Intended for Intermediate to Advanced learners, this activity focuses on interacting in the digital sphere through political memes written in different languages. It is designed to give learners first-hand experience decoding political memes, explaining their codification, and creating their own.
Learning Outcomes:
Learners will be able to:
- Identify the differences in humor between English and the target language through different examples of political memes
- Explain the illocutionary force (speaker’s intention behind their words, such as persuading) behind the political comment in each meme
- Identify the difficulties when decoding political memes
- Produce a political meme in the target language
- Explain the perlocutionary force behind their student-created meme
Mode(s): Any
Materials: political memes video, sample memes in English and the target language
Procedure:
This activity is designed to take place in three stages: observation, analysis, and extension
Observation:
Have learners observe the types of language used in three different memes.
- Learners watch the overview video and explain what political memes are and how to understand them and decode them.
- Choose three political memes in English and provide them to your students for observation. We recommend choosing a balanced set of examples that do not overemphasize one political perspective, but instead offer a variety of perspectives.
Analysis:
- Have learners compare examples of the English memes with their target language counterpart. In many cases, an example of the same image with different languages can be used.
- In small groups or pairs, have learners discuss the differences in tone, humor, and language strategies used between the memes in English and the examples in the target language.
- Have learners work in groups of 3-4 to match the words from the sample memes to the image with which it corresponds. Working together, they can use background knowledge to decide which phrases are most appropriate for which meme and then put the specific phrases in order within the memes themselves.
- Review the unscrambled memes as a whole class.
Notes on online/remote learning:
- Teachers can create an online shared PowerPoint file in which each slide is designated to a group of students.
- Add to these slides the scrambled examples of memes and their phrases.
- Learners can then work synchronously or asynchronously by organizing the elements on their slide and writing their explanations alongside the memes.
Extention:
As an extension, have learners create one political meme in the target language and post it on a shared platform such as Padlet or Google Jamboard. (Note: learners can also post to an existing meme site, depending on their learning context and rules about sharing and privacy.) Ask learners to give a 1-2 minute presentation on their meme using the prompts below.
Intermediate learner:
I made this meme.
I chose ____ because ____.
Advanced learner:
I tried to emulate the satire of political memes that is typical in the target language by utlizing a few strategies related to humor. I noticed____ when I was looking at____ and tried ot emulate it by____ .
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