Thursday, September 21, 2017

Four Reasons to Flip Your Foreign-Language Classroom

Recently I was asked why anyone should flip their foreign language classroom. What a great question! There are many positive outcomes (less arduously graded homework landing unread in a waste basket! more dynamic assessments! enthusiastic learners clamoring for more discussion! students wanting to major in your language!), but these four are the most significant to me.

1. MORE SUPPORT FOR UNDERPREPARED STUDENTS!
The most immediate benefit of flipping delivery and application of content lies in the guidance we as instructors can provide to un- or underprepared learners as they try to apply the content in class. When they do traditional homework, no one is there to point out an error on the first exercise so that all subsequent work may contain the same error, potentially fossilizing the inappropriate structure in the student’s mind. Correcting traditional homework in class only catches a few of these errors, but even then, students with limited comprehension often cannot abstract a specific correction to their own work.

Working through an exercise in class, on the other hand, provides the instructor with instant insights into individual students’ challenges before these turn into full-fledged problems. In addition, a well-staffed group can support struggling team members even before the instructor may intervene. That is why, at the beginning of a semester, I assess my new learners’ abilities and then create Familien in which strong students help their peers.
Inverting the conventional order of content delivery and content application also provides the student with a more stress-free environment in which to learn. In my courses, we call “mit der Sprache spielen” [playing with the language] because that is what we do. My learners create with the building blocks they gradually acquire through a chapter, from simple structures to truly impressive ones in the end. As they are practicing how to “stack their blocks” while I am in the classroom with them, I can assess them in a more up-to-date formative manner because I witness each student’s progress through the material and am able to intervene if their tower of blocks should tumble.

2. MORE SPEAKING!
There isn't a foreign language teacher in the world who doesn't aim for more communication in the target language in his or her classroom. We all want to have our students speak more, but often there is so much housekeeping to take care of! Going over homework, explaining grammar (sometimes even of the native language because you cannot teach relative clauses if students don't recognize them in their mother tongue), introducing vocabulary, providing realia (real-life objects such as authentic news clips, cartoons, magazines, toys, food, train tickets, menus, money, etc.), quizzing, and testing.

What if you moved all the informational items out of the classroom, introduced them in the individual learning space, and only did the hands-on activities in your classroom? Now you have lots of time for active learning in the target language, using games, group projects and the realia that so fascinate our students. My learners are usually so engrossed in exploring the German culture that they don't even notice that they are using the German language and its grammar in the process.

3. MORE CULTURE!
Our textbooks tend to introduce culture as mere backdrop to grammar and vocabulary. Thus, the concept of staying healthy and fit in Germany might play a subordinate role to, say, reflexive pronouns and subordinate clauses. There might be a cultural capsule or two about Germany having universal healthcare or the Versichertenkarte [insurance identification card] shown at the physician's office. But this is only a smattering of culture and doesn't entice the students to hone their analytical thinking skills. 
Here is how I approach the chapter on health and fitness. Over the span of eight class sessions, my students prepare at home by watching brief videos of people calling their physicians’ offices for an appointment, checking in with the receptionist, being examined, and picking up their prescriptions at the pharmacy. On their worksheets (one each per class session, comprising all at-home preparation and in-class team work), they soak up the vocabulary they encounter in these authentic video situations by filling in blanks, choosing the best possible answers in a scenario, determining whether an utterance is culturally suitable in given situations, and reading dialogs together. At the end of the chapter, my learners write their own dialogues, which lets them delve deeper into the German culture by simulating their participation in it. Grammatical structures and vocabulary are acquired as a secondary skill, and do not constitute the focus of the chapter.
Finally, I summatively assess mastery of the content through group-produced videos in which learners role-play four separate scenes:
1.     conversation with a sick roommate and calling a doctor’s office for an appointment or the physician’s Sprechstunden [calling hours for immediate care]
2.     check-in with the receptionist, using a (homemade) Versichertenkarte and waiting to be called
3.     examination and asking for a Krankmeldung [medical certification of inability to work]
4.     filling a Rezept [prescription] at the Apotheke [pharmacy]
Here is a brief clip from a student video (check-in at the doctor’s office):

4. MORE CROSS-CULTURAL CRITICAL THINKING!
Because I can provide information in English on the at-home portion of my worksheets, I use the lessons I have developed for each chapter to introduce my students to brief, but judiciously scaffolded readings about aspects of the German culture. All information is thoroughly documented, cited or hyperlinked, and as up-to-date as possible. The questions that follow each reading require higher-order cognition.
The early cultural enrichment segments on the healthcare system begin with the German reasons for Kuren [medical spa "vacation"] and Spaß- or Erlebnisbäder [waterparks], describe the historical and political reasons why Germany introduced universal healthcare in the 19th century and how it adheres to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights in recognizing health as an inalienable right of its citizens.
In further readings, students compare the costs of medical school in Germany and the United States, the average salaries of healthcare providers and their staff, as well as the numbers of hospital admissions, deaths due to medical error, and malpractice suits filed. The information students see on a worksheet might look like this:

A.     (50P) Kultur im Vergleich [cultural comparison]:
In Germany, public universities are free to attend, but you must have graduated from a free college-prep school called „Gymnasium“ (which is attended by circa 50% of all German pupils). Your graduation GPA is very important because only the very best students can study popular subjects such as medicine.
                                                                                                     
BRD
USA
Median medical school debt (2013)
Median monthly health insurance premium, 21 yr. old student
3.4 (2003)
2.3 (2002)
Average physician salary (2009)
Average registered nurse salary (2016)
Average receptionist salary (2016)
$5,267
$9,451
Hospital admissions per year (2013)
Patient deaths due to medical error (2013)
17,000 (2010)
251,454 (2013)
Malpractice suits filed (2013)
Malpractice awards granted (2013)
Contingency fees (lawyers’ share of monetary damage awarded)
0
* Before there might be a trial, representatives of the doctor’s medical association and the patient’s health insurance company enter a no-cost mediation procedure.
B.      Please infer (= to make an educated guess). In your estimation, how might these facts affect medical treatment costs of sick or injured people in Germany and the United States? Why do you think that – which facts in the text and table above guided you in forming your opinion? You’re welcome (but not at all obligated) to research this question further, but cite your sources properly.
(10P) Possible effect on medical costs in the US and Germany:
     
(40P) My reasoning (Explain how each of at least four statistics supports your response):
     

The next worksheet provides my students with health statistics that show the German and American positions on global rankings on heart and lung disease, cancer, dementia, obesity, smoking, alcohol consumption, and drug use. Learners are asked to assess which country seems to be healthier. After that they receive information about the costs of each nation’s method of managing healthcare: how much individuals pay on average, how much the government subsidizes, per capita expenditures on healthcare, and the medical costs accrued by the un- or underinsured. After each reading, the students analyze the (again, fully documented and hyperlinked) statistics provided, compare both countries’ data, and draw conclusions about the feasibility and flaws of each nation’s approach to ensuring its citizens’ health. Each worksheet serves as another window on the topic until the combined comparative information provided allows groups to evaluate the two nations’ positions on healthcare.
The final chapter project reaches the top of Bloom’s venerable taxonomy: creativity! Each student Familie writes an article for the campus newspaper (where we will submit the best version) about the national and private connections between health and wealth in Germany: How does the German approach to financing universal healthcare enable employees, employers, and the government to keep medical costs down, productivity up, and taxation equitable? At the time I write this, the newest version of a Republican replacement of the Affordable Care Act is being debated, so we hope that our newspaper contribution will enrich the conversation on campus by bringing a little known, but valuable international dimension to the table.




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