Italian Ministry of Education engages goFLUENT to help schoolchildren perfect their English language skills
The Italian Ministry of Education has become the second European government department – following France’s Education Ministry – to get goFLUENT, the European leader in distance English training, to provide English language learning for schoolchildren.
This latest pilot programme, begun in November last year and
organised by goFLUENT, links children at Rome's Piva Caesar Middle
School - via videoconferencing technology - with English native
speakers who are English language teachers based in the USA.
Using only an internet connection, a computer with a sound system,
a webcam and a video projector, 22 children participated in this
innovative learning process which complements traditional English
teaching methods. Every child took part in ten of these
web-delivered lessons, each of which lasted for 30 minutes.
Both the on-site teacher and the US-based trainer support
complement each other's role in the classroom. The classroom
teachers play a key role because they are responsible for making
goFLUENT's interactive lessons meet the requirements of the Italian
Ministry of Education.
Sally Van Dyke, one of the teachers, said: "It was amazing to see
how quickly the students' familiarity with English improved. It was
clear that the concepts that they had already acquired in the
classroom were greatly enriched by goFLUENT's training."
The pilot project marks the second time that goFLUENT has worked
with a national government to teach English to its children. Since
2008, in conjunction with France's Education Ministry, goFLUENT has
made its brand of English language training available to children
in the le Havre area of France.
This project involves 1,000 schools, of which 40 - in Périgueux -
took part in a pilot programme in 2008. Then, in 2009, the training
was extended to children in Rosny-sous-Bois and, subsequently, to
children aged nine to 12 in the city of le Havre and the
surrounding area.
Christophe Ferrandou, goFLUENT's CEO, explained: "Involvement in
one of our programs - whether you're a child or an adult - gives
you a head-start when learning English because you learn true
English pronunciation quickly and effortlessly from native-speaking
teachers. You get the chance to learn a new language and appreciate
a new culture as well.
"Our experience - now in both France and Italy - in providing
distance English training via videoconferencing to young people has
shown that our teaching method is particularly well suited to
teaching them English, given the familiarity that most of them
already have with the internet. And the students' feedback shows
that they are happy with the structure, content and outcome of the
lessons."
Nicola Musazzi, goFLUENT's Country Manager in Italy, commented:
"The added value of our approach is shown in its playful and
experiential approach to learning - and students of all ages
benefit from the simplicity of the programme's construction as well
as its high degree of personal interaction with the
teachers."
Ferrandou added: "Using videoconferencing technology is an ideal
way to introduce students - not just in Italy and France but all
over the world - to native English speakers without the need to
disrupt anyone's life by a lot of travelling, thus avoiding the
costs and the adverse effects on the environment that such travel
brings. Moreover, using this technology to deliver the learning
gets around the difficulty of finding native English speakers in
the students' locality."
The results of the pilot programme in Rome are now being analysed
and are being shared with other Italian schools via the
InnovaScuola web portal (http://www.innovascuola.gov.it). InnovaScoula
is an initiative of Italy's Department for the digitisation of
public administration and technological innovation along with the
country's Ministry of Education University and Research.
End
About goFLUENT Italia's Education Project
For further details of this project visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxMR3zb0a9Q and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gq3hfoor3k