The Worldchat.live Education project receives a $350,000 grant from the Canada-Quebec Agreement of the Ministry of Higher Education for the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years. This Internet platform developed by a teacher from the Cégep de la Gaspésie et des Îles offers opportunities for authentic conversation on topics in different subjects. Teachers from all over the world and at all grade levels can register their class for the next year.
Anne-Marie Lafortune, teacher
Intercultural conversation: a winning recipe for motivation
Anne-Marie Lafortune, an English as a second language teacher for 17 years, developed the platform in 2019 to give students a broad place in their learning and stimulate their openness to the world. The Worldchat.live Education project makes it possible to create an intercultural exchange, in the practice of the second language in class such as French, English, Chinese or even German. The tool can also be used to hold substantive conversations in lessons related to forestry, nursing, or early childhood education. At the basis of the idea for the project, Ms. Lafortune had noticed that students had little motivation to converse with a classmate of the same mother tongue.
The secure tool allows teachers to pair students based on common interests, record exchanges, and create questions to assess conversations. Teacher Anne-Marie Lafortune noted that in five meetings, the progress of the students was dazzling. "The questions developed by the teachers help to guide and mark the conversations, which can relate to all kinds of subjects. We really create bridges between cultures. »
A growing platform
Officially operational for a year, the platform has grown from 1,000 to 5,000 students in the winter of 2022. Classes can connect with people from Vietnam, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina and many more. other countries. For example, English-speaking students from Cégep Vanier had the opportunity to discuss the environment in French, a second language, with students from India, and French-speaking students from Cégep de la Gaspésie et des Îles were able to discuss their culture in English as a second language with students from Costa Rica.
Worldchat.live (two students conversing)
To learn more about the Worldchat.live platform, visit the website https://worldchat.live/ or watch the presentation video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuBsDs-ONhU
