LOTE; an Intercultural Unit; LOTE Makes a Difference

1. LOTE; an Intercultural Unit; LOTE Makes a Difference a VELS intercultural unit which makes connections with the wider community (based on the ILTLP Project and suitable for VELS Levels 4 and 5) links to other VELS disciplines / domains a focus on the Intercultural Knowledge and Language Awareness Dimension and links to ILTLP Project Sequence of activities from “Tuning in” to celebration activities and evaluation at the end Assessment “of”, “for” and “as” Assessment of Intercultural Dimension Presented by Lisa Dowse, SMR DoE MLTAV Conference April 27 2007

2. Intercultural Learning The ILTLP (Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning in Practice) Project Research Centre for Languages and Cultures Education (UniSA) The 5 Principles for Intercultural language teaching and learning

3. Active Construction • Involves learners using language purposefully in a range of tasks in which they discover and create meaning • Involves learners in exploring the culturally conditioned nature of human behaviour

4. Making Connections • Learning about another culture does not happen in a vacuum. Every time people encounter something new, they begin by trying to associate it with what they already know. If it does not fit with our existing understanding of the world, we may reject the experience or try to make sense of it by comparing it to what we already know and by developing new insights into the world. • This learning is strongest when it takes the form of establishing relationships between one’s own language and culture and another. • This learning involves understanding that we also have a cultural and linguistic identity.

5. Social Interaction • Learning is social and interpersonal, not just individual and intrapersonal. • Whether communication is written or spoken, it involves a social act of discovering, negotiating, and creating meaning through language in its unique social context. • This involves us in the interactive process of interpretation in which we seek to discover the meanings that lie behind the words and to express meanings of our own in a different conceptual and linguistic system.

6. Reflection • The intercultural individual reflects on experiences of diversity in positive ways, seeking to understand what meanings are being (and could possibly be interpreted as being) created. • We need to come to see ourselves from both within our own linguistic and cultural identity and also to have insight into how what we see as familiar can become strange when viewed from a different perspective and that both views have value. • We need to reflect on how we respond to and engage with the linguistic/cultural practices of others and the consequences our ways of engagement have for us personally and interpersonally.

7. Responsibility • The intercultural individual takes responsibility to respect and seek to develop sensitivity towards multiple perspectives and needs. • The intercultural individual takes responsibility to contribute to the success of his / her interactions in a way that accepts the diversity that he / she encounters.

8. Key Ideas in Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning Approaching Learning Four flexible, overlapping activities

9. Noticing • Noticing linguistic and cultural practices in context is a starting-point for further learning. • Noticing can involve different modes: visual, auditory, cognitive, affective... • What do you see? • What do you think? • What do you feel? • What do you understand about yourself? • What do you understand about others?

10. An ILTLP Unit of Work… Students making a difference Tuning In…Present the incentive… whatever the class could be aiming for… LOTE equipment / resources, special items for an exchange student / a language / immersion camp / sleepover/ community conscience activity… e.g. basketball rings / sporting equipment for a school where the LOTE is spoken, but where the students do not have many facilities like in our school / books in the LOTE for a disadvantaged school in school in a disadvantaged overseas community / sponsoring a child…School permission would be needed before anything could be presented to students… * For any communications with overseas schools / students, refer to the guidelines in School2school relationships

11. Write to World Vision to determine needs, costs, etc., camps, etc. Find out who are potential sponsors: use the MLTAV CD to discover French companies in Australia. Sponsors… language associations, consulates, French companies, Determine how much money required… ideas for fundraising… a French-a–thon… Everyone creates a cost sheet in French.

12. Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning • Knowledge of formal letter writing in English? In French? • Register…addressing adults in French / English?… tu / vous… • View a video… Role-play of different ways to address different hierarchical groups… …Give examples; Australian child to child, child to adult, both appropriate and inappropriate ways of addressing. Same for French, using “tu” inappropriately, i.e. rebuffs and acceptance. • Students are asked in French “What did you notice?”

13. Interpersonal Learning • Students take turns in being the “acteur”, “spectateur”, “philosophe” (observer / commentor) of the role-plays. • The spectateur uses a model question supplied by the teacher with icon / visual image to reinforce meaning; “What did you notice?” • The acteur is asked…Teacher provides the model question… “How did you feel?” ie. when you realised you had said something considered rude. • The philosophe is asked the question…”What is the problem?” This comprises VELS Interpersonal Learning through taking on different roles / tasks

14. Allow time for reflecting A successful intercultural class has “quiet” sessions as well. After viewing the videos, have an activity which allows students to reflect and either record their reflections in a journal, or structure sessions which enable you to “de-brief” with them on a one-to-one basis for sensitive issues Some parts of an intercultural language learning program cannot be pre-planned. After the reflection time, it is wise to plan a follow-up activity which responds to their thinking / reflections. This lesson need not be the very next session, depending on the insights they share.

15. View samples of formal letters… Predict how very casual and formal letters would be received by different audiences, e.g. school friends in Australia, France, the children’s home countries, executives of organisations and companies (like the sponsors would be in Australia, France, etc.…) Do the same (but a shorter process) for invitations. Different groups write a letter to different sponsors, after the conventions have been observed. Plan funds needed… How much needed from parent / family sponsors… Plan the French-a-thon. Write invitations to guests inviting them to the French-a-thon and thanking ceremony afterwards.

16. Communicative Language Learning • Consolidating / Rehearsing / Making generalisations about language patterns This is covered in detail in the unit itself • Training like in the Olympics… Recycle past learning… What comes to our minds readily that we can use in our French-a-thon? • Songs, memorised conversations, new learning, how to speak to French guests… • Time to rehearse… Interpersonal Learning… Have students record how they learn best… (Multiple Intelligences Intrapersonal…Gardiner’…Analysis Reflection) allocate roles; timekeeper, . Students practise extending their conversations to go longer… Someone is timekeeper… Students share with the class strategies which are helping them to extend their conversations and recall language from past units. • How can we set up our room to encourage ongoing use of French conversation?

17. Students taking responsibility for their own learning (PoLT 1) • Have possible vocabulary needed and visuals available on the board, on walls, dictionaries… language games / board games, listening posts, props, such as telephones, play mobile phones, computers, internet access, posters, puppets, dress-ups, encyclopedias in French, language charts, speech bubbles, art materials, mini-whiteboards for writing in French, • Includelanguage fillers “C’est-à-dire…etc.” Brainstorm ideas in groups ways they can extend their time spent only on target language: “Think, pair, share.” Graphic organiser for this… • Students choose materials which suit their preferred learning style.

18. Presenting, celebrating, evaluating and beyond… • Students run the French-a-thon… • Special guests, sponsors, parents can attend and after there is an official “thanking of sponsors” ceremony. • Money raised is spent according to plans. • Future units… links with the overseas community, actions according to the money raised.

19. Assessment of Intercultural Learning… Level 4 • Reflection…share a learning strategy they use successfully or evaluate and improve a strategy they have tried. • Apply relevant conversational rules and expectations, e.g. politeness. • Cultural differences in writing conventions. • Interact with members of the language community in Australia to extend their understanding of perspectives on the themes and topics studied in the classroom.

20. Assessment of Intercultural Learning… Level 5 • Knowledge about the language, its speakers and countries where it is spoken. • Use appropriate language and levels of respect in different circumstances, reflecting the relationship between the speakers of the language. • Interact with a variety of speakers of the language from different countries and communities, including Australia, to gain understanding of diverse views and beliefs within and between these communities. • Express their own views and values in relation to simple scenarios or propositions.