1. Guidelines:
As
part of the spring semester 2023-2024 you can participate in a virtual exchange
with business students from the University of Limerick (Ireland). The aims are
the development of disciplinary, language, and cross-cultural skills.
To
be paired up with a student from the University of Limerick, you will need to
sign up by filling in your name and email address in this pairing document:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/15fcgqmlK4vNrN7usjkKd4UjS0ybkBZivBcJ_Mrmrkko/edit?usp=sharing.
You
must contact your international partner to arrange the first online meeting.
You can invite each other via Teams or through any other channel which is
convenient to both of you.
In
the first half of this virtual exchange, you will be asked to do a writing task
in English related to job applications and you will have to send it to your
international partner for peer review. At the same time, you will receive a similar
document in Spanish which you will have to read and correct, providing brief
written feedback at the end.
In
the second half of the exchange you’ll be able to practice your interactive
oral skills by talking with your partner about some suggested topics or any
others of your choice.
2. Deadlines:
|
31 January- 7 February
Limerick students sign up in the
pairing document
|
|
7-14 February
CETT students sign up in the
pairing document
|
|
14 February- 22 March
CETT students contact their
Limerick partners and the exchange starts
|
|
22 March
The exchange finishes
|
|
5 April
Portfolio tasks are submitted and
evaluation questionnaires are filled in
|
3.
The writing task:
The
writing task will help you to prepare for a job interview. Imagine you are
called for an interview for an internship at an Irish company, for instance one
of the companies that you talked about with your Irish peer on your first
meeting. Read the list of questions that you could be asked during this
interview and answer them in English. The language should be formal, but also
natural. Grammar has to be correct, and the use of tenses should be varied.
There is no minimum or word limit. As your answers will be read and corrected
by your international partner, an average of 4 to 5 lines on each question
should be ok.
It
would be impossible to prepare word for word answers to the typical questions
an interviewer might ask. However, you should think about what the employer is
likely to ask and why. This is the list of 10 typical questions that you need
to reply to:
§ 1.
Why did you choose to study your current course?
§ 2.
What are you good at and what are you not so good at?
§ 3.
What motivates you?
§ 4.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
§ 5.
Describe a time when you worked with others in a team.
§ 6.
Why do you want to work for us?
§ 7.
Why do you think you are suitable for the position?
§ 8.
What can you bring to the firm?
§ 9.
What do you expect from your placement with us?
§10.
You will be working in another country if you are offered a placement with our
company. How do you think you would cope with this?
You
will need to arrange a minimum of 4 online
meetings with your international partners between February and March to
discuss feedback and changes on the document. Please, be aware that the document should be sent well in advance of your
meetings, allowing your partner enough time for corrections.
You need to find a time and a day that suits you
both, and meet on Teams once a week for at least 40
minutes. You ought to video record at
least one meeting, download your recordings, and store them in google drive sot
that you can share them with your teachers.
4. Meetings should take place
as follows:
-Week 1: 20 minutes in Spanish and 20 minutes
in English. Introduce yourself (background,
interests/hobbies, university studies and anything you would like to share with
your peer) Talk about job possibilities in your country/area etc. In this
session it is important that you ask your partner about the possibility of
working in his or her region or country. Ask him/her if there are any companies
where it would be good to work. You will need this information to be able to do
your writing task, since you must send your partner your task (i.e. your
answers to all the interview questions) 4 days before your second online
meeting.
You can ask your international
partner the following questions:
§ How
is the job situation in Ireland?
§ What
kind of industry is there?
§ Are
there good tourism and hospitality companies where I could send my CV?
§ I
am looking for internships, do you know of any company where they offer this
kind of internships?
Important: Before you meet for
the first time, prepare similar information about companies in Barcelona or in Spain
with job opportunities for Irish business students.
-Week 2: 20 minutes in English and 20 minutes
in Spanish. Talk about each other’s writing tasks providing
and receiving feedback.
-Week 3: 20 minutes in Spanish and 20 minutes
in English. Explain to each other how you used your
feedback. You can also talk about cultural differences between Ireland and
Spain or about any other topic both of you are interested in.
-Week 4: 20 minutes in English and 20 minutes
in Spanish. You can talk about the suggested topics or any
other topics you prefer. Time to say goodbye.
5. Suggested conversation
topics for Weeks 3 and 4:
-Families and traditions
§ What
is your family like? How many people are there in your family? Do you have
siblings? Are they older or younger than you? Do you have grandparents? Where
do they live?
§ Do
you get along well with your family? Who do you get along with best? And who do
you get along with worst? Why?
§ How
often does your family get together? When do you all get together? What do you
like to do?
§ Does
your family have any important traditions? Which ones? Do you think it is
important to maintain family traditions?
§ What
are some typical traditions or festivals in your city? Is there any typical
music or dance?
§ Are
there any traditions from your country that you don't like? Which ones? Why?
§ Are
you interested in learning about the cultures of other countries? What cultures
do you find interesting or different? Why?
-Food
§ What
kind of food do you like? Is there anything you don't like to eat?
§ Do
you like cooking? What dishes do you like? What dishes are typical in your city?
§ Do
you like to eat out or do you prefer to eat at home? Which restaurants do you
like?
§ Do
you prefer coffee or tea? Why? How often do you go out for a drink with your
friends? Which are your favourite places?
§ Do
you care about what you eat? Do you think eating habits are changing? For
example, do you and your acquaintances consume organic food or avoid eating
meat nowadays?
-Trips and holidays
§ What
has been your best holiday? What would your ideal holiday be like?
§ What
do you like or dislike about travelling? Why?
§ What
kind of trips have you taken? What kind of tourism do you prefer?
§ Which
geographical areas have you visited? Which is your favourite one? Why?
§ Have
you visited or would you like to visit Spain? What Spanish tourist attractions
do you know? What are the main tourist attractions in Ireland?
§ Who
do you prefer to travel with? Why?
§ What
type of accommodation/activities/tourist transport do you prefer? Why?
§ How
do you feel about tourists visiting your country? What is the impact of
tourism?
-Entertainment
§ What
type of entertainment is your favourite? Why?
§ Do
you like videogames? How often do you play them?
§ Do
you watch or practice any sports? Which ones?
§ How
much time do you spend a day on social networks? Which social networks do you
use?
§ Have
you seen any films or series from Spain? Which ones? Do you know any Spanish
actors or actresses?
§ What
kind of films and series do you prefer? Why? Can you recommend one? Which have
been the last ones that you have seen? Did you like them?
§ Who
are your favourite singers or bands? Have you been to any concert? What songs
and singers would you recommend?
§ Do
you listen to Spanish music? Do you know any Spanish singers, bands or djs?
§ Do
you play a musical instrument? Which one would you like to play?
6.
Assessment:
In order to receive 6% of your portfolio marks, you
must provide evidence of online collaboration by taking a screenshot during
your meetings. You should share with your teacher a link to one of your video
recordings, which will be your oral portfolio task (3%). As for your written
portfolio task (3%), you must send your teacher a brief report of your virtual
language exchange, as well as the final document with your answers to the
interview questions, including the comments and feedback from your international
partner.
7. Feedback:
These are the aspects you
can focus on:
§ Language
use (grammar/vocabulary accuracy, range & adequacy)
§ Task
achievement (efficient achievement of communicative purpose, content relevance
& extent)
§ Topic
development (structure, progression & coherence)
You can provide your
partner with feedback by commenting on these aspects and writing down at least
a strength and a weakness you identified in his or her document or speech.
Enjoy your virtual language exchange!
