Intercultural communication - WGMS8021

Content(s)

The intercultural project at GI is led by international students, who are required to develop educational devices and events for high school students in the Grenoble area around the themes of engineering and the female engineer. It is work that will help high school students recognize and understand the reality of the engineering profession. It is also designed to fight against the mental representations associating this trade with masculine values.
In practice, international students develop didactic modules in French for high school classes. Europole High School was chosen for its proximity and international openness. The project involves all the science teachers of second and first, and unfolds in two phases. For the preparatory phase, which took place in previous semester, international students took part in the TP Classes for a presentation of the engineering profession, through playful simulation activities and exchanges.
This project will continue the following semester with the organization of a conference in collaboration with the students of Europole who will be in grade 11.
For our international students, the "EngineerE" project is a particularly enriching experience: they set up the project by contacting engineers as well as the educational teams of the school. They develop their written as well as oral communication skills through interviews and résumé writing. Project monitoring develops their sense of collective work. They learn to express themselves in French in front of an audience but also within the framework of personal interaction. Moreover, this project is made visible by developing communication strategies and culminating in a conference.
On a cultural level they must adapt to the specificities of French culture, its educational system, and develop their command of the French language: the activities are indeed in French however the Europole students are capable of switiching to English when necessary. By working with students from other cultures, they are immediately confronted with intercultural problems that they will encounter later in their career.