Experiential Module
Identity in the World Language Classroom: Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence through Social Justice Education
For my master's project, I had to complete an "experiential module", which was effectively a capstone project of my choice that showed the culmination of my learning in the MAFLT program. For my experiential module, I conducted an action research project that explored the degree to which students develop Intercultural Communicative Competence [ICC] through Social Justice Education [SJE].
Through engagement with diversity, sociopolitical issues, power structures, and injustice, SJE can help to develop the open-minded, critical perspectives that are essential to a rich ICC. Contemporary research has extensively studied the acquisition of ICC, and to some degree, the effect of a social justice framework on the language classroom, but there has been little research into the ways that these two fields relate to each other.
​
Considering the relevance of the theme of identity to both Intercultural Communicative Competence development and Social Justice Education, then, the curriculum materials used in this study were built around the theme of identity. Lessons were task-based, included relevant authentic multimedia texts in the target language, and encouraged collaborative learning. Throughout the process of completing these lessons, students also completed journaling prompts in English in order to record their developing ICC. Finally, at the end of the treatment period, students completed a brief post-intervention survey based on Byram’s (1997) model of ICC.
​
Data collection in this study was twofold: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative data was collected through a post-intervention survey, which was administered through the online software Qualtrics. The body of qualitative data was comprised of student journal entries, online discussion boards, student written artifacts, and a final video project artifact. Qualitative data was then coded based on Byram’s (1997) ICC model.
​
Results indicated a strong contention for the ability of SJE to develop student ICC.
​
Read my complete report below:
​
Materials
The following documents are some materials that I created for my Experiential Module.
One of the first assignments that students completed in this unit was presenting the results of an interview that they completed with someone that they knew. This allowed students to begin considering the concept of identity and Americanness, outside of their own identities.
After considering what it means to be American, students considered what it means to be French or Francophone. To do so, students examined this infographic about French identity and responded to the corresponding questions.
This is one of the videos from Les Origines de la Beauté video series that this unit was based on. In this video, a French-speaking woman discusses her identity. Keyword subtitles were added to aid student comprehension. Comprehension questions were embedded into the video via EdPuzzle so students could frequently check for understanding as they watched.
After watching two of the videos from Les Origines de la Beauté video series, students worked in small groups to compare the identities of the two personalities they had encountered in these videos. Groups recorded their answers on a collaborative presentation; questions can be seen in the document to the left.
After exploring the concept of identity, students began to reflect on social justice topics such as privilege, marginalization, prejudice, discrimination, sexism, and racism. This authentic article described a pop culture phenomenon on the topic of privilege. Students read the article and responded to the corresponding questions.
Song themes: Identity & Racism
This presentation was used to help students to engage with a song with themes of identity, prejudice, and racism. We discussed this song as a class, using this Nearpod presentation as an interactive tool.
Reflective Essay
The following document is a reflective essay on my experience completing my Experiential Module.