Why create a support website for language teachers?
Supporting virtual exchanges Training teachers in the pedagogy of virtual exchanges Goals • Encourage use of the new technological tools for promoting exchanges • Raise awareness among teachers of the exchange schemes already in existence at local, national and European level • Promote exchanges as a learning process for pupils. This includes all of the practices that enable pupils to learn languages with the help of ICT, by conducting projects with pupils in another country and with a different language and culture. The process is based on communication and the production of joint outcomes using a CEFRL* approach. • Introduce exchanges as a continuing education process for teachers. This means making exchange, cooperation and the sharing of practices part of teachers’ professional practice, with a view to developing their competences*, building new teaching tools and co-producing new resources*. 26 The link between exchange practices is something that has to be built in teachers’ professional environment. Its construction is a major issue - a sort of challenge for the years to come in the education field. Current situation • Few language teachers are involved: According to information gathered during training initiatives conducted in this area in various European countries, new types of correspondence and exchange projects have emerged and gained ground as a result of European programmes and the introduction of ICT into education. There are still relatively few of them, however. • Pedagogical exchanges are still a minority practice: The vast majority of teachers see exchanges not as a teaching activity in their own right, or as a way of teaching languages from an action-based angle, but rather as an activity designed to raise awareness of the foreign culture and provide contact with the country whose language they teach. Their requirements are therefore primarily of an organisational, logistic and financial nature. • A small minority of experienced teachers: These are the ones who already conduct exchange and cooperation projects, often as part of European programmes (eTwinning, Comenius, Leonardo da Vinci) or international programmes. These teachers seek to enrich their practices and improve their projects. They require rich, diversified resources which they can use independently. To draw up support strategies that will effectively help develop teaching practices based on exchange and cooperation, it is essential to take into account the varying degrees of competence that language teachers have acquired in this area.
23