Thursday, February 19, 2015

Bulletin Board - Why Learn a Second Language

As World Language teachers, part of our responsibility is to educate others about the benefits of learning a second language.  I have a Pinterest board on which I store articles about language learning and developing proficiency.  I imagine that the majority of language teachers have read similar articles.  But, what have we done to share that information with the population outside of the World Language teaching profession?

This week we had our second Back-To-School Night because students started a new semester and new classes in January.  This is also the time of year when students, and their parents, are scheduling their courses for the next school year.  

To promote our program and educate others about the benefits of learning a second language, I decided to create a display on the bulletin board in our hallway. First I contacted students that have graduated from our school and asked them to send me a statement in what ways they have already benefited from being able to communicate in Spanish, whether it is in college, a job they have while going through college, travel experiences, or how they are using Spanish in their career since graduating from college.  My Spanish 5 students also wanted to contribute, so on a small white marker board, they explained why they have continued through level 5.  Then I took photos of them holding their whiteboards and added those photos to the bulletin board.

I could have added more information and statistics, but this time I focused on individuals and the benefits each of them has experienced.  Do you have any ideas for something I could add to the present board? 

3 comments:

  1. That is a fabulous idea! Just yesterday I ran into one of my former students who reminded me that when she went to high school she went into the French Immersion class instead of the Core French class and absolutely loved it!

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  2. Great ideas. I have been brainstorming ideas for promoting WL in our college community, and I've decided to assign an "advocacy project" instead of the traditional cultural project. They will research benefits of WL study and draw from their own experiences to create a display or a video for the campus FB page.

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  3. Love this! Did you have a few students answer the question and post it? I see there is a QR code - what does that link to?

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