Advancing Dutch Through Intensive Instruction: Planning for Success with Backward Design and Social Media Language Matters Series Texas Language Center Vince VanderHeijden 15 February 2012

 Specific Context of Dutch at UT  Backward Design  Using Social Media  Initial results Outline

 6 hours 3 times per week  Lower-division courses only (604, 612)  Zomercursus Nederlandse Taal en Cultuur  Testing Dutch at UT

1.The Classroom is for interactive practice 2.Students learn as much from each other as from instructor 3.Students are informed partners in instructional design Operating Principles

 Mechanical practice occurs at home  Homework = practice and preparation  At least 4 interactive activities per lesson  Brainstorming, role-play, information-gap, jigsaw Operating Principles The Classroom is for interactive practice

 Homework is explicitly connected to each day’s objectives  Each day’s objectives are included in the homework  Most lesson planning occurs before the homework is posted Operating Principles Students are included in instructional design

 An orientation to planning and instructional design which emphasizes transferable skills and learning.  It begins at the end Backward Design

 Three questions:  What should my students know, understand, be able to do at the end of the course/unit? (Goals and outcomes)  How will I know they’ve hit their targets? (Assessment)  How will I help them get there? (Instruction)  Understanding by Design  Wiggins & McTighe (2001, 2006) Backward Design

 What are the outcomes? What’s the end?  Students will engage with a variety of personal interests in Dutch and relate these interests to a Dutch context  Students will develop skills of interaction and inquiry which reflect emerging independent language learners  Students will write at approximately an Intermediate-High level (ACTFL, 2012), with emergent Advanced low features  Cohesion  Paragraph-length  Expansion beyond present-time into past time as well as conditional/irrealis

 How will I know they’ve hit their targets?  What kind of evidence will be acceptable?  Preferably from authentic, performance-focused activities  What kind of activities will provide evidence of the ability to write cohesively?  How will I know whether students can interact and investigate in ways which deepen their language learning? Backward Design

 How will I help them get there?  Student focused instruction  What are the students doing ?  Why are they doing it?  What does it have to do with the outcomes? Backward Design

 Breaking the “Fourth Wall”  Sandbox for experimentation  Personalization  Multi-modal  Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication  Community Building  Audience Affordances of Social Media

 Hybrid of Facebook and (Micro)Blogging  Social network  No limit on post length  Allow for easy linking of external resources (media, content)  Multi-person video chat  Instant Messaging/Chat Capability Why Google Plus?

 Fellner & Apple (2006), Chapelle (2001)  Language Learning Potential  Learner Fit  Meaning Focus  Authenticity  Positive Impact  Practicality  Enhancement A Rationale for (micro)Blogs

Google Plus

Google Plus Circles

 Contribution types:  Share discoveries  Pose hypotheses  Respond to original posts  Elaborate  Challenge  Introduce  Inquire Expectations

Advanced contributions, Exceeds expectations High Intermediate, Very good contributions Meets minimum acceptable expectations Still beginning Dutch user, does not meet expectations Frequency of posts Super user: demonstrably more than one post a week (semester total >12) Engaged user: approximately one post per week (sem. total 9-11) Average user: less than one post per week, but still a regular contributor (sem. total 7-8) Incidental user: approx. one post every two weeks (or fewer) (sem. total <7) Quality of posts High number of original, substantive contributions, while actively responding to classmates’ posts with insightful, helpful comments and questions. They reflect, apply, inquire and relate. Actively contributes to furthering the conversation by interacting with posts initiated by others. Original posts, while less common, provide unique and interesting information. They also reflect and inquire, but more often describe and explain. Few original posts. Reactions to existing threads are cursory and generally focused on one’s personal response. These posts tend to describe and explain. Unintelligible or irrelevant commentary. Links to external content are provided without comment or context. Language: Structure Very clear command of basic structures. Frequent, correct use of complex sentences. Commonly attempts to incorporate new structures as they are learned in course Strong fundamentals. Complex sentence structure is used, though with less frequency and accuracy. New structures attempted though systematic errors still occur. Basic errors are still frequent (conjugation, word order, pronoun use, etc.). Occasional success with complex sentences. *Errors do not interfere with understanding of message Basic structures clearly not mastered. Errors impede intelligibility. Language: Lexical and stylistic sophistication Exclusive use of Dutch. Evidence of broad range of vocabulary. Highly accurate use of high frequency words. Consistent (and accurate) integration of new vocab. Very coherent writing. Highly infrequent appearance of English. Very good range of vocabulary. Occasional errors in word choice or spelling/plurals (u/jij, schippen/schepen). Occasional use of coherence words to connect text Frequent reliance of a mix of English and Dutch. Frequent spelling errors (also in verb roots). Text is more a string of sentences than a cohesive group More reliance on English than Dutch, Frequency of errors (word choice and/or spelling) impedes understanding. Rubric

Yesterday we mentioned the Elfstedentocht. For more background information, I’m posting a number of links about the “Tour of tours”. No one is yet certain if the race will be run, but Frisian authorities are planning to make it possible. So a few questions for you:  How long is the route?  Where does it take place?  How many participants are there?  When was the last Elfstedentocht?  What other questions do you need to have answered about the tour? Sample Prompts

This article has to do with coffee and your generation. What is the trend in the Netherlands? Do you agree with the reported opinions of Dutch young people? And what about the sustainable production of coffee—do you think about it when you order your cup at Starbucks?  uitstervend-ras.html uitstervend-ras.html Sample Prompts

My brother has a darling little girl of 4. This weekend he shared a YouTube channel he found with a huge collection of children’s songs. His daughter is apparently crazy about these videos (even though she can’t speak a word of Dutch). Some are simple Dutch versions of well- known English songs. Others are old but still popular songs such as “’k Zag twee beren.” The text for the first verse follows. What do you think about the song? Can you write a new verse? All you have to do is substitute the bolded words for your own. Add your own verse in the comments! Sample Prompts

 Mike Ik hou van idiomen! Ik vind hen interessant. Ik onderzoek graag en hou van vinden waar ze vandaan komen. Het is interessant dat "donder" is een woord gebruikt. Het is een grappige woord in Engels vertalen. De woord "donder" is "thunder" in Engels. De idioom is "by thunder" in Engels maar dat is een heel oud idioom. Ik wil oude idiomen weten in Nederlands. Ik wil de evolutie van idiomen in Nederlands zien.  Jeff  Ik vind dit heel interessant. Een interessant ding met de taal van nederland is "God Verdomme". In Engels zegt wij "God Damn it" maar in nederlandse ze verdomme zelf. De bedoeling is hetzelfde, maar het zou betekenen dat heel anders in het Engels. De verschillende manier waarop we zinnen zeggen in de taal is zeer interessant. Results

Is de koffiedrinker een uitstervend ras? Madelyn Jonge Nederlanders drinken weinig koffie omdat het te bitter is, volgens het artikel. Maar koffieconsumptie groeit licht in Nederland en zou in de komende jaren blijven groeien. Ik drink heel weinig koffie omdat ik veel thee drink. Thee heeft minder cafeïne en ik denk dat thee beter smaakt. Ik ben geïntereseerd in duurzame productie, dus ik denk erover veel na. Mijn mening is dat veel mensen er niet over nadenken. Het artikel zegt dat meer mensen voor duurzaamheid zullen zorgen. Bedrijven zullen naar de klanten luisteren en duurzamer worden. Zal deze koffieconsumptie vergroten? Denk je dat duurzaamheid echt belangrijk voor klanten is? Julia Ik denk dat jonge Amerikanen heel verschillend zijn. Wij drinken koffie regelmatig. Waarom? Misschien koffie geeft energie, maar misschien koffie is echter een comfort voor studenten en werkers. We hebben andere werkende mensen, studenten, en onze ouders koffie drinken gezien. Deze mensen hebben druk gehad. Als ik drink koffie, heb ik druk ook. De koffie drinkers in Nederland lijken over hun koffie smaak en kwaliteit zorgen. Misschien hebben ze niet op elke hoek een Starbucks. Madelyn Het is ook interessant dat ontbijt meer belangrijk voor Nederlanders is. Als ik elke dag een hele ontbijt at, zou ik meer koffie drinken. Ik denk dat thee makkelijker te maken en goedkoper is, dus het is beter voor mijn korte, bezige ochtenden. Toen ik werkte in de zomer dronk ik meer koffie. Dus, ik ga volgens Alma (zij zei dat koffie een comfort voor werkers is). Het is goed wanneer je moe bent, zoals vroeg in de ochtend bij je kantoor. Results

 Google Plus as a social network allows for synchronous CMC as well  Chat  Hangouts (video conferencing) For the future

Hartelijk bedankt!