What must one do to participate?
At the beginning of the academic year, during classes in their Language and Translation courses and language exercises taught by readers, students are informed about the Tandem project.
The project consists of 10 meetings lasting one hour each on a weekly basis. The talks are conducted half in Italian and half in the other language. At the end of each meeting both students draft a brief summary of the conversation in the other language and send it to the partner, who will make corrections where necessary and send it back corrected. At the beginning of the next meeting, the corrections made are discussed.
The 'pairs' between the Parma students and the foreign students individually will be communicated. The partners will contact each other via email to schedule the first meeting on a platform (Zoom, Meet, Teams).
At the end of the project, the UNIPR student will send a report containing all the meetings to the contact person of the language for which he or she did the tandem.
The advantages
The student will have the opportunity to practice the studied language in a real-life interview situation with a native speaker, which is essential for both correct pronunciation and the acquisition of adequate and current vocabulary.
Some reviews from students who participated in the Skype Tandem Project
"...I found the tandem project very useful and interesting both in the educational and personal aspects. With my partner, we have created a nice bond and that is why we will continue with the meetings even after the 10 hours. As for the teaching plan, we help each other without any problems. I am of the opinion that this project should continue because it is really useful."
(Sonia C.)
"...I wanted to inform you that the experience with the Spanish tandem was really useful and constructive for both of us. In my opinion I would recommend it and carry on this project because I consider it much more useful than the multimedia lab."
(Davide)
"... fue una experiencia hermosa que me dio la posibilidad de compararme con una cultura y tradiciones muy diferentes. Este proyecto me enriqueció mucho y me ayudó a practicar el idioma. Es sin duda una experiencia que recomiendo a todos."
(Sara)
"Creo que este proyecto ha sido muy útil para mí, además de haber sido muy interesante y estoy feliz de haber participado, me ha ayudado mucho tanto en el ámbito didáctico como en el ámbito personal, lo recomendaría vivamente."
(Dario)
"...for me this was a positive experience. I found this project very useful and interesting to deepen my knowledge of the language, being able to hear how a native speaker uses Spanish on a daily basis allowed me to learn new colloquial terms and idioms that are used in spoken Spanish. This project also allowed me to learn about some aspects of Spanish culture and compare them with those of Italian culture. I personally think it is worth continuing the initiative because it works from a language and cultural learning perspective. My partner and I have decided to continue the conversations even after the mandatory meetings are over because we feel it is useful and we have become friends."
(Sonia T.)
