The “GreekTurkish crossroad of music” was a virtual e-class project between the Model Experimental School of Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece (ΠΠΣΠΘ) and Ağrı öğretmenler High School , Turkey. The theme of the project was ‘ Music and words that connect our culture’. The classes which participated at this project were: B2 junior high school, ΠΠΣΠΘ , level of English B1/B2 and 10D class students Agri Ogretmenler high school, level of English A2/B1. The english teachers who participated at this project were Maria Politou and Elif Çevik.
This project was being carried out in the context of a research and educational programme conducted by the Research Centre of English Language Teaching, Testing and Assessment (RCEL) of the University of Athens –a programme directly connected with the new national foreign languages curriculum (presently being piloted in 188 primary and secondary schools throughout Greece).
The main aim of this project was to involve teachers of English in helping their students communicate in the language they are learning in their class so as to carry out a project with a view to:
1. raising their intercultural awareness
2. practice the target language within an authentic communicative context
Description of our project
Presentation of history of music, musical instruments, folk music,traditional music, modern music, art music, famous Greek and Turkish artists. The theoretical framework of our project was based on sociocultural perspective which assumes that human cognistion is formed through engagegement in social activities. Consequently, cognitive development is an interactive process, mediated by culture, context, language and social interaction.
Learning goals
In this project
Students were able to
- learn about Greek and Turkish culture
- develop cooperative learning skills
- develop experiantial learning skills
- do researh and evaluate the information
- use Web tools
- design a webpage
- produce an e -magazine to presnt their activities
The classes met each other through skype , they shared information, exchanged ideas and designed their activities. Each class presented to the other through skype folk dances, sang songs of their counties and in general enjoyed themselves working on this project.
Our project work was evaluated by teams of university professors, FLT specialists and ICT experts, and it was awarded by the 3rd prize. It was also distinguished by the Ministry of Education in " Innovative Good Practices " of Primary and Secondary Education for the school year 2012-2013.
