Task 2

I chose the most recent post from the Cultura project, dating to Fall 2014 between MIT students in the States and students from the University of Lyon, France

What cultural aspects were discussed in this particular interaction?

The word association with France was discussed in this interaction. The flag and the flag colours were mentioned by the French students, as well as lavender and wine. The Eiffel tower was mentioned a lot in English but this is to be expected as it was from a touristic viewpoint. 

What did I learn?

I learned how important the strikes are in French history and especially the ones in 1936, which led to holiday leave being created and a 40 hour working week being established. I found it interesting that the French see strikes and revolution as positive as it creates a change for the better and the Americans see it as something negative. This led me to wonder how we currently see them in Ireland?

The flag discussion then developed into one about pride versus. nationalism and whether identity refers to where you live or to the country as a whole. It proves difficult to generalize nationalism as the USA is so big.

It seems that Americans associate France with Europe in general, which is also news to me considering that all European countries are very diverse, both linguistically and culturally.

Were you surprised by any comment?

Is it true that American children sing the national anthem every day in school or make a pledge of allegiance. This seems over the top to me, yet I am accustomed to having an Irish flag in my house...

Welcome to my blog!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my blog. I am excited and nervous at the prospect of having my own blog.
Over the next weeks, I plan to share my views on what we cover in class and present my views on ICT and Language Learning. I consider myself a 'digital immigrant' and I constantly strive to connect with my students, who are 'digital natives', by incorporating technology into my classes.
I am very interested in integrative CALL such as Sulis which has enabled students to connect with the topics outside of class.

This week I have been reading about the Cultura project. The Cultura project according to their website is essentially "developing understanding of another culture, a process which involves a series of stages that take an intercultural learner along a journey of discovery and reflection". This echoes the models of Byram (1997), Bennett (1998) and Kramsch (1998).

I believe that when I did the Camino de Santiago in 2003, as part of a group project from Galway, linked with a city in Galicia, Spain to explore our Celtic roots that we could have been directed by the format of the Cultura project. The online classroom setting would have enabled us to share ideas and compare and contrast issues in each country. By doing this, we could have documented our findings and stayed in contact instead of merely discussing them face-to-face.

"If today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach", as Prensky said, then we as educators, have to adapt the way that we educate, and I need to broaden my methodology to connect with my students and include CALL and ICC to enhance their linguistic and cultural learning, knowledge and understanding

My aim for this is week is to have a greater understanding of Whorf's views on Language and Thought and the models of ICC.