Creating an Immersive Language Learning Experience through Role-Immersion Pedagogy

Описание: This presentation shares findings related to student perceptions of a US-Mexico border role-immersion pedagogy carried out in an intermediate Spanish course. Role-immersion pedagogies aim to bring a highly contextualized alternate reality to life in the classroom in order to create an immersive and experiential learning encounter. In this five-week study, learners explored diverse perspectives related to the issues of drug trafficking and violence at the US-Mexico border, adopted and developed real-world cultural identities, and ultimately worked jointly to achieve individual and collective goals focused on curbing these complex problems. The qualitative data shared in this presentation will focus on student impressions of the pedagogy and how the process of understanding and enacting an alternate subjectivity contributed to these impressions. The presenter concludes with implications for foreign language curriculum design.

Presenter: Sara Finney is the Intermediate Spanish Coordinator in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies. Her research interests include foreign language pedagogy with a focus on learner agency, experiential learning, and intercultural empathy.