1« Champagnat » is a private primary school in a rural environment. There are 12 classes : 3 maternal and 9 primary classes which totals 300 pupils. Learning a foreign language has been part of the Ministry of National Education’s programs since 2008 and requires exposure and regular practice of the language. Our school has chosen to teach English.2 We have been thinking about how we can teach it, after an experience we have led in our school: We have been welcoming a young foreign student in our classes once a week for 2 terms now. It has helped us realize that speaking English becomes meaningful when it is real communication : there is like an urgency to be able to communicate… “How could I say this and that…” In the study of a foreign language the game of exchange takes place naturally, not forced, with infatuation, with astonishment and often amazement.Enriched with our authentic exchange’s experience, we wonder about the word DIALOGUE, appropriate for the learning of living language.. What does it mean for young French learners to enter into dialogue in a foreign language ? Not much or maybe just linguistic and phonetic which, for some learners, is fun while, for others, only represents a meaningless succession of phonemes. We accentuate the disparity between instead of reducing it. Although teaching English has considerably evolved those past few years, being more fun and lively, especially thanks to the new technologies, teachers still miss the main thing : authentic communication. 3 A growing European project was born : We aim to make all our pupils succeed through developing a dialogue in a foreign language with children of the same age, but from a different country. An exchange in a European classroom with English becomes our school’s project. 4 A direction to think about precise goals in terms of quantitative and qualitative results : What will the impacts of this project be, both on our pupils and on the educational team ? How can we teach English better, in order to achieve this project ? Which technological means do we require ? Which pupils will be concerned by the project ? 5 Setting up procedures and anticipating activities : - A persevering search of a European class as a partner, - the mobility of a determined and motivated teacher of an education titled “Methodological & linguistic education for primary teachers” with the SILC partner organization. The teacher will have to launch the project and make sure it remains coherent and durable through the years. She will pass on her knowledge and expertise to her colleagues. - 3 important meetings with the chosen foreign class to discuss around 3 principles lines: written correspondence under various forms (slideshows, photos, pictures, videos…) and live skype exchanges in which 5 of our primary classes will take part. Introducing oneself (gallery of portraits, or games or songs…) Introducing one’s village/town (slideshows or photos, google earth, game like treasure hunt…)Introducing a traditional asset of one’s country (culinary, wonderful stories or politic with the national hymn, sportive…). - We will teach linguistics but not only : We plan to teach our pupils what they’ll need to get ready for the video communication, using new teaching methods learnt during the seminary. We plan to provide cross-disciplinary learnings since our pupils will discover the country of our European partner : its history, geography, civic education, language, literature, music, arts… We plan to use TICE (websit,skype..) - We plan to meet on a regular basis to help each other out and achieve what has been planned. - The company “Amilease” will support us in this project helping us use computer and digital devices. 6 We expect a rich and durable impact : - to open up to an authentic European culture, - to make our pupils eager to learn a foreign language, - to improve their linguistic skills and improve our own linguistic and methodological skills, reinforce the educational team’s dynamics in order to achieve new projects - to encourage us to take part to projects in mobility more often. If this partnership between 2 European schools eventually comes true, which we deeply wish, then the human repercussions and the knowledge acquired will be manifold and positive : pupils will be more self-confident, open-minded, tolerant, motivated. And we will live the European adage, united in diversity.