Developing Student Identity through Community: Practices in Remote Interpersonal Communication

The poet Paul Valéry provides us with the seemingly simple but powerful statement: "Un homme seul est toujours en mauvaise compagnie" (275). Valéry's carefully chosen words apply now more than ever before to K–12 world language classrooms today, in the middle of our global pandemic. With physical distancing mandating more remote instruction, the development of a community of excited L2 learners may seem perhaps increasingly more difficult without having all of our eager, scared, and diverse learners in the same classroom. But even further, students being at their individual houses and on different laptops may prevent the natural connection and emotions that come with students engaging in physical communication with one another, putting another degree of separation between the vital modalities of language learning in student speaking and listening. This article serves to provide guidelines to frame meaningful tasks that not only instruct students in the target language, but also help them to continue to develop their identities as speakers of the language via purposeful communication practices.

Naturally, all language teachers recognize the power of students speaking in the target language with the instructor and with each other, as they progress in their comfort, grammar, intonation, and understanding of how to use the language to communicate in native contexts within a community of similar learners. By outlining lessons that instruct meaningful content via rigorous pedagogical practices, students grow in their ability to fluidly produce and comprehend the language. But further, framing the lessons in a way that students immerse themselves in the language via powerful communication that evokes inquisitive inner questioning and emotional responses with other people pushes students another level cognitively deeper, where they begin to see how language helps shape their views on the world, on other people, and on themselves. This direct impact on identity is supported by scholarship as much recent research has shown that teachers can foster a community of inquiry online, where practical and thoughtful task design simultaneously supports students' cognitive and social interactions in the learning environment (Kurek and Müller-Hartmann 53). Based on both research and personal experience, the following guidelines will help focus K–12 world language teachers as they design and implement remote lessons that maintain rigorous content standards and promote positive student identities as learners of the target language via well-designed interpersonal discourse tasks in the learning community.

Foster an Environment that Recognizes the Situation and the Student

Even though the international pandemic has drastically changed the make-up of class and the vehicle for the delivery of instruction, it does not erase the fact that our students are still minds ready to be filled with knowledge. But beyond the academic content, we are still passionate about kindling a passion in our students to grow in knowledge, love, and application for the language. Addressing the application of language, as a teacher, continues to challenge students to apply the target language in modern society today. Bring up world events. Do not shy away from teaching how the rest of the Francophone world is responding to cultural, racial, and biomedical events that are prevalent across the globe. Let the students discuss with one another. Promote healthy debate for the sake of considering others' points of view. Push students to really think inquisitively and argumentatively in the target language.

But further, allow students to wrestle with these ideas in the target language and have them think about their own personal reflections on the matter. Foster their individual considerations of the world's actions and reactions to what is happening in the globe. Give them space to think and opportunities to discuss and challenge with one another. However, maintain a decorum of respect so that students continue to develop their own unique mindsets without knocking down a peer's personal character. Establish ground rules about speaking, listening, and respect that all reflect the values of being a contributing member to a global society. Although this may be a challenging task, setting expectations and norms at the beginning of class promotes a community where students can and will develop their own identity...