The importance of instructions in a distance learning online classroom

As I prepare myself to design my "second" online course (I write second in quotation marks as I don't know whether to count the "first" one on Latin American Dialectology as one or not, since I just improvised its design,) I started reflecting upon my own experience as a distance learning student in an online classroom when I was an undergraduate student in college.

The tutorial I just finished was very condensed and informative. However it only shows what an online classroom  "should" be or "could" be, according to the research. Now as a Professor, I think about my past experience in online learning and blame instructions (or lack thereof) in all my aches as I was going through a course titled Morphosyntax of the Spanish Language.

Instructions: clear, precise, and most importantly, tells you what you are supposed to do as a student in any class. Seems obvious, right? Well, not necessarily so! When I first read about the importance of instructions in the tutorial, I thought it was obvious we had to make every instruction understandable to students, but then I realized that even if that is our intention, we are not always successful, as teachers, at being clear about what we expect our students to do for an assignment. If this is a challenge we encounter on a daily basis in a traditional classroom where we are able to stand in front of our students and ask them "Are there any questions? Does everyone understand what they need to do for homework?" and we fail at being completely clear as to what we expect our students to do, it is CRUCIAL for us to be, dare I say, repetitive, in order for our students to understand to the letter what we want from them?

I can only go back in time and refer to my personal experience in order to talk about online courses. As an undergraduate student I got to take five online courses. The first one was about the morphology and syntax of the Spanish language. I thought it was my worst nightmare. I thought, "who teaches this online? This is like taking math without having it explained at all! I feel alone!" I had always been a very good student, but I kept getting B's and B-'s in all assignments for this class. I used to write to my Professor and never got the answers I wanted from her regarding my performance and how I could improve. I never got to meet her in person, so this only added to the frustration of trying to talk to someone who, in my mind, did not have a face or a body, because she was living in a condo in this magical place called the Internet, but some of my classmates who had the same Professor for a different class swore to me she was the most wonderful and caring person they had ever met, a side of her I never got to see. To me, she was the enemy; someone standing between me and the very desired 4.0 GPA for that semester. After getting a B+ as a final grade in that class I vowed never to take another online course, because I saw it as a waste of my time, my parents' tuition money and I was sure I was not going to learn anything. There and then I pledged my devotion and complete fidelity to traditional classes and traditional classrooms... until I took one of the most wonderful elective courses I have ever taken. It was a course on cultural patrimony, where the professor decided to "lecture" through PowerPoint presentations that showed three tropical penguins having a conversation amongst themselves about cultural patrimony and everything it entails. I felt I was reading a comic book, but the fact was that I was learning a lot more than I had realized at the time, because I still remember today a lot of the concepts and what constitutes cultural patrimony according to those cute little tropical penguins. I only realized I had learned so much in that online course at the very end, during the final exam, when I was able to produce very articulate and elaborated answers to complex questions regarding cultural patrimony. After I took that class, I realized it was not the topic nor the professor that made an online course good or bad. After all, you are not in front of the students playing charades in order for them to understand what you are saying. It is the quality of the design and the clarity of the instructions for the assignments in that online course that makes a world of difference to a student that will hate and not take anything away from the class and to the student that will love and learn things that will be in his/her mind for a lifetime. If students manage to surf through the online classroom as they do in their own house, where everything is very intuitive and "obvious" to find, then this will be a very rewarding experience to both student and instructor. After my cultural patrimony class, I went ahead and took three more online courses on Advanced Spanish-English translation, where instructions were clear and learning was accomplished.

So, in honor of Rumba, Bochinche and Safarrancho, the three tropical penguins that inspired me and motivated me through cultural patrimony to try to be an online teacher, I dedicate SPAN 202, my online classroom, to you. And, of course, to their magical creator, Professor María, from Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas, Venezuela, the best online teacher I ever had.

Talking like a Textbook

Here is a glimpse to one of the points I will be addressing this Friday, May 13th at the 7th Symposium of the Center for Intercultural Language Studies (CILS). This is a comic I drew based on one my personal experiences. Here it is:

After having studied French for over four years and having considered myself somewhat proficient and fluent in it, I embarked myself onto an unforgettable trip to France in order to "perfect" my French. I arrived to the Chambéry train station in Haute-Savoie, semi-confident in my third language, looking for my host dad, Joël. He took me home, introduced me to my host mom, Martine, and host sister, Clémence, and immediately drove me to the language school, where a placement test was warm right out of the photocopier waiting for me to take it.

I did try my best to remember all the wise words given to me by Mme. Vale, Mme. Rivas, Mme. Weaver, Mr. Harshbarger and Mr. Dunaway, so I took the test and checked for any grammar mistakes, missing accents and any wrong agreements I could have done. In the afternoon, a teacher at the language school called me for the oral part of the exam and to give me the results of the written one I had taken earlier that day. She said I had been the student with the highest grade in the exam. In her own words, she told me my use of the subjunctive was impeccable, that my vocabulary was very good and the mistakes I had made were just really silly. So, I was placed in the "niveau supérieur" at the school, the envy of all the other students. Therefore, I was very proud of myself and I remember having called home to tell my parents all about it.

After three whole months at the highest level at the language school, I was even more confident of my French, so I chatted away every chance I got. One day, I arrived home and found Martine and a friend of hers having coffee in the dining room. So, my host mom introduced me to her friend and we started talking. As we are having a spontaneous, basic, introductory conversation, Martine interrupts me and says: "Mais, Alex, qu'est-ce que tu as appris dans cette école? Tu parles come un livre!" (But Alex, what have you learned at this school? You talk like a textbook!). There it was, my confidence shredded into pieces in less than two minutes.

So, my point here is that it does not matter how long or where a student has been exposed to a foreign language if the materials of instruction are not aligned to the reality of a specific language community. Hence, the importance of keeping the textbooks updated in regards to the way that language is used in a real life context.

Therefore, here is to Chambéry and my host family: Joël, Clémence and my wonderful (and correcting) host mom, Martine.

Cheers!

    "Talking like a Textbook"

    Alejandra Escudero© 2011

Useful electronic tool for Spanish learners

I recently came across a very comprehensive website that allows students of L2 Spanish to learn and practice the language, outside of a classroom setting. This site contains news, music and information on cultural events happening allover the Hispanic world. Additionally, it contains grammar explanations and additional exercises for those students who want a different perspective from that of the textbook they use in class.

All the articles, songs and videos have text, sound and images, which allow students to practice their Spanish by reading, listening and repeating the language.

The link to the website is Practica Español

A video explaining the features of the site can be found here:

¡Que lo disfruten!

My Philosophy of Teaching

Everyone has a passion. Teaching Spanish is mine. I have wanted to teach ever since I can remember and that may be why I have been told that I am a “born teacher”. Those who have really shaped me into the teacher I have become are those who have learned from me along the different walks of my life, my students. Much of my approach to teaching has developed as a result of what I have admired in my favorite teachers, which, in turn, reflect my personal values and beliefs. I believe that when students are valued and respected, they will be motivated to learn and succeed.

            My goal in teaching is to pass on to my students the beauty and richness of the Spanish language. I also encourage them to take risks, aiming for excellence, and go the extra mile. I want to spark their curiosity into learning about Hispanic cultures. To reach this end, I use the great advantages that technology brings into a foreign language classroom, including videos and songs in order to make Hispanic culture more accessible. I like to use the online components of our textbooks, overheads and Power Point presentations to reinforce what I teach in class.

            My methodology involves challenging students while making sure that those who are struggling get the support and encouragement they need in order to succeed. I engage students in their own learning by promoting not only the individual, but also pair and group work. As an instructor, I am passionate about what I do and I am always informed, well organized and prepared, wearing a big smile and a cheerful attitude. I believe in being respectful, sensitive and fair at all times, giving the same opportunities to everyone alike. My interactive way of teaching has taught me how to tailor my classes according to each different group. Through professional development, such as the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) Training, the International Teaching Assistants (ITA) program and careful observation, I am able to teach in different ways so I can deliver the same type of information to a classroom of students with different learning styles.

            Spanish is not a subject that is learned passively. That is why I design lesson plans that are fun and interesting. In order to make the most out of class, I require that students spend a good amount of time on homework and other assignments. It is for this reason that I have high expectations for all my students. I expect them to try their personal best and to become active in their learning process. I believe that my enthusiastic and interactive approach to teaching Spanish allows students to learn the language while being interested and motivated in the subject. My students know how much I love teaching them, which triggers their interest and motivation to learn this wonderful language, and that is why teaching Spanish is my passion.