Sabina Kavšek, Osnovna šola Brinje Grosuplje, Grosuplje
Students today are skilful in using all various digital tools and most of them want to travel the world and look beyond the Slovenian Border. I am a mentor of the international exchange project between the Slovene and French school and this provides the learning environment for the language learning and for learning about an unknown culture, different habits and a different school system. Our learning environment includes planned activities, which are guided by the mentor and independent communication between the peers by using different written and spoken information communication tools. The key goals of this exchange are improving English communication skills with the Slovenes and the French students and make them more familiar with communicating via e-mail, skype, making short films and using various Social Networks (Facebook, Snapchat). Students have different abilities in these skills. Their main motivation and goal is also one week long exchange in France (city St. Chamond) and in Grosuplje, when the penfriends meet and the communication becomes more direct, also within the families, since the accommodation is provided by the exchange students families. At the beginning of school year, next to regular correspondence, the exchange project cooperation is defined also by different topics. These are usually connected with different cultural characteristics and features of Slovenia and France and students mainly suggest them. They write different short compositions, write blogs, and make short films and hand-made posters and cards. We are trying to use written and electronic ways of communication. Every year students prepare a power point presentation of Slovenia, which they present during their visit in France. The French students do the same. An additional value of this project is in the fact that every year there are weaker students who decide to take part in the exchange. They are not that good at English in the classroom, but in the real-life situation, we can see that they manage very well. We found out that the French might be weaker from the grammatical point of view, but they are very good at the communication itself. Our students can learn from them their openness, inventiveness and this way they become more confident in using the foreign language. “France – Slovenia” has been a winning combination for us, especially from the point of view of electronic and direct communication in English between our teenagers.
