Where to Surf in Peru, or How to Use an ePortfolio to Learn Culture
Subject Area
Foreign Language Pedagogy
Abstract
During the 2015-16 school-year, the Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese at the University of Virginia integrated a Culture ePortfolio into the curriculum of Intermediate and Advanced Intermediate Spanish courses with the intention of engaging students in more meaningful, personalized and autonomous exploration of the Hispanic world that enabled them to not only learn about a topic of their choosing but also make connections between their own home culture and that of multiple C2’s. Beginning with the Fall 2016 semester, these courses have fully integrated e-Portfolio to engage students more deeply in course material, inspire meaningful, longer-lasting learning, and blur the lines between a required foreign language course and the university experience in general. The e-Portfolio encourages students to reflect upon their university learning experience and their society at large while engaging new grammar concepts, vocabulary and cultural acquisition in an authentic way that more closely reflects an immersion setting.
Student samples of authentic learning will be presented to demonstrate how the e-Portfolio platform enables student creativity and self-expression and engages students to consider the entirety of their language-learning experience and where their foreign language exit requirement might take them beyond the end of the semester whether they continue their Spanish studies or not. The ultimate goal, at least, is for students to gain a more integrated understanding of their own academic and personal interests and how they can continue to grow as individuals who can engage in a more empathetic view of others’ life experiences and perspectives.
Brief Bio Note
Carrie Bramlet has been working as a Spanish Lecturer at the University of Virginia for five years. She holds an M.A. in Spanish from the University of Florida and a B.A. in Spanish and B.S. in Political Science from Florida State University. She is interested in Second Language Acquisition.
Keywords
Culture, Cultural Acquisition, ePortfolios (e-Portfolios/EPortfolios/E-Portfolios), Electronic Portfolios, Digital Literacy, Second Language Acquisition
Location
Room 217
Presentation Year
2017
Start Date
3-23-2017 5:15 PM
Embargo
11-18-2016
Recommended Citation
Bramlet, Carrie, "Where to Surf in Peru, or How to Use an ePortfolio to Learn Culture" (2017). South East Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures (SECCLL). 41.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/seccll/2017/2017/41
Where to Surf in Peru, or How to Use an ePortfolio to Learn Culture
Room 217
During the 2015-16 school-year, the Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese at the University of Virginia integrated a Culture ePortfolio into the curriculum of Intermediate and Advanced Intermediate Spanish courses with the intention of engaging students in more meaningful, personalized and autonomous exploration of the Hispanic world that enabled them to not only learn about a topic of their choosing but also make connections between their own home culture and that of multiple C2’s. Beginning with the Fall 2016 semester, these courses have fully integrated e-Portfolio to engage students more deeply in course material, inspire meaningful, longer-lasting learning, and blur the lines between a required foreign language course and the university experience in general. The e-Portfolio encourages students to reflect upon their university learning experience and their society at large while engaging new grammar concepts, vocabulary and cultural acquisition in an authentic way that more closely reflects an immersion setting.
Student samples of authentic learning will be presented to demonstrate how the e-Portfolio platform enables student creativity and self-expression and engages students to consider the entirety of their language-learning experience and where their foreign language exit requirement might take them beyond the end of the semester whether they continue their Spanish studies or not. The ultimate goal, at least, is for students to gain a more integrated understanding of their own academic and personal interests and how they can continue to grow as individuals who can engage in a more empathetic view of others’ life experiences and perspectives.
