Students are being pushed to use their language skills outside the classroom by engaging in weekly conversations via Twitter. It is a collaboration between students taking Spanish courses at both Milligan and the University of Iowa. Students from both classes tweet their thoughts with the hashtag “comelibros,” the Spanish equivalent of “bookworm.”
Milligan’s Assistant Professor of Spanish and Humanities Dr. Allysha Martin and University of Iowa’s Assistant Professor of Languages and Literatures Dr. Heather Jeronimo met in graduate school at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where they first came up with the idea of using Twitter in the classroom. Last year, they finally put their plan into practice by using Twitter separately in their classes. Then, after that “beta test,” the two started thinking, “Wouldn’t it be cool if our students could talk to each other?”
The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, a national organization dedicated to promoting the studies of foreign languages, guides foreign language teachers’ curricula with five “world readiness standards.” Of these standards, the most difficult to meet is “communities” or the ability to interact and collaborate with others in the target language.
Because this standard demands student interaction, its development is often limited to the classroom. However, by using Twitter, Martin and Jeronimo have overcome that restriction.
“With using Twitter as an online format, you don’t have to physically be with people,” Martin said. “You can use it to build an online community of Spanish learners and Spanish speakers. That was our target with this project.”
Though the project is still in its early stages, the two professors plan to publish their findings regarding the project’s effectiveness.
Information via https://www.actfl.org/