On a CCP Video

By Jamal Elabiad

Triviality is the word that came to my mind soon after I finished watching a four-minute video on Connecting Classrooms Project (CCP).

Several students were videotaped talking about the project’s benefits such as new vocabulary items, reading and computer skills, and pronunciation.

The rationale behind downloading the video was to know what those students learnt while being taught lessons on the British culture since the latter is the main reason behind launching the project in many countries around the world, including Morocco. For instance, I expected to know the positive or negative points students discovered while drawing a comparison between the Moroccan and British culture.

Students learnt almost nothing about the British culture. This is the conclusion I reached after watching the video. And the benefits students reaped from the project have nothing to do with the British culture. My point is that the objective of the project was not the British culture. It was helping the CCP students prepare for their exams through giving them free extra courses on grammar, vocabulary, and writing. By the way, the English teachers who were handpicked for the project did not give additional English sessions to the CCP students for free.

But why the CCP students were not presented sessions on the British culture? One possible reason is that the teachers’ knowledge of the British culture is similar to my knowledge of the Chinese language!