July 2, 2009

Using YouTube (and other authentic materials) in the Classroom: The Professionalizing Language Pedagogy Workshop

From June 15-18, 2009, CIS, the Center for the Study of Languages (CSL), and Chicago's area centers hosted a four-day, hands-on workshop for foreign language instructors on "Integrating Authentic Materials in Instruction and Assessment." The workshop was geared towards the needs of instructors and teaching assistants in the less and least commonly taught languages (such as Malayalam, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Georgian, Turkish, Arabic, and Hebrew), who have fewer high quality, ready-made instructional resources available than their colleagues teaching Spanish and French. In addition to the University of Chicago, participants came from the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, the University of Minnesota, and the Chicago Public Schools.

With new technologies and resources—from audio-recording software like Audacity to web-based content from YouTube—the incorporation of a vast range of authentic texts is more possible than ever before, as long as you know where to look, what software tools you can use, and how to use those tools. Thus the workshop focused on how to locate useful content—written texts, audio and video materials, many of which are available on the web—and especially on how to use available software to adapt that content into units that can be integrated into classroom sessions, assignments, and assessment activities.

During the Monday session, Catherine Baumann, workshop organizer and CSL Director of Assessment, set the context for bringing authentic materials into the classroom by reviewing ACTFL proficiency based learning and assessment models, including the Oral Proficiency Interview, as well as familiarizing participants with other proficiency models such as STAMP and the Common European Framework for listening, speaking, and reading proficiency.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, presenters provided examples of how a variety of learning technologies and types of content can be turned into instructional and assessment materials. A sampling of these includes Slavic linguist and CSL staff member Rod Edwards, who discussed multiple applications of Audacity recording software for both instruction and assessment. Arabic lecturers and pedagogy experts Wafa Hassan (Michigan State) and Muhammad Eissa (Chicago) discussed the use of both authentic and semi-authentic materials at all levels of language learning as well as demonstrating how to use Photo Story software to add captions and audio to a photo slideshow. Malayalam lecturer Nisha Kommattam discussed the issues and processes involved in going to Kerala, in South India, to make video clips of native Malayalam speakers in a variety of settings and registers. Georgian lecturer Tamra Wysocki-Niimi showed participants how to use Adobe Acrobat to embed audio files directly in PDFs, and French lecturer Nadine Di Vito demonstrated how to use iMovie to turn video clips into instructional resources.

Throughout the various presentations, participants were exposed to examples of how to use Blackboard/Chalk course sites and websites to present their materials as well as receiving instruction in what programs could be used to prepare the materials for Chalk and/or the web. On Thursday, participants presented the projects that they had developed during the week and making use of tools such as Audacity, iMovie, and Photo Story.

Given the participants’ enthusiastic reviews of the workshop—and especially of the opportunity to discuss language pedagogy with colleagues across languages and world regions—future seminars during the academic year as well as a 2010 summer workshop are in the works, as is a web-based resource to cover some of the tools and techniques covered in the workshop.