Le site francophone de Hradec Kralové
Introduction to Czech project: the French speaking website of Hradec Kralové

a site collecting some of the works achieved with ICTs
by the students of the French department

Coordinator of the project: Daniele Geffroy Konstacky

One group of students I work with are university students in applied linguistics. They follow a three-year curriculum in tourism, French is one of their two foreign languages (the other foreign language being English, German or Russian) and ICTs are a component of their studies.

In this context, one of our goals by the end of their studies is naturally their fluency in French but also their cultural awareness of the French speaking countries and of their own country. Beside other specific lectures their curriculum covers topics such as geography (1st year for the French regions, 2nd and 3rd year for the other countries of the Francophonie) history (2nd year) or a general cultural background (3rd year). The project concerns these three curricula.

Introducing the project to them did not mean a radical change in their acquisition of the foreign language and of a competence for their future profession. For many years we have being working through a communicative approach, having as an ultimate goal their competence as a specialist in tourism (for the three-year studies already mentioned) or as a teacher of French as a foreign language, F.L.E., (for the group following the five-year curriculum in pedagogy). Introducing the project based on the use of ICTs meant offering them a tool they knew, a way of using it efficiently to achieve results they would be satisfied with or even proud of.

The goals for the students were defined :

• developing a greater ability in reading comprehension and in speaking
• getting a greater cultural awareness
• getting familiar with a know-how

The methodology to attain these goals was discussed, some rules were fixed.

The general goal of the project was the creation of interesting material to be set on a website. The content was to cover progressively part of the programme of their studies such as defined above : geography, history, literature, arts. The first research was to answer the question What visits can be recommended to our French speaking visitors around and not far from Hradec Kralové. The second was The Czech writers worth knowing and the third was the preparation of an oral presentation of The Arts in France.

I started working with our students on the project before our department got a fully equipped room with ICTs, that is a computorised desk with video, DVD, data projector and the link with internet. Close to that room, used for presential teaching both by French and English departments, our students have an open access to computers where they can work in autonomy. So that the two first parts have a simple outline : a text with illustrations. Year 2002-2003, when we had access to the ICTs room, we could prepare oral presentations with powerpoint, the result is part three.

Experience shows that training extensive reading, i.e. reading for content, results in progress in comprehension, therefore encouraging students to search for material on the net has a linguistic aim. Because they have to read the texts to select what is necessary for their presentation, they train one of the important skills in learning a language : understanding complete sentences and long passages without referring to their mother tongue or thinking of individual words

For many of the learners having to communicate a report in a foreign language is not easy at first. The more they have an opportunity to do so in front of their class-mates, the better they are prepared for their professional life. To acquire a communicative competence the students must be allowed to use the language for real communication. But there are also affective prerequisites to acquisition. Asking the students to prepare a presentation on a subject they are interested in, with a tool - Powerpoint for example - they like working with certainly enhances their motivation.

Their class-mates who watch the screen and listen to what they say do not take notes as they were used to do before. In some cases, if they have received the text of the presentation they amend it when necessary or write additional information or comment. When no text is handed over before the presentation they receive the final version of the text by mail.

I consider the whole process as a fairly coherent approach, quite easy to adapt to different needs and different groups of learners.

In the three following parts I introduce what has already been achieved and what remains for 2003-2004. It is evident that we started a non-ending process !

1. Activities achieved in 2001-2003 to be on the site in autumn 2003

Their first year has been dedicated to know how to work with the information, they have become familiar with new contents of lectures, new models to be followed. They now can be asked to work in autonomy and prepare their presentation individually.

The guidelines received in their first year included

1. how to get information in the books they have in reference and complete that information with what they find on the Internet
2. how to prepare a document (three-four pages) according to a preset scheme
3. how to report to the whole group about what they have found and learnt, stressing particularities

1.1 Visits around Hradec Kralové

Hradec Kralové is the capital of the region. It is 100 km east of Prague and has a historically rich background. Websites exist, mainly in Czech or sometimes in English, rarely in French. During the visit of the castles French written comments are handed over to the French speaking visitors, but the translation is not reliable and there are many details that the visitor is not always keen to read. The students therefore prepared their own text and chose their illustrations, their resources being the existing material and their own visits of the places. Up to now the summary includes :

1.1.1 La vallée de la Babicka
1.1.2 Dvur Králové nad Labem
1.1.3 Kuks
1.1.4 Rychnov nad Knežnou
1.1.5 Orlické Hory
1.1.6 Karlova Koruna, Chlumec
1.1.7 Le musée en plein air de Veselý Kopec
1.1.8 Cesky Ráj, le Paradis tchèque
1.1.9 Pardubice
1.1.10 Kunetická Hora
1.1.11 Hradec Králové

Three of these are given below as examples to underline the variety of attracting places and the different way of presenting them even if the students followed the same guidelines.

1.1.2 Dvur Kralové nad Labem, famous for its zoo
1.1.7 Veselý Kopec, where we can see how people lived
    in the old days
1.1.8 Cesky Ráj, The Czech Paradise, so called for the
    beauty of its nature

Many interesting places and castles are still to be visited and introduced on the site.

1.2 Czech writers

1.2.1 Karel Capek
1.2.2 Jarmila Loukotková
1.2.3 Josef Svorecky
1.2.4 Jan Werich

1.2.1 is given as an example

1.3. Oral presentation with powerpoint : The Arts in France

The whole scheme in the third year includes

1. researching information and iconography in the university library and on the Internet
2. selecting the information
3. asking me for confirmation they are doing well
4. writing the paper for an oral presentation
5. preparing the presentation with Powerpoint
6. sending me the paper for correction
7. delivering the paper on the scheduled date
8. answering their classmates'questions
9. sending them the written form for their files.

The tremendous advantage of using a powerpoint presentation is the help our students find in structuring their ideas and limiting their expression. Their paper is no longer a compact mass of information but a well structured text, illustrated when needed with documents scanned or copied from the Internet. The technique being no problem for them, they can devote their time to the content and I am convinced they spend much more time on the preparation because they like working with ICTs, consider it a challenge when they don't know something and have to work hard for it. They are also eager to show their audience they succeeded in doing what was asked them. At that stage some of them already show a fair degree of professionalism.

They usually work in pairs. Each presentation may differ considerably according to the personality and the interests of each pair. If we consider the different examples given we can observe a great variety in technique and a great variety in the treatment of the subjects, which leads us to several considerations :

a. although the students were asked not to forget an introduction and a conclusion many of them avoided the conclusion or considered they had a conclusion when it was not one. For this particular point we may stress that documents on the internet are not always introduced or concluded, therefore the tutor must work out with his students what a conclusion is and add a particular note to his guidelines
b. the last slide with the sources is often absent : to be stressed in the guidelines
c. some students easily work out the synthesis to be written on the slides, others find it much more difficult, they are afraid of missing something important
d. some students are excellent surfers and find the right sites, information, illustrations and then work out a good synthesis
e. they don't find their information in the French sites only, they also use English or Czech sources, which means they work with three languages
f. there are less mistakes in the slides than in a usual text
g. all the slides and texts are corrected by the coordinator

1.4.1 Les architectes français
1.4.2 Les peintres français des 16ème et 17ème siècles
1.4.3 Les peintres français du 18ème siècle
1.4.4 Les peintres français du 19ème siècle
1.4.5 Les musiciens français (recording of abstracts to be linked on the site)
1.4.6 La bande dessinée franco-belgo-helvétique : to be completed
1.4.7 Le cinéma français : la nouvelle vague
1.4.8 Les grands réalisateurs du cinéma français
1.4.9 Les grands acteurs du cinéma français

1.4.1 is given as an example

2. Activities for 2003-2004

two main goals :

2.1 Complete 1.1, 1.2, 1.3

2.2 Introducing the Czech Republic

Our students at the Pedagogical faculty are future teachers in primary and secondary schools. During their 3rd and 4th year they get familiar with the resources available on the Internet connected with pedagogy (ideas of activities, discussion of the validity of some processes, ability in choosing what is really needed among a very large number of websites)

One of the websites they worked with in connection with the bande dessinée francophone (comic stripes) www.tintin.com -Tintin au Tibet, attracted their attention and it was decided that they would pick up ideas from it to create an introduction to the part dedicated to the Czech Republic.

Up to 1998 a very small number of secondary schools thought of teaching a foreign language with ICTs. More and more schools are now equipped and connected but still many teachers avoid a technique they are not familiar with. We have to count on the young generations to include ICTs in their programme. The more convinced they are of the efficacity of the learning-process with ICTs, the better they will use them with their pupils.

Seven students are concerned with the project. Each will prepare one subject, the group will work out the presentation on the site with the help of a technician (November, December). During Spring term 2004 the other written or powerpoint presentations (1.1, 1.2, 1.3) should be linked, then every existing part or new part can be developed or added by the future students.

Hradec Kralové, April 2003

Danièle Geffroy Konstacky

Links to students' examples:
__________ Dvur Králové nad Labem (pdf)
__________ Architektura (ppt)
__________ Karel CAPEK (pdf)
__________ KAREL JAROMÍR ERBEN (ppt)
__________ PARADIS TCHEQUE (pdf)
__________ Veselý Kopec (pdf)