SKILLS 4-6

PROJECT

BOOK PROJECT: VIDEO PORTFOLIO

During these three courses students put together a language portfolio consisting of video and journal entries. Students will discuss world issues such as political and social beliefs, the environment , technology, ideologies, etc. and will find a way to express their point of view and state a position about them in their videos.

COURSE FOUR:INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATORS

Overall Course Objective In this course students will develop

observational skills to diagnose their intercultural, communicative and linguistic competences. They will reflect upon their cultural identity, idiosyncrasies and their position about other cultures or subcultures. They will also analyze how effective they are as communicators when interacting in situations where there are determined roles such as doctor-patient, buyer-seller, etc. Students will identify their strengths and weaknesses as intercultural Communicators.

In order to do this, they will explore their tolerance to behaviors and points of view of people who belong to other subcultures within their own cultural setting. By doing this students will identify the pragmatic use of language, that is, rules of interaction, relevance of context, and the intention of the speaker. Based on this diagnosis, students will identify tools that can help them become better communicators, and language users and will design an action plan to start improving.

COURSE PROJECT:KEEN OBSERVERS

Students will first identify the features that make them Colombian and will choose a subculture within their culture to describe it. They will share their findings and reflect about how tolerant they are to different cultures and what it takes to become culturally literate.

Students will also analyze two situations a doctor-patient interaction, and a TV commercial in terms the discourse used and the how language is used to persuade others. Students will create their own videos following these models. They will watch their videos and self and peer assess their performance based on the linguistic, pragmatic and communicative factors. This assessment will lead to the definition of what communication tools students need to use in order to improve their communication and pragmatic competences.

UNIT ONE: CULTURAL LITERACYOVERALL OBJECTIVE Students will reflect upon their cultural

awareness and their position about other cultures or subcultures. They will identify qualities of a culturally literate person such as ability to observe the new context, tolerance to unknown situations, respect for differences and ability to negotiate agreements, among others. While talking about cultural literacy students will draw conclusions on how tolerant they are to differences.

TASK: OPEN EARS, OPEN MINDS

Students will discuss the concepts of culture, subculture and stereotyping. They will research about a subculture within their own culture. They will analyze the characteristics of its members and compare them to themselves to find similarities and differences. While talking about cultural differences, students will sum up the qualities needed to become culturally literate. They will start their journal by writing a reflection about how culturally literate they are and what they need to do to in order to develop this competence.

JOURNAL ENTRY:

Reflection on how culturally literate they are

UNIT TWO: HEALTH MATTERSOVERALL OBJECTIVE

Students will identify the pragmatic factors involved in a communicative situation in order to determine the kind of language, rules of behavior and communication tools that are appropriate.

They will identify their strengths and weaknesses as communicators and come up with an action plan to improve their communication skills.

TASK: THE ROLE PLAY

Students will prepare and perform role plays about a situation in a doctor’s office. In these role plays, they will integrate the conversation models studied and analyzed in this unit. Their performance will be self- and peer-evaluated and will help students identify strengths and weaknesses as communicators.

Students will write a journal entry about their first video experience and how they felt being assessed by their peers. They will also outline an action plan on what they can do to improve their communication skills.

PORTFOLIO ENTRY:

Doctor’s office role play

UNIT THREE: GETTING THINGS DONEOVERALL OBJECTIVE

Students will learn to analyze language used in commercials to persuade the target audience to buy a product or use a service. They will identify and select effective words, images or icons to describe a product or service.

TASK: WE CAN DO IT FOR YOU Students will watch some commercials

and identify their structure and intention. They will analyze the language, images, and icons used as well as the story line. They will use this information for creating their own infomercial recommending or selling a service/product.

Students will write a reflection about how Colombian culture was reflected in the infomercials made by them and their classmates.

PORTFOLIO ENTRY:

Infomercial Journal Entry: Reflection on class infomercials