Phase 2 Results and Findings
During my Phase 1 intervention of providing collaborative opportunities through technology, my students were able to demonstrate their ability to apply their knowledge of Spanish through writing cohesive scripts based on a real-life application (Cooking Show) and then finally present to each other as a class. While their levels of engagement increased and their sense of classroom community was enhanced, their attitudes did not necessarily change towards learning Spanish; however, their attitudes did change in a positive way towards learning in general.
For my Phase 2 intervention, I wanted to change my students’ audience from sharing their work as a class to sharing and connecting with a group of Spanish-speaking peers and then see whether this had an affect on my students’ attitudes towards learning Spanish.
It is important to point out that while I wanted to see how student learning outcomes would be affected throughout my interventions as a result of collaboration and technology in Phase 1, the central focus of my Phase 2 intervention was on how students’ attitudes might be affected towards Spanish as a result of sharing and connecting with Spanish-speaking peers.
When I studied my results from Phase 2, I found an overwhelming response from my students that they had experienced a positive change of attitude towards learning Spanish. Upon further analysis of my personal observations and the commentary my students provided for me on my feedback form, I discovered several recurring themes with respect to the question that was driving the focus of my Phase 2:
How does sharing and connecting with an audience of Spanish-speaking students affect my students’ attitudes towards learning a foreign language?
For my Phase 2 intervention, I wanted to change my students’ audience from sharing their work as a class to sharing and connecting with a group of Spanish-speaking peers and then see whether this had an affect on my students’ attitudes towards learning Spanish.
It is important to point out that while I wanted to see how student learning outcomes would be affected throughout my interventions as a result of collaboration and technology in Phase 1, the central focus of my Phase 2 intervention was on how students’ attitudes might be affected towards Spanish as a result of sharing and connecting with Spanish-speaking peers.
When I studied my results from Phase 2, I found an overwhelming response from my students that they had experienced a positive change of attitude towards learning Spanish. Upon further analysis of my personal observations and the commentary my students provided for me on my feedback form, I discovered several recurring themes with respect to the question that was driving the focus of my Phase 2:
How does sharing and connecting with an audience of Spanish-speaking students affect my students’ attitudes towards learning a foreign language?
- Finding 1: Increased confidence and self-esteem
- Finding 2: Relevance, motivation, and commitment
- Finding 3: Increased sense of global awareness
This following image is a word cloud that I created from my students' feedback regarding their change in attitude towards Spanish:
Confidence and Self-esteem:
My students feel an increased confidence in their ability to express themselves in Spanish due to the positive feedback that they received from their Spanish-speaking peers. As I went through my feedback forms, I noted that 85% of my students made reference to an increased sense of confidence with Spanish as a result of this experience. For example, one student affirmed that “The opportunity to connect with other language learners and the positive feedback made me feel good about myself and more confident with my Spanish.” This is in line with what I have learned from Stepp-Greany in terms of how students who are given opportunities to connect with other language learners feel “empowered, less isolated” and “less afraid to contact others” (2002). This finding is very interesting to me because while my two groups of students are not learning the same language, they are both, in fact, foreign language learners. Not only did I find this to be a recurring theme as I analyzed my students' feedback, but I had also noted daily in my teacher observation journal during the days that immediately followed this experience that "my students' levels of anxiety during class is decreasing substantially, and they now becoming much more open and willing to communicate in Spanish with me and with each other." This finding also connects with Krashen’s Affective Filter Hypothesis in that foreign language students who experience decreased levels of anxiety tend to attain much higher levels of communicative proficiency than high anxiety students (Sparks et. al, 1996).
Motivated and Committed:
My students have found much more relevance in the Spanish language now that they have had the opportunity to connect with Spanish-speaking peers, and as a result, they feel more motivated and committed to continue on with Spanish after our class is finished. In my student feedback, I discovered that 90% of my students either directly used the phrase "continue on with Spanish" or made reference to a strengthened commitment to Spanish as a result of this experience. The following student quote that I found in my feedback reflects this recurring theme nicely: “This experience has definitely made me want to take up more languages and continue with Spanish as well! :)” This finding is also in line with what I have learn from Beauvois’s research in terms of how foreign-language students feel an increased sense of motivation to learn more about the language and culture when they are given opportunities to connect via technology with native-speaking peers (Stepp-Greany, 2002).
Increased Sense of Global Awareness:
As a result of sharing with Spanish-speaking peers about important events of their lives, my students feel much more connected to members of our Spanish-speaking community. This was a recurring theme that I found both in my teacher observation journal as well as in my student feedback. With respect to my teacher journal, I noted from the first day we began the project that my students went out of their way every day during our timeline project to confirm with me the date on which they would receive feedback from their Spanish-speaking peers because they were so excited to make the connection. I would respond to my students by saying, "Likely by Monday next week", to which they would reply, "I can't wait get their feedback!" and "This is so exciting!" or "This is so awesome! We are actually getting to reach out to Spanish speakers who are going to read about my life in Spanish!"
When my students finally had the chance to hear back from their peers and fill out my student feedback form, I found that more than 80% of my students commented on how this experience has connected them to their Spanish-speaking peers by showing them how similar they are to each other in spite of their cultural and linguistic differences. The following student quote from my feedback form puts it nicely: “I am amazed at how learning Spanish allows you to communicate with different groups of people and then form a connection through all of the commonalities you didn't realize you had.” This is also in line with what I have learned from Beauvois’s research in that foreign-language students who associate positive experiences with native-speakers of the language they are learning tend to feel an increase in cultural awareness (Stepp-Greany, 2002). This is exciting to me as a foreign language teacher in that one of the ways I hope to instill in my students a sense of global awareness is by celebrating the common bonds that bring the world together.
These findings deeply impressed me with respect to how making connections with peers from different backgrounds and cultures can have such a positive impact on my students' perspectives of Spanish as a language and a culture.