"But I don't care about where you can buy cheap designer jeans!" In my son's Year 9 Italian textbook, fashion and shopping were predictably the context for teaching vocabulary about clothing. For the exercise under protest, he was required to compose an email responding with advice to an imaginary friend's bargain hunting request. Whether intentionally or not, the unit assumed and sought to appeal to the stereotypical superficiality and consumer mentality of young people, while choosing to ignore their possible broader concerns about global clothing waste. Its underlying message: appearance is everything. Thankfully, this boy wasn't buying it! Dr. Marcie Pyper and Dr. Cynthia Slagter (Calvin College) offer an alternative perspective:
"Although teaching and learning verbs and vocabulary has sometimes been considered 'value-free,' the beliefs and morality that underlie a teaching approach strongly inform what is taught and how it is taught in language classrooms. The language classroom can be a place in which students learn more than discrete vocabulary and sentence structure. It can be a locus of discovery of common humanity and a place where human dignity is recognised and respected. By studying the life of a real person, students gain an understanding of that person as part of a larger community and a larger historical context. Biographical narrative holds together what is often separated in language classrooms’ basic language functions and the experience of spiritual and moral challenges integrated into a life context. Students learn empathy as they share this person’s trials and triumphs and grapple with moral and spiritual issues while listening to and using the target language." Marcie Pyper and Cynthia Slagter have developed The Elsa Cortina Project: a series of units with extensive resources for Spanish teachers and students based on the biographic narrative of Dr. Elsa Cortina, an emerita professor of Spanish at Calvin College who came to the US as a Cuban refugee after the Cuban revolution. Through a variety of exercises, students are encouraged to adopt a countercultural critical stance toward the prevailing culture from a faith-based perspective. One example of their approach is how vocabulary for clothing is introduced. In a video clip, Elsa lists which clothing items she and her husband were permitted to take with them as they fled Cuba and what they had to leave behind. In contrast to the typical textbook focus on shopping, fashion and consumption, the unit aims to expose students to the realities and hardships of a refugee family and to challenge them to consider the value of material vs. non-material blessings. Guided reflections invite students to exercise empathy. Although designed specifically for learning Spanish, these comprehensive, freely downloadable resources offer much to inspire ideas for developing similar units for other language contexts. Many of the activities could be easily adapted for different learner stages. It would be so worth your while spending some time reading and analysing the aims and construction of this approach. Whether it's vocabulary for clothing or another commonly prescribed syllabus topic, why not intentionally consider with your colleagues: How can we offer our students a deeper and more meaningful experience in their language learning? Libby Colla Reference: https://calvin.edu/centers-institutes/kuyers-institute/education-resources/the-elsa-cortina-project/
2 Comments
Imma
18/5/2017 07:11:14 pm
That is SO good. Love it
Reply
Libby Colla
18/5/2017 09:53:13 pm
Thanks Imma!
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorHello, I'm Libby. Categories
All
Let's keep in touch.
Subscribe |