1. Guidelines:
As part of the spring semester 2024-2025 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 for 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:
3-6 February Limerick students sign up in the pairing document |
10-13 February CETT students sign up in the pairing document |
13 February- 27 March CETT students contact their Limerick partners and the exchange starts |
27 March The exchange finishes |
3 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 work 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 to 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 so 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 that offers this kind of internship?
Important: Before meeting 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 video games? 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!
