View Content #20882

by Julie Sykes, CASLS Director

“Formal educational environments are typically profoundly place agnostic, both physically, where classrooms isolate the learners from the outside world, and in discourse, where textbooks, syllabi, and in­struction are ideally standardized across courses with respect to location, and thus make little reference to the actual lived contexts of their subjects”. (Holden and Sykes, 2009, p. 4).

In recent years, the prolific availability of mobile devices has reinvigorated our exploration of ways we can leverage place for language learning to connect learners with the communi­ties, cultures, and places in which language is spoken. Creating scenarios in which learners have the opportunity to explore unknown places and delve deeper into spaces outside of classroom architectures has demonstrated a profound impact on learners’ framing of their own language learning experience.  A number of practices can utilize the power of place to richly transform language learning.

1. Exploration: Providing opportunities for learners to leave the classroom and engage in targeted community exploration through scavenger hunts and guided observation can connect learners with language they are studying. In some cases, these places might be obvious, for example, a Spanish-speaking neighborhood in Albuquerque; however, in some cases, the places can be less obvious. For example, find influences of French food and culture in Nashville, TN. Critical to designing these experiences is affording the opportunity for learners to take time in the place and move beyond surface level observation.
2. Documentation: A second possibility is affording learners the opportunity to document places with which they are connected and they asking them to document their own experience in that place.  This can be especially effective on study abroad trips, field trip adventures, and units in which learners examine the spaces which they inhabit daily. For example, create an exhibit in which you photograph ten instances of globalization and [insert target language] in your own neighborhood.
3. Augmented Reality Mobile Games: In recent years, a number of mobile applications have been created for language learning. For example, students can solve a murder mystery in a Spanish speaking neighborhood in Albuquerque through Mentira or play Chrono Ops to save the world as an agent from the future who has returned to the past to explore sustainability in Portland. Augmented reality projects, while still low in number, offer a number of potentially transformative opportunities for learners. (See pebll.uoregon.edu for a growing database of place-based experiences currently in existence).

Regardless of the approach one takes, the power of place is undeniable and offers immense opportunity to engage learners throughout their language learning journey.

References

2011. Holden, C. & Sykes, J. Leveraging mobile games for place-based language learning. International Journal of Game-based Learning. 1(2), 1-18.