The Lingu@tic project

INTERREG III-program France / Wallonia / Flanders
LINGU@TIC:
GRENSVERLEGGEND COMMUNICEREN
COMMUNIQUER SANS FRONTIERES
COMMUNICATING ACROSS BORDERS

What is Lingu@tic?
Who is Lingu@tic?
Why is there Lingu@tic?
More about the used television reports and the television channels ...
More about the author’s system Idioma-tic
FRANEL and regular education
Accessibility of the FRANEL learning environment
FRANEL meets the need of the individual learner
As complete a learning environment as possible

What is Lingu@tic?

Lingu@tic is a European Interreg project (http://www.kuleuven-kortrijk.be/linguatic) with as main objective the development of FRANEL, an electronic language learning environment. FRANEL is freely accessible via Internet and consists – as the name itself suggests – of a French and a Dutch component (FRa and NeL, from ‘Français’/ ‘Frans’ and ‘Nederlands’ / ‘Néerlandais’).

The intuitive interface, animated by the FRANEL-mascot , makes FRANEL accessible to the everyone, and indeed it targets the general public. All learning activities are based on lively and authentic visual material which has been made available by French and Flemish regional television broadcasting houses. Moreover, video is offered in streaming within the environment. Reports on daily life in the neighbouring region make the material more accessible and not only encourage you to learn French or Dutch, but also really help to break down barriers.

Who is Lingu@tic?

General coordinator of Lingu@tic is Prof. dr. Piet Desmet of the K.U.Leuven Campus Kortrijk.
The following partners participate in this project:
- two universities, the K.U.Leuven Campus Kortrijk and the Université Charles de Gaulle-Lille 3 ,
- three regional television broadcasting houses, WTV (West Flanders), C9 (Lille and surroundings) and No Télé (Hainaut) and
- two spin-offs of the K.U.Leuven Campus Kortrijk, viz. Indie Education, specialized in educational multimedia and BLCC (Business Language and Communication Centre), which offers blended language learning trajectories for professionals.

In addition to the basic funding by Europe, the project is co-financed by the local authorities (Ministry of Education, Province of West Flanders, Conseil Régional Nord Pas-de-Calais) and by each of the partners.

Why is there Lingu@tic?

Within Europe, there is a growing tendency towards closer contacts between population groups across the national borders on the economic, on the political as well as on the social level. The border region between France, Flanders and Wallonia is very actively involved in this pursuit, partly because of the historical link between these regions. There are proposals for constructing the Eurodistrict Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai, and Interreg supports numerous cross-border projects, among which Lingu@tic.

Within this context, there naturally is a growing demand from companies as well as from private persons, for a better knowledge of the language of one’s neighbours. Studies have shown that in Flanders, French is still most in demand as a foreign language, and Dutchspeaking persons are highly motivated to learn the language of the neighbouring country, but also that in Northern France the desire to learn Dutch is definitely on the increase.

More about the used television reports and the television channels ...

For quite some time now, WTV, No Télé and C9 have been broadcasting reports about life across the border: Transit, P.U.LS. and Grensleven have for many viewers become a regular and valued feature. These reports were partly funded by Interreg. The broadcasting houses make the visual material of these reports available to the universities, to be used in learning activities. And the input of the broadcasting houses does not end there: they will make the end products developed by the universities freely available on their websites.

In this way, a very broad public can be reached: indeed, the of the three channels enjoy high viewing rates. Via the regional channel, the West Flemish viewers of WTV will have the opportunity to become acquainted with exercise materials for French, the viewers of C9 and No Télé will be able to access exercises for Dutch. The material covers many topics, it is true to life and instructive.

More about the author’s system Idioma-tic

Learning activities for FRANEL are developed by means of the author’s system Idioma-tic, which was developed by the K.U.Leuven Campus Kortrijk (KULAK) and the Indie Group n.v. (educational multimedia). This user-friendly tool grew out of the specific needs of e-learning for languages. As a result, the types of exercises offered by Idioma-tic are not limited to the classic closed types of exercises, such as multiple choice, blanks exercises or drag and drop but it also allows for half-open exercises such as translation or reformulation exercises, as a result of which assignments with various possible answers can still be corrected automatically.
Moreover, the possibility to provide specially adapted and specific feedback regarding correct and incorrect attempts creates a unique context for efficient language acquisition.
Another advantage of this system is the possibility to easily integrate sound material and visual material into the learning environment.
Furthermore, via the advanced tracking and logging system which keeps precise track of all actions of the learners in the environment, specific synthetic reports can be submitted to the learner as well as to the teacher.
Finally, both the input module and the environment for the learner are full online, which means that you only need an internet connection to use this application. In this way, language teachers and language learners can work with ICT without being too heavily dependent on computer scientists.

FRANEL and regular education

Lingu@tic also offers the possibility to integrate modules of the FRANEL teaching environment into the regular school curricula of different types and levels. Quite some foreign language teachers from the region have already expressed the desire to use this environment in their language courses. FRANEL already offers teachers the possibility to subscribe as a ‘coach’, in order to get (limited) access to the back office and be able to closely monitor the progress of their class in general, but also of each student individually. At the moment, teachers can take training sessions about FRANEL. Indeed, STUDIO FRANEL (still in development) will allow them to make their own selection from the learning environment and to assemble teaching units to suit a specific group (with a specific level and with specific interests). At the same time, they will get access to Mediatic, a database of authentic video material, written documents and sound material, available free of charge. In this way, the teachers will be able to develop learning activities for their own group. After validation, these activities will be published and made accessible for the general public, which will greatly boost the developing capacities of FRANEL.

Accessibility of the FRANEL learning environment

Since FRANEL was first launched on February 10th 2006, already more than 12,000 learners have registered. This shows that FRANEL is easily accessible, and this for the following reasons:

• FRANEL is freely available. To get unlimited access to the learning environment, it suffices to apply for a login and a password.
• The site is worldwide full online, which makes it accessible for everyone, everywhere, at any time.
• No software installation is required, except for some plugins (mp3, Quicktime, Flash8) which can easily be downloaded. Indeed, the configuration of the PC of the learner is automatically checked during login. Moreover, the user can also check the configuration requirements by clicking on the ‘check’ button. If a plugin is missing, it can be downloaded from the FRANEL site. If necessary, you can always contact the help desk franel@kuleuven-kortrijk.be.

FRANEL meets the need of the individual learner

• Since the team of content developers consists of people from the regions in question – the French develop the modules for Dutch as a foreign language, the Flemish the modules for French as a foreign language – they are well aware of the specific problems of foreign language education in their own region; as a result, Franel really caters to the needs of the target public. On the other hand, the presence of native speakers in the team guarantees a continuous verification of the language used in the foreign language modules.
• Moreover, interested learners are asked, without any obligation, to fill out a personal index card, on the basis of which their exact profile can be determined. The combination of these data and a fine-tuned system of tracking and logging makes it possible to even better assess the specific needs of the public, and to efficiently adapt to the requirements of the learner by continuously adjusting and expanding the learning environment.
• Furthermore, FRANEL in several ways takes into account the level of the learners. Features regarding content (Common European Framework of Reference for Modern Foreign Languages) as well as formal characteristics (types of activities, task formulation, use of the mother tongue, ...) determine the level of a learning activity. The learning environment for Dutch as a foreign language in general is at a lower level (A2 (waystage) and B1 (threshold)) than the learning environment for French as a foreign language (B1 (threshold) and B2 (vantage)), because people in France and Wallonia are generally less acquainted with Dutch than people in Flanders with French. Within the French and Dutch learning environments, further levels are distinguished.
• Finally, FRANEL covers both (rather more) general and (rather more) professional language use. This distinction is interwoven in the different didactic units, as can mainly be seen in the choice of themes of the learning modules (‘work’ (professional) and ‘leisure’ (general)). Each new release includes one theme from the world of ‘business’ and one regarding ‘general (daily) language use’. Also the lexical flash cards (part of the learning activities focusing on vocabulary) concentrate either on a professional or a general theme.
  In addition to the distinction between general and professional language, the learning activities and the lexical flash cards regarding communication situations also refer to formal, neutral and informal registers.

As complete a learning environment as possible

Qualitatively

FRANEL aims at providing the widest possible range of didactic support (i.e. the development of learning activities on the basis of visual material) by:

• first of all, offering learning activities focusing on the development of (listening and reading) skills as well as on extending knowledge (vocabulary, grammar, language situations, pronunciation, spelling);
• secondly, offering a wide range of exercise types, including the more classic closed exercises with a predictable answer (multiple choice, blanks exercises, drag and drop, ...), but also the innovative half-open exercises in which several answers are possible (such as translation, reformulation or dictation exercises);
• thirdly, offering systematic flash cards for the learning activities focusing on knowledge, which, in addition to the exercises of the learning activities, allow the learner to improve his knowledge for the studied topics in a systematic fashion with regard to vocabulary and grammar, as well as with regard to the correct language use in various communication situations.
  

Quantitatively

At the moment, 4 thematic modules have been placed online (‘loisirs’, ‘emploi’, ‘vrije tijd’ and ‘werk’), consisting of 15 didactic units (each based on video reports), each unit in its turn consisting of 706 learning activities and 45 didactic flash cards.

See you soon at
FRANEL !

The Lingu@tic Team