Discussion #4: Digital Technology for L2 Learning and Teaching

(1) View and comment on the video. 

(2) Based on the technology article you have read, do you feel that technology is an asset to teaching foreign languages or do you prefer not to use it? Why? How do you feel about using social networking tools, such as Blog, Wiki, Facebook, Twitter or Skype to supplement and support language teaching? Use examples to justify your answers. 

Reducing anxiety in the foreign language classroom

Students often are afraid to answer questions even if they really have studied the material because they are afraid that they will mess up and become embarrassed in front of classmates
The great majority of language classes are focused primarily on verbal communication.
Students that are used to mastering nonverbal subject need to be able to demonstrate oral proficiency in order for us as teachers to know that they comprehend the concepts and can effectively be understood while communicating. Ultimately, this fear of verbal communication can be a barrier to effective foreign language learning.
I have always been an auditory learner and have thus always had relative ease in learning foreign languages. For students whose primary learning style may be different, the  foreign language classroom may be one of the most intimidating environments. For myself, it was actually one of the most comforting environments because I knew that I could actively participate in the class with almost no barriers.
There are many things that can be done in the foreign language classroom.  Encouraging students to practice by applying  their second language outside of the school setting and/or to real life situations within the classroom are two effective strategies that could be used to assist students in conquering their anxiety. For example a teacher may implement the use of Skype with native speakers or pen pals when teaching particularly culturally relevant concepts such as music or food.

All of these methods  that I mentioned should be implemented with the ultimate goal of reducing communication apprehension or learner anxiety. Varying methods in the language classroom is one of the most effective ways to create an anxiety free classroom.

How does learner anxiety or "communication apprehension" affect foreign language learning? What is your experience as a learner? Have you ever felt such anxiety? Can anxiety play a positive role in learning? What can be done to alleviate anxiety in the classroom?

I've had to make what seems like hundreds of phone calls to customer service. Be it lenders (ugh), banks, retail stores, computer manufacturers, or the dreaded Comcast, I feel like I've gotten pretty good at communicating what I want and getting it from them. I feel so confident in my communication skills that no Comcast representative is going to ever convince me to upgrade my service or refuse to correct a disputed charge. Yet as soon as I have to use the phone in German the situation changes entirely - my confidence disappears, anxiety levels are high, and the chance for miscommunication or misunderstanding increases. Making an appointment to see a doctor next week becomes a Herculean task involving pep talks in the mirror, rehearsed, canned questions and responses, and much stumbling over my own words. Using a foreign language in the "real world" is tough. Your mind is working harder than usual to understand what you are being told, formulate an understandable and grammatically correct response (Krashen's "monitor" is on full alert), and at the same time sound confident, clam, and collected. Any language learner will tell you that there are times where the brain just becomes overwhelmed in this situation and shuts down. Ever spent what seems like 10 minutes grasping for the correct word when speaking to somebody you don't know and never finding it? I know I have.

Foreign language learner anxiety doesn't have to come in the form of making a real-world phone call though. Anybody who's been in a FL classroom knows the feeling of being called on to speak by the teacher and drawing a blank. Any FL teacher knows the blank stares of confused and anxious students and the frustrating question in the back of their mind: Why don't they know this yet? It's not hard! 

Since we all know now that getting students to communicate in their L2 is extremely important and also how anxious students can get when being forced to talk, we must figure out ways of dealing with this issue. One strategy I have used is to limit the amount of "drilling" that takes place during class. Forcing students to talk one by one or at random in front of the whole class is a high pressure situation which will usually produce a class that is unwilling to use the language willingly for fear of being told they are incorrect. Instead, I believe that students should be encouraged to speak more ofter to each other in their L2. This is a lower stress situation where it is more acceptable to be incorrect and call the teacher over for more personalized help if they are confused about the activity. I also think it is a good idea to encourage students to help each other out without the teacher. Every class has a few students who "get it" and these students can be a valuable resource in smaller group work. The teacher can pair them with weaker students in an effort to bring the overall comprehension level of the class up. Furthermore, a teacher should also know when it is appropriate to correct a students grammar and pronunciation and when it is not. I think it is very damaging to student moral to interrupt them mid-sentence to correct a flubbed conjugation or case agreement. The student doesn't not get a chance to complete their thought and is receives too much negative reinforcement. Instead, I think it is better to point out errors after a student is finished speaking. This lets the student know that yes, you understood what they said, and by the way, to watch out for that past tense form next time.

Not all anxiety is bad though - a little pressure on the students can be a good motivator to try harder and be more successful in the L2. I think that it is important that a teacher learns how to recognize and deal with communication apprehension and find ways to work around it. It can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking "these students don't know anything" rather than recognizing that for some, it might be nerves and fear of being wrong that is causing them not to speak in class. Encouraging students to talk to each other in the L2 rather than to the teacher and using effective correction/feedback methods are just a few ways one might reduce overall learner anxiety in the language classroom.

Third Blog Post

How does learner anxiety, or "communication apprehension," affect foreign language learning?  What is your experience as a learner, have you ever felt such an anxiety? Can anxiety play a positive role in learning? What can be done to alleviate anxiety in the classroom?

As a language learner myself, I can personally say that learner anxiety or “communication apprehension” has affected my use of language to varying degrees. In the classroom, and especially in small classes, I have always felt apprehensive when faced with potentially having to produce an answer or new idea. More than anything, I think that I’ve always been fearful of making a very obvious error or not being able to fully articulate my thoughts, essentially embarrassing myself. Although my learner anxiety is perhaps most pointed in my language courses, I always feel some degree of “communication apprehension,” even when speaking English. I certainly find myself feeling much less anxious when I am “overly prepared” for class or group discussions, but time often does not allow for such near-obsessive preparation. In short, unless I am 150% confident that I know what I am doing, I always feel some sense of nervousness when communicating in the classroom. I am a relatively quiet and reserved person, but I do not feel that my nervousness is that unique. Many of my friends and classmates often report experiencing similar anxiety in their classes. That being said, having to speak in my L2 certainly amplifies my anxiety, although much less now that I am a graduate student than earlier in my college career when I was taking more intermediate courses.

As a beginner Spanish student, my “communication apprehension” was often debilitating. Although I studied hard and probably took my courses more seriously than the majority of my classmates, I still feared mispronouncing Spanish words or saying something that was grammatically incorrect. To combat this anxiety I often wrote down my answers or ideas before sharing them with the class, as this way I always had some form of “backup” should I have frozen up. As a Spanish instructor, I notice that learner anxiety plays a huge part in my classroom. I have a very quiet, often exhausted, Spanish 401 class, and some of my students seem terrified by the idea of participating in class. At first, before I had given the semester’s first quiz, I attributed my class’ very quiet nature to students not coming to class prepared. Convincing students to participate or answer basic questions was like pulling teeth, and only two or three of twenty-two frequently raised their hands when I asked for volunteers. After giving the quiz I found, to my great surprise, that my students were doing quite well, and could answer even challenging questions with relative ease. I realized that my students really had studied the relevant material, but just were not yet comfortable speaking in their L2.  

Although I do think that anxiety can sometimes play a positive role in foreign language classrooms, I think that this really varies from person to person and from class to class. In the case of my class, “learner apprehension” is often suffocating, and makes extremely competent students feel unprepared to participate. Other students perhaps need some form of learner anxiety as a way to remind them that they are in fact in the classroom and need to conduct themselves accordingly. In my Spanish 401 class, I try to combat learner anxiety by not singling out individual students, especially those who I know are not comfortable. Instead of “forcing” everyone to participate, I try to allow more confident students to lead by example. I always be sure to thank each student for his or her response, and try to give a little extra praise to those who very rarely offer answers voluntarily. Instead of always working as a whole class, I also like to give students the opportunity to work in pairs or small groups, thereby offering them the opportunity to participate in less intimidating settings. Similarly, I often ask students to prepare short dialogs or presentations in small groups, so that they may participate “together” rather than individually.  

Learner's Anxiety

Now this is a topic I can relate too. I admit that when I first started learning Spanish I was very anxious. I always felt confused and dreaded having to answer questions in class. It was not that we had an intimidating teacher, but it was that everything was so new that it took me a long time to feel like I had a good grasp on what was going on. For a long time I swore I would only take the required two years of Spanish and then be done, which obviously did not happen. I think that most students could relate to this to some degree. We only want to participate when we feel like we know the right answer to avoid embarrassment. As I got more comfortable with the language though I started participating more and even enjoy it.

Lots of students never get best this anxiety though so they are blocked from learning more. You certainly cannot concentrate on different verb tenses when you are worried on being called on for a question you do not know. So as teachers we need to try to alleviate stress in the classroom. This can be done in a variety of ways, including using groups, having students explain topics to each other, and including low stress games to reinforce lessons. You just have to structure these so that they feel low stake to the students so that they can concentrate on getting the right answer rather than worrying about being wrong. Competive games are not good for this because if one person messes up they will be very embarrassed. So if possible try to build up students confidence before doing these games. These methods may be easier for some students to understand and will prepare them for the more formal lectures where they have to answer individual questions in front of the class. Once they feel more relaxed and understand what is going on they will answer questions correctly, and only grow more confident. This creates a cycle that lowers anxiety over time until they have virtually none, and actually enjoy the class.


 

Response to Discussion #3: Communication apprehension

How does learner anxiety, or "communication apprehension," affect foreign language learning?  What is your experience as a learner, have you ever felt such an anxiety? Can anxiety play a positive role in learning? What can be done to alleviate anxiety in the classroom?

We touched briefly on the role of anxiety in learning during our last class in the context of Monitor theory, which says that anxiety needs to be low but not nonexistent for effective learning to occur.  This matches up well with what I’ve experienced personally while learning a language.  If there is no anxiety, that means you are not outside of your comfort zone, and there is very little progress to be made when you are in territory with which you are already familiar.  Getting pushed outside this comfort zone naturally involves some anxiety, but that is also when the learning occurs, and that is where the positive role of anxiety in learning comes into play.

For most of my life, I was never a fan of speaking in class, so speaking in a foreign language in class was not my favorite either.  I have felt the anxiety that comes before opening your mouth in any language – even when you plan ahead of time what you are going to say, you might get nervous and mess it all up.  I spoke to a friend of mine about her experience in anxiety in her high school French classes.  She took 3 years of French and reflects that she could read and write well but speaking was much harder.  She aced exams but her presentation and participation grades were miserable.  Her teacher, she added, wasn’t very kind when correcting her speech, and as a result she just stopped talking in class.  There are a lot of other variables in play here apart from communication apprehension, but if you are made to feel bad about your mistakes, who would want to continue to participate in a language class?

As a teacher, I think there are small changes you can make to alleviate the anxiety of your students.  I try to make a point of thanking the students who make an effort to answer the question.  Even if I have to move on to another student in the end, I try to remember to say “Gracias Steve y Anna” and include whoever made a good effort.  When I move on to other students often tell them when they are close, or say that I understand where they are coming from (only if I actually understand their thought process, I might add).  I also pick my grammar battles, so to speak; if I corrected all the errors in a sentence uttered by a beginning speaker I would spend way too much class time and I would make the person feel bad.  I pick the most important mistakes based either on what we’re learning at that moment or what I know they should already know, or both.  And there are certainly ways to phrase my criticism that makes it constructive and not negative.  I also find that students enjoy when I tell personal stories about mess-ups or confusion I had when learning the language.  If they feel that their teacher is a human being that makes them feel like they are allowed to be, too. 

Learner Anxiety

How does learner anxiety, or "communication apprehension," affect foreign language learning?  What is your experience as a learner, have you ever felt such an anxiety? Can anxiety play a positive role in learning? What can be done to alleviate anxiety in the classroom?

Learner anxiety makes the student focus a large part of his mental capacity on worrying and being overwhelmed. This must be a very bad condition and environment for learning anything, including foreign language. A good example of learner anxiety is when a student asks their math teacher for help on a problem and the teacher tries to get the answer out of them by looking over their shoulder and seemingly offering little to no help. You start to think about how long it's taking you to figure out a problem that the teacher probably sees as really easy and simple making it more impossible to figure out the answer then it was before you asked for help. No one wants to seem stupid in front of their teacher, or anyone else for that matter. 

If learner anxiety is taking up half of their thinking, I would imagine that they are only able to soak up half of what they could have otherwise. Anxiety only plays a negative role in learning. There are no positives to it. 

I am a great example for foreign language learning anxiety. :) At my high school, we had bi-semester block scheduling and classes of French 1 to 5 and then AP. I had two different French teachers at my high school of which I had one for French 1 and the other one for French 2. Long story short, thanks to my French 2 teacher, I was able to take French 2 and French 5 in the same year. But my previous French 1 teacher was the French 5 teacher and clearly did not think that I belonged in that class nor that I would ever be successful there. So the entire semester, not only was I lower in ability than the other 8 students, but I was also afraid of my teacher thinking I couldn't handle it. So for example, instead of concentrating on trying to understand her when she spoke, I was afraid that she'd call on me or something like she often did. In reality, she was a super good teacher, but she could have easily given me an adjustment period before she started calling me out in front of the class and things of that nature that I remember her doing. And along with all of that, everyone will tell you that she was very intimidating. :) 

I think knowing who can handle being called on is one way to alleviate learner anxiety. This is not just from my experience in French class, but of friends and siblings who clearly did not benefit from forced participation in that way. I know my sister is the same way in math class; when she's called on she instantly freezes and will say "You know I don't know the answer. Stop calling on me," even though she could figure it out on her own. 

I would assume that it is probably relatively easy for a teacher to pick up on learner anxiety and therefore should know when something is or isn't working for individual students and try to figure something else out.

Discussion Question #3

How does learner anxiety or "communication apprehension" affect foreign language learning? What is your experience as a learner? Have you ever felt such anxiety? Can anxiety play a positive role in learning? What can be done to alleviate anxiety in the classroom?

I definitely see anxiety as a speed bump, or a possible barrier for foreign language learners to overcome, especially at the high school age. I see it as I am standing in front of the classroom now, that students do not want to be called out, and (probably more importantly) do not want to look stupid in front of their peers. In turn, this makes students fear speaking out loud because the chances of them making a mistake in a foreign language are very high. However, making mistakes is a natural part of learning a foreign language and becoming fluent.

Although it seems obvious to me, most students don't seem to understand that speaking is a necessary part of practicing and learning a foreign language. Now that I am teaching, it is even more evident to me that high school students not only avoid speaking, but they also do a lot to get out of answering questions. This avoidance combined with the teacher's knowledge about the importance of speaking means that students are often going to be randomly called on in class. I have noticed in my classes that I teach that the honors classes require less prompting than many of the college prep classes.

Personally, I wasn't terribly concerned about making mistakes when I was learning French in high school. Because I wasn't afraid to make mistakes, I wasn't hesitant to speak, but (if I remember correctly) there were many times that other students in my classes wouldn't speak. I know that I wasn't worried about speaking, making mistakes, and wondering what my classmates thought about me, and that was mostly accredited to my French teachers. They provided us with a very comfortable learning environment, and would not allow or encourage students to mock or make fun of others.

This is one of the best things that teachers can do constantly throughout the year. Teachers that encourage discussion and ban any discouraging remarks are providing students with a comfortable and safe learning environment.

While I never got anxious about speaking French in class, I occasionally get anxious or stressed about other topics related to school. I think that being anxious has helped me in that I prepare myself more, and (generally) succeed in the end. While I am hesitant to say that anxiety is good, I know that I try to avoid that feeling, and try to be extremely prepared. However, I am not sure how well students can get around the anxiety associated with speaking a foreign language; rather, I think that comfort comes as the students speak more.

Response to Discussion Three

Anxiety in the FL Classroom

I believe that learning anxiety is especially common in the subject of foreign language.  Students, especially in the introductory levels, are apprehensive about using their second language—usually for fear of making mistakes or sounding silly (which is inevitable) during their practice.  Speaking in a foreign language is not only a difficult subject to learn (of course, it requires a large amount of memorization and comprehension of grammar concepts), it is also unnatural because our language often defines us, our thoughts, and our identity.

I would suggest the following as possible causes of anxiety in FLL: 

1. Classes are often structured around the "singling out" of one student amongst his/her peers by the teacher to answer a question.  Though "forced participation" might be a strong way to phrase it, I find that this method is most commonly chosen for FL teaching over other subjects because it is one of the only ways to test student's speaking skills easily, or ask them to practice them.  While participation is often an optional part of other classes, it is necessary in FL classes.  Some students are anxious about participating in general—let alone in another language!

2. Learning a foreign language can seem bizarre because it challenges one's identity and ability to express oneself.  Even students who are used to "knowing all the right answers" can struggle to learn a FL: it is difficult skill that cannot be mastered without dedication and practice—making mistakes, and yes, perhaps, "sounding silly" is unavoidable.  Learners are used to being able to explain their thoughts/feelings/reasoning to others easily, and sometimes they lack the ability to do this in their L2—which leaves them with a helpless, deflated feeling.  Learning a FL, especially speaking, is a lot like acting in its beginning stages.  You memorize the lines, put on the mask (the accent), and perform in front of an audience (your peers and teacher.) 

Personally, I have experienced some anxiety in learning a FL, though I have been able to overcome it—hence, I'm still trying to master it!  Though it never kept me from participating in class, I was always more hesitant about offering examples in class, unless I was really confident that I knew the proper grammar/pronunciation.  I also became very nervous when reading out loud in French, which or course, led me to read more poorly than I knew I was capable of.  The peak of my "communication anxiety" came within my first few weeks abroad in France; the stakes were higher, if I "messed up" the consequences wouldn't be corrections from my teachers or laughs from my peers, they might actually lead to "real world" problems!   Eventually I relaxed, learned to take my time and asked people to clarify if I was confused.  After I slowed my brain down and overcame my anxiety, I had an easier time accessing some of my declarative knowledge, that I had, but it just wasn't completely automatic yet.

I think that a certain amount of anxiety can be positive to FLL; A small amount of anxiety can prompt motivation to improve.  If a classroom (or a teacher) is too relaxed, students will be less likely to make an effort because there won't be any repercussions for their hesitance.  Students should not be discouraged from making mistakes; they should be encouraged to participate.  Sometimes group activities and student-to-student learning can alleviate anxiety because it creates an equal field for students, who are faced with a difficult task together, rather than individually.  

Discussion question #3: Communication apprehension

Lina gave me the go ahead to post our next discussion topic, so here goes:

How does learner anxiety, or "communication apprehension," affect foreign language learning?  What is your experience as a learner, have you ever felt such an anxiety? Can anxiety play a positive role in learning? What can be done to alleviate anxiety in the classroom?

Homework in Foreign Language Classes

In my opinion, homework is essential to most foreign language learning experiences as it encourages students to continually interact with the material covered in the classroom. One does not automatically “learn” a new word or concept just because he or she is introduced to that information in an academic setting. Language learning, like all learning, requires practice and repetition. One of my UNH language professors once told me that one must be exposed to a new word at least ten times for that word to be committed to memory. Although I am not sure if that is actually true, I do believe that homework, or any interaction with the target language outside of the classroom, is vital to retention and helps students to better absorb the material presented in the classroom.

            I think that my Spanish 401 (Introduction to Spanish) class is a great example of the need for homework in foreign language courses. The majority of my students, with the exception of a few who took a semester or two of Spanish while in high school, have had very little exposure to the target language and therefore come to the course with no prior language experience. For them, even learning very elementary vocabulary words can be challenging as they are completely new to the Spanish language. As the course is supposed to be taught “immersion style,” where I am expected to teach almost entirely in Spanish, homework is absolutely essential to my students’ success. My students use homework both to better understand new material and to prepare themselves to follow along in class. When students do not do their homework, it is almost impossible to conduct the class in Spanish as no one understand what is going on. Even if a few students have not reviewed the material for that day, the whole class suffers do to the fact that some of their classmates need additional explanations in English. Beyond simply enriching the “immersion style” experience, homework also seems to lower student anxiety levels. Students who come to class prepared seem far more comfortable speaking in the target language than those who fail to do so. Students do not need “busy work,” but, in my opinion, they do need some sort of activity outside of class to them commit key concepts to memory and truly understand new material.   

            With regards to the video, I do think that it may be of value to show the clip to students who are struggling in their language courses. Some of the suggestions seem rather obvious, but they may be things that students are simply forgetting to consider when trying to complete their assignments. Listening to music and eating snacks, for example, seem like great ideas for students who have a difficult time getting focused

Discussion #2: Role of Homework

When (if ever) is homework appropriate for a foreign language class? How should it be used? Do you feel it is ever improperly used? Should homework be given before or after the lesson is taught? Exchange ideas with your peers and be sure to use examples to support your opinions.

When I was in eighth grade, I had a history teacher who announced proudly on the first day of school that there would be no homework for his class. My eighth grade self was overjoyed at the news - no outside reading or writing, no lists of dates and names to memorize. All we had to do was show up and participate and we would get a good grade. He told us that he felt that homework was a waste of time and a distraction from more important things like family life and leisure time spent outside of school. He cited a book he had read called "The Death of Homework" as his reason for adopting this policy. At the time all of that didn't matter to me. My fourteen year old self reveled in the extra time his policy afforded me playing drums and hanging out with friends.

Language learning, however, is different from history. There is vocabulary to memorize and rules to learn about conjugation, declension, and adjective agreement. There is also the matter of staying engaged with the new language by practicing your skills every day. From a teaching perspective, assigning nightly homework is an easy strategy to turn to in order to force your students into a daily practice routine. We all know that disengagement is the ultimate recipe for distaster for the language learner, and when self-motivation is not enough homework is an easy solution.

Since daily pratice is essential to language learning, the language teacher would be hard-pressed to do away with assigning work outside of class completely, but there are many approaches one can take to make sure that this type of work is worth the students time and effort. There is one French instructor here on the UNH campus that is currently experiementing with an inverted classroom in which new grammar points and lessons are completed at home by the students using short instructional videos prepared by the instructor. This way, the entire class period can be dedicated to practicing the target language as a group. The instructor uses Minimal classroom time explaining the rules for forming something like the passé compose. Instead students can use the time together to practice using the passé compose with one another. This flipped classroom technique is something that I would love to experiment with in the future when I am teaching on my own.

Role of Homework

When (if ever) is homework appropriate for a foreign language class? How should it be used? Do you feel it is ever improperly used? Should homework be given before or after the lesson is taught? Exchange ideas with your peers and be sure to use examples to support your opinions. 

Would you want to show your students this video? Why and why not?

Homework is very appropriate for foreign language classes. To me, it's the time spent practicing that really makes you learn a language, and homework is more practice. There isn't enough time in class, whether at the university level or the high school level, to get enough time in with the language. If there was not homework, it would take many more semesters for students to reach the same level of proficiency as it would if there was homework. 

Homework for a foreign language class should be given nearly every night for the best results, but it should not be overbearing work or dreadful. A major factor in language learning is the desire and motivation. A teacher should kill their students' potential love of language-learning with too long, too difficult, or seemingly pointless homework.

Homework should be used mostly as practice of grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Culture assignments are good too, but the best culture assignment would be one that incorporates the language into it. In other words, try not to make the entirety of the assignment in English. Culture assignments are a good and easy way to combine nearly all of the six parts I listed above.

Homework should be given after the lesson is taught to reinforce ideas through focused practice on their own. However, homework can be given ahead of time if need be for the lesson planned.

In my experience from homework in high school, teachers tended to focus on writing first, then reading, but speaking and listening never came up in homework. But I think all four are very important and need extra practice at home. With the internet, there are many different resources and ways to do listening especially. I also think that teachers could easily get creative and give their students more speaking homework practice as well. Whether there is proof of having done the assignment, such as a recording, or not, the students who will actually take the assignment seriously will benefit. 

And finally, I don't see a problem with showing the video, but I don't think that I would bother or waste my class time to do so.  

Discussion #2: Role of Homework Response

When (if ever) is homework appropriate for a foreign language class? How should it be used? Do you feel it is ever improperly used? Should homework be given before or after the lesson is taught? Exchange ideas with your peers and be sure to use examples to support your opinions.

I think this question is relevant to all subject area teachers, not just those teaching a foreign language. The role that homework should play in the education of students is critical to them to practice (and hopefully perfect) what they learned in the classroom. My theory about homework is that it is an extension of the classroom learning that takes place, but with different qualifications. In class, students have the opportunity to ask their teacher questions if they are confused, do group activities with classmates, and talk with other peers. Homework is when the student solidifies their knowledge by practicing it in an environment where they have far fewer resources to rely on. With that being said, homework should never be given when it is -- the infamous -- busy work. These throw-away assignments that teachers give when they cannot think of anything else to do provide little, if any reinforcement or new knowledge to the student. Homework assignments should always have a purpose.

With that being said, homework is extremely important when learning a foreign language. As I stated in the first paragraph, homework is an extension of the classroom, and when learning a foreign language it is essential to practice that language as much as possible. Class time provides the students with the majority of listening comprehension and speaking ability, but those are two of the most challenging aspects of learning a foreign language. Tools such as Lingt Language provide students with the opportunity to incorporate those two aspects of language into their learning outside the classroom. Reading and writing are also necessary to know in language, and are easily assigned for homework assignments in foreign language classrooms.

I have been assigned a lot of busy work assignments over the years, but I have also been assigned a lot of really useful homework assignments that I still remember. Homework should be used to practice skills that have already been introduced in class. One exception to this is if the students are completing a pre-test to see how much the remember from previous classes or how much the already know. If homework is introducing a new topic, it should not be an area of learning that is critical to all aspects of foreign language speaking, such as conjugation. A new topic could be a cultural learning lesson or possibly learning about the history of France, Spain, or Germany.

Effective homework strategies for the foreign language classroom

 Although I believe that homework is an effective tool in order to ensure learning, there are certain parameters that I would impose. I believe that there are certain types of assignments that encourage more profound learning. Many teachers give assignments that could be considered busy work in the eyes of some. Such as, fill in the blank worksheets, word searches and crossword puzzles.
 Reinforcement of essential concepts is critical to the effective foreign language classroom.
Assignments that are thought-provoking will effectively pique a student's interest in a certain central concept. Examples are; learning a new verb tense or grammatical structure. Some of the most effective avenues by which to accomplish these goals consist of assignments which foster the most successful outcomes for students. Students need to see value in the assignments in order to take ownership. Personally I think pre-reading,  listening, grammar, and vocabulary are important elements to be included in foreign language homework assignments. Homework should be given in manageable chunks so as to not overwhelm the students.

In terms of the YouTube video, I believe it is effective for middle school aged students but it seems to me that high school students may not relate.

Discussion #2: Role of Homework

When (if ever) is homework appropriate for a foreign language class? How should it be used? Do you feel it is ever improperly used? Should homework be given before or after the lesson is taught? Exchange ideas with your peers and be sure to use examples to support your opinions. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT-_G4-fYkw

Would you want to show your students this video? Why and why not? 

I think homework is certainly appropriate for a foreign language class.  I myself don’t love having to do work outside of class, but I know there’s a reason for it. Homework is important because you are forced to apply what you’ve learned in class and you’re forced to do it alone.  The fact that you’re alone matters for two reasons: one, without the help of a teacher or peers, you will quickly realize what you do and don’t understand and what you need to work on to improve your understanding; and two: it gives you a feel for what it is like to apply your knowledge in the real world.  For instance, when your boss asks you to write up the pros and cons of investing in a new wind energy business, or to write up a grant proposal for a new project studying the effect of after-school programs on primary school kids, you’re not going to go back to his/her office and say “How do I write an essay that includes two sides of one issue?” or “How do I write a persuasive essay?”  You have to learn to apply your skills during school when you can still ask a lot of questions so you’ll then be prepared to apply them efficiently in the real world.

In a foreign language class, applying your skills outside of class will probably mean practicing your reading and writing skills, and hopefully your listening skills too.  (Most speaking practice is done in class where the teacher is available as a model for pronunciation and structure and as a resource for questions.)  Reading comprehension is a great skill to refine with homework assignments where students have to read a passage then answer questions about it (thereby practicing writing skills).  And of course writing can be practiced with essay or short answer assignments.  Today’s technology offers relatively easy access to listening activities, which students can then answer comprehension questions about as well.

I think homework is improperly used when it is not given enough thought by the instructor or when it is too easy.  I’m thinking of what we commonly call “busywork”.  There is always something going on in class that’s challenging, and that skill should not be omitted from the homework – on the contrary, it should probably be the focus of the homework, even if it’s challenging to assign or grade.  If Chapter 5 includes direct and indirect objects but the homework only drills the vocabulary section with a word search, it may be easy for everyone but it’s neither effective nor a good use of anyone’s time.

I like the structure we’ve been using in Spanish 401 so far, which is to have the students read the textbook pages with the content that will be covered in the next class for homework.  This way, in the next class they are already (or should already be) familiar with the vocabulary and the ideas of that day’s lesson, and I get to spend less time introducing the ideas and more time practicing the skills with them.  For homework that day, in addition to being assigned more pages to review in the textbook to be prepared for the next lesson, they are also assigned online activities that test the things we went over in class.  (This is similar to a methodology I learned about earlier this year called Flipped Learning, which is the idea of homework in class and classwork at home; see http://flippedlearning.org/domain/46 for more info.) I like that college students can actually be held responsible for reviewing class material ahead of time.  Although I learned about Flipped Learning from a colleague who used it in her high school biology class, this strategy would have been hard to apply in the high school Spanish classes I taught.  Many of my college-prep freshmen would not have reviewed the material for homework and then would have been lost in class. 

The YouTube video on how to make doing homework easier could definitely be helpful to students.  Even if none of those skills are relevant to them personally, I think it would be especially valuable to younger students who have yet to become aware of their studying strengths and weaknesses and what works best for them.