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ESL-English Class interviews Students in the Spanish Class who worked on International Epicure project. |
International Epicure
These days in schools, the learning system has changed because technology has developed in an area that can help students learn more efficiently. A class can get broadened information from other classes and everybody can learn at the same time through the Internet. At Fullerton College, several of the classes are ESL composition, French, art, graphic design, computer web design, international business, Spanish and Italian. They now have joined together to create a project that has been named the "International Epicure," which is a brand-new virtual restaurant in a web site.
Each class developed from their class’ subject to contribute to this project. If one was in the French, Italian or Spanish class, they translated information about French, Italian, or Spanish food for the menus of the restaurant. The art class designed the look of the web site and studied artwork from Spanish and French countries. The graphic design class created a logo and the colors for the web site. The computer web design class charged all of the HTML codes to put all of this information in the Internet. In addition, the international business class contributed international business background information about the countries. The last one, the ESL composition class, had their students interview and write reports about what the other classes were doing for this project and who these students were.
In the ESL composition class, our professor, Ms. Kennedy, assigned us some email addressees of the students in this project. We needed to contact them using outside email, introduce ourselves, and interview them. We asked their class’ name and their major. We questioned what they were going to add to this project, and we also asked them if they were going to be able to use the skills they learned in this project in their future college majors or work fields. We wanted to know if they were going to be able to practice the skills that they are learning in this current class when they were doing this project. Finally, we asked their opinion of this experience.
I was given five email addresses that belonged to students of the Spanish class. I sent an email, and received three out of five responses. I was lucky to have good interview answers back from a male and two females. The man, Paul, whose major is in Computer Engineering, is taking Spanish 102. He gathered and sent me the information of his group, which consisted of four students. He mentioned that they were organizing the project, would set up about half or more of the web page, and spend time researching. He agreed that he has learned about the Spanish cultures, has improved upon his writing, has learned more of the vocabulary, and a little about translating from one language to the other from this project. He admits this project is difficult, such as deadlines, translating and getting everyone together for meetings. He said, "My experience of this project was most positive." His group fellows are in all different majors, which are Health Science for Radiation Therapy, Biology, Spanish/Education and Liberal Studies.
Susan, who responded to my questions, described very detail. Their teacher gave them a biography of Frida Kahlo. Frida Kahlo is a famous Spanish artist. The biography was in English, and it had approximately five paragraphs. They got in groups of four students and every student had to translate one paragraph, and they had to translate the first paragraph as a group. They were able to use Spanish/English dictionaries and Spanish/Spanish dictionaries. That was an in-class assignment, so they were not able to take the biography home. Once they were all done translating their paragraph from the biography, they were to take the other entire paragraphs and type them up. They then presented their Spanish translated biography to the professor. In the same way, they had a biography of Diego Rivera, in English. Diego Rivera is also a famous Spanish artist. Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera are the most famous painters of Mexico and some of their paintings are going to be in the walls of the restaurant. She said, "I am very interested to see the completed International Epicure Restaurant. I think it will be very informative for all."
The last lady, Lidia, from whom I got information, is a native Spanish speaker, so she did not have any difficulty with this project. She wrote a line in Spanish at the end of interview "Registrant y obtain UN core grotto, saguaro y de poor Vida en" which meant that she wanted me to send her an email anytime. We became friends!
All the students in this Spanish class that I interviewed have had not only confidence but also enjoyment for this project. They were in all different majors, but all they said that this project would help their future college major and their lives. This project was a practical learning experience because through this study we could learn a lot about organization, and at the same time computer skills and other people’s cultures as well. On top of that, our language skills will have improved.
Works Cited
Barragan, Lidia. "The Virtual Restaurant". E-mail to Joanne Kim April 20, 1999.
Baum, Paul. "The Virtual Restaurant". E-mail to Joanne Kim April 22, 1999.
Baum, Paul. "The Virtual Global Restaurant". E-mail to Joanne Kim April 28, 1999.
Cervantes, Susan. "The Virtual Global Restaurant". E-mail to Joanne Kim April 13, 1999.
Cervantes, Susan. "Virtual Restaurant". E-mail to Joanne Kim April 16, 1999.