Relazione dell'insegnante Ombretta Bucci
La docente della scuola primaria Ombretta Bucci, insieme alla collega Maria Cristina Petronilli, ha aderito al programma Erasmus+KA che prevedeva una mobilità nella città di Manchester per potenziare le competenze in lingua inglese, necessarie per adottare la metodologia CLIL nella sua didattica.
Dal 26 agosto al 6 settembre 2019 la docente ha frequentato un corso di Lingua inglese per un totale di 40 ore, presso la Britannia English Academy (BEA) di Manchester. Secondo quando previsto dal programma, le ore di lezioni si svolgevano quotidianamente dalle ore 8.30 alle 12.30 o fino alle 14.30 con docenti madrelingua che parlavano esclusivamente in inglese. Le lezioni duravano 50 minuti con una pausa di 10 minuti. Ogni 2 ore gli studenti si spostavano in un’altra aula dove li attendeva un altro insegnante ed altri studenti.
Gli insegnanti tenevano lezioni di Grammatica e di Conversazione in classi con un numero massimo di 10 alunni. Gli studenti provenivano da diverse parti del mondo, in particolare dall’Arabia Saudita, dai paesi dell’Africa Mediterranea, dalla Spagna e dal paesi del Sud America. L’età dei frequentanti andava dai 16 ai 50 anni, ma la maggior parte degli studenti era costituita d ragazzi laureati da poco.
La sottoscritta ha potuto constatare come l’effettiva necessità di usare l’inglese come lingua veicolare per la comunicazione sia il metodo più rapido ed efficace per l’ apprendimento di una L2.
Questa esperienza ha fornito la possibilità di confrontarsi con altre realtà sociali e culturali riconoscendo l’importanza della mobilità per conoscere e comprendere al meglio il mondo globale a cui apparteniamo.
E’ stata un’occasione per visitare non solo Manchester, città multiculturale di grande rilevanza storica per la nascita e lo sviluppo della rivoluzione industriale inglese grazie alla presenza delle manifatture di lavorazione del cotone proveniente dalle colonie americane, ma anche altri famosi centri abitati inglesi come la moderna Liverpool e le più tradizionali York e Chester. Incantevole anche la zona del Lakes District, parco nazionale noto per la bellezza dei laghi, delle montagne e della verde campagna inglese punteggiata da pittoreschi paesini dalla tipica architettura.
Il valore formativo di questa mobilità sta nell’arricchimento umano, professionale e culturale di cui ogni docente dovrebbe poter usufruire.
Relazione dell'insegnante Annarita Pasqualini
Last August from 18h to 31h I was in Manchester to attend an intensive English course, 24h in a week. I went to UK with my colleague Gabriella Patregnani. We both took part of Erasmus+ Action KA1 “Mobility of school staff”. I had classes from Monday to Friday, from 8:30 to 12:20. Besides, I had conversation classes from 12:30 to 14:20.
I took classes of General English Intermediate (B1+) and Conversation Lesson (B1+) at BEA – Britannia English Academy. This is a very good Institute with qualified teachers who have the ability to motivate their students to improve communication in English. The School also organizes for their students social events in pubs, journeys around Manchester and a lot of sightseeing of the city.
The course was very good and beyond my expectations and needs: I improved my grammatical knowledge and reinforced my vocabulary. During the lessons, I met people from all over the world: Spain, France, Tunisia, Egypt, Mauritania, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Japan. It was such an extraordinary experience! We had many conversations in English about interesting topics and we shared thoughts and culture of our countries. So I improved my speech. Anyway, I tried!
The added value of this experience was the city of Manchester. It’s a very modern city with an ancient heart. It’s international, multicultural and multilingual where 4 out of 10 young people speak more than one language, above all Arabian and Chinese. It's also one of the favourite student cities of UK, because it’s cheaper than London but offers good Universities and some of the best student hang-outs and events at Manchester Arena or at Old Trafford Stadium.
Manchester is famous for the Industrial Revolution as well. You can visit the Science and Industry Museum with the first steam engines used for weaving. The train station and the original tracks of the first railway Manchester-Liverpool are also the most historical interesting place to take a look. It was designed by George Stephenson in 1830.
There are a lot of attractions in Manchester such as the Medieval Quarter with the Cathedral, the ancient libraries, the typical pubs in Northern Quarter, Castelfield with a long way of canals, locks and warehouses of cotton. You can visit many Victorian buildings like Victoria Station or other historical buildings like Royal Exchange Theater as well.
Finally, I think it is very important for teachers to have this kind of experience in order to approach other cultures and to gain new professional skills.
Relazione dell'insegnante Gabriella Patregnani
Last August, thanks to the Erasmus project, I had the chance to go to Manchester where I attended a two week intensive English course at the Britannia English Academy for a total of 48 hours. This experience gave me the great opportunity to get my english better and I was continuously pushed, considering that even during classes at school we all had to speak english only, and as you can see, the motivation was of a very high standard. A very peculiar thing was that of listening foreigners people speaking english and I had to get used to those funny and odd accents. Meeting people from different countries gave me the possibility to get to know new cultures and traditions and it really enriched me as a person. In my opinion, the Erasmus project makes people from around the world get closer and that’s why I consider it a very remarkable project. While I was in Manchester I almost visited each corner of the town. It is a big city located in north-west of England with a rich industrial heredity. The sistem of channels, in the historycal Castelfield district, dates back to the 18th century, and it recalls the period when the city was an important textile industry centre. Manchester University, Manchester Library, Chetam’s Library, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchestere Cathedral in Gothic style and the wonderful Manchester Town Hall, dating back to the Victorian era and Neo-gothic style are some of its historic buildings. During the industrial revolution The Manchester Town Hall was the symbol of the city's source of wealth.
Relazione dell'insegnante Maria Cristina Petronilli
La sottoscritta Petronilli Maria Cristina, insieme alla collega Ombretta Bucci, ha partecipato alla mobilità prevista dal progetto Erasmus + azione KA1 a Manchester. La convenzione prevedeva n. 12 giorni di attività e n. 2 giorni di viaggio. La scuola scelta per la nostra formazione era la Britannia English Academy la quale prima che partissimo ha voluto testare il nostro livello di inglese con un test online per includerci nel gruppo appropriato.
Il corso a cui avremmo partecipato era un corso intensivo di lingua inglese che prevedeva 24 ore di General English Elementary e 24 ore di Conversation Lesson. La mobilità si è svolta da domenica 25 agosto a sabato 7 settembre.
Domenica 25 agosto la sottoscritta e la collega sono arrivate a Manchester e hanno approfittato del pomeriggio per prendere familiarità con la città. Il giorno seguente era festa nazionale e quindi le insegnanti hanno visitato la città di Liverpool.
Martedì 27 agosto la sottoscritta e la collega si sono presentate alla segreteria della Britannia English Academy che le ha accolte molto gentilmente e professionalmente e ha fornito loro il timetable del corso. La sottoscritta e la collega hanno frequentato corsi di lingua diversi in base al livello di conoscenza della lingua inglese di ciascuna.
Il corso era diviso in moduli di due ore ciascuno in cui si alternavano le due materie, General English e Conversation Lesson. I professori e gli studenti delle classi cambiano di volta in volta, ma il numero non superava mai le 10 unità. Gli studenti erano prevalentemente giovani provenienti dall’Arabia Saudita, ma anche dall’Oman, dalla Libia, dal Brasile, dalla Spagna e dal Venezuela, la maggior parte erano studenti universitari a cui serviva la lingua inglese per i propri studi, ma c’erano anche adulti che volevano incrementare il proprio livello di inglese per fini lavorativi.
Le attività di entrambe le materie prevedevano, speaking, listening, reading, writing. L’insegnante di solito faceva una prima introduzione sull’argomento trattato che prevedeva vocabolario, regole, e struttura delle frasi e poi conversazione intensiva fra studenti o con il docente sugli argomenti presentati. Le attività erano stimolanti ed adeguate al livello di inglese dei presenti, la conversazione e le spiegazioni erano tutte in inglese e i professori erano molto competenti, coscienti delle difficoltà d’apprendimento della lingua derivanti dal paese di origine dei presenti ed adeguavano la spiegazione in base alle criticità di ciascuno.
Le lezioni erano molto intensive e lo sforzo richiesto era abbastanza elevato poiché la priorità della conversazione coinvolgeva totalmente i presenti per tutto il tempo delle lezione (quasi sempre 6 ore al giorno), ma allo stesso tempo era entusiasmante perché mentre scorrevano i giorni aumentava la capacità di farsi capire e di comprendere anche gli altri.
Considerazioni personali
Sicuramente per me è stata un’esperienza significativa sia a livello professionale sia a livello personale, ho sicuramento incrementato il mio livello di inglese anche se una lingua per essere appresa deve essere sempre coltivata.
Questa esperienza mi ha dato conferma (se ce ne fosse stato bisogno), che l’insegnamento della lingua inglese è molto importante e se possibile va incentivato anche attraverso la metodologia CLIL, poiché questo apprendimento è fondamentale per il futuro da cittadini europei dei nostri alunni. Credo sia fondamentale anche fare esperienze all’estero perché si viene a contatto con realtà multiculturali diverse dalla nostra dove giovani ed adulti provenienti da tutto il mondo hanno un obiettivo comune, imparare la lingua inglese. Mi è sembrata la dimostrazione che le persone vogliono per il proprio futuro un mondo basato sulla comunicazione, sull’interscambio e sul dialogo.
Report of the teacher Cristiana Lucarini
On 23rd November I left for Manchester together with my colleague Florinda Trotta of the Primary School.
Thanks to the Erasmus+ programme we had the opportunity to attend a General English course at the Britannia Academy School of Manchester for one week.
We landed in the evening and the first impression was great, the taxi driver was very kind with us, he asked us some questions about our country and then he gives us some useful information about the city.
The accommodation was quite comfortable, clean but above all its position was remarkable: it is located in the centre of Manchester so we were very close to the school and the major city attractions.
On Monday at 8.30, we arrived at the Britannia Academy School of English. At the reception, we were informed about the courses, the timetable and the school facilities.
The building is quite new in a peaceful area of Manchester, on the ground floor there is the reception, on the first and second floor there are the classrooms and on the third floor you find the relax room and a small kitchen available for students too.
Classes are from 8.30 to 14.30 for our Intensive English Courses with ten minutes break from one lesson to another.
During the activities, you change classrooms and teachers it depends on your activity and your level; that is very useful because you have the opportunity of listening to different teachers' accents and different methodologies. Besides every time there are different students to work with, so you know a lot of people in the end.
I attended the Upper Intermediate Course and I had 22 hours of General English and 8 hours of Conversation. Lessons are very interesting and dynamic, they gave me two different books: Speakout for grammar and vocabulary development and Outcomes for conversation, even if teachers gave always other copies to students especially regarding phrasal verbs and their usage. Lessons usually start with warm-up activities to know what students already know about the topic, then teachers use their books as a guide for some exercises, but some activities are completely invented by them. Students work often in pairs at the beginning and then there is a general classroom discussion.
I had also very interesting lessons about writing. For example, I wrote a short essay about my university experience where I had to give suggestions for new students. My teacher Siena took all the essays, checked them and after two days she gave them back to us with her opinion on the job.
Grammar lessons are also very useful, Scott's exercises on phrasal verbs, in particular, are very challenging for me as well as the conversation classes.
Britannia staff and teachers are very polite and helpful to foreign students, they organise extra activities at night too.
Manchester is not very big and you visit it very easily, it's a dynamic city full of young people, restaurants, pubs and theatres. Every day you can choose your entertainment: you can visit the city centre that during the Christmas period is wonderful, there are decorations and lights everywhere, but you can stop also at the Industrial and Science Museum to better understand how this town was during the Industrial Revolution.
Furthermore, we visited also the Gay Village, the bohemian and vintage Northern Quarter and Castelfield that is the oldest area of Manchester.
Finally, you can't miss a musical! Manchester is famous for musicals, therefore, we went to listen to "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" at the Palace Theatre, it was an uplift experience and we enjoyed very much.
Report of the teacher Florinda Trotta
Last November, thanks to the Erasmus project, I had the chance to go to Manchester where I attended an intensive English course, 30h in a week at the Britannia English Academy. I went to UK with my colleague Cristiana Lucarini.
This mobility gave me the opportunity to perfect my linguistic competence in a very small group (there were only 4 or 6 of us) in the beautiful setting of Manchester.This experience provided the opportunity to confront other social and cultural realities recognizing the importance of mobility to better understand and understand the global world to which we belong. During the lessons, I met people from all over the world: Spain, France, Tunisia, Pourtugal, Saudi Arabia, Brasil, Japan.
This course was very interesting, stimulating and motivating, also because it was taught by well-trained teachers.
It was fun and motivating to listen to English speaking foreigners and I had to get used to those funny and funny accents.While I was in Manchester I almost visited each corner of the town. It is a big city located in north-west of England with a rich industrial heredity. There are a lot of attractions in Manchester: the Medieval Quarter with the Cathedral, the ancient libraries, the traditional English pubs , Castelfield with a long way of canals, Museum of Science & Industry. I could also witness an important musical at the Palace Theater.
It is a human, professional and cultural enrichment that every teacher should be able to enjoy, an experience that is really worth facing.
