Fostering a Mind-set of Continuous Growth:

Recruitment, Motivation, Lifelong Learning

Brian James Baer Theresa A. Minick

Kent State University

October 15, 2016

Our Goals

Discuss opportunities to impact the trajectory of the learner, whereby students take ownership of a future that includes multiple languages and teachers view their role as extending beyond the classroom

Setting short-range and long-range goals

Increasing and focusing motivation to reach the goals

KSU Student Programs

Regents STARTALK Foreign Language Academy (FLA)

FLA was founded in 2007 from a grant from the Ohio Board of Regents

FLA became a STARTALK program in 2008

KSU Student Programs

Summer component

Four-week residential program

Immersion in the target language

Academic Year follow-up component

One Saturday a month (9AM-3PM)

Blended-learning

4 college credits upon completion (Elem II)

Funded through the CCP program

Who are our FLA students?

Rising juniors and seniors in Ohio high schools

New learners of Mandarin Chinese, and Russian

Setting Goals

If you had to encapsulate the goals (1-2) of your program, what would they be?

Setting Goals Why set goals?

Allow us to prioritize in our decision-making

With our goals in sight, all our actions become purposeful—they should all contribute to reaching the goal(s)

If you don’t know where you’re going, you can’t figure out how to get there

Setting Goals

Setting Goals

Goal-setting is a key attribute of effective teachers and directors

Requires regular reflection to determine whether we are meeting our goals or not

Requires flexibility in adjusting our practice to meet our goals

Setting Goals

Short-range vs. Long-range goals

Short-range goal: help students successfully complete our STARTALK summer program

Long-range goal: What might a long-term be?

Setting Long-range Goals

OBR-mandated long-range goals:

Improve success at college by providing high school students with a collegiate experience

Create a cadre of teachers of critical languages

Target the “squishy middle”

How do we do implement these goals?

Long-range Goals

Create a cadre of teachers of critical languages

Discuss with students what makes a good teacher

Be explicit about your pedagogy so that students understand what goes into teaching

Invite a K-12 teacher to speak to the students about teaching as a career

Provide information about teacher education programs and procedures for licensure in your state

Setting Goals

Your long-range goals should help shape every aspect of your program from recruitment to instruction and beyond

Our long-term goal is to set these students on the path to advanced-level or professional-level proficiency.

What are some things we can do to help meet that long-range goal?

Long-range Goals

Connect students early on with career paths (application; career talks)

Connect students with opportunities for continued study after STARTALK (build bridges: NSLI-Y, choosing a college, connecting with native speakers)

Teach strategies that encourage persistence (set expectations)

Fostering MOTIVATION to achieve our goals

Intrinsic: How do you think the motivation of a student changes over time?

Extrinsic: What can program directors / lead instructors / curriculum designers do to foster motivation?

Fostering MOTIVATION through RECRUITMENT

We select students who express a desire to pursue a career involving the use of foreign languages (or undecideds)

We select students who express motivation to study a foreign language based on their application essay

Fostering MOTIVATION through INSTRUCTION (TBI)

Defining TBI

TBI focuses on the use of authentic language and on asking students to do meaningful tasks using the target language.

Such tasks can include visiting a doctor, conducting an interview, or calling customer service for help.

Assessment is primarily based on task outcome (in other words the appropriate completion of real world tasks) rather than on accuracy of prescribed language forms.

Which is a task?

Sample 1: Today we’re going to learn how to form and use the imperative mood. It’s also called the command form.

Sample 2: Today we’re going to learn how to order food in a Chinese restaurant.

What makes a good task?

Keep it REAL!

Make it HOT!

Keep it real!

Goal-oriented: the task has a clear end

The goal is non-instructional (not grammar driven): language is only a means to an end

The goal is real-world oriented

Goal is learner-centered: Students should be directly invested in the goal (Know your students interests!)

Tasks make use of authentic materials: the level of the task should be adjusted, not the language of the authentic materials!

Make it HOT!

An effective task should engage Higher Order Thinking:

LOTs

Remembering - Recognizing, listing, describing, identifying, retrieving, naming, locating, finding

Understanding - Interpreting, Summarizing, inferring, paraphrasing, classifying, comparing, explaining, exemplifying

Applying - Implementing, carrying out, using, executing

95% of the questions students were asked to answer were at the lowest level of cognitive activity: recall

HOTs

Analyzing - Comparing, organizing, deconstructing, Attributing, outlining, finding, structuring, integrating

Evaluating - Checking, hypothesizing, critiquing, Experimenting, judging, testing, Detecting, Monitoring

Creating - designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing, devising, making

Sample Activity A

The teacher reads a list of random Russian words and asks the students to write them down. The purpose of this novice-level activity is to improve listening comprehension and writing in Russian.

Sample Activity B

How is a country’s foreign policy reflected in newspaper coverage?

Students are given Russian newspapers and, working in pairs, make a list of all the countries named on the front page. The students compare their answers with those of the rest of the class to make a master list and then mark those countries on a map of the world.

Students then discuss how this list of countries might differ from the countries most frequently mentioned in U.S. newspapers, and why.

Educational Goals

Overt goals: to learn about Russian foreign policy and about geography

Covert goals: to practice reading in Russian and locating necessary information; to practice writing in cursive; to learn the names of relevant countries and cities in Russian; to feel comfortable with non-edited texts

Role of Technology

Fostering motivation through technology

Fostering long-range goals and lifelong learning through technology

Fostering MOTIVATION through Technology Tools

Task-based instruction integrated with technology

Real world skills and technology

Fostering LIFELONG LEARNING through Technology

Fostering MOTIVATION through interaction with Native Speakers

Face to Face Online via Skype

Fostering MOTIVATION through interaction with Native Speakers

Teacher participants as sympathetic Native Speakers

Native Speakers as visitors

Connecting with Native Speakers in the community (field trip)

Connecting with Native Speakers online

Communicating with Native Speakers

Student Quote:

They know the language better than we do and to actually know that they could understand us was amazing. If we were having trouble speaking they would also help us try to figure out the word we were trying to say. Being able to speak to native speakers, and then they being able to understand what you are saying and vice versa, is a progress marker in this program. It shows that you are learning and that you should not give up if you messed up, they understood the meaning of what you said anyway!

Long-range Goals: ASSESSMENT

Tracking our Graduates:

University Language Study (Flagship programs, etc.)

Study Abroad (NSLI-Y)

Career paths

Student Quotes

I learned with what methods I learn best. I also learned the vast number of opportunities with foreign languages that I did not know about before and want to take part in.

It's not an easy thing to learn a language, but it's one of the most rewarding and useful things one can do.

I am prepared for college and have formed good habits and a good attitude about academics.