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Content Type: 1
Title: Lesson: Hasta los huesos
Body:
Here is a series of activities and resources dealing with the Day of the Dead in Mexico: http://www.todoele.net/actividades/Actividad_maint.asp?ActividadesPage=8&Actividad_id=679
Source: Todoele.net
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Title: 4 Ways to Help ELLs Self-Assess Their Writing
Body:
Elena Shvidko describes dialogue journals, writing-to-learn activities, reflective journals, and learning logs as examples of activities that allow for English learners to self-assess in this short article: http://blog.tesol.org/4-ways-to-help-ells-self-assess-their-writing/
Source: TESOL
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Title: Special Report: Teaching America’s English-Language Learners
Body:
Education Week’s May 11, 2016, issue includes a special report on English language learners. Access the relevant article at http://www.edweek.org/ew/collections/english-language-learners/index.html or the entire issue at http://www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2016/05/11/index.html
Source: Education Week
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Content Type: 1
Title: Comprehension Checking Ideas
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Checking for comprehension is a key skill in language teaching and learning. Here are quite a few ideas for checking for comprehension in different ways: https://williamsonci.com/2016/05/12/more-than-just-translation/
Source: Williamson CI & TPRS
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Content Type: 1
Title: Videos Shorts as Writing Prompts
Body:
Here is a collection of video shorts that can be used as writing prompts for your students: http://www.eslwriting.org/teach-english-esl-videos-for-the-esl-writing-class/
Source: eslwriting.org
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Content Type: 1
Title: Listening Energizer Activities
Body:
From http://www.teachthemenglish.com
Here are some quick activities that focus on listening skills and get students moving: http://www.teachthemenglish.com/2016/04/great-listening-energizers-part-1/ and http://www.teachthemenglish.com/2016/05/great-listening-energizers-part-2/
Source: Teach them English
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Content Type: 1
Title: Mini-series about Learning Strategies
Body:
From http://frenchteachernet.blogspot.com
Here are the first three parts of a mini-series about learning strategies on the Language Teacher Toolkit blog.
Part 1: http://frenchteachernet.blogspot.com/2016/05/learning-strategies-1.html
Part 2: http://frenchteachernet.blogspot.com/2016/05/learning-strategies-2.html
Part 3: http://frenchteachernet.blogspot.com/2016/05/learning-strategies-3.html
Source: Language Teacher Toolkit
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Content Type: 3
Title: Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence in the World Language Classroom
Body:
Manuela Wagner is Associate Professor of Foreign Language Education and Director of the German Language and Culture Program at the University of Connecticut, USA. Michael Byram is Professor Emeritus at the University of Durham, UK and Guest Professor at the University of Luxembourg. This two-part piece will be continued in the June 20 issue of InterCom.
In foreign language education, we are uniquely situated to help our students gain the skills necessary to become, what we call, intercultural citizens (Byram, 2008). In this two-part series, we share our experiences designing and implementing projects which integrate intercultural citizenship in a variety of contexts in and beyond the world language classroom. In part 1, we provide a step-by-step description of our process followed by examples of collaborative projects.
Step 1: If possible, team up
Planning and implementing intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in a systematic way is time-intensive. Work in teams in order to benefit from each others’ perspectives.
Step 2: Choose the context and create objectives
Whether you decide to integrate ICC in a lesson plan, a unit, a school year or the whole program, you will need to decide what your main objectives are. Our advice would be to start small, best by modifying a unit you are already teaching.
Step 3: Choose a theoretical framework
In order to systematically implement ICC, it is important to choose a theoretical framework and principles which best help you meet your objectives. In our projects, we used the model of intercultural communicative competence developed by Byram (1997). As illustrated in Figure 1, students will need to develop a) linguistic competences in the target language, b) attitudes (especially curiosity and willingness to decentre), c) knowledge about the “products, practices and perspectives” (The National Standards Collaborative Board, 2015) of a cultural group, d) the ability to interpret and relate, and e) the ability to discover and interact with students or native speakers of the language in order to acquire critical cultural awareness. Critical cultural awareness, “an ability to evaluate, critically and on the basis of explicit criteria, perspectives, practices and products in one’s own and other cultures and countries”, is an important dimension in this model and in our projects.
Figure 1: Intercultural Communicative Competence (Byram, 1997)
We will briefly describe and illustrate step 4 (co-design activities and assessments), step 5 (implement and document) and step 6 (assess and refine) in part 2.
We conducted projects from elementary school through university in which we implemented ICC and intercultural citizenship, a concept which we will also cover in part 2. We learned that asking ourselves the right questions was paramount for the success of our projects. Some of the questions we find useful include:
- How can we make sure that each of the dimensions of ICC are covered in the course of the unit?
- How can we facilitate target language use? (linguistic competences, skills of discovery and interactions, skills of interpreting and relating)
- How can we help our students gain access to multiple perspectives of the current topic? (decentring)
- How can we facilitate authentic interactions between students and between students and representatives of the cultural group(s)?
- Which questions can we include to help students develop their criticality?
- How do we best scaffold the activities to help students achieve?
References
Byram, M. (1997) Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Byram, M. (2008) From foreign language education to education for intercultural citizenship. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
The National Standards Collaborative Board. (2015). World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages. 4th ed. Alexandria, VA: Author. - See more at: http://www.actfl.org/publications/all/world-readiness-standards-learning-languages#sthash.ItD1L0E1.dpuf
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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Content Type: 4
Title: Exploring Differences: Parable of the Polygons and Axes Discussions
Body:
by Stephanie Knight, CASLS Language Technology Specialist
The purpose of this activity is to expose intermediate high and advanced low learners to considerations of differences that divide human groups through critical reading and discussion. This particular activity draws connections between said groupings and issues related to race.
Learning Objectives: Learners will be able to:
- Read a historical article or blog to understand the context of modern-day issues
- Discuss issues of social significance
Modes: Interpretive Reading, Interpersonal Speaking
Materials Needed: Parable of the Polygons (http://ncase.me/polygons/), vocabulary handout
Procedure
- Give learners the vocabulary handout. Allow them to engage in self-reflection regarding how well they can fulfill the principal learning target for this activity, “I can read a historical article or blog to understand the context for modern-day issues.”
- Learners will explore the concepts of sameness and variableness through gameplay of Parable of the Polygons, a game/blog that is available in 13 languages and allows learners to visualize segregation overtime. As they play, they will use context to define key vocabulary on the vocabulary handout.
- Learners will pretend that they are one of the game/blog makers of Parable of the Polygons and that they need to prepare for a debate regarding systemic issues associated with racism. Using the vocabulary handout, they will craft responses to a series of claims that might be made during the debate using information from the game/blog.
- To close, learners will engage in a class debate regarding the issues of grouping by sameness that they explored in Parable of the Polygons. In this debate, they will discuss whether or not the statement, “There is a historical precedent for issues related to race that makes total change impossible,” is true. Instruct them to use the questions below to guide their thinking as they consider the statement. Given the complexity of this topic, it would be a good idea to let the learners to have five minutes of thinking time before the debate begins.
- How do we inspire change?
- What catalyzes change?
- When is a conflict over?
- Why do racial tensions exist?
- How does the past impact the present?
- Why are people bothered by changes to the status quo?
- How do small biases have the potential to impact society both positively and negatively?
- What do I know about the history of issues dealing with race in my hometown?
Notes:
While this activity draws a connection between Parable of the Polygon and issues related to race, Parable of the Polygon can be used to explore any other issue related to grouping by sameness.
Source: CASLS Activity of the Week
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Content Type: 3
Title: Language Learning through Immersion
Body:
Robert Davis is a Professor of Spanish at the University of Oregon, where he serves as Director of Language Instruction. He has served as the director of the Middlebury at Mills Spanish School, a language immersion program of the Middlebury Language Schools.
Millions of Americans start their acquisition of a second language (L2) in a classroom, but with famously disappointing results. Travel and study abroad are intuitively more attractive to many, but immersion programs, in which students dive into an all-L2 environment, are an increasingly popular option. The best known programs are residential experiences operated by the Middlebury Language Schools (http://www.middlebury.edu/ls) and the Concordia Language Villages (http://www.concordialanguagevillages.org), but the idea of immersion can be implemented on a local level in informal community conversation groups like Les tables françaises (Dwyer’s Café, Lafayette LA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjF3b3ZD_a0#t=1).
Why does immersion work so well for language learning? The research points to three main factors:
1. Commitment to using only the target language. “Diving into the deep end” gets at the meaning of immersion and highlights the risk-taking that is essential in acquiring another language. The immersion environment forces the learner to face head on the issue of ego permeability, or the ease and openness with which the learner can create a new L2 identity (as opposed to holding fast to their sense of self as an L1 speaker and member of L1 culture). The immersion environment often gives even the most resistant (or low ego-permeable) learner the license to experiment with the L2, make sounds that seem silly, or utter phrases that induce embarrassment in a classroom-only learning context.
2. Combination of classroom learning and social interaction in co-curricular activities. Traditional language classrooms are famous for stultifying drills and nonsensical examples that only serve to illustrate grammatical points (e.g., “The pencil of my aunt is under the table”, to illustrate prepositions). Immersion programs typically include classroom learning, but connected to social and cultural activities outside the classroom (cooking classes, sports, dance, lectures, films, etc.), in which language use is inherently interesting to learners. Participants form new social relationships, mediated only in the L2, while engaging in activities that they enjoy.
3. Intensive personalization: Immersion programs ideally tailor the curriculum to the interests and needs of learners, making the first two conditions above possible. Teachers can draw on students’ experiences in the co-curricular activities for class content and discussion, and learners come to the classroom with genuine questions about how to use the language to express meaning that is important to them.
However, not everyone can afford the expense in time or money of participating in a residential immersion program. What can classroom teachers take from this proven learning context? First and foremost would be the personalization of learning materials: make your lessons relevant to your students’ experience. Then, build in more authenticity to your activities, so that language use in your classroom more closely resembles real-life uses of language (no one does verb drills in the real world!). Finally, include explicit discussion with your students of the psychology of language learning. They may not be aware of the limitations they place on themselves. Ask them how a role-play exercise made them feel, validate those feelings, and encourage them to take more risks in future activities, to be playful with language, and to have fun with the learning process.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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