An innovative assessment method for real world learning: Learner created content with a cell phone, YouTube and an LMS            Abstract: Faced with a lack of exposure commonly experienced in foreign language learning contexts, the researchers decided to engage the learners with an innovative collaborative assignment. The experimentation involved twenty-two learners from a bachelor degree majoring in French attending the French for Tourism and Hospitality course. In this assignment, the learners were required to shoot a professional video promoting a Malaysian touristic place using their cell phones. The objectives of this research were to motivate the learners by challenging their language, cultural and creative skills, to evaluate their professional competencies in accordance with the course objectives, and finally to associate the learners to the creation of pedagogical audiovisual material. The video castings were analysed according to the language, cultural and professional parameters of the course learning outcomes in line with the research objectives. This article describes the benefits as well as the pitfalls encountered during the experimentation phase. Introduction This research was conducted with 22 learners majoring in French in a foreign language bachelor degree in a Malaysian public university. In this program, the learners graduate after three year of intensive language and cultural immersion courses. The assessment method described in this article was experimented in the French for Tourism and Hospitality course. In Malaysia, the learners of French form isolated clusters in a complete foreign language environment where information and opportunities to interact in the target language are predominantly accessible through the internet (Gabarre & Gabarre, 2008). Questionnaires on computer and internet access conducted with learners of three consecutive intakes revealed that apart from extremely rare cases (one or two students per intake), every learner owned a computer and had access to the internet through the university free wireless service or with their own service provider. The results also confirmed that the majority of them were confident computer and internet users. Unfortunately, many of them also confided that they felt confused when exposed to French websites. In fact, the distance between the target and their first languages considerably slows down the discovery of the target language. When placed in front of an authentic document, the learners feel lost and confused because of the constant flow of unknown structures and lexical items. This impression is further aggravated by the cultural gap existing between the two countries as when the learners eventually understand all the words they can still miss the meaning (Gabarre & Gabarre, 2010). Therefore, the initial interest and curiosity are replaced by an increasing frustration which completely discourages the learners from seeking information autonomously. Because interactions are limited to the classroom, there is no opportunity to develop cultural and intercultural competencies through real practice with native speakers. Furthermore, the text books edited in France do not reflect the Asian tourism industry in the sense that the lexical items and settings are mainly if not exclusively European centred. The exposure deficit factor added to the scarcity of teaching documents results in a greater emphasis on the lecturers’ role as sole information provider. Consequently, in order to comply with the curriculum requirements, the lecturers have to create learning material within the scope of the course yet accessible at the learners’ level. The experiment related in this article was implemented based on findings obtained on the same batch of learners within an action research initiated in 2008. The objectives were threefold: 1) to increase real communications practices, 2) to impart professional competencies in the field of tourism, and 3) to involve the learners in the creation of a pool of teaching documents specific to Malaysia. - 1202 -