Disrupting Moments in World Language Education: Promising Changes

In his essay above, John Maddox is one of many scholars who promotes "the role of African Diaspora history in understanding particular works in world languages and comparative literature … because of its international, multilingual scope." I would argue that the inclusion of African diaspora history in these departments, although "disruptive" (meaning to throw into disorder the formal curriculum) is proving to be critical to the overall quality of these programs. Indeed, the rationale for incorporating and integrating discussions of this nature in our classrooms is tied to the intercultural and multilingual components of our field.

As the second decade of the twenty-first century moves forward and communication and learning technology accelerate—coupled with a growing immigrant population—language professionals find that they need to be more flexible and culturally responsive in their course content and delivery. Furthermore, while the study of learner attitudes, motivations, and beliefs continues, experts in course and curriculum design are witnessing what Randal Bass calls "disruptive moments in teaching" (1). According to Bass:

Our understanding of learning has expanded at a rate that has far outpaced our conceptions of teaching. A growing appreciation for the porous boundaries between the classroom and life experience … has created not only promising changes in learning but also disruptive moments in teaching.

(1)

Bass continues, "formal curriculum is being pressured from two sides. Both of those pressures are reframing what we think of as the formal curriculum" (2).

With the recent shift from an instructional paradigm to a learning paradigm, many books and articles on the science of learning are available. Today, educators find themselves connecting what they now know about learning to instructional practices. Therefore, if our goal as world language professionals is to help students achieve linguistic and intercultural competence—two essential learning outcomes that both educators and employers endorse—we need to connect these outcomes with students' engagement in a planned sequence of high-impact practices.

In 2008, the National Survey of Student Engagement published a list of ten high-impact practices. According to the survey:

these practices are the college experiences that highly correlate to the most powerful learning outcomes. Students' participation in one or more of these practices had the greatest impact on success, on retention, on graduation, on transfer, and on other measures of learning. These practices include: learning communities; service learning; collaborative assignments and projects; capstone courses; diversity/global learning; common intellectual experiences; writing-intensive courses; undergraduate research; internships; and first-year seminars.

Kuh states, "these practices have high impact because they induce student behaviors that lead to meaningful learning gains" (13).

All of this brings us back to "the place of the forge." African studies intersects with many disciplines, world languages being one. The study of Spanish, French, and Portuguese, together with the literature, and colonial and post-colonial history of the countries where these are spoken, strengthens the bond between comparative literature, African studies, and languages. This "disruption" in the formal curriculum of these programs is having positive educational results. World language professionals do well to ask, "What do students need to know, and be able to do that will "enable them to both thrive and contribute in a fast-changing economy in … global, societal, and often personal contexts?" (Kuh 2). I contend that if global competence is one of our desired student outcomes, our course material should include the reading and analysis of works by and about people of African descent, texts that illuminate the human condition and challenge the learner to explore the themes of identity and social injustice. Furthermore, our world language frameworks should involve teaching for social justice, as "Social justice challenges, confronts, and disrupts misconceptions, untruths, and stereotypes that lead to structural inequality based on race, social class, gender" (Nieto 2).

Kuh's list of important student behaviors induced by high-impact practices, includes "discovering relevance of learning through real-world application" (15). The authors of Words and Actions: Teaching Languages Through the Lens of Social Justice provide examples of "real-world application" of social...