billion people, mostly in the world's largest financial domain, China. Arabic is spoken by nearly 300 million around the world. In Sweden, thanks to the migration, there are around 300 000 Arabic mother tongue speakers throughout the country. The Swedish export value to arabic speaking countries in 2012 amounted to 12.5 billion Swedish kronor. English is the most widespread language in the world and works in many parts as a lingua franca, with over 1 billion speakers.
“Teaching should also provide pupils with opportunities to develop knowledge about and an understanding of different living conditions, as well as social and cultural phenomena in the areas and contexts where English is used.” (Curriculum .. 2011, p.32)
“People have always been dependent on their ability to cooperate when creating and developing society. Today, people in different parts of the world are facing both opportunities and problems linked to globalisation, intercultural relations and sustainable development. Knowledge of society gives us tools allowing us to orient ourselves and take responsibility for our actions in a complex world.” (Curriculum .. 2011, p.189)
Yes, Swedish compulsory schools ought to embrace the opportunities offered by the ICT using English as the lingua franca in their approach of achieving multilingualism. The profits will be more than double; one can assume that students' language skills will increase a) in general b) in English and c) in a third language. Beyond the basic language skills one can also postulate that students' knowledge will increase in the ICT, about local cooperation as well as global.
”Sweden has lofty goals regarding internationalization. If we are to fulfil them the country's inhabitants need to have high standards even for multilingualism.” (Bardel & Novén 2012-11-19)
“The Swedish government has now taken the first step towards introducing Chinese - or Mandarin - as a modern language in [compulsory, and upper secondary from the 6 or 7th school year] Swedish schools. [The Government provides the National Agency for Education today, 20121203, to develop courses and syllabuses.] All students should be able to choose if they want to study the language as a compulsory subject or not.” (Björklund 2012-12-03; Scancomark.com Team 2012-12-03)
EPILOGUE
A very beneficial side effect could be, of an active approach to multilingual education in Swedish schools, that politicians start public bilingual education, taking advantage of languages spoken in the school area; teaching in all subjects is carried out in swedish and one of the major immigrant languages in their communities, such as Somali, Turkish or equivalent. And, of course, simultaneously use the ICT as in the description above, and why not advance it to embrace non english speaking pupils in Somalia (e.g.) but speaking Swahili (and keen to share it in order to learn english and swedish), used as the lingua franca in East Africa and is spoken approx. about 60 million people and is served “as a national, or official language, of five nations: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, the Comoros and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.” (Wikipedia, 2013)
All research (e.g. Thomas & Collier, 1997; Cummins 1984, Cummins 2000) shows that bilingual education promotes a pupil's active bilingualism (i.e. when a person speaks two languages equally well regardless of context) which is the key to academic success for second language students – a fact that even ought to imply native speaking students being actively bilingual! Just imagine how beneficial that would be to Swedish global labor market!
And, I think it strengthens solidarity between people and we will se less of racism and alienation in our society, simply because languages are our home.
REFERENCE LIST
BOOKS
Björkvall, Anders & Engblom, Charlotte. (2010). Flerspråkighet och multimodalitet som lärandepotential [Multilingualism and multimodalty as potential of learning] I [In]: Wedin, Åsa & Nigel (red.) Flerspråkighet, identitet och lärande: skola i ett föränderligt samhälle [Multilingualism, identity, and learning: school in an evolving society], Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Cummins, J. (1984), Bilingual Education and Special Education: Issues in Assessment and Pedagogy San Diego: College Hill
84
Cummins, J. (2000), Language, Power and Pedgogy: Bilingual Children in the Crossfire. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
Dysthe, O. (2003). Dialog, samspel och lärande. [Dialogue, teamwork and learning]. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Estling Vannestål, Maria (2009). Lära engelska på Internet [Teaching English on the Internet] 1. uppl. Lund: Studentlitteratur
Hoffman, Charlotte (1991). An Introduction to BILINGUALISM. London: Longman Linguistic Library.
ELECTRONIC SOURCES
Bardel & Novén (2012-11-19). “Engelska räcker inte i en globaliserad värld.” [English is not enough in a globalized world]. Dagens Nyheter AB, Sweden, viewed 18 December 2012 <http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/debatt-essa/engelska-racker-inte-i-en-globaliserad-varld>
Björklund (2012-12-03). Jan Björklund presenterar förslag om kinesiska [Jan Björklund presents proposals on Chinese]. Utbildningsdepartementet, Stockholm, Sweden, viewed 18 December 2012 <http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/16690/a/204971>
(CEMR) COUNCIL OF EUROPEAN MUNICIPALITIES AND REGIONS, Paris & Bruxelles (2012), viewed 18 December 2012 <http://www.twinning.org/>
Curriculum for the compulsory school system, the pre-school class and the leisure-time centre 2011. (2011). Stockholm: Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket), viewed 18 December 2012 <http://www.skolverket.se/publikationer?id=2687>
Dustin AB (2012), Sweden, viewed 5 Januari 2013 <www.dustin.se>
(EC) European Commission (2012), Paris & Bruxelles, viewed 18 December 2012 <http://ec.europa.eu/languages/index_en.htm> <http://www.etwinning.net/>
Facebook (2012), USA, viewed 5 Januari 2013 <http://www.facebook.com/>
Google (2012), USA, viewed 5 Januari 2013 <http://multilingualetwinnedproject.blogspot.se/> <https://www.google.se/> <http://translate.google.se/>
Haninge kommun (2012-03-29).Vänorter – ger gränslösa erfarenhetsutbyten inom kultur, idrott,turism och näringsliv [Twin cities - Provides infinite exchanges in culture, sport, tourism and business], Haninge, viewed 18 December 2012 <http://www.haninge.se/sv/Naringsliv/EU-fragor/Vanorter/>
Haninge kommun (2012), Sweden, viewed 18 December 2012, <http://www.haninge.se/>
Macmillan Publishers Limited (2012), England, viewed 5 Januari 2013 <http://www.macmillandictionary.com/>
Oddcasts Inc. (2012), USA, viewed 5 Januari 2013 <http://www.voki.com/>
Scancomark.com Team (2012-12-03). Gothenburg, Sweden, viewed 18 December 2012. Move for Swedish pupils to learn Chinese. <http://www.scancomark.com/Competitiveness/Move-for-Swedish-pupils-to-learn-Chinese-231803122012.html>
SFS 2012:498. Skolförordning (2011:185), Sweden (2013), Utbildningsdepartementet, viewed 5 Januari 2013 <http://www.riksdagen.se/sv/Dokument-Lagar/Lagar/Svenskforfattningssamling/Skolforordning-2011185_sfs-2011-185/>
SFS 2012:493 Skollag (2010:800), Sweden (2013), Utbildningsdepartementet, viewed 5 Januari 2013 <http://www.riksdagen.se/sv/Dokument-Lagar/Lagar/Svenskforfattningssamling/Skollag-2010800_sfs-2010-800/>
Stockholms stad (2012), Sweden, viewed 18 December 2012, <http://www.stockholm.se/>
Sveriges riksdag, Sweden (2012), viewed 18 Decmber 2012, <http://www.riksdagen.se/>
Talentum Media AB, Sweden (2012), viewed 23 October, <http://www.dagensmedia.se>
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., USA (2012),viewed 23 October 2012, <http://en.wikipedia.org/>
Thomas, Wayne P. & Collier, Virginia P. (1997). School effectiveness for language minority students [electronic resource] Washington, D.C.: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education, viewed 5 Januari 2013 <http://www.thomasandcollier.com/Downloads/1997_Thomas-Collier97.pdf>
Uecker, Patrick (2012), Germany, viewed 5 Januari 2013 <http://sv.bab.la/lexikon/>
Wagner, Jennifer (2012), USA, viewed 5 Januari 2013 <http://www.ielanguages.com/italian.html>
Wikispaces Corp. (2012), USA, viewed 5 Januari 2013 <http://www.wikispaces.com/>
Inga kommentarer:
Skicka en kommentar