On Friday, Douglas County Schools brought Marc Prensky to inspire DC teachers to think forward and re-imagine their teaching. Their reactions spanned the gamut from outright indignation to utter boredom, with many thinking his approach was outlandish and others thinking it was outdated. Leave it to Douglas County Schools to stir the pot. On the other hand, I imagine there were quite a few who caught a glimpse of the future that Prensky, among many other educators, describes. In case you missed it, Prensky creatively referred to this as "Future-cation." I did spend some time thinking about how Foreign Language has and will be changing in the age of information. I'll share a few of these thoughts with you, if you are interested. I guess I'm playing devil's advocate a little because I don't really have any good answers to the questions I'll ask below. (Typical, you scoff. Believe me, I know.)
1. Google Translate
Who's had this conversation before?
Me: Hey, Mikayla. You'll have to re-do this project because you used a translator.
Mikayla: What's wrong with that?
Me: Well, you didn't really write it. The translator did.
Mikayla: I did write it, but I don't know how to say that in Spanish.
Me: You have to focus on the words and structures we've been learning, which means you can't say those things right now.
Mikayla: Well, that's dumb. I can just use a translator, then I can say it.
Me: (...purposeful wait time while we both decide this argument is going nowhere...)
Nonetheless, you'll have to re-do this project without the translator.
Truth is, despite the poor delivery, Mikayla has a point. I know all the arguments against translators. I beat these reasons into the minds of my students daily. One, translators aren't perfect. Two, there are frequent mistakes that only a human can really reason through. Three, it becomes a crutch that keeps you from using your own mind to create language. Four, you are losing an opportunity to practice the skills we are learning now. Five, no one wants to have a conversation with your iPhone app. And, of course, when it comes to assessment, using a translator is cheating.
And yet, while I'm uncomfortable acknowledging it, Mikayla does have a point. At least with writing, she, and everyone else, can just use a translator and while it's not perfect, is able to communicate their idea in the target language. Communication is the goal, right?
So, does the innovation of a translator change things? I think it probably should.
How does it change things? Here is that part I mentioned where I don't have an answer.
2. Writing Assessments
For me, writing assessment are hands-down the most efficient way to evaluate the proficiency level of my students. And, for my sanity, efficiency is important. I keep them open-ended, balance the rubrics with communication and accuracy skills, and get a nice, easily managed pile of papers that I can return with individualized feedback. Well done, language teacher! Except the question begs to be asked: when will my students ever be actually writing this way? Those who do get an opportunity to use real language will most certainly be spitting out an email, not a letter, and they won't be detailing what they ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Should I have them do some emailing or create a product and try to assess their proficiency there? Maybe, but they'd have to use a computer to do the typing and get their resources. And, of course, with the introduction of a computer, we are back to the wonders and worries of Google Translate.
3. Vocabulary Themes
Good language pedagogy says to learn new words within a theme. It provides more context for conversation and the connections that will help the mind to acquire the words. So, like all great teachers, I take the list about personality characteristics from the book or maybe, when I'm being an overachiever, I make a list to fit the essential question and my backwards plan. I hand out the lists. We practice, practice, practice. I scour the internet for authentic resources that use those words. I don't find any with the targeted vocabulary words but I find some others. I put new words on the board so we can actually read the resources I found. A student wants to know how to say "jealous," and I add that to the board. Another student wants to know how to say "bully" so we do some research, (Thank you, wordreference.com) and add that as well, in Puerto Rican, Mexican and Peruvian slang. We end up with an amazingly rich and useful list of words on the board. On Friday, I forget to write "save" and that evening the cleaning staff erases them all. Ouch. At the end of the week, we take an assessment using the original (and less interesting) list that I handed out in the beginning. Then, I am in the trenches of grading assessments and beginning a new unit with no time to reflect, and so, unfortunately, I begin the process over again.
What if kids made their own study lists, based on what they wanted to say about the essential question? Would they fail some assessment in Spanish 2 because they don't know the word for "green beans," even though they never eat them? How would something like that be managed? I've seen this happen in elementary school, but, for most of us, there is the complication of 120 extra students. And finally, where will they find these words? I'll have to teach them how to pull them from our resources and conversations. Oh, right, they can also get them from Google translate.
These are just a few of the thoughts that have been hovering in my mind this year that, admittedly, kind of make my throat swell up. Like I said, I don't really have the answers yet. Based on the amazing presentations put on by our own teachers, I'm sure there are some folks that have already found great ways to approach these issues, and I'd really like to know what everyone else thinks. So, what's your stance on using translators? Have you played with personalized vocabulary? What's your best way to assess proficiency? What changes do you see happening to our content? Good or bad, I'll take your comments below!
