Elka KristoNagy, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

Though the dark cloud of COVID lingers, there have been glimpses of a silver lining this past semester as I have attempted to recreate an engaging classroom experience on Zoom. In addressing my students concerns over not being fully immersed in their target language while zooming in from overseas, I strove to harness the power of practice. Drawing on Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory (Joy & Kolb, 2009; McLeod, 2017), I introduced a series of three weekly student-led, task-based activities that built fluency. Complementary asynchronous tasks were also assigned.

News Reports and Group Discussion

The first activity was a news report presentation and group discussion series. Each week, a student would present a summary of a news article of their choice, vocabulary from the article, and a question for group discussion. In addition, they would present a handout which the class would use to prepare for the discussion that would take place the following week. Because the concept of plagiarism varies by culture, we examined these concepts and practiced writing summaries without plagiarizing. To prepare for our news discussion, we practiced appropriate phrasing after analyzing conversation dynamics and how they might differ on Zoom.

Students felt this news report activity enhanced their communication skills and confidence. Narration skills, which would be necessary for job interviews, defining a concept in presentations, and in professional social situations, could be another focus for development in this activity.

“My Latest Obsession”

The second weekly student led activity which I named, “From my home to yours: my latest obsession,” was inspired by journalists who published personal interests they had been obsessively pursuing during quarantine (Sifton, 2020). In this activity, I transcended the distance between the students by approximating a moment of conversation that often happens in daily life, such as while waiting in the hallway for class to begin. I feel, it is in a small moment like this that we reveal our humanity to each other.

Every week each student shared their latest obsession in a brief presentation and fielded questions from their classmates. Their dialog continued asynchronously on our discussion board. In feedback, students said that in addition to learning about each other, they also welcomed the opportunity to express themselves on every day topics. Students felt they benefited from the consistent practice of initiating conversation, as it can be intimidating to approach colleagues who are not from their home culture.

Prosody Through Poetry

The third weekly activity sought to develop students’ pronunciation skills through the exploration of prosody in American poetry. Students relished the challenge of interpreting poems by discovering the imagery and feeling of expression. Often a discussion about idioms and how they may reflect culture ensued. Once we formed an idea of what the poem is about, we recited the poem practicing the pronunciation aspect featured that week. Works by poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar (Poets.org, 2020), Emily Dickinson, and Robert Frost not only inspired my students but have the prosody that is ideal for this activity.

Conclusion

While there were some disadvantages to working on Zoom, such as limitations on providing immediate feedback on pronunciation, these three series of regular task-based activities were well-received by students as it was clear what was expected of them every week. The pedagogical rationale for creating a series of task-based activities lies in its systematization of repeated practice and the opportunities for learning as asserted by David Kolb in Experiential Learning Cycle (Joy & Kolb, 2009; McLeod, 2017). Moreover, curriculum planning is streamlined. Though COVID-19 has imposed many restrictions on us, it also has offered opportunities to rethink activities creatively and refresh our teaching by taking an innovative approach to the classroom.

References

Joy, Simy, & Kolb, David A. (2009). Are there cultural differences in learning style? International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 33(1),69-85 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2008.11.002

McLeod, S. A. (2017, Oct 24). Kolb -learning Styles. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html

Poets.org, (2021, January 21) Paul Laurence Dunbar, https://poets.org/poet/paul-laurence-dunbar

Sifton, S. (2020, July 21). Even More Notes From Our Home to Yours. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/at-home/even-more-reporters-editors-diaries-lists-recommendations.html?searchResultPosition=3