On May 4, 2019, I had the pleasure of presenting at Investigating our Practices 2019 conference with my colleague, Nick Bartlett. We presented on some findings tied to our small TLEF project, Building Digital Citizenship and Critical Digital Literacies in French Program Teacher Candidates through Open Educational Repositories. That touched upon a subject near and dear to my heart and research interests – culture in the language classroom.
We began by addressing the importance of technology in the language classroom and the various ways in which it can facilitate language learning and student growth. Furthermore, we argued that technology can provide a window to the outside world exposing students to the various cultures of the target language. Kramsch (2013) argues that:
The digital culture of the computer has become our students’ way of learning, thinking, and communicating. Slowly but surely it has transformed what it means to learn a foreign language, what we mean when we talk of ‘communicating’, ‘negotiating meaning’, and, ultimately, ‘understanding the other’ (p. xii)
This digital opportunity therefore provides learners with an outlook into different ways of life, language and meaning. As such, it helps our learners build a more comprehensive perspective of the diverse world in which we live.
From our data, we found that French teacher candidates (TCs) value culture and find it to be an important element in the language classroom. Furthermore, French TCs agreed that authentic materials (materials created for native speakers such as magazine articles, songs, interviews and videos) are important resources to be used and that technology allows for easy access.
To conclude our presentation, Nick and I recommended a few approaches that purposefully integrate technology to address different cultures. For example, we suggested language teachers take a learner-centered approach by opening the discussion in the classroom so that learners can reflect upon their experiences and perspectives and be exposed to others. We also encouraged language teachers to use authentic materials and to engage with native speakers of the target language as well as learners of the target language through online exchanges such as Skype in the Classroom and PenPal Schools.
Slides from our session: IOP: Fostering Understandings of Culture in French Teacher Education through Technology
References: Kramsch, C. (2013). Foreward. In R. J. Blake (Ed.), Brave new digital classroom: Technology and foreign language learning (Second ed., pp. xi-xiii). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Liza Navarro
PhD Student
Department of Language & Literacy Education
University of British Columbia
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