Pedagogical Tensions in the Student-Centered Language Classroom: Fostering Choice and Creativity in an Elementary Language Course.

Most of my students will not become scholars of Italian language, linguistics, literature or related fields. While I naturally wish to instill in them a love of the language and culture, my larger objectives are the honing of skills and mindsets which connect them to a broader world and improve their ability to communicate in any language and to pursue study of any subject. 

I want them to understand the incremental nature of learning, and to increase their agency in the process, identifying their individual strengths and how they are complemented by the strengths of other learners with whom they collaborate. Finally, I want them to become more comfortable with being uncomfortable, as a certain level of risk-taking is inherent to the learning process.

As a BACCA fellow this past year, I spent time meditating on some tensions I observe among various aspects of our learner-centered pedagogy, principles of second language learning and characteristics and motivations of my students, while striving to ignite curiosity and creativity and mitigate risk adversity. I’ll discuss just a couple from the list below, as they relate to my experiences and experiments this past year.

A. Aspects of a learner-centered pedagogy:

Collaboration - Student ownership of learning - Creation of learning communities - Self-reflection - Teacher as facilitator - Choice/differential learning - Authentic context and material

B. Factors facilitating adult language learning

Repetition - Engagement - Motivation - Purpose - Confidence

C. Tensions

*STRUCTURE v. FLEXIBILITY 

*REPETITION v. INNOVATION

*CHOICE but how much? 

Repetition, engagement, motivation, and confidence.  All relevant to success in second language learning. A challenge is how to give students opportunities for constant recycling and repetition of structures and content while keeping them engaged and curious.

One way we have done this in Italian is through an expansion of our learning communities. Students have opportunities throughout the semester to interface, not only with their classmates in small group collaborative activities, but also with students from other sections, levels, and on occasion, from other universities. As class sizes shrink, such opportunities become even more relevant.

We strive to offer our students choices of ways to engage with content and to demonstrate learning.  While individual agency is fundamental to a learner-centered pedagogy, choices can often overwhelm. Students avoid the “create your own” category when it comes to selecting topics and modalities for projects and presentations. Accustomed to highly-detailed project guidelines and  rubrics, they worry when the format of a project or presentation is left underspecified. 

In the past years we have replaced traditional assessments (e.g. tests, final) with the integrated performative assessment (IPA), a multi-modal task in which different modes of communication are included under one central theme expressed as an essential question (e.g. What does university life look like / How do I evaluate a restaurant? ). For the presentational part of the assessment, completed typically in groups of 3, students are given choices of how to convey their learning to the rest of the class in an engaging and interactive manner. I have pitched ideas as diverse as podcasts, plays, songs, games, debates, stories, video-tours,  etc. Seldom do they opt for formats different from a standard powerpoint presentation. 

My wishlist for my students this past year consisted of the following:

1. Try out new things: engage with content in a variety of ways
2. Try out new voices: switch perspectives
3. Move beyond the question: What does this have to look like?
4. Figure out what a successful conversational exchange looks like

It is axiomatic that a desire for varied and versatile student output necessitates providing them with a dynamic and diversified set of inputs. Want them to create a podcast as a project, give them opportunities to listen to and interact with them. Ask them to produce an infographic? Have them analyze one first.  Write a poem? Read and discuss several! 

A standard practice already in our classes, this  isn’t always enough. Last semester I endeavored to move some of the bigger creative “asks” to lower-stakes assignments (in most cases, weekly collaborative projects they did in small groups), in addition to providing more opportunities for lower-stakes in-class presentations. My thinking was that as they got comfortable with innovating and presenting on lower-stakes assignments, they would be less averse to trying out something new on a larger project.

For example, for one assignment,  students selected one of several commercials- to listen to and answer questions about. In part 2 they produced their own, choosing from a variety of products and media to use, but with otherwise loosely structured guidelines. They only received a homework grade based on completion. The in-class presentations were ungraded.

For the higher-stakes projects (end of unit IPAs), I have tried out a hybrid approach, in which opportunities for students to make choices and give input have increased incrementally. Below are examples from 4 different assessments, used in Fall 2023 and Spring 2024, each with different extents of student choice and input.

The student-input-informed components of these projects have worked the best in my mind. Their ideas alone demonstrate their learning and their ability to think creatively.  As co-creators of content and modality, along with the instructors, they aren’t forced to go out on a limb with something entirely new. It is understandable that they still play it safe on higher-stakes assignments, especially when the project with most choices comes at the end of the semester when time is short and grades are foremost on their mind.

When we were first asked to write a reflection on our BACCA experience, one idea floated of the form it could take, was a poem. I considered this option with some glee. Nevermind that I hadn’t written anything  in a decade or more, and when I did, I wasn’t likely to share it.  What a great format for my reflection on how to cultivate creativity and greater risk taking in learning. Two months later I sat down to write at the eleventh hour, and this is it. 

No poem. No punchy format.

A last thing I’ve learned from my BACCA experience, and possibly even just the writing of this reflection, is that my goals for my students are, in part, a projection of my goals as a teacher. Having taught the same course for many years, I myself have a need to innovate, to take greater risks, and to shake up my thinking. The fellowship provided a friendly and safe space to engage in discussion with others with different teaching experiences and perspectives. It was also a space for quiet reflection. My goals for myself and my  students haven’t shifted dramatically. However, I end where I began, with a reminder to myself that the process matters more than the final product.