Keeping It R.E.A.L:  Use iMovies  Projects To Motivate Students And Improve Language Retention

 

By Diane Huang

Chinese Teacher (4-8th Grade)

Far Hills Country Day School, Far Hills, NJ

 

Related Topics: Technology, Student Motivation, Student Psychology

 

To be presented at “Chinese as a World Language: New Approaches, New Technologies, Opportunities and Challenges” Hosted by Dept. of Asian Studies at Seton Hall University

 

             Through classroom teaching, readings on teaching principles and research on student psychology, I have developed the R.E.A.L. principles in my planning and classroom teaching. I learned that my students are most motivated when these principles are applied.  This paper is a summary gleaned from teaching Chinese Level 1 sixth and seventh grade students at Far Hills Country Day School. While we use different technologies such as PBwikis,  imovie project  is one proven to be the most effective motivator and best for language retention.  While imiovies project makes an ideal platform to integrate 5 Cs in National Standards in teaching Chinese, this paper focuses on the aspect of motivating students to learn a new language with enthusiasm and to keep it live.

 

Project-based Learning through imovies: Students learn each lesson with a project as their final project. Projects can be a group activity such as a class skit , a solo project such as “dragon talk” or a conversation with a partner. All projects are video-taped and made into imovies and finally DVDs for students to take home. Students are highly motivated in creating projects by using the vocabulary and structures they have newly acquired, in producing by using imovie technology that and in showing their DVDs to friends and family, a source of great pride and accomplishment.  R.E.A.L. principles I keep are:

  1. R:  Relevant-To foster intrinsic motivation, I give project topics that are relevant to students’ lives. In Sept. 2008, when students were fascinated with the Beijing Olympics, they did a skit on looking for Michael Phelps in Beijing. Technology used is relevant for middle-school students.
  2. E:  Engaging –Learning is at its best when student are engaged without knowing it. Creating  and producing projects are the ideal platform, but it does require dedication and extra time from the teacher outside the classroom .
  3.  A: Autonomous-Many researchers have shown that students show increased motivation when they have some sense of autonomy in their learning.  In my Dragon Talk project, I gave students a choice of talking in the voice of the dragon,  the friend of the dragon or the creator of the dragon. [Kurvink, 1993] [Reeve and Hyungshim, 2006]
  4. L: Live for students. Foreign language retention is an important factor in the success of a language program. Instead of giving assignment that require rote memorization, DVD copies sent home give students unlimited opportunities to listen, translate and repeat for people who do not understand the target language.