final work – project work in english classroom: the e-magazine

MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO

Faculty of Education

Department of English Language and Literature

Project work in English classroom:

The e-magazine

Diploma thesis

Brno 2010

Supervisor: Written by:

Mgr. Naděžda Vojtková Alena Mahrová

Declaration:

I declare that I worked on my thesis on my own and I used the resources which are

mentioned in the bibliography.

Alena Mahrová _________________________

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Acknowledgement

I would like to thank to Mrs. Naděžda Vojtková for her invaluable help, advice and

patience.

I would also like to thank my family for the support.

I would like to thank to my pupils who took part in the project, for their work and

enthusiasm.

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Contents

Introduction 7

1. Teoretical part

1.1. About project work 9

1.1.1 Pedagogical references of project work in the past 10

1.1.2 Project work in a language classroom 14

1.1.3 The advantages of project work 16

1.1.4 Benefits to learners 18

1.1.5 The role of a teacher 19

1.2. Stages of a project 20

1.2.1. Opening a project 22

1.2.2. Topic orientation 22

1.2.3. Research and data collection 23

1.2.4. Preparation of data presentation 23

1.2.5. Presentation 24

1.2.6. Evaluation 24

1.3. IT and multimedial devices in project work 25

1.4. eTwinning 26

1.4.1. About eTwinning project 26

1.4.2. Registration and looking for a partner school 27

1.4.3. Getting started a project 28

1.4.4. Tools of eTwinning projects 28

1.4.5. Evaluation of eTwinning projects 29

1.5. MagazineFactory 30

1.5.1. Registration 30

1.5.2. The work with MagazineFactory tool 31

1.6. Skype 32

1.6.1. About Skype 32

1.6.2. The advantages of using Skype in English teaching 32

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2. Practical part

2.1. Introduction to the project "The e-magazine" 34

2.2. Motivation and registration 35

2.2.1. Lesson plan 1 36








2.3. Videoconference "Let me introduce myself" 41

2.3.1. Lesson plan 41


2.4. Topic "Christmas" 43



2.5. Topic "My day" 46



2.6. Videoconference "We are learning Maths together" 47



2.7. Topic "My favourite sports" 49



2.8. Topic "My school" 50



2.9. Topic "My

country" 51



2.10. Videoconference "Let´s play together" 53

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2.11. Evaluation of

the project 55

2.11.1. Evaluation of pupils´ English knowledge 55

2.11.2. Evaluation of the questionnaire for pupils 56

2.12. Presentation

of the project 58

Conclusion 59

Resumé 61

Bibliography 62

Appendix 64

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Introduction to the diploma thesis Project work in English classroom: The e-

magazine

My diploma thesis is focused on project work in English classes and the practical

demonstration of the project work in young learners´ classes.

I have been working as an English teacher at the elementary schools for eight

years and I often use projects to enrich teaching English. In my lessons I use Project

textbooks by Tom Hutchinson and my pupils usually make projects which are

recommended in these textbooks. I consider project work in English lessons as very

useful for practising the language knowledge in a real context, especially those projects,

in which the pupils can cooperate with other pupils from a foreign country and can

communicate with them by letters, emails or Skype. According to John Dewey´s ideas

of „to point out a practical content (industrial and scientific) calculated to interpret life,

and to encourage natural and effective child development through unification of the

school with life.“ (Stockton 1920, p. 39) and „self-education through activities, or the

common „learning to do by doing“ (Stockton 1920, p. 67), I try to create conditions for

my pupils to be able to use what they have learn in English lessons in their lives. I have

dealt with international cooperation among schools for several years and that is why I

know that it could be very motivating for pupils.

I started by exchanging emails and letters with schools in Italy, Venezuela,

Belarus, Poland or Turkey. The pupils always enjoyed writing and they realized how

important it was to study foreign languages. It was also very motivating for them

because they could use their knowledge practically.

Four years ago I joined an eTwinning project, the European activity which

supports international cooperation among schools. In our project we integrated English

with other school subjects and we created our own websites on eTwinning Twinspace

portal.

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In September 2009 I started to work at the elementary school in Brno - Líšeň and

I teach pupils from 5th to 9th classes. I would like to exploit my experience in the class

of young learners and to try to use the project of international cooperation directly in my

English lessons. The idea is making the e-magazine with a school in Europe.

The aim of my diploma thesis is to find out how the project of creating an e-

magazine will influence the pupils to learn a foreign language and whether they will

improve their communicative skills and studying results in English lessons.

I will motivate my pupils to learn a foreign language by giving them the possibility to

use the foreign language in a practical life. The pupils will work on the e-magazine

together with pupils from a school in a foreign country and they will meet together via

videoconferencing.

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1. Teoretical part

1.1 About project work

The project work at schools is used across the curriculum. We can use projects in

a school subject separately or we can join more school subjects in one project.

Sometimes we call „project work“ every activity that is different from a traditional way

of teaching and learning.

According Oxford Advanced Learner´s Dictionary (2000) "project" is:

1. planned work – a planned piece of work that is designed to find information

about sth, to produce sth new, or to improve sth.

2. school/college work – a piece of work involving careful study of a subject over a

period of time, done by school or college students.

The definition of "project" in Oxford Wordpower Dictionary (2006) is:

1. a piece of work, often involving many people, that is planned and organized

carefully,

2. a piece of school work in which the student has to collect information about a

certain subject and then write about it.

In Advanced Learner´s English Dictionary, Harper Collins Publishers, "project" is "a

task that requires a lot of time and effort."

Cambridge Advanced learner´s Dictionary (2003) defines "project" as:

1. A piece of planned work or an activity which is completed over a period of time

and intended to achieve a particular aim.

2. A study of a particular subject done over a period of time, expecially by

students.

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The most detailed definition of "project" we can find in The New Penguin English

Dictionary (2000):

1. A specific plan or design; a scheme

2. A planned undertaking; e. g. a) a piece of research with a definite plan. b) a

large or complex piece of work, esp. one infolving joint effort. c) a task or

problem engaged in usu by a group of a pupils, esp. to supplement and apply

classroom studies.

In educational context, the project work should be pupil-centred activity, no

teacher-centred or syllabus-centred one. The pupils have to understand why they make a

project and how it is useful for them. The best way is when they can choose the topic of

the project themselves. They usually work in groups and they develop their social skills

to cooperate and communicate together. They choose the way of work, divide tasks and

agree on the output of the project. As one of the most important rules of the project

work I consider the fact that the pupils are responsible for their work on their project

and for their results. At the end the pupils present the result of their project and the

teacher evalutes not only the project itself but also the work of each pupil on the project

and the cooperation among the pupils in their groups.

1.1.1. Pedagogical references of project work in the past

Projects and project work have become more common nowadays but they are not

new ideas in education.

In Comenius writings he points out a child´s personality was emphasized, a child

is considered as a jewel and he draws attention to internal potential of a child and

possibilities of his development. He also emphasizes advisability and benefit of the

curriculum for children and as a motivation he recommends something what could

interest them and capture their attention. (Comenius, sec. cit. In Kratochvílová 2009, p.

24, translation by author)

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We can find the roots of project work in pedagogical references of thinkers of

18th and 19th century – J. J. Rousseau, J. H. Pestalozzi, F. W. A. Frobel, C. Freinet.

(Kratochvílová 2009, p. 24, translation by author)

J. J. Rousseau´s thoughts have coherence with current conception of education.

„Rousseau points out that the method of development from childhood to adulthood is

through interaction of the natural child with his environment. The child is developed

through his experience, and experience is defined as everything that happens to him

through his contact with his environment.“ (Stockton 1920, p. 8)

Rousseau also emphasised the individuality of a child, his effort to invent, to

solve new situations, his tendency to think. Rousseau believed in a great potencional of

a human being and possibility of his future development. (Kratochvílová 2009, p. 25,

translation by author)

J. H. Pestalozzi was influenced by Rousseau´s work, he developed Rousseau´s

principles of education and „was the first to get them at least partially into practise.“

(Stockton, p. 11). Pestalozzi defined education as „the harmonious development of all

the powers and capacities of the human being.“ (Stockton 1920, p. 12). Both Rousseau

and Pestalozzi considered the child as the centre of education and they claimed that

„education must be with direct reference to the natural development of the whole child,

physical, mental, and moral.“ (Stockton 1920, p. 12)

Pestalozzi´s followers, W. A. Frobel and C. Freinet, also tried to create the natural

environment at schools in which the personality of a child was stressed, his

independence and interests were taken into consideration and thus the child could learn

naturelly. Frobel considered games, songs and practical work as the important part of

education. Children played, sang and did various activities while they also heard literacy

and historical stories (Stockton 1920, p. 19).

I find Freinet´s ideas of education process more interesting because I try to realize

the projects in my English classes in a similar way. „His organization of education

process, the creating of the school printer-office, development of pupils´

correspondence on the interclass and interschool levels, publishing a school magazine

is very close to the method of project work and nowadays some of teachers together

with pupils realize their projects on the mentioned possibilities. Publishing class or

school magazines, correspondence leading out of school environment, and etc., become

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part of realization of projects at school.“ (Kratochvílová 2009, p. 25, translation by

author)

At the end of 19th century and at the beginning of 20th century the pragmatic

philosophy originated in the U. S. A. and with its principles it influenced education, as

well. Kratochvílová says that „pragmatic pedagogy understands education as the tool

of solving problems which people encounter in their everyday lives.“ (Kratochvílová

2009, p. 25, translation by author). The main representatives of pragmatic pedagogy are

J. Dewey and W. H. Kilpatrick.

Legutke and Thomas say that „Dewey and Kilpatrick had already laid the

theoretical and practical foundations of learning by and through experience. For them

the educational project as „a whole-hearted purposeful activity“ (Kilpatrick, 1918),

taking place in a social environment upon which it has a significant impact, was seen as

a new way of bringing about a more democratic society. Kilpatrick´s essay „The

Project Method“ (1918) spelled out the consequences of Dewey´s programmatic study

„Democracy and Education“ (1916). He pointed out that a learning process was

required which not only prepared young people to be responsible citizens, but which

mirrored in its very forms of operation an experimental society of cooperating

individuals.“ (Legutke and Thomas 1991, p. 157)

Dewey believed that „the school is just a bit of real life, not a place in which to

prepare for life. The aim of education is focused not upon mere knowledge, but upon

doing, and more than that, upon efficient social doing – social efficiency.“ (Stockton

1920, p. 40) The method of teaching and learning process is to be „the method of

experience – of interaction of the child and experience, or of the child and the

curriculum.“ (Stockton 1920, p. 41) Dewey defined the aims of education as the effort

of natural development and the usage and transmission of acquired experiences and

education as enrichment of every human being. (Kratochvílová 2009, p. 27, translation

by author)

Kratochvílová says that „in this conception of curriculum we find the roots of

project work – solving a problem, looking for the sense of activities and leading to

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acquired experiences and the realization of purposeful work.“ (Kratochvílová 2009, p.

27-28, translation by author).

Kilpatrick, Dewey´s follower, „had merit in implementation of pragmatic

pedagogy to schools and enforcement of new forms of curriculum and teaching method

based on solving problems, so called the project method. He also suggested the chart of

a project: determination of the aim, planning, realization and evaluation.“

(Kratochvílová 2009, p. 28, translation by author)

I agree with Dewey and Kilpatrick´s education principles and I consider them as

very important in education process mainly from the view of the pupils to motivate

them to learn.

The thoughts of the project method spread into other countries and they attracted

attention of our teachers, like J. Uher, V. Příhoda, S. Vrána.

At the beginning of 20th century, the reformative efforts in education, which were

based on the thoughts of project method, appeared in our country and influenced the

thinking of Czech teachers who also returned to Comenius ideas. The reformative

efforts and changes at schools were developed till the beginning of the Second World

War when the reformative movement was stopped. After the war, the victory of

Communist Party in the elections meant the end for all reformative efforts.

After 1989, new reformative movement started to enforce the necessity of

changes in education. The process to leave the mothods based on the amount of

knowledge without practise and experience for pupils has been started. The project

work has become popular in educational process at schools and we hardly find a school

in which teachers and pupils do not realize any projects. According to my pedagogical

experience, at schools where I have taught, the teachers usually prepare and organize

the whole conception of the projects which takes them a lot of time and work and they

usually give a little space for pupils´ imagination, activity and experience. As a teacher,

I do not want to follow it. Inspired by the thoughts of our teacher Mrs. Kratochvílová at

the faculty, I try to innovate the project work in my lessons by using new and modern

technologies to capture my pupils´ attention.

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1.1.2. Project work in a language classroom

Project work in the language classroom is the opportunity for learners to develop

their language skills, it encourages learners to use the foreign language and motivates

them. Moreover, it develops the learners´ social skills, the ability to cooperate together,

because they often work in groups on their project, and their sense for responsibility for

their work.

Haines says, „in the context of language learning, projects are multi-skill

activities focusing on topics or themes rather than on specific language targets.“

(Haines 1989, p. 1). The author continues that „because specific language aims are not

prescribed“ (Haines 1989, p. 1), the learners concentrate on reaching the targets „with

opportunities to recycle known language and skills in a relatively natural context.“

Fried-Booth says that „most organized language learning takes place in the

classroom. What is taught in the classroom may in theory be useful, but usefulness does

not always extend to practice. Often, there is a gap between the language the students

are taught and the language they in fact require. It is this gap that project work can

help to bridge.“ (Fried-Booth 1986, p. 5).

I agree with both Haines and Fried-Booth, the pupils can use and develop all

language skills especially in those projects that enable practical usage of the aim

language, the exchange of personal letters, emails etc., communication "face to face"

and other activities to find the reason why they should learn the foreign language. I

think that it is important to persuade the pupils that they can improve their language

knowledge not only by travelling abroad, but also at school by making such activities

like projects.

Fried-Booth differentiates between full-scale projects and bringing and

motivating activities (Fried-Booth 1986, p. 6). She says that „they are, of course,

closely linked, since the motivating activites are a form of preparation for full-scale

projects. The main difference between the two it that motivating activities are restricted

to the classroom, while project work in extended beyond the classroom.“ (Fried-Booth

1986, p. 6)

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Haines divides the projects into four main categories (Haines 1989, p. 1):

1. Information and research projects

2. Survey projects

3. Production projects

4. Performance and organisational projects

According to Legutke and Thomas (1991, p. 161-165) the projects in foreign

language learning are divided into three groups:

1. Encounter projects

2. Text projects

3. Class correspondence projects

Encounter projects enable the pupils the direct contact with native speakers, as a

short visit, a class trip or a school exchange. In text projects, the pupils work with

various materials, like literature texts, newspapers and magazines, video and audio

materials and etc. Class correspondence projects combines encounter with native

speakers and work with written and visual materials, such as letters, audioletters,

videoletters, photo stories. (Legutke and Thomas 1991, p. 161 – 165).

According as Fried-Booth and Haines named the groups of projects, I think that

they think of the projects as various activities which the pupils and the students learning

English can do in English classes and the direct contact with native speakers is not

essential. By contrast Legutke and Thomas´s project groups relate to „face-to-face“

(1991, p. 161) communication with native speakers or direct work with sources in the

target language.

I agree with Legutke and Thomas but according to my experience the encounter

projects need not be with native speakers essentially, the project between two groups of

non-native-English-speaking pupils can be very successful and motivating for both of

groups. The advantage of such a project is that both groups of the pupils can be at the

same level of learning English.

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1.1.3. The advantages of project work

The projects are considered by the pupils as more enjoyable way of learning and I

think these are common advantages of using project work in the lessons: to motivate the

pupils to learning, to be responsible for own learning and the possibility of using taught

language in a real life.

As Fried-Booth (1986, p.7) says that "by encouraging students to move out of the

classroom and into the world, project work helps to bridge the gap between language

study and language use." She continues that "it is, therefore, a valuable means of

extending the communicative skills acquired in the classroom."

She argues two ways of language learning:

a) language learning which is based on tasks given by the teacher when "the teacher

defines language and students practise language and task"

b) language learning in project work in which "students become responsible for their

own learning. They select and devise project, with the teacher acting as co-

ordinator." They deal with the task and language requirements emerge from the

task.

She also claims that "the motivation lies in the project itself" because the learner

"is offered the opportunity of using the language skills already acquired, in a situation

which is new, challenging, and real." (Fried-Booth 1986, p. 8) The project work offers

not only groovy and expectable events but also uknown and unexpectable situations and

thereby it creates the place for development.

Hutchinson says „that project work captures better than any other activity the two

principal elements of a communicative approach“ (Hutchinson 1991, p. 11) and he

argues:

1) a concern for motivation, that is how learners relate to the task

2) a concern for relevance, that is how learners relate to the language

1) Hutchinson says that „positive motivation is the key to successful language learning,

and project work is particularly useful as a means of generating this“ (Hutchinson

1991, p. 11). Project work is very motivating because:

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a) it is very personal - the pupils are writing about „themselves, their lives, their

town, their dreams and fantasies, their own research into topics that interest

them.“ (Hutchinson 1991, p. 11) He continues that because the project is very

personal experience for the pupils, its meaning and presentation are very

important for them and that is why they put a lot of effort into doing it right,

b) the pupils are „learning through doing“ (Hutchinson 1991, p. 11) – they are not

just receiving and producing words, they are also collecting information,

drawing pictures, cutting out pictures, arranging texts, colouring, carring out

interviewing and surveys etc.,

c) project work gives the sense of achievement and it enables the pupils to produce

the worthwhile product. It also enables to the pupils to work on their own level

and achieve their goals. Better pupils can express what they know and slower

pupils can be successful by using more photos and pictures.

2) Hutchinson (1991, p. 11) argues that a foreign language can be unreal for the pupils

because they don´t usually need it in their own lives. It could be a negative

motivation, but if they become real language users, they do not have to use it only

for talking about English or American things and they can talk about their own lives

and interests. That means:

a) project work helps to integrate the foreign language into the learner´s own world ,

encourages the use of communicative skills and provides the opportunities to

write about things which are important for them,

b) it enables to make the language more relevant to the pupils´ needs,

c) it enables the relationship between the language and the culture, while the pupils

learn a foreing language, they learn about other cultures.

I agree with the advantages of project work mentioned by Hutchinson. Fried-

Booth (1986, p. 8) suggests similar benefits and she also says that "in project work the

skills are not treated in isolation, but combined" and the pupils use them

simultaneously.

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1.1.4. Benefits to learners

I think that the most important benefit of project work for the pupils is that it

enables them the contact with real world in which they use the target language that they

have learnt.

Based on my teaching experience, I can mention other benefits of project work to

the pupils:

1. They work on their own level and can achieve a goal regardless how good they

are at the target language, which is very motivating for them.

2. They work with a wider range of materials than their textbook offers.

3. They improve their communicative and social skills, such as cooperating in

groups and developing their personality, acting with other pupils in a group,

listening to others and expressing their own opinions, stating their cases and

attitudes, solving the problems and etc.

4. They deal with problems which they are interested in and they learn to solve

them.

5. They use new ICT in making projects, such as creating power point presentations

as the product of their projects, they can communicate through ICT with the

pupils of other school from a foreign country etc.

6. They are taught to be responsible for their work and its results.

7. The pupils´ efforts and joining the project are more important than linguistic

accuracy.

To compare to Haines (1989, p. 3), I mentioned some benefits as he argues, but

his classification is more extensive and more exact than mine:

1. Contact with reality

2. Projects are participatory activities – he says that „student involvement in making

choices and decisions tends to increase their motivation and interest.“

3. Projects cater for all abilities within a class – he argues that students of different

abilities can work on tasks of equal importance and use their talents which are

valuable for the success of a project.

4. Projects re-integrate language – he says that for common teaching purposes a

foreign language is divided into constituent parts like structures, functions,

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vocabulary, pronunciation and skills. In projects, those parts of a foreign

language are re-integrated in students´ minds. This is important for students to

be more confident in using the language in real situations.

5. Projects establish a context which balances the need for fluency and accuracy –

he argues that projects are not opportunitites for practising fluency but for

successful communication it is in students´ interests to produce the final product

of the project which is both accurate and fluent.

6. Projects are a break with routine – as the most important benefit of project work

is that it allows students to relax.

1.1.5. The role of a teacher

Although the responsibility for project work is given to the pupils, a teacher´s role

is not insignificant. In the project, the teacher is acting as advisor (or consultant) and co-

ordinator. Making a project does not mean „more work“ for the teacher if he is able to

plan and organize it well and he makes the pupils to take the responsibility for the end

product.

The teacher´s role according to Haines (1989, p. 4):

1. Initiating role: the teacher decides when it is the suitable time for a project and

how long it should last. Then he should also „introduce a broad discussion topic

which may develop naturally into a project.“

2. During the project:

a) the teacher is an advisor being prepared to advice and help if the pupils

ask for it,

b) as a referee he is assisting to solve out arguments and differences of

opinion,

c) as a chairperson, „from time to time groups will report their activities to

the whole class. On these occasions the teacher can také on the role of

an objective chairperson.“

3. Finally: when the project is coming to its end, the teacher becomes „an organiser

being actively involved in the organization of displays, the final production of

written reports, etc.“ As an evaluator, he encourages the pupils „to evaluate the

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project work process for themselves“ and he should be prepared to comment

honestly on what the students have reached.“

Stockton defines the role of a teacher in project work as the teacher is „a good

chairman of a public meeting“ is standing in the background and without imposing his

will upon students´ work he is „able to to give the occasional suggestion, the judicious

guidance, which kept things going in a certain general direction.“ (Stockton 1920, p.

69)

He continues that this plan can be used in every level and every subject „if only

the teacher is ingenious enough and tactful enoungh to start things going and to keep

hands off except in the few right places, and even in the few right places to make the

guidance come as assistance to plans originated by the pupils themselves.“ (Stockton,

1920, p. 69)

Kratochvílová (2009, p. 35) and Fried-Booth (1986, p. 9) argue that the teacher

motivates the pupils for the project and supervise their work by giving advice,

suggesting and evaluating their ideas but they both emphasise that the project work is

the pupil-centred activity and the teacher gives the space for pupils´ work and he does

not influence it expressively.

1.2. Stages of a project

The success of project work depends on planning and organization that pupils and

a teacher deal with together. If a good timetable of the project is established, it helps to

avoid the chaos and similar problems. Generally, I think that every project should have

four stages: topic, collecting data, presentation and evaluation of a project (by the pupils

and the teacher).

The authors, I mention, propose similar stages of the project and the differences

in their definitions are only the question of interpretation.

Kratochvílová (2009, p. 41-42, translation by author) suggests four stages of the

project that she enters them into details, furthermore. The main stages are:

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1. Planning

2. Realization

3. Presentation of an output

4. Evaluation

Also Fried-Booth (1986, p. 9 – 10) thinks that motivation at the beginning of a

project is very important. Her classification of stages of the project is aimed at language

learning:

1. Stimulus

2. Definition of the project objective

3. Practice of language skills

4. Design of written materials

5. Group activities

6. Collating information

7. Organization of materials

8. Final presentation

She adds that this scheme „can be adapted to suit the requirements of individual

projects.“ (Fried-Booth 1986, p. 10)

I consider the characteristics of a project according to Legutke and Thomas

(1991, p. 169) as the most sententious and applicable in various subjects. They say that

preparation and follow up are reflected in these stages of a project´s development:

1. Opening

2. Topic presentation

3. Research and data collection

4. Preparing data presentation

5. Presentation

6. Evaluation

It has been necessary to add that both authors consider the schema as „an

idealized general structure for project work with guide questions“ and it should be seen

as „a starting point for further classroom applications.“ (Legutke and Thomas 1991, p.

181)

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1.2.1. Opening a project

This stage has several aims:

- to develop a positive group dynamic,

- to introduce learners to a communicative approach,

- to give learners personal experience of using multi media,

- to introduce the live community as a resource base for language learning where

appropriate,

- to introduce textual data (content materials, process materials) for research

activities.

Legutke and Thomas say that „learners are encouraged to become aware of their

role within groups in preparation for more responsible tasks at later stages in the

project.“ (Legutke and Thomas 1991, p. 171)

1.2.2. Topic orientation

Legutke and Thomas argue that in this stage pupils „focus on a possible topic and

explore its interest value in terms of insights into the topic, and situations and

opportunities for language practice and development.“ (Legutke and Thomas 1991, p.

172)

The time devoted to this stage can be short, comparing to stages 1 and 3.

The teacher´s objectives are following:

- to sensitize learners towards the theme,

- to mobilize existing knowledge,

- to arouse curiosity,

- to allow for the exchange of personal experiences.

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1.2.3. Research and data collection

This is the longest and the most intensive part of the project and it includes the

planning and other procedures needed to complete the target task, practising required

skills and data collection. The objectives are summarized as following:

- defining the nature and extent of the project tasks,

- learning how to carry out research in the live community using appropriate means

of investigation and recording, how to research textual data, how to comprehend

a literary text,

- completing the target task.

1.2.4. Preparation of data presentation

In this stage the pupils deal with „a new round of decision-making which often

leads to a reallocation of roles within a freshly formed production team.“ (Legutke and

Thomas 1991, p. 178) They collected data for the project, like photographs, various

texts, research charts, dialogues, their written notes and etc., and now they have to

decide what to do with it in regard of the end product and for whom it will be intended.

Legutke and Thomas say that „more than any other stage this part of the project

highlights the shift from the classroom as a place for role-playing the outside world to

being in many senses a part of the outside world.“ (Legutke and Thomas 1991, p. 179)

For the teacher, here are several objectives which are significant:

- to remotivate learners towards completion of an end product,

- to encourage and monitor team building and acceptance of areas of

responsibilities,

- to enable learners to decide on the form of the end product.

23

1.2.5. Presentation

Legutke and Thomas argue that many projects have a form of presentation that is

intended to audience outside the group. This stage enables the pupils to communicate in

the target language and to practise acquiring presentation skills. The presentation itself

is a short-time event but it is preceded „by a preparatory process of collective decision

making, data reorganization and skill acquisition.“ (Legutke and Thomas 1991, p. 179)

The objectives for learners in this part of the project are:

- to present information to a live audience using the appropriate media,

- to structure and direct the event and interact with the audience.

On presentation, the pupils also present their end product of the project. I find the

importance of the end product by Haines (1989, p. 2) significant. He says that the end

product, whatever is its form, „should be the final result of the various tasks students

engage in during the project. Without an end product to aim at, projects would have no

natural conclusion and activities might become meaningless, unrelated exercises.“ If it

is possible, the pupils should display their end products in their classroom or

somewhere at school.

1.2.6. Evaluation

According to Legutke and Thomas, a concluding evaluation stage involve an

overall evaluation of:

- topic understanding,

- group and teacher interaction,

- procedural organization,

- input materials,

- language gains and deficits,

- examples of learner work,

- possible by-products, e.g. changes in learner´s intercultural awareness,

24

but they also say that teachers can use various forms of evaluation, such as the pupils

can write their own diaries with their notes about what they have learnt during working

on the project, they can write down their experiences in their own reports, they can

determine the criteria for success and failure and discuss about their individual work in

the project. (Legutke and Thomas 1991, p. 180 – 181)

1.3. IT and multimedial devices in project work

It has been generally known that ICT (Information and Communication

Technology) has been the integral part of educational process. It has brought new

opportunities for teachers´ work and significant contributions to pupils in their learning

process. Using ICT in lessons insists increased demands on special training of the

teachers and their further training, mainly computer literacy.

The ICT classes, equipped with computers and Internet, are considered as the

matter of fact nowadays. The teachers also use data-projectors in classwork and

connection of data-projectors and computers enables the teacher to make preparations as

power point presentations for his/her lessons. And here is only one step to interactive

whiteboards with creative software. Classwork with interactive whiteboard

presentations, that have been used often and often at schools, represents a new and

enjoyable way of teaching and learning in all school subjects.

In language learning, classes with headphone systems help to improve all

language skills, especially speaking and listening. Above all these modern technical

achievements, I consider the contact with native speakers or learners from foreign

countries as the most effective way of how to learn a foreign language.

The eTwinning, the international European project created by the European

Union, supports mutual cooperation among European schools in the area of education.

On its web portal, the teachers of all European countries are registered and they can find

a partner school here for cooperation. Making eTwinning projects, on Internet the

teachers can use Twinspace on eTwinning website, MagazineFactory website, they can

communicate in chat-rooms on Twinspace or via Skype and they can create Power Point

25

presentations. They usually record their work on their projects with videocameras or

cameras. They meet at videoconferences, using Skype or others.

In spite of the fact that eTwinning and Skype have significant contributions to

language teaching process, they have not been used at schools very often.

1.4. eTwinning

The eTwinning is the international European action created by the European

Commission, supports mutual cooperation among European schools in the area of

education. On its web portal, the teachers of all European countries register themselves

and they can communicate with other teachers, look for a partner school for

cooperation and do their projects.

The eTwinning project is similar to Comenius project but it is easier to run and

work on it. In Comenius projects the teachers and schools prepare the project, its time

layout and then they apply for financial support. The eTwinning projects are not

supported financially, they are just provided tools for making projects and they have

systematic support by National Support Service (NSS).

1.4.1. About eTwinning project

According to Crawley, „the eTwinning action promotes school collaboration in

Europe through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by

providing support, tools and services to make it easy for schools to form short or long

term partneships in any subject area.“ (Crawley, [online])

The eTwinning portal is the place for meeting and workspace for projects. It is

run in 23 languages and nowadays more about 50 000 individual teachers are registered

there and more than 4000 projects between two or more schools have been made on the

eTwinning Portal.

26

Crawley continues that „the Portal provides online tools for teachers to find

partners, set up projects, share ideas, exchange best practice and start working together

immediately using various customised tools available on the eTwinning platform.“

(Crawley, [online])

The eTwinning was launched in 2005 „as the main action of the European

Commission´s eLearning Programme, eTwinning has been firmly integrated in the

Lifelong Learning Programme since 2007. Its Central Support Service is operated by

European Schoolnet, an international partnership of 26 European Ministries of

Education developing learning for schools, teachers and pupils acroos Europe.

eTwinning is further supported at national level by 30 National Support Services.“

(Crawley, [online])

According to Gilleran, "the uniqueness lies in the existence of support services at

both national and European level. The National Support Service promote and support

the eTwinning Action within their country. They offer training, assistance, support and

advice to their teachers and keep an eye on the progress of their schools and projects by

monitoring the Progress Cards which participating teachers are expected to fill in

about their project. NSS also organise national conferences and competitions related to

eTwinning, publish newsletters and promotional material and maintain the national

eTwinning website for their country." (Gilleran 2007, p. 4).

Central Support Service holds international conferences every year for the

teachers of all European countries to participate. If a teacher is interested in attending,

he/she sends his/her application to the appropriate NSS of his/her country that decides

who will be chosen to attend. Usually up to 4 teachers of every country are chosen to

represent their country. In April, 2009, I took part in the international conference in

Bratislava and it was really astonishing and very motivating experience for me to meet

other teachers from the whole Europe.

1.4.2 Registration and looking for a partner school

The teachers, who are interested in eTwinning, take part in workshops organized

by National Support Service. In the workshops, the teachers learn about eTwinning and

27

they also try how to work with eTwinning tools. They learn how to register themselves

on the Portal, how to find a partner school, where to find examples of topics for projects

and they practise working with Twinspace, the virtual space on the Portal.

After the registration on the Portal, the teacher goes to his Desktop where he/she

should write all appropriate information about his/her school to present it: what type of

school he/she works for, how old his/her students are, what subjects he/she wants to

involve in his/her project and what ideas he/she has about the future project etc. Then,

he/she can start to look for a partner – a teacher with similar ideas to cooperate, and can

start communicate with other teachers, read and send messages, read their profiles, add

them to the contact list etc. As soon as he/she finds a suitable partner for the project and

they both agree on the topic, they are ready to run their new project.

1.4.3. Getting started a project

When both teachers are ready to create the new project, one of them sends the

application to his National Support Service (NSS) with the name of the project, a short

description of it and who he wants to cooperate with. NSS contacts appropriate NSS in

the other country and it contacts the appropriate teacher if he agrees with the suggested

project. When both NSS validate the project, they send eTwinning Label certificates to

both teachers and Twinspace, the virtal space on the Portal, is opened up for them.

1.4.4. Tools for eTwinning projects

Each project has its own Twinspace, the virtual space with many useful tools for

communication among teachers and pupils and it depends on them how they will use

them.

Bavorová says that "the Twinspace is "the virtual classroom" where eTwinning

partnerships run their projects. Created as a collaborative tool specifically for

eTwinning, it is designed to match eTwinners’ needs." (Bavorová, [online]) She argues

that the Twinspace has various advantages and it is:

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- multilingual: "the interface is translated into twenty-two languages spoken in

countries eligible for eTwinning, which makes the tool much easier to use for

both teachers and pupils;" (Bavorová, [online])

- safe: "access to the TwinSpace is protected by a password and accessible only to

people invited by the project administrators (usually the teachers who have

founded the partnership);" (Bavorová, [online])

- user-friendly: it is easy to use, neither teachers nor pupils have to be computer

experts.

- project-oriented: "It is tailor-made to provide all the necessary planning,

communication and publishing functions to run a good collaborative project. "

(Bavorová, [online])

- it offers the tools like Chat, Forum, Image gallery, File archive etc.

1.4.5. Evaluation of eTwinning projects

As it was mentioned above, eTwinning projects have not been supported

financially but it does not mean that very good projects can not be evaluated.

Twice a year, NSS of each country enounces the national competition for best

projects and all teachers, who think their projects should be evaluated, can send up

them. The best projects in each country are awarded with the eTwinning Quality Label.

If both partner schools (or more schools, it depends on how many schools are joined in

the eTwinning project) get it, they automatically advance to european competition and

are awarded with European Quality Label. NSS gives presents as the award to

pupils/students of the awarded school at the national conferences, where the teachers

also inform other teachers about their projects. The pupils/students of partner schools,

that have been awarded for the best project of the period, also win a share stay to an

European country.

29

1.5. MagazineFactory

"MagazineFactory is an easy and enjoyable publishing tool which provides the

teachers and the pupils an opportunity to work as editorial staff in the class and to

publish a web magazine of their own. The teacher is the editor-in-chief, while the pupils

are journalists. The web magazine may be a single project, or a magazine which is

edited continuously throughout the school year." (Introduction to MagazineFactory,

[online])

MagazineFactory tool is intended for all schools all around the world and teachers

and pupils can use it in two ways:

- as a single: editor staff are teachers and pupils of one school,

- as a collaborative: more schools can cooperate and create one e-magazine.

MagazineFactory is produced by Finnish National Board of Education. Since

2008 the licence has been purchased by European Schoolnet/eTwinning and it became

to be a suitable tool for international cooperation among schools. It has also been

awarded many awards as:

- "the best media-educational idea of the year in the national Media & Message

competition" (2003),

- "the best Finnish product in the e-Inclusion category in the World Summit Award

contest" (2004),

- "MagazineFactory (Tidningsfabriken) represents Finland in the World Summit

Awards Contest in the UN summit in Tunisia" (2005). (Introduction to

MagazineFactory, [online])

1.5.1. Registration

To create an e-magazine, the first step is to register at MagazineFactory website.

Then the teacher waits for confirming email with his/her username, his/her password

and the domain of the e-magazine. The teacher as a chief-editor registers his/her pupils

and they also get confirming emails with their usernames and passwords from Finland.

After receiving the emails, their access into the e-magazine has been created and they

30

can log in. The teacher also registers another teachers of his/her school and/or teachers

of a partner school and he/she can allow them the same rights as he/she has. Then the

other teachers can register their pupils. The e-magazine can be "Single magazine" for

only one school or "Collaborative magazine" for two or more schools.

1.5.2. Work with MagazineFactory tool

Thanks to the support of NSS, it is easy for the teachers to learn how to use

eTwinning in their teaching and how Twinspace works. Despite MagazineFactory tool

has not been widespread yet so if the teacher wants to work with it, he is dependent on

himself and manuals, downloaded from MagazineFactory homepage. It is more

demanding for the teachers to run e-magazines because there are no workshops being

organized for Czech teachers where they could know how to work with the tool and

where they could be trained how to register their pupils to log in the e-magazine, create

articles and put photos or videos in it.

The follow-up process of running the e-magazine is:

1. The teacher creates the magazine with an easy step-by-step process called the

Wizard.

2. In the Wizard, the teacher creates user initials for his students who will act as

journalists. The students will receive the user initials via email. Chief editor also

creates user initials for the other teachers who will act as local editors. The

editors will later create user initials for their students in the magazine Settings.

3. Chief editor edits articles and public area letters, publishes the stories and gives

feedback to the journalists. Editors act as sub-leaders and publish their own

students´ articles.

4. Only the chief editor goes through the Wizard, editors will get their user initials

via email after the chief editor has created them." (Komonen 2005, p. 2)

If the teachers want to work with this tool, they can download guide books from

the homepage MagazineFactory. The guide books are very useful and the teachers can

find answers for their questions and they can solve their problems.

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1.6. Skype

Skype, the software for free chatting and phoning, is used by millions of people in

all around the world and it finds the way to schools, as well. The advantages of using

Skype in language teaching lessons are indisputed - the teacher can organize

videoconferences between his students and students of a school from a foreign country

and the students try to communicate in the foreign language lively. The communication

face-to-face is also great motivation.

I think Skype is one of the most useful tools in education process, especially for

practising communication in a foreign langauge among pupils. The more, the pupils can

communicate together and they can see each other that makes the communication more

motivating. The pupils meet "face-to-face" and they can make friends more easily.

1.6.1. About Skype

It is software downloaded for free from the Internet and used everywhere, where

there is the internet access. The user creates his own account with his personal surname

and password to log in. It relies on schools´ equipment, if the teacher arranges student-

to-student or group-to-group calling, chatting and video conferencing.

1.6.2. The advantages of using Skype in English teaching

The advantages of using Skype in language teaching lessons are indisputed - the

teacher can organize videoconferences between his students and students of a school

from a foreign country and the students try to communicate in a foreign language lively.

The communication "face-to-face" is great motivation to study a foreign language and it

shows the students how good they have been at it. It also does not matter what countries

the pupils live in because Skype works all around the world. During videoconferences

the pupils have "live contact" with their opponents which makes their meetings more

effective and natural. Another effective way of communication is chatting – it is very

useful for meeting on chat while the pupils are at home, they can meet on chat to talk to

32

what contributes to mutual getting to know each other and it develops making friends

among them.

33

2. Practical part

2.1. Introduction to the project "The e-magazine"

The aim of the project:

As pupils have learnt a foreign language at school, almost none of them have the

possibility to use it in their lives, they exceptionally use it during their holiday abroad. It

causes demotivation for many of them. The main aim of the project is to create the e-

magazine in cooperation with the pupils of French primary school in which they could

use what they have learnt in English lessons. Furthermore, I would like to motivate the

pupils to find the reason why it is useful and necessary to study the foreign language

and to encourage them to communicate in it self-confidently. The last and important

reason is to make English lessons more enjoyable and motivating for pupils. Through

reading and writing articles for the e-magazine and communication in English via Skype

the pupils have fixed the knowledge of English and improve their communicative skills.

They have also read the articles of the pupils of the partner school about their lives, the

town and the country. The project becomes the part of English lessons in this class

during one school year.

Educational aims:

The pupils have been motivated to study the foreign language and to use it in the

practical way. They have developed their abilities of using ICT tools and multi media

and their awareness of the life in Europe (Multicultural education and Media and ICT

education according to the Frame Education Programme for school in CR). The pupils

have been responsible for their work on the share e-magazine. They have written the

articles for the e-magazine and have spoken using Skype videoconferences about topics

that have been learnt in English lessons instead of common project works that have

usually been created in Czech schools. The project has helped the pupils to develop the

key competences (communicative competences, social competences, competences to

learning, competences to solve problems).

34

Assumptions:

The pupils will acquire the positive attitude to learning the foreign language.

They will improve their knowledge of the foreign language and they will improve their

communicative skills. They will also improve their study results in English lessons.

They become more self-confident in communication in the foreign language.

Time: school year 2009 – 2010

Class: 5.AB

Number of pupils: 16 (2 girls and 14 boys)

Preparation of the project:

In the view of the fact that the class 5. AB was the only one class in the first grade

of our elementary school this year, I could not choose who I would like to make a

project with. There were sixteen pupils in the class – two girls and fourteen boys. I have

taught them for the first year. Some pupils distracted the others by their inappropriate

behaviour and I thought it would be difficult to do projects with children who have

behaviour problems. I intended to change the topic of my diploma thesis but thanks to

the support of Mrs. Vojtková, who had told me not to give it up, I started to look for the

way how to change the behaviour of the pupils to be able to join them into the project.

Meanwhile I looked for a suitable European school for our project. In November 2009 I

found Ecole Michele Maurette in Caux-et-Sauzens in France, we asked National Board

of Education in Finland for the registration of the e-magazine "Teenagers" and we were

ready to run our project. In February 2010, we asked National Support Service for the

Label for our project (see Appendix eTwinning Label).

2.2. Motivation and registration

To start the project "The e-magazine" I had to register the pupils on the e-

magazine website. But face to bad behaviour of some of my pupils I looked for the way

how to do the project with them, to motivate them to study and to improve their

behaviour. I used various methods of motivation, teaching and evaluation of pupils and

35

that is why I also decided not to register all pupils but to choose a few of them every

lesson. It took four lessons for registration of the whole group of pupils. I did not

suppose to deal with the e-magazine in our English lessons for 45 minutes because I

would like to integrate the e-magazine as the part of our English lessons.


Time: 5 minutes at the beginning of English lesson

Materials: e-mail from the French teacher

Aim: to motivate pupils

Assumptions: children were interested in the project and they would like to work on it.

Activity:

- to tell the pupils about the French school and the project " The e-magazine"

- to read e-mail

- to discuss about joining the project

At the beginning of English lesson I mentioned the information that primary

school from Caux et Sauzens in France would like to cooperate with my pupils on the

project – writing articles for share e-magazine – and I read the e-mail. But I said I did

not know what to answer to their teacher because I did not have a suitable group of

pupils and that is why I was going to refuse their offer. When the pupils heard about the

pupils of French school, they persuaded me they wanted to join the project and to

cooperate and meet with French pupils. I told them that doing the project with pupils of

a school from a foreign country was a great opportunity to practise and improve English

and the project itself offered a lot of interesting activities. On the other hand, the pupils

will be responsible for their work – collecting materials for their articles in the e-

magazine, cooperation, preparation for share meetings and presentation of their work

before French pupils. I said I did not know if they could make it but I wanted to give

them the time to think about it because the most difficult thing in this project was the

fact that MagazineFactory and our e-magazine websites were only in English language

so the pupils had to understand well to be able to use them.

36

2.2.2. Evaluation

Children usually like everything what they have not met before and what

promises something enjoyable and new. I relied on children´s sense for playing and

discovering new things. In last five minutes, I thought I captured their interest to do

something what they had not done in their learning English yet.


This lesson plan was the part of my regular lesson plan. I registered first seven

pupils.

Time:

15 minutes for registration,

10 minutes for instructions about the e-magazine,

20 minutes for writing articles.

Topic: "Me and my family"

Materials: English textbooks, dictionary, computers.

Aims: registration of pupils on the e-magazine website, to show the influence of good

behaviour on activities in English lessons, beginning of writing articles.

Assumptions: The registered pupils will start to write the articles for the e-magazine.

Activity:

- registration on the e-magazine website

- instructions:

a) how to log in to the e-magazine

b) how to write articles

c) how to send articles to the chief-editor

d) how to put photos and videos in the e-magazine

- reading the first articles from the French pupils

- writing own articles – the topic "Me and my family"

37

Our lesson was in ICT classroom. The pupils practise English grammar on

learning software. At the beginning of the lesson the pupils asked me about the

cooperation with the French school. I answered that I wanted to register only a few of

them who seemed to be interested seriously in it and they could start writing articles

instead of practising grammar exercises. I logged in the e-magazine and registered

seven hardworking pupils. They became journalists and were eager to know how the e-

magazine worked and how to start writing articles. I explained the work with the e-

magazine and gave them the instructions. It was very important because

MagazineFactory website is only in English language and the pupils would have to

understand. We read the French pupils´ articles and then they started writing their own

ones. The different work had a great influence on behaviour of the pupils during the

whole lesson. At the end of the lesson some of pupils, who were not registered this

lesson, asked me if I was satisfied with their work and their behaviour if yes, if I register

them on the e-magazine website next lesson.

2.2.4. Evaluation

It looked like that different work in English lesson could be very motivating. The

registered pupils enjoyed writing about them, they were full of their own importance

and other pupils were watching them while they were doing grammar exercises. During

writing, the pupils did not know how to express some of personal information and

useful phrases about them in English, although they had already learnt it. I made them

discuss their problem together to find the solution - to look up the phrases in their

textbooks or dictionaries. I explained them that I could not help them and translate

everything they needed because if they write the articles at home, they would be able to

cope with it themselves. They learnt that it was not necessary to know everything, more

important was to know where they could find it.


This lesson plan was the part of my regular lesson plan.

38

Time:

5 minutes at the beginning of lesson for reading new articles and for information of the

date of our first videoconference – all pupils,

10 minutes for registration of new pupils,

5 minutes for instructions about the e-magazine.

Topic: "Me and my family"

Materials: teacher´s computer.

Aims: registration of pupils on the e-magazine website, instructions about the e-

magazine.

Assumptions: The pupils will write articles at home and they will ask questions during

next lesson if they have troubles in logging in or writing articles.

Activity:

- registration of pupils

- instructions how to work with the e-magazine

- to show some of the articles written for the e-magazine to read them as examples

The pupils asked for registration on the e-magazine website, I chose four of them

and while the pupils were doing exercises in their workbooks in our English lesson,

registered them and explained the work with the e-magazine.

2.2.6. Evaluation

At the beginning of today´s lesson I informed the pupils about the suggestion of

the French teacher to arrange our first videoconference on Skype. The pupils were

enthusiastic and they had a lot of questions about it. The pupils, newly registered in the

e-magazine, wanted to start writing articles immediately but unfortunately we did not

have pupils´ computers in English classroom. They were sorry that they were among the

last children in our English group who had not been registered yet. Also the information

about videoconference motivated them very much. There was the atmosphere of "I am

doing my best to be good at English" since we started with the e-magazine and it

seemed the behaviour of the pupils got better and better. I noticed that the pupils often

wrote articles about their favourite PC games, except the main topic "Me and my

39

family" and they looked for PC games, which the French pupils wrote about, to try to

play them.



Time:

10 minutes for registration of pupils,

5 minutes for instructions about the e-magazine.

5 minutes at the end of lesson for preparation for videoconference – the topic is "Let me

introduce myself".

Materials: teacher´s computer.

Aims: registration of the last pupils on the e-magazine website, instructions of work

with the e-magazine. speaking about the topic "Let me introduce myself".

Assumptions: The pupils will continue in writing articles on topic "Me and my family"

and they will make notes for the topic for the videoconference.

Activity:

- registration of the remaining pupils

- instructions of work with the e-magazine

- to show some of the articles written in the e-magazine to read them as examples

- disscussion about the videoconference with all pupils

During today´s lesson I registered the remaining pupils, that meant all pupils

would have been registered on the e-magazine website from now on.

The pupils were enthusiastic with the idea of meeting the French pupils via Skype

videoconference and they were looking forward to it very much. None of them had had

similar experience with Skype videoconferences in English lessons at school. They will

introduce themselves during the videoconference.

40

2.2.8. Evaluation

I think, thanks to the idea of meeting on videoconference the pupils were highly

motivated to learn English. It also was the connection among the unit in our textbooks,

that they were learning, the topic of the articles in the e-magazine and conversation with

the pupils from France. The news motivated them very much and also their behaviour in

English lessons had considerably improved. Thanks to practising English through

writing articles I noticed they improved their vocabulary and grammar.

This lesson, all pupils were registered in the e-magazine website so that I repeated

the rule for writing the articles: The pupils write their articles and send them to the

chief-editor (to me). I do not usually correct mistakes – if there are the mistakes in the

article, I write what is not accurate and what is necessary to correct. Sometimes I add

the tip in the textbook where the pupils can find the answer. Then I send the articles

back to them. They correct the mistakes and send them back to me. If they are all right

now, I publish them on the e-magazine website.

2.3. Videoconference "Let me introduce myself"

Finding a suitable date for our videoconference, the French teacher, me and our

pupils agreed on our first videoconference on Skype. We exchanged our class photos

before and the list of our pupils. We hoped to play games, all pupils together, during the

videoconference, too, but we, Czech pupils and me, are limited by the time – we have

only 45 minutes. The French teacher teaches her class all lessons so that she does not

have these troubles and she can accomodate her lesson plan to the circumstances.

2.3.1. Lesson plan

Time: 1x45 minutes

Materials: webcamera, microphone, teacher´s computer, dataprojector.

Aims: Listening to personal information about the pupils of the French school.

Speaking and giving personal information, answering questions.

41

Assumptions: The pupils will speak about themselves in English and will understand to

English-speaking French pupils.

Activity:

- to connect via Skype

- to introduce both Czech and French teachers, and the Czech deputy headmaster

for Lower primary part of the school

- pupils´ conversation

- conclusion of videoconference

The pupils of both schools were looking forward to meeting on Skype very much.

Even the Czech pupils repeated sentences, that they had learnt at home, at the school

corridor and they corrected each other. They felt a bit nervous.

We had to try to connect on Skype several times because the connection was not

very good and we did not understand each other. Finally, the connection got better and

we could start.

The first pupil, a boy of my group, started to introduce himself. By the way, he

said he was celebrating his birthday that day. The French pupils started moving on their

chairs and speaking, we also heard their teacher saying something in French. Suddenly

all French pupils started singing "Happy birthday" song. The Czech boy was very

pleased by it. It was very kind of the French children.

We took turns at speaking, three Czech pupils, then three French pupils and etc. I

noticed that the French pupils were writing down information about us, it was a pity I

aimed only to conversation and I did not prepare worksheets for my pupils to write

down it, too.

According to my previous experience, my pupils were always aimed to spoken

conversation and listening but I considered the idea of making notes about what the

pupils heard as very useful. To be sure that the pupils understood well what French

pupils said, we repeated his/her information in Czech language. If we used the

worksheets and made notes about them, too, we would had not had to speak in Czech at

all.

42

Our pupils understood very well and they did not have problems with

understanding English with French pronunciation and accent. They also understood

very quickly that they had to listen to speakers very carefully and could not speak

together otherwise they did not hear and understand and did not know what the speaker

was talking about.

After 45 minutes we had to say good bye, although some of the pupils could not

speak about them.

2.3.2. Evaluation

I think the videoconference was very motivating for all pupils, Czech and French

ones, and it showed them the importance of studying English as the language we all

have learnt to be able to speak together. The videoconference gave self-confidence to

most of the pupils and was a new motivation to continue in writing articles for our e-

magazine and to study English and to prepare for English lessons as well as possible.

The pupils liked the videoconference very much and immediately asked me about a new

date of another one.

Also deputy headmaster, Mrs. Dykova, was satisfied using new methods in

teaching and learning foreign languages at our school because in spite of the fact that

communication via Skype is common way of communication among people nowadays

it is not usually used at schools. She liked the level of pupils´ knowledge of English, as

well.

2.4 Topic "Christmas"

Commonly, Christmas is a very favourite topic for children and it is the time they

are looking forward to it very much. From the articles of our e-magazine we found out

that French pupils (not only those we cooperate with, but all pupils of the school in

Caux et Sauzens) prepared Christmas market for them, their parents and all the people

living in their village. We hoped to arrange another meeting on Skype to show our

French friends what presents the pupils made for parents in their lessons. My pupils also

43

made Christmas cards for French pupils in English lesson. We spoke about our

Christmas habits and wrote about them for our e-magazine.

2.4.1 Lesson plan

Time: 2x45 minutes

Materials: Christmas pictures, word cards with Christmas vocabulary, the tapescript of

a song "Jingle bells", pupils´ computers. Sheets of papers, coloured pencils, glue,

scissors and Christmas pictures for making Christmas cards.

Aims: Revising and learning new words about Christmas, singing the song "Jingle

bells", speaking about own Christmas habits with using appropriate vocabulary. Making

Christmas cards.

Assumptions: The pupils will revise Christmas vocabulary that they have already

known and they will learn new words that will be useful for writing articles. They will

make Christmas cards for French pupils.

Activity – 1. lesson (45 minutes):

- revising Christmas vocabulary: The pupils told the words that they remembered

and I wrote them on the board. I gave them Christmas pictures and they matched

them with the words on the board.

- learning new Chrismas vocabulary: I put more words (word cards) on the board

and the pupils guessed their meaning. They put pictures next to the words. The

pupils tried to use the words in sentences to describe Christmas at their home.

- singing the song: I gave the pupils the sheets of papers with the lyrics of "Jingle

bells", we sang the song with the CD and then we sang it as a karaoke song on

YouTube.com.

- writing articles: the pupils wrote articles for the e-magazine on their computers

about how they spent Christmas at home with their family and their Christmas

habits.

Activity – 2. lesson (45 minutes):

- making Christmas cards

44

The pupils prepared things for making Christmas cards. I gave them the sheets of

papers and the pupils told their ideas how they were going to make it. There were not

any other instructions except they should have a place for writing in their cards. The

pupils used their imagination and fantasy and they could cut, draw, fix pictures or fold

the paper.

At the end of the lesson the pupils suggested the texts for their Christmas cards,

we said them in English together and I wrote them on the board. They chose one and

wrote it in their cards. I took the list of the French pupils and my pupils chose the names

who they sent their cards to. We wanted to be sure that every French pupil would get at

least one Christmas card from us. The Christmas cards were sent in an envelope by post.

2.4.2 Evaluation

It seems that making cards was one of the most favourite activities for the pupils.

They loved making them in our English lesson and they made some very special. The

pupils liked the idea that they were making cards for certain children in France and they

really felt very strongly about their cards. Some of the pupils added a small present to

their cards – like small teddy bears and other toys, their photos etc. I put all the cards

into the envelope and sent it to France.

It was very nice that a few days later, the envelope from France was delivered. It

was full of Christmas cards from French pupils. The style of French cards was

completely different from ours, French children fixed a lot of plastic stars on their cards

and they used other kinds of pictures so that we could compare what cards we made in

our country and how French cards looked like. The pupils liked them very much. In one

of following English lessons I read the message, that I got as an e-mail into my e-mail

box, with thanks from French pupils for Christmas cards we had sent them.

Writing articles for our e-magazine was not as popular as making Christmas

cards. Because the topic for articles was always voluntary, some pupils wrote about the

Christmas habits in their families but some prefered writing about things they liked

more – they wrote mostly about their favourite PC games, music and sport. I noticed

45

that French pupils also wrote about their favourite PC games and our pupils, after they

read articles in the e-magazine, looked for those games to try to play them, too.

2.5 Topic "My day"

According to the unit in our textbook, when we learnt about daily routines, I

suggested the pupils to write articles about our every day life for our e-magazine. The

pupils could use texts in their textbooks as an example.

2.5.1 Lesson plan

This plan was the part of my regular lesson plan.

Time: 20 minutes

Materials: computers, textbooks, E-C and C-E dictionary

Aims: Practising "daily routines" vocabulary, using of Present simple tense, telling the

time.

Assumptions: The pupils will write articles about their daily routines.

Activity:

- making the list of daily activities

- writing the articles about "My day"

This lesson was in our ICT classroom and the pupils practised English grammar

on learning software in the first part of the lesson.

After finishing my regular lesson plan, we started to write down on the board

what activities they did during the day. They wrote them in their exercise books and

they used some of them when they wrote their articles. They could use their textbooks

to look up vocabulary and read texts as motivation. Then they started writing their

articles, I gave advice and corrected mistakes. They finished their articles at home as

their homework.

46

2.5.2 Evaluation

It seems writing articles becomes a favourite activity in our English lessons. The

pupils liked my words saying "Stop doing grammar exercises, let´s write the articles."

They immediately logged in the e-magazine websites and started to write them. Some

pupils were browsing the websites to find new articles of French pupils. I evaluted their

effort to cooperate together, to give some advice to each other and to check and correct

their articles each other.

2.6. Videoconference "We are learning Math together"

Our second videoconference was aimed to Mathematics. We wanted to try to

learn Maths together. We solved problems and took turns in counting. The pupils of

both schools were looking forward to meeting together, again. We, Czech pupils and

me, were limited by 45-minute lesson.

2.6.1. Lesson plan

Time: 1x45 minutes

Materials: webcamera, microphone, teacher´s computer, dataprojector.

Aims: Counting aritmethical problems, practising saying them in English.

Assumptions: The pupils will solve aritmethical problems, they will say them in English

correctly.

Activity:


- to sing a song "Are you sleeping" in three languages (in French, Czech and

English)

- speaking about articles written for the e-magazine

- solving aritmethical problems in worksheets (see Appendix Maths worksheet 1, 2,

3 and 4)

- playing the miming game – practising Present Continuous tense

47

- conclusion of videoconference

We connected via Skype almost immediately, the connection was very good and

we heard and saw each other very well.

After saying "Hello" we sang the song "Are you sleeping" that the French pupils

started to sing in French then we continued singing in Czech and finally we all sang it in

English. It sounded very insterestingly and I think children liked it, too.

The French teacher, Mrs. Raboul, spoke shortly about the articles that had been

written for our e-magazine and introduced us another topics they were going to write

about. She told us that a few teachers of a Parisian school came to Caux et Sauzens and

they were presented during our videoconference. She added that international

videoconferences were organized very rarely at schools in Paris, neither.

All pupils prepared their worksheets, I found some suitable ones on the Internet

and I sent them to Mrs. Raboul to make copies for her pupils, too. The pupils started to

count. The problems were not very difficult in view of the fact that, firstly, the French

pupils are a year younger than the Czech ones and secondly, the aim of the share Maths

lessons is not counting difficult problems but practising saying them in English and

using English language in a different school subject. Counting in English made troubles

to some pupils, they counted easily but it was difficult for them to say everything in

English. But they got used to it soon and they finished all perfectly.

The pantomime game was the last activity of today´s videoconference. Each of

groups of the pupils had a box with small pieces of paper with activities that they should

mime to others. It was the French pupils´ turn to start the game. One of them chose the

piece of paper and mimed it. Our pupils guessed what he/she was doing. They ask

questions like: Are you playing football? etc. After guessing it, another pupil of our

school continued in miming. At the end, both teachers, Mrs. Raboul and me, joined the

game, too. The pupils laughed a lot all the time we were playing the game so it was a

funny point after our Maths lesson.

48

2.6.2 Evaluation

The pupils of both schools did not want to finish our meeting that is why we

finished it a few minutes later during break. Our pupils were happy and they asked why

we could not meet once a week, at least. It seemed to me that they were not as nervous

as during the first videoconference and they used English more confidently. If I

compare their behaviour in our first lessons and now, I think it got better. They behaved

very well during meetings, too.

2.7. Topic "My favourite sport"

While the pupils were writing articles about their daily routines, it showed that

lots of them liked sports, they watched it on TV, or they did some because trainings

were one of their daily routines very often. French pupils also wrote a few articles about

sports for our e-magazine.

2.7.1 Lesson plan


Time: 15 minutes

Materials: computers

Aims: practising likes/dislikes, sport vocabulary

Assumptions: The pupils will write about their favourite sports.

Activity:

- writing about "My favourite sports" in exercise books

After finishing my regular lesson plan, I asked the pupils if they wanted to write

about their favourite sports for our e-magazine. The French pupils should write about it,

too, so that we would be able to compare what sports are favourite in each country,

lately. They wrote in their exercise books.

49

2.7.2 Evaluation

In this lesson, we could not use computers because we spent it in our English

classroom. The pupils wrote their articles into their exercise books and they should re-

write them for the e-magazine at home at their computers as their homework. I gave

them their responsibility to fulfil the task.

2.8 Topic "My school"

This topic continued the unit in our textbook, again. They learnt vocabulary and

useful phrases to speak about school and they already knew some information about

French school system and about a few differences between French and Czech school

systems. In this topic, they wrote as much as possible about our school.

2.8.1 Lesson plan


Time: 35 minutes

Materials: small pieces of paper with key words, computers, E-C and C-E dictionaries

Aims: practising Present Simple tense – speaking and writing about school.

Assumptions: The pupils work in groups. They describe their school in details.

Activity:

- brainstorming – the vocabulary map of "School" (key words: timetable, teachers,

our class, holidays, breaks, etc.)

- choosing one topic from the vocabulary map "School"

- working in groups – writing the share article on the chosen topic

At the beginning of the lesson it was necessary to get the pupils into five groups. I

prepared small pieces of paper with key words and put them into a bag. Each of pupils

50

took one piece with the word and they got into five groups according the key words.

Then they started to think of their word and to write their article. They could write one

article as one group or they could write their own ones and just to cooperate together.

The decision was up to them.

2.8.2. Evaluation

I think it was a bit difficult to write about our school in details so that I chose this

kind of work – group work. The pupils cooperated together very well and I noticed they

also helped each other through all the groups. We discussed the topic in each groups

because some information that they wanted to mention were out of their vocabulary or

knowledge of English. According to the feedback from the French pupils our pupils

argued interesting information that captured the French pupils´ attention and we also

found a lot of interesting facts in their articles. Some of the pupils finished their articles

at home because they had good ideas for writing but they needed more time than they

had in English lesson. The pupils were probably very interested in this topic because

they sent the most of the articles on this topic.

2.9. Topic "My country"

We prepared this topic for our next videoconference in which we introduced our

country to our French friends.

2.9.1. Lesson plan


Time: 20 minutes

Materials: the map of the Central Europe, postcards and pictures of interesting places in

our country, exercise books

Aims: speaking and writing about our country

51

Assumptions: The pupils show the Czech republic on the map and name the neighbour

countries. They point to the capital Prague, the city Brno where they live and they

describe postcards of places in our country. They name interesting historical and

significant buildings and places in their city Brno.

Activity:

- working with the map of the Central Europe

- describing pictures and postcards related to our country, Prague and Brno

- making notes in the pupils´ exercise books as the preparation for the next

videoconference

For today´s lesson, we prepared the map of the Central Europe. With the

knowledge about our country, that the pupils learnt in Geography, they named the

neighbour countries and they pointed to them in the map. They also tried to name other

European countries because they were mentioned in the unit that we were learning right

now. They pointed to our capital Prague and the river Vltava, the city Brno, where we

live and we found Caux et Sauzens in France, where is our partner school.

Revising the vocabulary of lower classes, we described the pictures of interesting

places in Brno and in the Czech republic. As this was our preparation for the next

videoconference and to make this a bit easier, the pupils divided pictures among

themselves to have one or two picture for one person and made two or three sentences

about them.

Examples of the pictures:

Prague castle – It is in Prague. Our president is there.

Petrov – It is St. Peter and Paul´s cathedral. It is in Brno. It is in the centre of Brno. It is

on the hill.

Špilberk – It is a castle in Brno. It was a prison.

Our school – It is in Brno-Líšeň. There are 590 pupils there.

etc.

I made the pupils write down some notes in their exercise books, some of them

wrote whole sentences because they were very pleased by French teacher who said that

52

they were very very good at English. It made them feel more confident and they wanted

to be excellent while meeting next time, again.

2.9.2. Evaluation

After our Maths videoconference the pupils did not consider to speak about

things, that they learn in the other school subject, in our English lesson as something

strange. When we worked with the map, we sat on the carpet in our English classroom

to make the atmosphere of the lesson less formal. Because the pupils tried to say as

many facts and information to the topic, I did not rely on to put up their hands and not

to speak without my permission because I saw their effort. Despite our first English

lessons at the beginning of school year we spoke mostly in English and I explained only

difficult things or unknown English words. The pupils did not make long sentences

while describing pictures but I think it was more useful that they tried to speak in

shorter ones and to mention as many facts as they could. They used the information for

writing articles about the Czech republic. I think they are prepared for our last

videoconference very well.

2.10. Videoconference "Let´s play together"

This was our last meeting on the videoconference. The plan is to introduce

our countries and to play games.

2.10.1. Lesson plan

Time: 45 minutes

Materials: the map of the Central Europe, small pieces of paper with activities for

"Mime game", sheets of paper for drawing

Aims: describing our countries, Picture dictate, revising food vocabulary - Bingo

Assumptions: The pupils of both schools will know information of the partner´s

country. They will play games.

53

Activity:


- to speak about our countries

- games: Picture dictate, Bingo

- conclusion of the project

We connected via Skype, the connection was very good and we heard and saw

each other very well.

We started with the description of our countries. It was our turn to start – the

pupils showed all the places on the map as they prepared it last lesson. Then they

continued by showing pictures and telling some information about them. French pupils

also prepared the map of France and told something about it. When they showed us

pictures of Caux et Sauzens, our pupils found out that their French village looked like

very different from our ones, especially their houses were different and they were made

of other materials. Then French pupils showed us the pictures of famous places in Paris

and they wanted us to tell what they were. We were not prepared for it so that we had to

guess.

Picture dictate was another activity for which we needed sheets of papers. Both

French and Czech pupils took turns at saying a word and everybody had to draw it on

the paper. We agreed on sending the pictures to each other to display them on the

boards at our classrooms.

For Bingo game we prepared flashcards. One of the pupils was saying the words

and the others were looking at their cards – if someone had the card, he/she put it away.

Who first put all the cards away and shouted "Bingo", was the winner. We took turns at

saying the words. The pupils had to pay attention to pronounce the words well

otherwise the others had the problem with understanding.

As before, we finished our meeting a few minutes after our school bell rang. We

said good bye to French pupils and wished them pleasant summer holiday. It was our

last meeting this school year.

54

2.10.2 Evaluation

Our pupils liked the meeting very much and their first question after ending up

the videoconference was if we meet one day, again. If I compare their speaking skills at

the first meeting and now, I think they were more confident than before and they did

their best. They also noticed that French pupils needed their teacher´s help more often

than they did. We agreed on writing the articles about our counry as our last activity for

our project.

Next lesson, I brought questionnaires and I asked the pupils to fill them because I

would like to know their opinion about the project and their likes and dislikes to know

what they would like to do next school year.

2.11. Evaluation of the project

It seems that the project „The e-magazine – Teenagers“ was successful and it

filled up the project and educational aims that were fixed at the beginning of the project.

The form of the project brought new experience for pupils in project work in their

curriculum because the method of using computers to create e-magazine on Internet

instead of making paper posters as the result of the project is not very common. Also

meeting the pupils of the partner school via Skype to use English in a real life was very

successful and motivating for the pupils. Through writing articles for the e-magazine the

pupils improved their English knowledge, mostly, they learnt to look up for information

they needed in writing and it made them spend more time by learning and using English

than they would spend the time only for preparation for English lessons. They also

improved their study results in English lessons.

2.11.1. Evaluation of pupils´ English knowledge

During the project the pupils reached better study results in English lessons. If I

compare their study results in the 1st and 2nd terms, they got better evaluation at the

end of the school year.

55

Chart 1: Comparison of study results of the pupils in the 1st half-term and in the 2nd

half-term of the school year 2009/2010 – the official evaluation from half-yearly term´s

reports:

2.11.2. Evaluation of the questionnaire for pupils

The questionnaire (see Appendix Questionnaire) was aimed to find out the pupils´

attitudes towards the project, their opinions and suggestions. The pupils answered ten

questions about activities in the project.

Assessment of pupils´ answers:

1. What do you like most in the project „The e-magazine Teenagers“?

I can read articles written by other pupils, both Czech and French ones – 1 pupil

56

We can write about everything what we are interested in – 5 pupils

We practise English – 3 pupils

We are in contact with the pupils from a foreign country – 6 pupils

Everybody can read what I write about – 1 pupil

2. Have you had any other experience with writing articles for a magazine?

Yes – 2 pupils

No – 14 pupils

3. Do you read articles of other pupils in the e-magazine? If yes, how often?

Yes, regularly – 3 pupils

Yes, but not very often – 2 pupils

Yes, everytime I have time to read – 8 pupils

No, never – 3 pupils

4. Do you write your articles alone or somebody helps you?

Alone – 13 pupils

Somebody of my family helps me – 3 pupils

5. Does the e-magazine help you in your learning English? If yes, how?

Yes – 14 pupils

to write correctly in English – 3 pupils

to learn new English vocabulary – 5 pupils

to improve English – 6 pupils

No – 2 pupils

6. Do your parents know that you write the articles for the e-magazine?

Yes – 15 pupils

No – 1 pupil

7. What would you like to write about?

my hobbies – 4 pupils

favourite music – 1 pupil

PC games – 3 pupils

57

the world around us – 2 pupils

our school and our class – 4 pupils

I do not know – 2 pupils

8. How do you like the videoconference with French pupils?

Yes, I like it very much – 13 pupils

Yes but I am always very nervous – 3 pupils

No – 0 pupils

9. Have you had any experience with videoconferences in other school subjects?

Yes – 0 pupils

No – 16 pupils

10. Your comments and suggestions:

No suggestions, I like it in the way it works – 11 pupils

To continue the project in the 6th class, too – 1 pupil

More videoconferences – 1 pupil

Meeting French pupils in person – 2 pupils

To get good marks for the articles – 1 pupil

According the questionnaire, the pupils liked doing the project and they liked

meeting French pupils and writing articles for the e-magazine. They usually wrote them

alone and most of them think it helped them to improve their English knowledge. They

also appreciated that except fixed topics they could write about everything they wanted.

Their conclusion about the fact that the e-magazine helped them to improve English is

in harmony with the comparison of their study results in English lessons during the

whole school year.

2.12. Presentation of the project

Presentation of the pupils´ work is very important and motivating for them. Using

MagazineFactory websites the presentation of their written articles was immediate.

After sending the articles to me and my correction they displayed on the main page of

58

the websites of our e-magazine and everybody could read them. The websites were open

to the public at http://magazinefactory.edu.fi/magazines/teenagers websites. We

presented our e-magazine also at our school websites where I also put the articles about

our activities in the project.

Conclusion

Project work is one of teaching and learning methods and we would already find

its beginning in Comenius writings. Later, the pedagogical thinkers of 18th and 19the

century dealt with using project work in educational process. After 1989, this method

became modern one also in our educational system.

The teachers used to call "project" everything that is different from the traditional

way of teaching and learning. It seems that everybody knows the rules of project work –

learning by doing, responsibility of pupils for their work, letting the pupils look for

information, sorting it out and solving problems but the situation in a real life in

preparation of the projects use to be different. The teachers spend a lot of their time by

preparation of the projects and the pupils usually consider the project day as a day off.

In my work, I tried to summarize the main theoretical ideas of project work and

use them in the practical part – to create the project based on the ideas. According to my

teaching experience it is better to do the project with a small group of the pupils than

one with the pupils of the whole school. In spite of the fact that the teacher is integral

part of the group of the pupils and he/she has to coordinate the work, it is good to let the

part of responsibility on the pupils.

The aim of my diploma thesis was to do a project that could be the part of English

lessons in young learners´ class and to find out how the project of creating an e-

magazine will influence young learners to learn a foreign language and whether they

will improve their communicative skills and studying results in English lessons. I think

that reading and writing articles enriched English lessons and it gave the pupils the

opportunity to use the foreign language in reality. They could immediately use what

they learnt and I think that writing articles was more important for them than thinking

59

about practising English because they used not only recommended topics but they wrote

about everything they liked. I noticed that those pupils, who wrote articles most often,

made the greatest improvement in their English knowledge. I often heard them disscuss

the topics for our e-magazine during breaks at school corridors. They liked

communicating with their peers abroad very much and they evaluated it in the

questionnaire positively with the wish to meet them in person. At the end of the school

year, when I announced them the end of the project, they asked me if they could

continue the e-magazine project next year, too.

The project work supported the pupils´ autonomy of desicion and solution of

problems in doing projects and I provided organizational backup, that the pupils could

not arrange themselves, and I was in the role of advicer and coordinator. They took the

project very seriously. Even some of them were able to lead meetings on Skype, with

my occasional help, so that I had the time for making videos and taking photos. In spite

of the fact they knew that the project was voluntary work and there was nothing to do as

their duties, they usually joined it with pleasure and enthusiasm. I would not mind to

continue the project with them next school year.

I am a big supporter of project work at schools and I think it has its significant

place next to traditional teaching methods. Doing the project is positive motivation for

the pupils to reach better results in English.

60

Resumé

Diploma thesis deals with project work in English lessons at primary school. It is

divided into the teoretical part and the practical part.

In the teoretical part, diploma thesis surveys the progress of project work from its

beginning and its application in educational process. In the practical part it is treated the

integration of the project into English lessons. The aim of diploma thesis is to find out

how the project of creating the e-magazine will influence the pupils to learn a foreign

language and whether they will improve their communicative skills and studying results

in English lessons.

Diplomová práce se zabývá projektovou výukou v hodinách anglického jazyka na

základní škole. Je rozdělena na část teoretickou a praktickou.

V teoretické části se zabývá vývojem projektové výuky od jejího počátku a její

aplikací do vzdělávacího procesu. V praktické části je zpracováno začlenění projektu do

výuky anglického jazyka. Cílem diplomové práce je zjistit, jak projekt tvorby

elektronického časopisu bude ovlivňovat žáky při studiu cizího jazyka a jestli bude tento

projekt mít vliv na jejich komunikační schopnosti a studijní výsledky.

61

Bibliography:

STOCKTON, J. M.: Project work in education. Boston, New York, Chicago: Houghton

Mifflin Company, 1920.

KRATOCHVÍLOVÁ, J.: Teorie a praxe projektové výuky. Pedagogická fakulta

Masarykovy univerzity, Katedra pedagogiky, Brno 2009.

FRIED-BOOTH, D. L.: Project work. Resource books for teachers. Oxford University

Press, 1986.

LEGUTKE, M., THOMAS, H.: Process and experience in the language classroom.

Longman Group UK Limited, 1991.

HAINES, S.: Projects for the EFL classroom. Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd, 1989.

GILLERAN, A.: Learning with e-Twinning, A Handbook for Teachers. Central Support

Service for eTwinning, Brussel 2007.

OXFORD ADVANCED LEARNER´S DICTIONARY, the sixth edition, Oxford

University Press, 2000.

OXFORD WORDPOWER DICTIONARY, Oxford University Press, 2006.

ADVANCED LEARNER´S ENGLISH DICTIONARY, Harper Collins Publishers,

2003, the fourth edition.

CAMBRIDGE ADVANCED LEARNER´S DICTIONARY, Cambridge University

Press, 2003.

THE NEW PENGUIN ENGLISH DICTIONARY, Penguin Group, 2000.

62

Internet links:

http://www.etwinning.net

http://magazinefactory.edu.fi/magazines/teenagers

KOMONEN, Ch.: MagazineFactory – Chief editor´s guide. 2005. Dostupný na

http://magazinefactory.edu.fi/index.php?str=16

CRAWLEY, Ch.: Tiskové materiály [cit. 21. 11. 2008]. Dostupný na

http://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/news/press_corner/overview_of_etwinning.htm

BAVOROVÁ, K.: Domovská stránka. Nástroje. Nástroje v prostředí Twinspace [28. 8.

2008/3. 7. 2010] Dostupný na

http://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/tools/twinspace_tools.htm

INTRODUCTION to MagazineFactory. Dostupný na


CHRISTMAS SONG "JINGLE BELLS": karaoke version on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU9d79ho6dE&feature=fvst

KidZone.ws: worksheets for Maths

http://www.kidzone.ws/math/index.htm

63

http://www.kidzone.ws/math/index.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU9d79ho6dE&feature=fvst


http://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/tools/twinspace_tools.htm

http://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/news/press_corner/overview_of_etwinning.htm


http://magazinefactory.edu.fi/magazines/teenagers

http://www.etwinning.net/

Appendix

64

Math worksheet Nr. 1

65

Maths worksheet Nr. 2

66


67


68

Videoconference "Let me introduce myself"

One of my pupils is talking about him and his family.

We are watching our French friends on the whiteboard.

69

The French class – a French pupil is talking about him and his family.

The photo was taken in the French classroom – Czech pupils are on the whiteboard.

70

Videoconference "We are learning Maths together"

A boy of our school is counting.

We are listening to the French pupils – now it is their turn to count.

71

A French boy is counting.

We are playing the miming game – a boy is eating spaghetti.

72

Questionnaire for the pupils

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final work – project work in english classroom: the e-magazine

Documents