Executive Summary of Results

Integrating cultural and social context into the African Language Program (ALP) at Indiana University enriches the communication experience for students and broadens understanding of languages and the diverse groups of people who speak them.  It enhances language learning of speech acts and promotes pragmatic awareness and appropriate language use in different situations. The project incorporates web-based culturally authentic multimedia resources in five target languages: Bambara, Hausa, Twi, Kiswahili, and Zulu. In order to promote learners’ cultural awareness and use of language in context, resources exist in multiple modalities and within the context of social/cultural events. The language resources form five related web sites, one for each language, (http://www.indiana.edu/~afritalk/) containing collections of texts, audio files of dialogues and music, video clips of speakers in context, and images of authentic interactions.

Need for the Project

By making cultural resources available throughout the language learning experience, in and outside the classroom, learners are able to reinforce and extend basic language skills, develop pragmatic skills, and learn through multiple learning modalities. Educators can provide a range of learning activities and track student progress. Materials are accessible for presentation in class and for review and learning activities outside the classroom.

Use of Technology

Use of technology has provided learners with a bridge to the target culture. Learners are able to read texts on a certain cultural topic and at the same time follow web based links to:

• Imagery (still pictures and where possible videos) connected to specific behaviors
• Audio (listen to the text/dialogue)
• On-line glossary for reference when meaning cannot be inferred in context
• Exercises with immediate feedback

Instructional Design Plan

Describe how the use of technology used supported your teaching approach:

• What student learning outcomes were expected?
• How did your teaching plan encourage active learning, provide feedback, address respective learning styles, and build collaboration?
• What resources were used? (campus technology support services, etc.)
• Would your project be easily understood and executed by other faculty?

Teachers present the materials in the language laboratory or in a classroom that has technology facilities. To follow up, students perform different activities on their own outside the classroom. These activities include:

• read/listen to a text on a certain sub topic.
• view appropriate authentic visuals related to the subtopic
• discuss what they see in the visuals
• listen to dialogues related to the subtopic
• view a video by native speakers when available
• check their comprehension  by doing exercises that provide immediate feedback

Expected student learning outcomes: Students will be able to write individual essays that incorporate a culture topic in focus. As homework or part of classroom assignment, students in pairs collaborate and write scripts based on a certain topic or subtopic. And in the class room students can perform role-plays based on their scripts. Another variation is for the teacher to provide role play situations. Follow-up activities can also include discussion of the importance of different speech acts in the target language and in student’s native languages, and incidents of miscommunication.

Instructors of the languages in focus are using the project and have been providing feedback for further improvement.

Several resources at Indiana University have been used: Teaching and Learning Technologies Centers (TLTC) and Language and Computer Laboratory.

This project would easily be understood and executed by other faculty

Potential to Impact Student Learning

Clearly define how your project improved student learning - include specific examples of how your project:

• Fostered depth of learning
• Supported efforts to improve retention
• Fostered the learning of large numbers of students
• Has broader applications that will affect learning K-12 or community environments?

The importance of having culture integrated in the language learning experience is that it enriches and broadens learners’ understanding of the language and its speakers and promote student awareness of pragmatic norms of the target culture. The project has enriched the teaching of African languages at the elementary and intermediate levels and can also be used for reference and review by advanced learners.

Students have access to these materials outside of class which helps improve retention and foster learning of large number of students.

The concept and design of the project can easily be used for K-12 classes since it addresses different learning styles.

Assessment Plan

Briefly explain the effectiveness of your assessment plan:

• What measure of assessment was used?
• How did your approach obtain measures of performance?
• Did you feel your measurement was accurate and effective?

Students were asked to use the language sites while developers watched their use of the sites. They were also asked questions on navigation and other aspects of the sites. Some of their responses and suggestions include:

• Students liked the audio and visuals that accompany reading texts. They also found the immediate feedback exercises very useful.  They suggested adding appropriate links to other online resources such as news, music, history web sites, cooking, movies, and other popular culture web sites, etc.  This suggestion is being integrated. They also expressed interest in more topics (such as ‘getting round town’ (how to take the bus, taxi, directions to someone’s house, etc), ‘necessities’ (such as knowing how to ask where the bathroom is, ordering in a restaurant or getting food other ways, etc.) and more examples of people their own age. Adding these topics could be the focus of another project.

Instructors ask their students for feedback and suggestions. And with the help of technology experts at Teaching and Learning Technologies Centers (TLTC) at Indiana University, these suggestions are integrated when received.

Plan for Colleague Development

Describe your role and activities as a mentor:

• What mentoring activities were implemented to assist colleagues?
• How did you help to develop colleague's instructional technology skills?
• How do you think your contributions to the Knowledge Base will help colleagues planning similar projects?
• Is your project approach potentially applicable to other contexts or disciplines?
• What tips would you offer?

The project was presented to other Indiana University faculty and colleagues at the Teaching and Learning Technologies Centers (TLTC) Summer-fare and at conferences held at the IU campus and at other institutions.

Working with the TLTC experts on the project helped African language instructors develop their technology skills which they apply to the teaching of pragmatics. Frank Morris conducted information sessions for language material developers on tips for picture taking and video recording. Madeline Gonin and Cordah Robinson have been working on the design and integrating comments and suggestions to make the project user friendly. Lucinda Miller of the Indiana University language laboratory provided training and resources for professional audio recording.

The use of the FLASH software to solve the problems of font representation for lan4 May, 2007owledge Base.

Final Comments on Project Results

• Do you think you met the goals of your project?
• What, if anything,would you do differently?
• Did you have any unexpected outcomes? (positive or negative)
• Would you recommend this teaching approach to colleagues?
• What other comments or suggestions would you offer to complete this report?

Yes, the goals of the project were met. The challenge we faced at the beginning was that of fonts of one of the languages. Because of this problem, the project could not be presented using the format that we initially wanted to adopt. The technology experts at TLTC were able to solve the problem by using the FLASH software.

We recommend the approach we have used in this project for teaching of culture to other colleagues in language teaching.

The project is time-consuming. We were lucky to have received SBC funds to pay language material developers for the time they spent on creating texts and dialogues and on editing the materials for use on the sites and also on providing related audios, videos, and still pictures. Future language projects will need to take into consideration the amount of time involved and provide appropriate compensation to material developers. Material developers need to do extensive editing of the project materials in order to facilitate the use of the materials by learners any time any where.

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Last updated: 18 May, 2007

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