““AUTHENTIC TASKSAUTHENTIC TASKSAS AAS A

MEANINGFUL AND RELEVANTMEANINGFUL AND RELEVANTFRAMEWORKFRAMEWORK

FORFORTEACHINGTEACHING

CONTEMPORARY TARGET CULTURE”CONTEMPORARY TARGET CULTURE”

BY

ELVIRA SANATULLOVA-ALLISON, PH.D.State University Of New York College at Potsdam, New York, U.S.A.

sanatue@potsdam.edu&

MARAT SANATULLOV, PH.D.Wichita State University, Kansas, U.S.A.

marat.sanatullov@wichita.edu

AUTHENTIC TASKS:DEFINITIONS

‘Authentic’ task is an assignment given to students designed to assess their ability to apply standard-driven knowledge and skills to real-world challenges. In other words, a task that teachers ask students to perform is considered ‘authentic’ when:

1. students are asked to construct their own responses rather than select from ones presented;

2. the task replicates challenges faced in the real world.As teachers, we are ultimately less interested in how much information students can acquire than how well they can use it. Thus, our most meaningful and relevant assessments ask students to perform authentic tasks – ‘authentic’ assessment as compared to ‘traditional’ assessment.

(J. Mueller, 2003)

AUTHENTIC TASKS:CHARACTERISTICS

TRADITIONAL AUTHENTIC

selecting a response performing a task

contrived real-world

recall/recognition of knowledge construction/application of knowledge

teacher-structured student-structured

indirect evidence direct evidence

AUTHENTIC TASKS:TYPES

CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE

PRODUCT PERFORMANCE

short-answer essay questions

essay conducting research

“show your work” research reports performance

concept map portfolio oral presentation

figural representation poster debate

COGNITIVE APPROACH

Promotion and use of learning and teaching strategies that reflect the way knowledge is organized in the human brain should be a language teacher’s major aim. Understanding specific processes of human cognition helps the teacher understand the fundamentals of human learning and, thereby, how to build and improve instruction. The inter-relatedness of the processes of acquisition, transfer, and retention of information in the mechanism of human learning emphasizes the importance of the relationship between teaching and assessment, language acquisition and language production, previous knowledge and new information in the instructional practices.

Bloom’s TaxonomyOf

Cognitive Development

creativity

evaluation

synthesis

analysis

application

understanding

knowledge

Information Processing

SLA is seen as the building up of knowledge systems that can eventually be called on automatically for speaking and understanding. At first, learners have to pay attention to any aspect of the language which they are trying to understand or produce. Gradually, through experience and practice, learners become able to use certain parts of their knowledge so quickly and automatically that the are not even aware that they are doing it. This frees them to focus on other aspects of the language which, in turn, gradually become automatic (McLaughlin, 1987). ‘Practice,’ in this context, is not seen as something mechanical, but rather as something involving effort on the part of the learner.

Constructivism

It promotes the view of learning as a constructive and reconstructive process. It emphasizes the learners’ active role in constructing their own knowledge through both individual and social activity and interactions. The aim of constructivist teaching is “not so much to transmit information as to encourage knowledge formation and metacognitive processes for judging, organizing, and acquiring new information” (Bruning, Schraw, & Ronning, 1999). Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development as an example of his dialectical constructivism is one of the most powerful concepts of mutual influence between the cognitive and social aspects of human cognition.

Connectionism

It attributes great importance to the role of the environment in language learning arguing that learners gradually build up their knowledge of language through exposure to thousands of instances of the linguistic features they eventually learn. Language is viewed as a complex system of units which become inter-connected in the mind as they are encountered together. The more units are heard or seen together, the more likely it is that the presence of one will lead to the activation of the other.

INTER-DISCIPLINARY APPROACH

Movement in the profession from the emphasis on particular methods of language teaching toward a proficiency- and performance-oriented instruction, curriculum, and assessment that define learners’ language ability in terms of functions, contexts/contents, and accuracy (Buck, Byrnes, & Thompson, 1989) helps language teachers to skillfully organize their instruction based on what language learners should know and can do with the target language on different levels of proficiency, in the integration of skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and in different goal areas such as Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities (Standards for Foreign Language Learning: Preparing for the 21st Century, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages).

OBJECT LESSON

What are its physical qualities? (shape, size, texture, etc.)

How was it made? (by hand or machine, etc.)

Was it designed for a particular use?

What facts can we determine about the culture by looking/touching/tasting/smelling/etc. the object?

SIX INSTRUCTIONAL GOALS(H. N. Seelye Teaching Culture: Strategies for Intercultural Communication 3rd ed., 1994)

GOAL 1 – INTEREST The student shows curiosity about another culture (or another segment

or subculture of one’s own culture) and empathy toward its members.

GOAL 2 – WHO The student recognizes that role expectations and other social variables

such as age, sex, social class, religion, ethnicity, and place of residence affect the way people speak and behave.

GOAL 3 – WHAT The student realizes that effective communication requires discovering

the culturally conditioned images that are evoked in the minds of people when they think, act, and react to the world around them.

GOAL 4 – WHERE & WHEN The student recognizes that situational variables and convention shape

behavior in important ways.

GOAL 5 – WHY The student understands that people generally act the way they do

because they are using options their society allows for satisfying basic physical and psychological needs, and that cultural patterns are interrelated and tend mutually to support need satisfaction.

GOAL 6 – EXPLORATION The student can evaluate a generalization about the target culture in

terms of the amount of evidence substantiating it, and has the skills needed to locate and organize information about the target culture from the library, the mass media, people, and personal observation.

LICENSE PLATES

GOAL #1: INTEREST

Bring in and display as many license plates as you have available. (R)

Ask if anyone knows what they are and where they have seen them before. (LS)

Ask if anyone drives and how many of them like/would like to drive a car.

Have students read all of the information on the license plate and then explain its meaning.

Lead into the importance of driving in U.S. culture and how it is similar and/or different from their native cultures.

GOAL # 2: WHO

Ask students where people drive cars in the United Sates. Brainstorm different types of roads in this country.

Talk about American “free spirit” and America’s obsession with driving automobiles all over the country.

Show several advertisements of various vehicles (cars, trucks, RVs, SUVs, etc.). Focus on images of wide open America and the freedom of movement in this country. Have students pick out the advertisements that represent the American driver the best in their minds.

Connect the previous to the importance of knowing how to drive in this country/state (Driver’s Manual).

GOAL #3: WHAT

Bring out a large road map of the United States or a road atlas. Pass out U.S. road maps or road atlases to each student or break class into small groups. Going around the class or around small groups have students take turns reading each of the states’ names.

Display a large poster containing cut out pictures of each state’s license plate. As a class (one student at a time) match each license plate with the corresponding state by taping them up on the large road map in the front of the room.

GOAL #4: WHERE AND WHEN

Break class into small groups. Give each group a large picture of different state license plates. Have each group discuss together the symbols they find on the license plate. Have the group write down the following:

What the symbols mean to each member of the group.

What the symbols make them think about the state they are representing.

Bring class back together and have each group read to the class what they wrote down in their group discussions.

GOAL #5: WHY (conclusion)

Discuss the purpose of license plates. Discuss the use of so many different symbols on plates. Talk about different parts of the United States. How are they different? What do symbols mean to different people across the country? Focus on Nebraska’s license plate.

GOAL #6: EXPLORATION

Pass out to each student a piece of paper with a blank rectangle shaped like a license plate. Have students design a license plate for their native country/province/state/city/town/etc. On the back, have students write down what symbols they used and what those symbols mean in their own culture.

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES

Furthermore, research and practice have shown that teacher’s knowledgeable use of educational technologies in the language classroom can contribute to enhance input processing by bringing context into language teaching (Shrum & Glisan, 2000). Moreover, according to Garrett (1991), technology enhanced language learning and teaching allows for further integration of language, literature, and culture. In our second/foreign language methodology courses we use PowerPoint and HyperStudio multimedia programs as well as a web design program Dreamweaver 4 and Inspiration software in order to create activities and materials that relate language learning to other disciplines, academic content, and to the world at large. These programs have become common tools in language learning and language teacher preparation programs (Pusack & Otto, 1997).

Dreamweaver 4

Dreamweaver 4 – a program for Professional Web Site Design of Macromedia Web Design Studio – enables the language teacher to create interactive web activities developing students’ skills of searching, selecting, and using information on the web in relation to the target language and culture. A WebQuest is an example of such activities.

WebQuest

A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web” (Website of the College of Education at San Diego State University, the WebQuest Page). WebQuests are designed to support learners' thinking at the higher levels of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation that Bloom’s Taxonomy of thinking processes emphasizes. In “French Foods” (K-6 level) and “French Olympic Games 2012” (K-12 level) – two bilingual WebQuests that we have built – inquiry-based approach is complimented with proficiency- and group-oriented learning: individual and group rubrics enable students to evaluate their own and others’ performances according to the specific tasks assigned and web resources analyzed. In these activities learning a foreign language is also integrated in studying the content area of social studies: geography, lifestyle, and eating traditions are closely addressed by the instruction. Authenticity of resources, increased visual input, structural organization of materials and their availability are definite advantages of WebQuests.

Please, feel free to visit our instructional websitehttp://www.msanatullov.com

to explore how these task-based technologies and activities workfor teaching contemporary French culture.