5.2.3 Real-World Learning

For students living in areas far from Francophone cultures, the study of French might not be easily associated with its real-world context. Certainly a challenge for the teacher of FSFL is to help students link with this world, its language, culture and people. However, when the only exposure to the language and its people is through books, it may be challenging for students to appreciate the study of French as being any more than the study of a subject with little relevance to the real world. However, as one French teacher remarked, in OLEs "students can see for themselves that French is not just about what we do in school, books-grammar etc.. It is indeed a living language." The Internet can allow "students to see French as something real -not just a subject taught in school". Online learning experiences can thus help students "to see French as something existing other than in the classroom" and "to realize that French is not ‘a dead language’ when they surf the net and find millions of sites in French, in both Canada and around the world." One teacher described the positive impact of real contacts made with another class through OLEs:

I teach in a small community in Montana. Many of my students will never travel outside the United States, let alone the western US. Last year when a teacher from Québec contacted me to set up a letter exchange, I saw how real the French became for my students. Things I had been trying to tell for several months became very clear because they discovered for themselves the answers .... my students are exposed to more French than I could ever provide in our classroom.

The use of the Internet can serve as a support to the teacher in her attempts to ensure that students appreciate the real-life applications of the French language: "I feel that it has made my teaching more ‘real’ for lack of a better term. My students feel more in touch with the francophone world when they see what I’m talking about on a screen in front of them. I believe they come to understand the value of French in a whole different way." In general, learning French in OLEs can have a positive effect on the learning environment even while students are not online in the sense that there is a certain carry-over of the positive effects to the classroom learning situation:

Any learning must take place in relevant, real, challenging and connecting contexts. Internet allows teachers and students to make this happen. Learning a second language becomes far less contrived and simulated. It is hoped that the experience then brings forth enough positive energy to create oral interaction in the classroom. It creates oral interaction when preparing and anticipating before an activity, it creates interaction when researching, questioning, discovering during the activity and it creates interaction when reviewing, giving feedback, discussing their learning after the activity.

Another important aspect of making the study of French more ‘real’ is in providing students with an audience for their work. Having an audience can affect the type of work that students produce: "They also tend to be more careful over what they say and how they say it because of the wider and varied audience; they have a real audience and a real purpose." OLEs provide students with opportunities to produce original work and then share it online with others outside of the classroom:

Building a web site to share student-generated work is another important use of the Internet. Again, its use as a productive (rather than receptive) tool is what gives it its value. We finally have an audience for our kids stories and poems, and it's an authentic one. That's what the Internet means in an immersion school.

According to the following teacher’s comments, use of OLEs requires abandoning traditional models which were more suitable to book modes of learning:

...we have to think Internet as opposed to book learning when we use the Internet. The linear model of learn, answer questions, test, is based on what is manageable for the book and paper form of learning. Actual real-life learning on the job takes place much more diversely and has an actual real application. Therefore why not get students to do more projects based on their real questions about the world, find info. talk to real experts on-line and find their own answers.

The opportunities to talk to "real experts" and to ask "real questions" can be made easier in an environment where the information in general appears more real. Such opportunities can also result in more effective learning as the following teacher’s comments illustrate: "The internet is also a place where shock value has it's (sic) place. Nothing brings home the Holocaust better than a virtual visit to Auschwitz or to a Holocaust museum, or to a skinhead's hate page. It is really in-your-face learning and it hits home more effectively than looking at a distant TV screen up in the front of the class".

The beliefs expressed on the topic of ‘real-world’ learning through use of OLEs suggest that such learning is, in some ways, more effective than regular classroom learning. One of the reasons for this increase in effectiveness may have to do with the relationship between making learning more relevant for students and student motivation. In the following section, teachers describe how OLEs increase student motivation and generally result in a more effective learning environment.