When spring term moved to remote teaching and learning, Italian instructor Angela Zagarella turned to her native country of Italy, one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus, for inspiration to help guide online video discussions. One week, students in her second-year Italian class browsed the virtual collections of the popular but now-shuttered Uffizi Gallery in Florence, chose a piece of art and spoke about it in a 3-minute video comment using a tool called VoiceThread. Another week, they chose a photo from photographer Steve McCurry's video tribute to Italy and its people and described the emotions it evoked.
In their weekly Zoom sessions, Zagarella starts the class off with an icebreaker to get them talking. They also submit a weekly journal entry, which Zagarella says has become an outlet for them during this unprecedented time. Students have shared more personal stories and struggles with her than those in years past.
"I still miss my in-person classes and I don't think you can absolutely substitute it," she said. "But having all of these components together, we've been able to make it work and it's emphasized how important it is to use culture as a way to teach the language."
For a department as large as World Languages and Literatures with dozens of course sections and 2,000-plus students, the transition to remote instruction has been a challenge, especially when both students and faculty prefer face-to-face classes for language learning. But instructors have adapted their syllabi and used a variety of tools, including VoiceThread, Zoom breakout rooms, Metastream, Flipgrid, and journaling.
"They're showing resilience and flexibility just like the students are," said Gina Greco, the department chair.
Steve Thorne, a professor of second language acquisition, says reading and writing is easier to do in an online environment since students can participate in threaded discussions, write and maintain blogs, contribute to Wikipedia entries, and write fan fiction.
What's more complicated is being able to speak and engage while using the language they're studying. Some classes are able to meet synchronously at the regularly scheduled time of their course, but that's not always possible — both for the instructor and students because of family and home responsibilities or poor internet connections.
Thorne says that with a tool like VoiceThread, the instructor can post a video prompt or clip and students can respond and comment on one another's posts with a video at their own leisure.
"It allows us to asynchronously afford opportunities to listen to the language and produce language verbally and visually," he said. "It helps us build all four skills: reading, writing, comprehension and oral language production."
Greco says the best way to practice a language is through real-time conversation, but VoiceThread is the next best option.
Some instructors like Arabic instructor Lina Gomaa have also been exploring online intercultural exchanges, where their classes partner with a class in another part of the world.
"It's very powerful not just for language learning because each student group gets to interact with native speakers of the language they're studying, but also for developing empathy, understanding and deeper cultural insight," Thorne said.
Film courses have also been exploring the use of new tools. For German Horror Film, assistant professor Carrie Collenberg-Gonzalez turned to the app Metastream, which allows her class to live chat while watching a film together.
"It keeps the students really engaged in the viewing process," she said. "It allows for them to react and also allows me to guide. It's been fun."
Collenberg-Gonzalez says that normally, the class is taught at Fifth Avenue Cinema and though she encourages students to talk out loud, they don't do it as readily as they have been doing online. The co-viewing streams are optional, but she says that about 12 out of 17 students participate. She supplements them with recorded lectures to help contextualize the films and discussion boards — one about the films and another lighthearted one about their daily horror.
"I didn't plan to teach horror films during a pandemic, but the students are making it fun," she said. "They're still embracing life and supporting each other. We're trying to make it as interactive as possible."
Looking ahead to the summer, a faculty-led study abroad program in Spain will continue virtually. The language classes will be taught by language instructors in Spain and the students will have a host family with whom they can Zoom.
Greco says that now that the department has had a "baptism by fire" with the new tools, instructors will more likely use technology in the future to introduce their students to native speakers from around the world.
"We can find ways to get students to connect more with the people abroad in the cultures where the language they're studying is spoken," she said. "We will be better positioned to capitalize on the ways that technology can open up the world to us and our students — not to replace the classroom experience, but to enhance it."