COIL in French Studies

At least two cultures and their respective value systems come together and at times collide. All facets of classroom dynamics are internationalized, for language, tone, and one’s manner of presenting ideas are culturally specific. Therefore, different styles of communicating, negotiating, and evaluating come to the fore and must be recognized while accomplishing the project’s tasks. As a result, all participating students experience the very real challenges of international partnerships while they refine their intercultural communication skills.

They reflect the needs, desires, rites and rituals of the culture that created them. Having students select images/advertisements or suggest topics they are interested in then look for corresponding articles allows for valuable discussions on authentic sources. It lessens professors’ workloads and creates sustained student and professorial interest in the project.

Linking classrooms in different continents provides a viable medium for both language acquisition and the exploration of other cultures. For my three courses that used the VGC format, the transatlantic projects would not have existed without virtual exchanges. Thanks to the Internet and our web-based asynchronous chats through which our students analyzed advertisements, Avril and I came up with the neologism “Advertainment” to encapsulate the course goals and learning objectives of our project in three ways. First, advertisements are authentic, cultural documents that are used to refine all four areas of students’ language skills as well as develop students’ intercultural sensitivity and critical thinking. Second, serious work is achieved while students and teachers enjoy the process. The ads elicit topics for discussion that can be both challenging and entertaining. Lastly, “advertainment” resonates with a third meaning, that of attainment. The teachers reach their curricular objectives, and the students attain a higher level of linguistic and intercultural proficiency. 

It helps faculty make new connections and build their networks and renews their passion for teaching and for their discipline  thanks to seeing students excited in the learning process. VGC enhances the faculty’s classroom experience, and it’s gratifying to see students’ will to communicate improved and augmented. In general, these collaborations are highly rewarding. 

VGC, however, can also present challenges for faculty and their partners. For example, they are highly time-consuming and labor-intensive, especially in the first year. There is a lot of extra classroom management required, and troubleshooting group problems both at Virginia Tech and with the partner university(ies). For faculty and their partners, everything about the VGC project needs to be agreed upon and established before the beginning of the semester: its structure, goals, approach, grading, texts, timeline, etc. You must be flexible and have exceedingly good follow-through. You are not remunerated for the extra time and effort required; however, according to Cooper, Robinson, and McKinney, who also have done VGC projects, “The pleasure of watching students actively engage in solving the problems is so exciting that it makes whatever additional time is required for preparation seem like time well spent” (85-86).

Knowing I would begin my tenure-track position in the fall of 1998 at VT, and having met Kathryn English, another English teacher at the INT, we casually began to talk about ways our two classrooms could do a joint project together. Ideas concretized and together we decided on the timeline and structure of the project as well as to implement IMRAC that very fall. Kathryn eventually changed institutions to teach at the Sorbonne (Paris II). We continued to work together for another three years.

Six years later, Avril Andrews, whom I knew socially and professionally and was also an English teacher at the INT, expressed her interest in doing a similar project to IMRAC but focusing on advertising. It was a perfect fit with my Advanced French for Business course. Here, too, we co-wrote the outline our students would use to do their analyses of the ads and created the week-by-week timeline and structure of Advertainment during the summer of 2003. That fall it was implemented.

In both situations our face-to-face meetings and emails during the first semester of implementation allowed the projects in Virginia and Paris to run smoothly.

 "....I learned more about French culture from these interactions than from any book that I’ve read. I hope that future courses will continue to use the Internet as a teaching tool. Its potential is limitless and reminds of our connection with the rest of the world.”

In spring 2001, four of the six French majors who participated in an exit interview prior to graduation, and who were among the first students at VT to participate in the IMRAC project, mentioned to the Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures that the IMRAC project stood out as one of their most positive learning experiences during their four years of study at the university. In particular, they felt that the discussions on the chats kept them involved and interested more than a regular class discussion would have.