Student mail exchange

Exchanging traditional mail in the English language, the working language of our Project, is an important form of communication between students of all schools involved in the Partnership. Depending on the pupils' age level, the amount of information contained in their letters will vary. Consequently, letters created by lower primary pupils are rather short and less informative. Written in the form of "children's passports" by filling in ready-made forms, they allowing the youngest pupils to introduce themselves in the most basic way. The role of teadher's guidance can be significant here. On the contrary, letters written by elder pupils are longer and use more advanced language, showing a higher degree of independence and less support on the part of the
teacher.

The letters give pupils an opportunity to introduce themselves and give various information about themselves and their friends, hobbies, likes and dislikes, with particular emphasis on their favourite food, daily and seasonal menu and the like - in accordance with the alimentary theme of our Project. Most letters are colourful, illustrated with the pupils' drawings, pictures, or photos. Although letters do not usually have specified addressees (especially first-time letters), some of them are addressed to a "boy" or "girl" from a certain partner school. Having received replies to their own letters, quite a few pupils keep exchanging mail with their penfriends on a regular basis. Those rewarded with participation in foreign meetings, in turn, have a good chance of meeting their penfriends in their own countries and schools.

Letters are exchanged between schools by post as well as during Project meetings where teachers exchange the pupils' mail with their colleagues from partner schools.

Communication through letter writing creates a good opportunity for pupils, the main participants of the Project, to get to know each other, each other's hobbies, routines, and lots of other interesting information about their peers, which may constitute the first step towards successful European integration. By keeping in touch with their foreign peers, young people are given an important lesson of tolerance and respect for other nationalities, their cultures, customs and traditions. In addition to the aspect of intercultural exchange, letter writing is both interesting and effective way of developing communication skills in the English language. The activity allows pupils to extend and activate both general and thematic vocabulary, practise grammatical accuracy, the skills of writing and reading comprehension.

As a picture is worth more than a thousand words, below are several examples of letters created by pupils of our schools