Innovative Approaches to Stimulate Student Engagement, Language Learning, and Intercultural Competence: e-Learning, Inclusivity, and Social Dialogue

Workshop Presentation
Michael Marsh Soloway,  Olivier Delers  

This interactive workshop explores effective strategies to stimulate increased student engagement, linguistic proficiency, and intercultural competence. As instructors of languages, literature, and cultures, we strive to help students become global citizens with broader worldviews, cultivate respect for diversity, and inspire the activation of real-world skills with an eye toward professionalization, interdisciplinary research, and artistic imagination. Attendees of this workshop will come away with applied pedagogical insights related to syllabi and curricular design, active reflection practices, innovative technological resources to motivate millennials, and instructional approaches to promote equity in the realization of individualized learning plans for students of all backgrounds. The presenters will share first-hand experiences leading French, Russian, and self-directed language students in Storymap JS activities, authentic media exercises, eTandem initiatives with partner institutions and peer-to-peer interactions via TalkAbroad and iTalki, as well as ePortolio blogging projects featuring curated digital exhibitions. World language courses require students and instructors to step outside their delineated comfort zones, to venture into unfamiliar socio-cultural norms, and to consider new perspectives that often oppose widely-held stereotypes, expectations, beliefs, and understandings. This workshop will encourage audiences to evaluate teaching practices and learning outcomes more critically, and foster meaningful improvements by way of pedagogical and social transformation.