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Content Type: 1
Title: Linguistics Projects for the Foreign Language Classroom
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From http://spanishlinguist.us/
If you want your language students to explore the science of language in addition to improving their target language proficiency, here are some interesting projects and questions that get students thinking like linguists: http://spanishlinguist.us/2017/11/linguistics-projects-for-the-foreign-language-classroom/
Source: Spanish Linguist
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Title: Count Down the Rabbit Trail: A Trick for Time on Task
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One of our principles about second language teaching and learning is "Time on task is fundamental. For time on task to occur, learners need a learning space that is meaningful, relevant, and tied to their needs." In this recent blog post, Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell describes a new count-down strategy when students volunteer information (a "rabbit trail") that is interesting, but not pertinent to the task at hand (and often beyond students' proficiency level in the TL. She finishes with this reflection: "How about another confession? Often the source of the rabbit trail is me. So next step: my students are allowed to count down my rabbit trail. Maybe we’ll all be maximizing our TL time more this way."
Read the post at http://musicuentos.com/2017/11/count-down-rabbit-trail/
Source: Musicuentos
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Title: Podcast: Teaching Vocabulary for Acquisition, Part 2
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Last week (http://caslsintercom.uoregon.edu/content/24213) we noted episode 28 of the We Teach Languages podcast series, in which Joe Barcroft discusses his ten principles for vocabulary acquisition. The conversation continues this week in Part 2, available here: https://weteachlang.com/2017/11/24/episode-29-vocabulary-with-joe-barcroft-part-ii/
Source: We Teach Languages
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Content Type: 1
Title: Bloom's Taxonomy in the Language Classroom
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Here is a short article summarizing Bloom's Taxonomy, both in its original form (Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation) and Anderson and Krathwohl's 2000 revised form (Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create/Design), and how it relates to instruction in language classrooms. You can also download a PDF with over 60 verbs to use with the updated taxonomy.
The article is available at https://wlclassroom.com/2017/11/27/bloomstaxonomy/
Source: World Language Classroom
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Title: Video Series: Artists in 60 Seconds
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Here's a helpful resource for exposing your students to famous artists from all over the world: a series of sixty-second video overviews of individual artists. The series is available here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOXsOsSnQH03bMdoxCjA7N15C20JXGHTF
Read more about this resource here: http://www.openculture.com/2017/11/60-second-introductions-to-12-groundbreaking-artists-matisse-dali-duchamp-hopper-pollock-rothko-more.html
Source: YouTube
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Title: Historic Travel Pictures in the Library of Congress
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From http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2017/10/free-to-use-and-reuse-historical-travel-pictures/
Are you looking for more classroom decorations, visual writing/speaking prompts, or historical perspectives on the target culture? Check out these free-to-use historic travel photos from Europe, the Middle East, and North America in the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/collections/photochrom-prints/about-this-collection/?loclr=blogloc
Source: Library of Congress
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Title: CALPER e-Portfolios
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Our sister LRC, the Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research, is creating a new resource website dedicated to eportfolios. The site is intended to help language instructors explore what portfolio assessment in language courses is about and how one can get started with using portfolio assessment in classrooms and programs.
Although the site is currently under development and won't be fully released until spring 2018, you can start exploring it now at http://sites.psu.edu/calpereportfolios/
Source: CALPER
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Content Type: 4
Title: Time Capsule: Using Reflective Writing for Personal Feedback
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By Logan Matz, CASLS Fellow
Self-reflection can be an invaluable part of the language learning process, especially when learners feel invested in the activity and that they are contributing to their future success in a real, concrete way. This activity is designed to help learners reflect on their past and current achievements, in order to improve future learning outcomes.
Learning Objectives: Students will be able to:
- reference current progress to develop advice to aid future learning
- revise their thoughts after discussion with peers
- write a letter containing advice for a friend or future version of themselves
Modes: Presentational, Interpretive
Materials Needed: Pencil, paper
Procedure:
- Introduction Explain to students that this activity involves writing a letter containing advice for a hypothetical friend of theirs that will be taking this class next year. Explain that while honest advice is good, there should not be anything too personal in the letter, because they will be sharing them with a partner later.
- Prewrite Have students get out notebook paper and something to write with. Stress that this will not be graded or scored, but is for the benefit of the students themselves. Ask students to make a list of three things that they learned this week that would be useful to someone taking this class next year. This could be important vocabulary or grammar points, a listening or reading strategy they found useful, or anything else.
- Write Once students are done with their list, have them write a letter containing those three important items in the form of advice to a friend of theirs who is taking the class next year.
- Share Have students get into pairs and share their letters with each other. Have them look for similarities and differences, both in opinion and advice.
- Revise Following that, have students break up individually again and revise their letters. Ask if they heard any good pieces of advice from their partner that they want to add to their own letter. Then, have students turn in their paper, explaining that you will revisit the letter later on in the term to compare what the students have actually learned with what they thought they would learn.
Notes:
- This could also easily be adapted to an online distance-learning classroom. Simply exchange the paper for a word processing program.
- Timing is flexible. This activity works just as well daily as weekly, and at the end of the term. Scale scope and timing up or down as necessary. For example, if this is being done at the end of the term, have students work in pairs or groups to come up with 15 most important things that they would advise future students about.
Source: CASLS Activity of the Week
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Content Type: 3
Title: Secondary Dual Language Immersion Program Research
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By Linda Forrest, CASLS Research Director
What factors promote success for dual language immersion programs and their students at the secondary school level? Unfortunately, few two-way or dual language immersion (DLI) programs exist in U.S. secondary schools, and consequently, few studies have investigated factors leading to student retention and successful outcomes. The majority of research focuses on the comparison of students who have a cultural or heritage connection to the language of study and those that do not. Bearse & De Jong (2008) investigated secondary Spanish-English two-way immersion programs across grades 6-12, finding that the linguistic and cultural capital the program developed differed for Anglo and Latino students, with the former identifying better job opportunities as most important, while Latino students see both better job opportunities and a better connection to family. Additionally, Dworin (2011) interviewed graduates of a Spanish-English K-12 dual language immersion program about the impact of their thirteen years of study, finding that some students utilized Spanish only for specific kinds of communication, while others had linguistic and cultural affinities with native Spanish speakers that were key to their use of Spanish.
A handful of studies have begun to inform our knowledge about student retention and student perception of the relevance of immersion study. For example, researching in a Canadian context, O’Donnell et al. (2008) explored factors contributing to the commitment of Grade 9 and 10 French Immersion students. They found that students perceived French language proficiency as important to their future, but were concerned about more immediate factors, such as timetables and grades. Student commitment to the program varied by the amount of importance they ascribed to the pro and con factors. Similar issues were uncovered by Sykes et al. (2016) in an ethnographic study of the Portland Public School Mandarin DLI program. Interviews with students, parents, teachers, and administrators emphasized that the increased demands on students’ time combined with decreased parental pressure to stay in the program led to declines in student motivation and consequent withdrawal from it. Culligan (2010) reports congruent findings for an optional French immersion mathematics course. These studies echo the findings of Lewis & Shapson (1989) two decades earlier, who found that most immersion students saw the program as leading to better employment, but left due to dissatisfaction with program content or belief that they would obtain better grades in the English program. Makropoulos (2010) found that students’ decisions to remain or leave a program were informed by the everyday realities of their individual situation both inside and outside the classroom.
Most recently, studies of immersion school students beyond the elementary level have shown they are more academically successful than their peers. Steele et al. (2015) found this effect for fifth and eighth grade students in a U.S. program, while Verspoor et al. (2015) found a similar effect for students receiving a bilingual high school education in the Netherlands. Their success was also predicted by their initial language proficiency and motivational factors, indicating a need for continued work in this area to understand the complex picture at the secondary level.
Although research studies are limited, they suggest that secondary students evaluate the immersion program along with all educational options available to them and choose those which align best with their personal interests and goals.
References
Bearse, C., & De Jong, E. (2008). Cultural and Linguistic Investment: Adolescents in a Secondary Two-Way Immersion Program. Equity & Excellence in Education, 41(3), 325-340.
Culligan, K. (2012). Pente or Slope? Using Student Voices to Explore Program Choice and Experiences in Secondary French Immersion Mathematics (Enhanced). Canadian Modern Language Review, 66(Supplement 1), S421-S444.
Dworin, J. (2011). Listening to Graduates of a K-12 Bilingual Program: Language Ideologies and Literacy Practices of Former Bilingual Students. GIST Education and Learning Research Journal, (5), 104-126.
Lewis, C., & Shapson, S. (1989). Secondary French Immersion: A Study of Students Who Leave the Program. Canadian Modern Language Review, 45(3), 539-48.
Makropoulos, J. (2010). Student Engagement in an Ottawa French Immersion High School Program. Canadian Journal of Education, 33(3), 515-540.
Steele, J., Slater, R., Zamarro, G., Miller, T., Li, J., Burkhauser, S. & Bacon, M. (2015). Effects of Dual-Language Immersion in Portland Public Schools. http://www.sole-jole.org/16111.pdf.
Sykes, J., Forrest, L., & Carpenter, K. (2016). Building a Successful and Sustainable Language Immersion Program: The Portland, Oregon, Mandarin Dual Language Experience. Eugene, OR: Center for Applied Second Language Studies.
Verspoor, M., De Bot, K., & Xu, X. (2015). The effects of English bilingual education in the Netherlands. Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education, 3(1), 4-27.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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Content Type: 3
Title: Connecting Concepts and Place
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By Christopher Daradics, CASLS Language Technician
Exploring the connection between a concept and the physical environment from which that concept emerged encourages abstract thought, meta-pragmatic awareness, and functional language use. In other words, understanding the systemic relationship between concepts and place helps students understand how meaning emerges from their environment (e.g. the classroom, their homes, and their communities). As a result, students are empowered to better read and navigate the linguistic and cultural aspects of the target language environment. For example, the language needed to shop at an open air market as compared to a grocery store is not only conceptual in terms of structure and words, but also directly tied to the places and spaces in which the language is used. Three focus areas are especially useful for connecting concepts and place, both physically and metaphorically.
Abstract Thought:
When students anchor familiar concepts into their natural physical contexts, they can make increasingly informed associations between the concrete facts of a situation and the abstract language used to talk about this and similar situations (Lantolf and Thorne, 2006). For example, using pre-activity reflection which asks learners to visualize what they already know about a grocery store enables them to situate new terminology for food shopping behavior into a space they already know.
Meta-pragmatic Awareness:
Through studying abstract concepts in physical context learners become better oriented and adapted to their own physical and intellectual habitats (Ortega, 2014). This ability to orient and adapt oneself to the demands of a given situation is a hallmark of meta-pragmatic awareness. It allows learners to make choices about the language behaviors in which they engage. For example, when apologizing, metapragmatic awareness enables the learner to consider the severity of an offense to determine how much explanation is needed as part of the apology.
Functional Language Use:
Making connections between a place and its associated concepts can provide learners with opportunities to engage in personally relevant ways (Lantolf and Thorne, 2006). For instance, conceptually motivated, place-based approaches to language learning have been found to inspire curiosity, willingness to take risks, and teamwork (Holden & Sykes, 2011). Highlighting the language functions required in any given context allows for the isolation of key language patterns especially useful for engaging in curious, daring, and collaborative functional language use. Returning to the grocery store example, this means a focus on greetings, requests for information, and leave takings needed to buy the food one needs.
In order to make the connection between concept and place explicit, learner support via instructor facilitation is fundamental. Prompting learners will help them notice the people, places, sounds, and physical objects within the contexts of their language use. As learners begin to explore the interplay between the environment and the kinds of abstract thought different environments facilitate, they are better able to make the critical connections needed for abstract through, meta-pragmatic awareness, and functional language use. Some potential questions for exploration follow:
People:
- Who are the people involved in and influencing a given situation?
- Why are they involved and what are their interests in sustaining or altering the situation?
Sounds:
- What sounds are present (or absent)?
- How might the situation change if the soundscape changed?
Physical Environment:
- How is meaning being communicated through the organization of the environment?
- In what ways is the physical environment supporting or influencing the situation?
As they reflect on these elements as part of their language learning experience, meaning emerges from the environment itself, and in this realization context awareness can be raised, and functional language can be more consciously and skillfully tuned.
References
Holden, C. L., & Sykes, J. M. (2012). Leveraging mobile games for place-based language learning. Developments in Current Game-Based Learning Design and Deployment, 27.
Lantolf, J. and Thorne, S. (2006) Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Languge Development. Oxford University Press.
Ortega, L. (2014). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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