Developing cultural skills for online discussions

bhobgood's picture
Submitted by bhobgood on Thu, 02/05/2009 - 14:04

Students have direct contact with speakers of world languages and direct access to information and news from around the world with the click of the mouse.  This forum provides a space for discussion of the blog entry, Foreign Language Learning: Developing cultural skills for online discussions, which takes a look at the issues we all face, not only world language teachers, when our students access the World Wide Web to learn and interact with others.

How do you think we can best begin to address this reality?  In particular, what are your thoughts about the following questions:

  • How do we provide students with opportunities to practice cultural skills, not merely learn about them?
  • When we engage students in electronic exchanges, do we pay attention to not only conventions for using the target language, but also conventions for electronic interaction?
  • How do we help students negotiate communication with native speakers using both the target language AND their native language?
  • How do we identify appropriate online opportunities for students to practice what they’ve learned?
  • Because online forums and social networks are constantly changing in membership and culture, what guidance do we offer our students who want to participate in such dynamic environments?
  • What are the stakes of student participation in forums dominated by speakers of the target culture?  How might they be perceived as non-native speakers?
  • What does successful participation in an online forum look like?

 

Lirong.wang's picture

Some thoughts: Developing Cultural Skills for Online Discussion

Submitted by Lirong.wang on Tue, 03/03/2009 - 01:13.
  • How do we provide students with opportunities to practice cultural skills, not merely learn about them? This can be difficult and would require some creative thinking.  Certainly they need to learn about it, but to practice it is another venue.  Some things I would try for example, in China, tea is a very important part of the culture.  After a student learns about tea making, I would have them perform this at home or in an appropriate setting and write a small summary of both what they did and the reaction of the persons who, I hope, enjoyed the experience along wtih them.
  • When we engage students in electronic exchanges, do we pay attention to not only conventions for using the target language, but also conventions for electronic interaction? electronic interaction is constantly changing and seems to have a slang language of its own.  I think we have to be cognizant of both, but since the target language is our goal, that should be the main focus.
  • How do we help students negotiate communication with native speakers using both the target language AND their native language? I think you have to start simple, and use common everyday terms.  Household items, or travel would be great starters.  Keep it friendly and also let them know that a smile is the universal language.
  • How do we identify appropriate online opportunities for students to practice what they’ve learned? Communcation needs to be open.  I think online can be less structured in many areas, and we need to understand how the online learner actually learn.  I think being online we have an opportunity to be both more visual and audio oriented than in a classroom setting when we are dealing with one-on-one activities.
  • Because online forums and social networks are constantly changing in membership and culture, what guidance do we offer our students who want to participate in such dynamic environments? I would want my students to know that they need to understand this is a constantly changing environment in many aspects.  We need to set up the goals of what the student should learn and what approaches have worked best that we know about and encourage them to try new things as the dynamic environment changes.
  • What are the stakes of student participation in forums dominated by speakers of the target culture?  How might they be perceived as non-native speakers? I think it is always going to be a given that non-native speakers tend to be perceived as less intelligent just because they can not communicate many ideas clearly in the target language.  They are very smart in communicating in their own language, but because they lack the knowledge of the language, it is perceived they lack the knowledge in content also.
  • What does successful participation in an online forum look like? Good communication, active participation, and frequent participation that is consistent through out the course.  By consistent, I mean you should probably be an active participant nearly everyday, and not just do the work for the whole week in one day. 
akistler's picture

Developing Cultural Skills for Online Learning

Submitted by akistler on Mon, 02/23/2009 - 22:35.

As a first year High School Spanish Teacher (my experience so far has been in elementary schools), I am amazed at how electronically connected all my students are! There is no doubt this will have impact on how we teach in the future so the questions and issues posted are very relevant and a bit daunting to me.  For example the stakes for students participating in forums dominated by native speakers could be very high. Depending on the language level and number of errors made by the student, he or she may be percieved by others in an exchange as ignorant.  I have come across some hard to comprehend communications where it took me a while to figure out "Oh, maybe this person is not an English speaker." You would think I might have picked up on that right away being a language teacher!  Should a student identify themselves as such in a non-teacher centered online environment?  Also written communication is sooo different, as I am writting this I am constantly critiquing my entry, re-reading, re-wording and worrying about how it sounds. How do we lower that anxiety for students so that they don't feel inhibited by their limited language skills and real communication can take place? I guess that is where the appropriateness question comes into play and perhaps realistic goals for communication and interaction in the many and various types of forums that exsist need to be identified.

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