Page 45 - Compétences plurilingues : perspectives et actions / Plurilingual competencies: perspectives and actions

Didactic project

At the end of the semester, students re lected on the process and outcomes of their learn-
ing during the project. They answered 10 open-ended questions in the foreign language
they were studying (Appendix No. 2). These answers as well as the answers from the irst
questionnaire were the basis for the research part.

Didactic project results
The main outcome of the entire project, which was based in the theoretical framework of
social, (meta) cognitive and affective functions of YouTube, was the creation of bilingual stu-
dent videos. A total of 31 videos were created, including 8 videos in French and Russian, 16
videos in Spanish and Russian, and 7 videos in French and Spanish. The length of each video
could not exceed 6 minutes and was supposed to be ilmed in at least 3 places related to the
topic, photos could also be used. Most bilingual pairs chose the environment of the faculty’s
indoor and outdoor spaces; a quarter of the pairs also ilmed in a cafe, a multiplex cinema
or near important monuments of the city of Brno. The variance of the language level of the
ilmed videos mostly corresponded to the language level that the students reported in the
irst questionnaire (more than 50% of students rated their language level as A2; more than
40% as B1; almost 10% as B2; and two students as C1), but overall, the level was slightly
higher, as it was a pre-prepared speech. The topics most frequently heard in the videos
were professional careers, previous work experience, professional plans and goals for the
future, evaluation of studies at the faculty, and leisure activities. Students most often chose
the form of dialogue with a bilingual script. We did not ask the students which technical
form of video processing they chose, even though they were provided with instructions and
links to editors and programs for video processing (OpenShot Video Editor, DaVinci Resolve
17, Blackmagic Design, free versions for Mac, Windows, and Linux, Lightworks).
The last part of the project consisted of a glossary, a mini-dictionary of 20 expressions or
word combinations (50% of which had to be professionally oriented) from the two foreign
languages into Czech. The aim of creating this glossary was to help students acquire a new
professional vocabulary, but also to demonstrate the linguistic kinship of professional ex-
pressions and indirectly motivate students to a plurilingual perception of the learning pro-
cess. However, the glossary was not processed further, nor was an analysis of the overall
content and comparison of student versions carried out; these could be interesting lines of
investigation in a similar project in the future.
The goals of the whole didactic project were to strengthen and increase students’ responsi-
bility for their own foreign language learning; to help them become more aware of their
skills, the cross-cultural overlap (avoiding intercultural critical incidents), including the
plurilingual aspects; and to individualize the learning process. For many of the students,
as can be seen from the results of the questionnaire, it meant stepping out of their comfort
zone and resetting their established model of learning a foreign language.
From a didactic point of view, it seems that our goals and expectations were set quite am-
bitiously, especially in terms of students’ readiness to self-re lect on the different stages
of learning and to interpret abstract concepts in the learning process. It turned out that
students are not able to re lect to a greater extent on the theoretical issues of the learning
process as we expected, nor do they have a deep knowledge of autonomous or intercultural

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