drs. M.E. (Maaike) Dicke

Tandem E-learning Dutch <> Italian

RUG/ETC <> Università degli Studi di PADOVA

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Topic(s): Telecollaboration, Online Intercultural Exchanges.

Keywords: learning languages with cinema as didactic material, digital communicative competence (oral and written skills), tandem E-learning (Skype, Blackboard).

The main objective of this telecollaboration project is to engage students in online collaborative tasks with native speakers of the target languages, in this case Italian and Dutch, to enhance their linguistic and intercultural competences and to prepare them better for their one-term study-abroad period. Language teachers involved in this telecollaboration project have been invited to introduce new forms of learning which will enhance exposure to the target languages in innovative ways. Telecollaboration projects for language learning are usually focused on “developing FL competency, intercultural awareness and e-literacies” (Dooly & O’Dowd, 2012:11).

The telecollaboration project presented here will also be focused on these competences, but aims to contribute to the range of  “traditional” e-instruments with another important feature as well: fragments of Dutch and Italian cinema. The approach is as follows: from “micro” (special phraseology in dialogues, metaphors, variation in dialects in carefully selected fragments)  to “macro” (background of the director, historical and/or psychological context, attention for the theme in question and so on). Fundamental question will be: “Can we see typical Dutch or typical Italian cultural phenomena in these fragments?”.  Italian students in Dutch and Dutch students in Italian may thus reflect on Italian and Dutch films by means of specific conversation and writing assignments. Some examples of films relevant to this approach: C’eravamo tanto amati (Scola 1994) - Cloaca (Van de Sande Bakhuyzen 2003), both related to the theme of friendship; La sconosciuta (Tornatore 2006) - De Poolse Bruid (Traïdia 1998), both dealing with abuse of women and uprooted lifes.

This task-based project seeks to integrate telecollaboration into the curriculum of both programmes. At Eurocall 2014 we have presented an overview of this telecollaboration project during the second semester of the course 2013-2014.