The ESOL Global Learning project
Written by Monika Worthington
This blog post gives a brief overview of the project. You can find a longer article by Seima Mahmood in the latest edition of the Language Issues journal. All NATECLA members will receive the electronic version of the journal and the new edition will also shortly be available online here. The project website can be seen here.
This project involved students from Bradford, Cardiff and Poland and has been an opportunity to showcase digital skills which have evolved immensely since lockdown. In the project students had an opportunity to create surveys and analyse data, which was used to write digitally produced reports using Canva and Adobe Express Cloud.
Sustainability was one of the topics discussed during the project. Students not only learnt about it but also put their knowledge into practice; instead of printing surveys to hand out to the public, they used QR codes which saved a lot of paper, energy and time. No worksheets were used during all 8 sessions instead all materials were accessed by one click of the mouse.
It might seem that our only focus was developing digital skills – nothing could be further from the truth. During the project our learners had the chance to boost their communication skills; work with people from different backgrounds, discuss various topics and listen to a wide range of opinions. Other important skills included critical thinking, collaboration and citizenship namely skills required in their future working lives.
As a person who had an opportunity to teach English in Poland, I know how valuable and beneficial these sessions were to the students from there. As the main focus in Polish schools is teaching to the exams; teachers tend to focus mainly on grammar and literacy. This particular group has been lucky to have Joanna Boguslawska as their teacher. Joanna used to work for Bradford College for many years and has been trying her best to move away from those traditional teaching techniques and use a more communicative approach. However, being exposed to the language on a day-to-day basis and lack of practise in speaking the language initially left students anxious and embarrassed to speak to our students who having had the benefit of a communicative approach were more confident speakers. It was amazing and extremely rewarding to see how students from Poland developed their speaking skills and abandoned their fears about speaking English to their Bradford counterparts
Another valuable benefit of the project was for the students to see innovative digital technologies allow us to transcend traditional borders to work/collaborate with people around the world. Due to Brexit the influx of students from East European Countries have completely collapsed with approx. 80% of our learners now coming from Asian or African countries. Therefore, it was wonderful to see our students connecting with the learners from Eastern Europe, who not that long ago, were still in our classrooms in Bradford. Students were enthusiastic about collaborating, exchanging ideas, listening to talks about new cultures and customs. Similarly, for the teachers it was amazing to see students learning, gaining experience, developing so many skills, but most of all bonding and forging new friendships across the digital, geographical, cultural and racial divides. In our own small way we made the world a connected place!
