Presentation given by four Edgemont Jr/Sr High teachers/administrators at the 2013 LHRIC Tech Expo

1. Authentic conversations: Using
technology to connect foreign
language learners to peers abroad
Laura Cantor, Nadia Mule, Christopher
Thoren, Mike Curtin
Edgemont Junior-Senior High School

2. Introduction
“An assessment is authentic when it requires that
students engage with real-life problems, issues, or
tasks for an audience who cares about or has a
stake in what students learn. Authentic tasks enable
students to make sense of and apply what they
have learned and to establish clear connections
between what they have learned in schools and the
world in which they live.”
-Giselle Martin-Kniep, Becoming a Better Teacher

3. Introduction
In traditional foreign language instruction, a
student would most likely spend the vast
majority of his/her six years of study talking to
two people:
The teacher
The student in the desk next to him/her

4. Introduction
1993: “Is it possible to support foreign language
instruction by giving students the opportunity to
have authentic conversations with native
speakers in the target language?”
2013: “How is it possible to teach a foreign
language without giving the students the
opportunity to have authentic conversations
with native speakers in the target language?”

5. Introduction
• January 2012: Nadia visits Mike to inquire about
parent/safety concerns surrounding use of ePals
• February 2012: Edgemont School Foundation
grant submitted
• July 2012: Attendance at Digital Age Learning
Summer Institute and summer PD in Edgemont
• 2012-2013: Ongoing development and
assessment

6. ePals
www.epals.com
• Searchable database of classroom profiles and
a safe mechanism for contacting other
teachers
• Teacher-monitored email accounts for
students
• Web 2.0 collaboration tools

7. Laura Cantor: French
Laura Cantor
School: Edgemont High School
Region: New York, USA, North America
Project Language: French
# of Students: 41+
Age Range: 13-16
Collaboration: Email Exchange, Skype / Video Chat
About my classroom:
Bonjour! My name is Laura. I am High School French teacher in a New
York public school. I would love to start a correspondence with a
French-speaking school. My students are ages 13-16 and they are
excited about having conversations in English and French with their
peers around the world. Please contact me if you are interested in
starting an exchange by e-mail, skype, video-conferencing or other
form of collaborative learning.

8. Laura Cantor: French
• Edgemont High School, Scarsdale, NY: French 2 (9th grade)
• Collège Martin Luther King, Buc, France: 8th grade English

9. Laura Cantor: French
formal communication / informal communication

10. Laura Cantor: French
assignments
1. introductory letter
2. describe your school
3. describe three important people in your life
4. holiday celebrations
5. vacation plans
6. holiday cards (sent via snail mail)
7. video: my winter break
8. Valentines Day
9. Spring
10. final exams
11. Summer

11. Laura Cantor: French
travail de classe
Write a letter to your correspondant (e). Tell him/her
about three important people in your life. You should
include most of the following information for each 15 points
person: ·quality of information (5)
· name ·grammar (5)
· relation to you ·vocabulary (5)
· Age
· Nationality
· Where he/she lives (city and country)
· What languages he/ she speaks
· Job/ occupation
· Use adjectives to describe this person

12. Laura Cantor: French
from Jared
Mon grandpère qui est le père de mon père est
très important à moi parce qu'il est très intelligent
et il me dit de comment il est fier de moi. . Je
l'aime rendre visite à Cape Cod tous les étés.
from Louise
I have loads of important persons in my life. I really like
is my grand father, his name is Pierre but I call him
Bibi... He is my last grand parent left and I try to spend
as much time as possible with him . Sometimes
together we go to a dance show and at the restaurant ,
I like these moments !

13. Laura Cantor: French
From Noah
J'adore le Thanksgiving! En novembre, j'ai celebre le
Thanksgiving avec ma famille. Nous sommes alles chez ma
tante et mon oncle. J'ai vu mes cousins, ma grand-mere, mes
tantes et mes oncles. Nous avons mange la dinde, la sauce, les
epinards avec le fromage, et la farce. C'est un tres bon diner.
From Damien
we have the "épiphanie". It's celebrated the first
sunday after the new year's day and we eat "galette". After we
celebrate the carnival in my school. We disguise and have a lot
of fun.

14. Laura Cantor: French 2
Videos
Videos and photos have been removed
to protect student privacy.

15. Laura Cantor: French
Reactions to videos
From Clara
My english teacher gave me the video you made for me !
I was really happy to hear you ! I want to say you thank
you ! I hope a will can make a video for you in the year !
From Claire
I've just seen your video, i really like it, and your french is good
and your accent is good too .I think you're pretty and i'm happy
to know how you look like because it was kind of weird to write
to someone i didn't know how she looked like! Thanks for the
video!

16. Laura Cantor: French
Informal
From Eric
Comment vas-tu? J'ai la Xbox 360 et j'adore
jouer aux jeux video.
Quel jeux-video as-tu?
From Raphael
You play CoD? Maybe you can play with me, I have just
MW3. My favorite movie is ALIEN. I like this film because
I'm not scared by the Alien, and the film is "funny", I like it
very much. have not a favorite singer, but I like the songs
by Smosh. The parols are very funny

17. Laura Cantor: French
Informal
From Antoine
How are you after the strong storm Sandy? I hope you
don't have to much damage in your home.
From Zachary
L’orage a été très grand. Ma famille et moi ont eu de la
chance parce que nous n’ont pas perdu l’électricité.
Beaucoup de mes amis ont perdu l’électricité t aujourd’hui,
nous sommes allées à l’école (l’école n’a pas eu l’électricité
pour 8 jours).

18. Laura Cantor: French
Teacher to teacher
From Laura
My next unit is about food. My students are fascinated by "French food." It
would be great if your students could write a little bit in French about their
eating habits and about what they consider to be typical "French food."
From Alexandra
Thank you for your students' mails about the US school system. I made
them print their correspondents' mails, so that we could work on the texts
and the specific vocabulary such as "grade", sophomore" ...
My students feel as if they were in a "boring" school
compared to the campus where you work :-) !

19. Chris Thoren: Spanish

20. Chris Thoren: Spanish
Our partners in Chile:
Videos and photos have been removed
to protect student privacy.

21. Chris Thoren: Spanish
Spanish 5H:
Videos and photos have been removed
to protect student privacy.

22. Chris Thoren: Spanish
From: Camilo To: Alexandra
WOW! This is great, your english is pretty good Alex, and thanks for checking
my english by the way! It is great to know more about you and I hope
everything is ok with you and your family after the hurricane... I watched the
news and I was kind of shocked by the images and videos. We began to
worry about you and your classmates, hopefully everything is doing well.
Thanks for telling me everything about the university and education, that's
gonna help me a lot, you know what?, my wife and I are trying to apply to an
university in Utah, but we have to take an english test in january, so it would
be awesome if we can go there and meet each other someday, so that's why
your information will help us :). I'm sure that you're gonna fulfill your goals
and dreams about going to college and travelling around the world!, that
would an awesome thing to do. I'll wait for your next email Alex, and take
care yourself.
PS: I'll do the same thing with your spanish! ;)

23. Chris Thoren: Spanish
From: Alexandra To: Camilo
¡Hola Camilo!
Me llamo es Alejandra, pero mis amigos me llaman Alex. Tengo diecisiete años y es
(la)primer(a) vez que estoy hablando con alguien en Chile, tambien. Tengo un hermano
menor y un hermano mayor. Vivo en un apartamento, tambien, con mis padres y mi
hermano menor. ¡Tu ingles es casi perfecto! Incluyo correciones pequeños(ñas) en los
paréntesis para ayudarte. Para contestar tu pregunto(a) de nuestro(a)educación: tenemos
doce años de escuela y despues, la mayoría de (los)estudiantes(van) a una universidad.
Tenemos examenes en los estados unidos que se llaman el “SAT” y el “ACT” y estos
examenes son obligatorios para matricularse en una universidad. La educación es difícil en
mi escuela. Pero, es (buena)preparación para la universidad. ¡Estoy celoso de que tú
(visitaste) California! Vivo en los estados unidos todo de mi vida y nunca (visité) California.
Cuando termin(e) (la)escuela, es mi sueño a viajar por el mundo y despues de ver países
como francia, italia, y muchos otros, quiero viajar por los estados unidos tambien.
>
>¡Adios!
>
>¡Por favor, corrija mi español también!

24. Chris Thoren: Spanish
A video from New York to Chile
Videos and photos have been removed
to protect student privacy.

25. Chris Thoren: Spanish
A video from Chile to New York
Videos and photos have been removed
to protect student privacy.

26. Nadia Mule: Italian
Correspondence with Italian Schools

27. Nadia Mule: Italian
Two schools in Italy:
Vigevano –in the northern region of Lombardy
Paternó –in the southern region of Sicily
• Students range in age from 14-18 years old
• Correspondence is supported during email writing in the
lab (Teacher assistance and student collaboration)
• Responses are spontaneous and vary from email to email.
• Students’ emails are not corrected, but rather students
are encouraged to correct their epals’ writing.

28. Nadia Mule: Italian
Correspondence with Italian Schools (continued)
• Correspondence began with introductory letters including
questions to their epals
• Students were encouraged to foster conversation by
responding to questions fully and by posing exploratory
questions to their epals about their culture and society
• No specific topics were assigned, communication progressed
organically
• Virtual visits to our partners’ towns using
Google Earth

29. Nadia Mule: Italian
Preparation for Epals
• Mystery class letters
– Students wrote letters to classmates to review structuring
a letter with a proper opening, salutation, and closing
– Students were assigned a “mystery” recipient
– Letters were typed into each student’s titled document on
Google Drive
– Classmates peer edited the letters
– Letters were printed and exchanged in class to each
“mystery” recipient

30. Nadia Mule: Italian
Sample correspondence-introductory letters
Caro Paolo,
Ciao! Come stai? Mi chiamo Katie. Vivo in New York. Sono di Westchester. Di
dove sei tu? Io 16 anni. Quanti anni hai? La mia famiglia è di Montenegro. è
molto vicino a Italia. Sono nato in America. In America gioco molti sport. Dopo
scuola vado a pratica per 3 ore. Tu gioci gli sport?
A presto!
-Katie
Hi Katie I'm Paolo and I'm from Milan; I'm 14 years old, my dad is from Milan
and my mother is from Bari, in Puglia,I was born in Italy.
In the week I do a lot of sports, almost at school but on saturday I go climbing in
Aosta's valley, in winter I really like going skiing.
write me soon, Paolo
p.s. sorry, I know that I reply you late but I forgot to write you :)

31. Nadia Mule: Italian
Sample response and correction
Caro Andrea,
Io amo l'Italia. so anche molte lingue. Parlo inglese, spagnolo, un po d'italiano, e un po di francese.
Sono andata in Italia tre volte, ma mai a Sicilia. Durante la vacanza, sono andata a Berlin e a
l'Inghilterra. Era bellissimo. Io amo New York. C'è sempre molto da fare. Vivo a trenti minuti della
città. In quale città abiti in Sicilia? Mi piace la pizza anche. E molto rico. Quale altri cibo ti piace?
Ci sentiamo!
Maya
Ho corretto il tuo inglese:
Dear Maya,
I'm sorry for the delay !!! My name is Andrea Messina and I'm 15, I live in Sicily-Italy,I speak italian
and I study 3 languageS : German,English, AND French. I have 1 brother and 1 sister. My parents ARE
italian. I DON'T HAVE a dog. I have 2 parrots...They are small :) I love pizza, do you like PIZZA? I do not
like Italy ! I love New York ! My hair IS brown and my eyes are brown. I love music (Hip Hop) do you
like MUSIC ?
TALK TO YOU SOON
Andrea.

32. Nadia Mule: Italian
Small group correspondence
• Independent study group of three students
connected with a personal friend in Italy
• Students used Google Drive to collaborate and
organize a detailed letter
• Friend replied about his career (Italian
Environmental Agency), hometown and region
(Pesaro - Marche region) and history of the
region

33. Conclusion
• What challenges did you encounter in the
course of implementing this project? How did
you overcome them?
• What is the next step? How will you grow in
your use of these conversations to support
instruction next year?