8. A very elementary or advanced linguistic level?
It is not necessary to have a high linguistic level to take part in a forum.
This activity can be tackled from level A1 and produce individual work that is just as effective as at another level. However, it is obvious that learners at A2 level and above will derive benefit from this activity and improve their skills. Exchanges in greater depth both linguistically and culturally will be of more especial relevance to level B pupils: individual work will be favoured from level B1 onwards.
With reference to the Gulliver project, reading the contributions produces the following finding: the level of linguistic skill is highest in English. Pupils are able to express themselves easily on all kinds of topics and subjects. The two Spanish groups taking part represented a fairly wide range of levels, as did the pupils expressing themselves in French. In the case of modern languages 2, the pupils who stayed at an elementary level of linguistic proficiency did not present contributions reflecting ideas in keeping with the learners’ intellectual maturity. Yet it is this intellectual maturity that will enable them to realise the value of the forum work as a factor in linguistic progress.
We also observed that productions in German came equally from mother-tongue and foreign-language participants The native German speakers, when they express themselves in their own language, are careful to express themselves in such a way that non-native German speakers can understand them. The forum comes into its own here.