View Content #24012

By Julie Sykes, CASLS Director

The use of media to facilitate the teaching and learning of culture and language has long been lauded as an effective and powerful context for exploring culture in foreign language classrooms. The ability to add context to discussions, model various types of cultural behavior, and facilitate meaningful discussion all offer a great deal to the classroom experience.

Emerging digital technologies enhance language teachers’ ability to engage with media and offer learners an interactive experience in which they not only consume the media, but also work with it to discover new elements and create their own perceptions of what they see. Regardless of the format you choose, creating an opportunity by which learners interact with the media they consume further enhances the experience. This week’s Activity of the Week offers one example of the interactive use of media in which learners interact with the content and meaning of the video they work with. Other possibilities include:

• Picture sorting: Gives learners pictures from the media clip they are watching and ask them to put the pictures in order, sort according to themes or learning targets, and/or redraw them to reflect a different cultural stance.
• Pause strategically: As you watch the media together, pause in strategic locations and ask the learners to do an activity in which they engage with one another around the content. Alternatively, if you are asking them to watch the clip at home, give them 5-8 timestamps and have them try to figure out why you chose the timestamps you did.
• Mashups: Ask learners to create a mashup of various media clips to reflect a cultural message or insight from multiple things they have watched.
• Online Quiz Session: Use an online quiz application or poll generator to engage students through polling and questions.

Regardless of the format you choose, enabling learners to engage with media, in addition to consuming it, can be a powerful experience.