This chapter introduces different methods for how to incorporate inquiry-based learning (IBL) practices with i2Flex methodology, both virtually as well as in the traditional world language classroom model using updated and relevant 21st century skills. Using the teacher as a constructivist model, the question formulation technique, design thinking, content and project based learning, learning among others are all explored in depth so the WL teacher can apply theory through practical examples that support a global understanding and context. World languages can be ESL, Spanish, Greek, Nahuatl, or any other WL(s) taught and spoken across cultures.
TopIntroduction
In the United States, students graduating from secondary school, or even university, seem to be less than proficient in a foreign language at the speaking level after receiving the two-year minimum graduation requirement for a US diploma and remain without adequate 2nd language skills. This inadequacy leaves them at a disadvantage when applying for 21st century jobs that require globalized intercultural awareness and competent communicative skills. In the UK, the situation unfortunately is not much different. A report published by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) cites an EU-wide survey showing that just 32% of young people in the UK are able to read and write in more than one language, compared with 79% of their peers in France and 90% in Germany. Indeed, as Neil Kenny of the British Academy reminded us when Brexit was quickly approaching, “We need linguists more than ever. Languages are vital for effective trade, diplomacy and soft power, social cohesion, social mobility and educational attainment” (Learning foreign languages should be compulsory, 2020).
Amid a diversity and background of ideas is a unifying theme we need to embrace today as teachers in a globalized classroom. We are in a battle not only for our students’ undivided attention, but also to restore joy and passion for learning through curiosity and creative thought. We have to dare to confuse them, perplex them and evoke real and essential questions. It is through these questions that we as educators then have more information that we can use to tailor robust and informed methods of blended instruction.
As educators teaching a generation of students who have not known any kind of life without google, the internet, or mobile ‘smart’ phones, we have to adapt our methods to fit their needs, as well as their decreasing attention spans. We also have to realize that our students today are bombarded with much instant access to different kinds of information (and not all of it is accurate). What they need to be learning in classrooms, is how to make sense of the information, to wonder about and reflect on the constant change they are exposed to, to synthesize it so they can form a more accurate and broad sense of the world, and to learn to be flexible with this constant change, and different ways of thinking. After all, our purpose is to prepare them for the future, not remain stuck in traditional methods of the past.