Active Discussion Approaches for the Synchronous Online World Language Classroom

Background

As Chickering and Gamson (1987) note, “[l]earning is not a spectator sport” (p. 5). The sudden switch to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic often made both learning and teaching feel like activities that we merely watched on screens from a distance. This new context introduced the challenge of keeping learning as a verb rather than as a noun (Bonwell & Eison, 1991, p. 10). During the first fledgling efforts to teach remotely using a synchronous meeting tool (SMT), it was easy to feel as though one was attempting to stop the flow of a hemorrhage with a miniature band-aid while experimenting with activities and constantly adjusting for the next class. In those first days, technology was often a substitution or augmentation of the F2F versions of the classes, per the levels of technology integration identified in the SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition) model (Puentedura, 2014). When planning synchronous online classes the following semesters, however, it was easier to apply previous experiences with intention to modify and ultimately redefine the classes for online delivery. The author aimed to create courses in which students would engage in purposeful communication in the target language, with technology enriching that process rather than hindering it; only the context had shifted. To this end, a series of active discussion techniques and tasks in the author’s upper-level college Spanish classes dovetailed with alternative assessments.

Discussion is a form of active learning based on interpersonal communication between an educator and learners and among learners (Cashin, 2011). The discussion shifts the focus from the educator as the purveyor of knowledge to the classroom and makes students co-constructors of learning. Rather than transferring knowledge, discussion activities prepare learners to “be future-ready so that they are able to solve problems, think critically, work in diverse teams collaboratively, be techno-savvy and be flexible to meet the unforeseen demands of the Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) world” (Sockalingam & Liu, 2020, p. 1). Active discussions require learners to do more than simply listen to the educator; instead, learners are more involved in their learning and engage in higher-level tasks such as analysis, application, evaluation, synthesis, and creativity (Bonwell & Eison, 1991; Cashin, 2011). Discussion approaches are also useful sources of information and feedback for the educator about student learning and mastery (Cashin, 2011).