USA vs. Italy

Hi everybody!

What do you think if I write:

USA vs Italy?

Probably you will think about a competition or something like that. Actually, I am not going to talk about competitions but about an unique exchange experience between USA and Italy, in particular between Middlebury College in Vermont, U.S.A. and the University of Padua.

This week me and my classmates thanks to Sarah (our English teacher), took part in a wonderful activity. We had to discuss our final presentations by webcast-ing with a group of students from Middlebury College. It was GREAT!

(Photo source )

THE BACKGROUND…

We worked in small groups of two or three people. In our presentations we had to compare an aspect of American and Italian culture, casting light on similarities and differences. I worked with Lucrezia and Annalisa, our presentation dealt with National Celebrations; in particular, we compared three big national celebrations in USA and Italy, and concluded it by summing up the striking features which characterized national feasts in both countries. The presentations of the other groups were about: Eating habits, Fraternities and La Gogliardia, and Immigration.

ON MONDAY: THE GREAT DAY…

On Monday we discussed the presentations by webcast-ing with a group of American students from Vermont. We were all really excited. First of all because we were going to talk with native speakers that we had never seen before; secondly, we didn’t know if they were going to appreciate the subject and comparison of our work. One positive aspect, which helped us to break the ice, was the fact that we didn’t have a visual contact. We only had to talk on the microphone, our American peers could see our power point slides on their computer screen. At the end of our presentations, the American students discussed two of their presentations as well. Although we didn’t see each other, we could send feedback and interact by writing in our wiki chat. In my opinion this was a very interesting aspect of the activity.

American students were really interested in our comparisons and made several questions. This exchange part of the activity made the conversation real and immediate thus stimulating a natural interaction as if the Americans were present in our class.

Even when we were preparing our work, we knew that we would discuss it to a native speaker audience, in this case American students. The idea of a native speaker publicum stimulated us and aroused our interest in the activity. Moreover, we collected a lot of information about American national celebrations, in order to come up with interesting comparisons and show them that we were well informed and prepared thus avoiding the so called “brutta figura”!

On Wednesday some students from Middlebury College university discussed their presentations as well, their subject was related to Italian literature. Their Italian was really good and I enjoyed a lot their work. Me and my classmates sent them feedback and we asked a few questions.

FINAL REFLECTIONS…

Our English course is finishing and I feel a little sad :-( because it gave me the possibility to live such exciting learning experiences.

Firstly, I got more to know with several web genres and exercised a real foreign language by means of many –ing activities such as: blogg-ing, bookmark-ing, wiki-ing, podcast-ing, skype-ing and webcast-ing. Secondly, I took part in such unique learning experiences (and lessons).

This second semester was really exciting; every time I felt enthusiastic to go to the lectures because I knew that I was going to discover and experiment something new. I think that this learning method, based on web technologies, is unique and represents an alternative but effective way to learn and practice a foreign language.

As regard skype-ing and webcast-ing activities, they were my favourite ones!! Thanks to these activities I could feel more involved in the lecture, practice my oral skills, enlarge my dictionary and get more to know with American culture.

The interaction with American students was great, not only because we practiced a foreign language with native speakers, but also because it was a cultural exchange. During this course me and my classmates used an everyday language (and not a literary one), spoke about some problems which characterized modern society such as: recycling, alternative energy, water resources by stressing similarities and differences between USA and Italy. In addition, we talked about feasts, university system, family, exams and travels thus rendering the conversations really interesting.

These types of lectures stimulated my interest towards improving my linguistic and cultural knowledge; moreover, they foster the creation of a collaborative and interactive learning environment that in the second semester has become even wider thanks to the creativity of Sarah (our teacher) and the collaboration of some American students.

See you soon

Take care

Francesca

A unique learning experience

Hi everybody,

I am back on my blog to tell you about another interesting activity in which I took part.

Last week during our English lesson me and my classmates participated in a webcast exchange with video camera with our skype partners from Tulane University in New Orleans. It was really exciting.

Thanks to the webcast and the video camera we had the great opportunity to have a visual contact with our friends from Tulane. I was excited as if it was a long time since I hadn’t seen a friend. I spoke a lot with my partner (Sara) by skype-ing but without seeing her in face. I was really enthusiastic to see her and her classmates on a screen! Although it was not a one to one conversation, but a collaborative talk, it was a great fun. Moreover it was spontaneous and interesting conversation!

We introduced ourselves and then started to talk about what happened at Columbine College in Virginia the week before. We went on to speak a little about young people and guns. Me and my classmates were interested in their opinions and reactions about what happened in Virginia. But, after a few questions we changed topic and started to talk about our skype impressions. Basically, the conversation was based on spontaneous questions and answers; everyone took part in the talk.

This was a great opportunity. First of all me and my classmates had the chance to speak English with native speakers; secondly, it was an intercultural exchange (we talked about American culture). Moreover, it was a collaborative talking, everyone participated and asked questions or told his/her opinion about something.

At the beginning we were all a little ashamed (maybe for the presence of the web camera) but once we broke the ice everything went ok. Roberto, an American gay from Tulane, even sang a little song for us. We all enjoyed ourselves in this intercultural activity.

From a learning point of view, this experience represents something unique. Students have the possibility to interact with people from the other side of the world, to practice a foreign language and test their abilities to participate in a spontaneous talk in English. This represents an innovative teaching method which stimulates students to improve their foreign language skills as well as enlarge their intercultural knowledge.

Finally, this experience made me reflect on how important technologies are in order to enhance teaching purposes; in particular, in the process of collaborative acquisitions and sharing of knowledge.

See you soon,

Take care

Francesca