1. C/Joan Maragalls/n43530-Alcanar
Tfn: 977731026
The Sightsand TraditionsofAlcanar ORAL and AUDIOVISUAL PROJECT4TH ESOB 2011/12 Pilar Juan & Florenci Sales mjuan33@xtec.cat,
1
 INTRODUCTION
“The Sights and Traditions of Alcanar” is the result of a project on the town of Alcanar carried out
by a mixed ability group of 27 4th ESO students in Institut Sòl de Riu during 2011-12 and included in
the innovation project (PELE) ‘Welcome to Alcanar’ which tries to connect our town to the world
using information and communication technologies.
The final product, a collection of videos on sights, festivities and traditions of the place, was
recorded , designed and edited by the same students with their teachers’ and language assistant’s
help.
We would like to point out that this collection of videos was presented to the local community in an
event held in the ‘Càmara Agrària d’Alcanar’ with the attendance of the tourism representative of
our Town Hall ( see Appendix 1).
 GENERAL OBJECTIVES
1. Use English to describe places and traditions of our town.
2. Create descriptive essays and learn vocabulary related to the description of places.
3. Work in groups. (Collaborative learning/working).
4. Use information and communication technologies to create the videos.
5. Show research skills using the internet and printed material.
6. Be aware of the cultural heritage and traditions of our town.
 KEY COMPETENCES
1. Cultural awareness and expression, the importance of the creative expression of ideas is
developed through this competence when they design the video, and also when they
choose the background music.
2. Digital competence, students use this competence when they use information and
communication technologies to develop their work (browsing the web to look for
information, using Moodle and the project’s blog Our English Corner and using a video
editing software application Pinnacle Studio).
3. Communication in foreign languages, students use English to describe the most important
landmarks and traditions of our town.
4. Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, this competence is essential to carry out the
working plan which is necessary for the production of the video.

2. C/Joan Maragalls/n43530-Alcanar
Tfn: 977731026
The Sightsand TraditionsofAlcanar ORAL and AUDIOVISUAL PROJECT4TH ESOB 2011/12 Pilar Juan & Florenci Sales mjuan33@xtec.cat,
2
 CONTENTS
The project consists of 8 videos divided in the following
themes:
1) Introduction
2) Alcanar, the town
3) The church, the old part of the city and the
viewpoint.
4) The hermitage and the Iberian Settlement
5) La Casa O’Connor i la Cisterna de la Vall
6) Sòl-de-Riu, Cycle Path and Les Cases
d’Alcanar
7) Festivals
8) Gastronomy
All the videos have a brief introduction by some of the 2nd Batxillerat students who collaborated in
the project with the assistance of their teacher and Head of the Foreign Language Department, Mª
José Barón.
 THE PROJECT STEP BY STEP
1. Create the websites for the project.
http://pilar-englishcorner.blogspot.com.es/?spref=fb
http://solderiu.net/moodle/course/view.php?id=71&show=2&sesskey=4h7yaOwUhH#section-2

3. C/Joan Maragalls/n43530-Alcanar
Tfn: 977731026
The Sightsand TraditionsofAlcanar ORAL and AUDIOVISUAL PROJECT4TH ESOB 2011/12 Pilar Juan & Florenci Sales mjuan33@xtec.cat,
3
2. Inform the students about the groups, deadlines and assessment. (See Appendix 2).
3. Work with the worksheets ‘How to write a description of a place’ and ‘Festivals’ to learn
vocabulary and paragraph structure to create their writings (Appendix 3). All these
activities are also linked to the blog.pilar-englishcorner.blogspot.com.es/
4. Browse the web or go to the public library to find information about the different themes
they have been assigned.
5. Write a first draft.
6. Correct and improve their writings.
7. Practice the pronunciation with the Language Assistant help..
8. Record the text in a MP3 file using a voice recorder.
9. Post-processing the recorded audios using AUDACITY.
10. Store the files in www.box.com to be shared and revised by the teachers.
http://www.box.com/s/ovq133uti6x45vuirqhv
A 4th eso studentpracticing herpronunciationwith
the English Language Assistant
H2 Handy Recorder (ZOOM)
http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/h2/

4. C/Joan Maragalls/n43530-Alcanar
Tfn: 977731026
The Sightsand TraditionsofAlcanar ORAL and AUDIOVISUAL PROJECT4TH ESOB 2011/12 Pilar Juan & Florenci Sales mjuan33@xtec.cat,
4
11. Select the photos suitable for the descriptions. (Each group selects the photos they have
taken and the photos that AFA (Aula de fotografia d’Alcanar) has given for the project.
12. Video recording of the students using the Chroma Key effect.
In this photo you can see how we
recorded our students using the Chroma
Key.
13. Select the background music from www.jamendo.es . (Jamendo isamusicwebsite.All the
musicon Jamendoisfree todownload).
14. Once we have all the parts, the students can design the video using a video editing software
application Pinnacle studio.

5. C/Joan Maragalls/n43530-Alcanar
Tfn: 977731026
The Sightsand TraditionsofAlcanar ORAL and AUDIOVISUAL PROJECT4TH ESOB 2011/12 Pilar Juan & Florenci Sales mjuan33@xtec.cat,
5
15. After the first design students must improve their videos following their teachers notes
uploaded in MOODLE. Each student received an individual/group assessment (in appendix 4
you can see an example).
16. After improving their videos students hand in the final product.
17. Create a Glogster with all the videos http://pilar-englishcorner.blogspot.com.es/
 CONCLUSION
One of the main advantages of project work is that it requires active student involvement.
Working with this project our students have been able to make creative decisions apart
from having creative freedom to design the final product. It was also very important for
them to share their work with other people apart from their teachers and schoolmates,
participating in an event in which their project was shown to the local community.
We would also like to point out that “The Sights and Traditions of Alcanar” has been an
opportunity for students to learn the value of local culture and traditions, since they have
explored the culture background of their own town through its landmarks and heritage.
We think that the fact that the final product is a video is also important. We all know that
nowadays students are used to multimedia in ESL lessons but in most cases they are only
consumers not the creators. With this project they have had the chance to be the designers
as well as to learn how to use a more advanced video editing software application.
Of course, there has also been an improvement in the language skills- oral and written- of
our students, which was one of our main goals.