by Lindsey Jackson
I recently read (and highly recommend) Shapiro, Farrelly, and Tomaš’ (2014) book, Fostering International Student Success in Higher Education, which is filled with invaluable advice for helping language learners assimilate into their new university environment. Though nearly every page ended up tagged with a Post-it note reaction to something I’d read, one concept that really stood out to me was the correlation between students’ comfort levels using English outside of the classroom and their success level in the classroom. It was one of those things that I knew but had never fully realized, and I immediately began trying to come up with assignments that would encourage my students to use English outside the classroom.
I settled on an extra credit assignment which I intentionally offered around spring break. Students could earn extra credit simply by spending time talking in English with someone else for at least an hour and then writing about it. I told my students that I preferred for that person to be a native English speaker. However, knowing that this would make some students very uncomfortable, I also allowed students to spend time with another nonnative speaker, so long as that nonnative speaker’s L1 was different than their own. The goal was to ensure that English would be required to communicate. I offered students some suggestions, not requirements, for conversation: cultural differences, personal interests, food, etc. Following their conversations, students were to write a one-page journal about what they had talked about and learned. For fun, I told students they could even include a selfie as “proof” of their time together, but only if they wanted to. Some of my students love anything related to social media, but other students’ beliefs and backgrounds prohibit things like this, so I purposefully made that part optional.
I was delighted by how well my students responded to this assignment, and I was amazed by the depths of their reported conversations. Their selfies were full of exceptionally happy people, and their journals recorded conversations about food, culture, politics, and even religion. Multiple students commented on how surprised they were to learn that they and their English-speaking friends had so much in common. One student sat down with his American roommate and learned everything he could about the current presidential candidates. Another student told me it was the first time she had ever tried to talk about her religious beliefs in English. A third student befriended an American gentleman old enough to be his grandfather, and they so enjoyed their time together that they immediately made plans for another visit.
The journals my students wrote went above and beyond my expectations. What started out as a simple extra credit assignment increased not only my students’ confidence in their language skills, but also in their willingness to tackle similarities and differences between cultures in a positive way.
References
Shapiro, S., Farrelly, R., & Tomaš, Z. (2014). Fostering international student success in higher education. Alexandria: TESOL International Association.
Lindsey Jackson will be graduating with a Master’s in English-TESOL from Missouri State University in May. She has an undergraduate degree in English Education from Evangel University and currently teaches English composition for non-native English speakers at Missouri State
