Three effective practices to make your course more inclusive and equitable

Maripaz García, Ph.D.

Yale University

The 4^th NYU Conference on Second Language Pedagogy – Oct. 14, 2023

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Hurdles to a diverse, inclusive, and equitable student body

• June 2023 Supreme Court ruling to strike down affirmative action in the higher education admission process.
• High cost of textbooks
• High costs and life disruption of study abroad programs

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What can we do as foreign language instructors to help disadvantaged students?

1. Include Virtual Exchange in our foreign language courses.
2. Eliminate the textbook.
3. Use Open Educational Resources or any free online materials.

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1. Include Virtual Exchange (VE)

• Definition.
• Different modalities:
• Service-Provider VE (LinguaMeeting, TalkAbroad, Conversifi, etc.).
• Institution to Institution.
• Benefits of VE for diversity, inclusion, and equity.

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DEFINITION OF VIRTUAL EXCHANGE

VE is the “engagement of groups of learners in extended periods of online intercultural interaction and collaboration with partners from other cultural contexts or geographical locations as an integrated part of their educational programmes and under the guidance of educators and/or expert facilitators” (O’Dowd, 2018, p. 5)

BENEFITS FOR DIVERSITY, INCLUSION, AND EQUITY

-VE is inclusive with students who cannot afford studying abroad, cannot physically go, or have families.

-This experience increases students’ motivation to study abroad and to travel (Hilliker, 2020; Ryan, 2020), which can translate into finding opportunities for internships and work abroad.

-This experience increases students’ confidence when speaking the target language (Hřebačková, 2019; O’Dowd, 2021; Stevens Initiative, n.d.), which is a known issue with heritage students.

-This experience opens the door to countries outside Europe and not typical travel destinations (D’Agostino, 2022).

2. Eliminate the textbook

• Textbooks are too expensive (including the so called “low-cost online textbooks”).

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3. Use Open Educational Resources or free online materials

• OER
• “…are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others.” UNESCO
• Benefits for diversity and inclusion
• Examples

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EXAMPLES OF OER IN SPANISH

-Spanish readers, short stories, novels, history, culture (Project Gutenberg, ArteHistoria, Biografías y vidas, Centro Virtual Cervantes, Antología abierta de literatura hispana, La guerra civil española para estudiantes, Directory of open access books, etc.).

-Grammar (Intermediate/Adv Spanish Manual, Spanish grammar in context, Colby, StudySpanish, Spanish grammar manual, etc.)

-Videos and pronunciation (SpinTX, LAITS, MisCositas, Sounds of speech, etc.).

-News (BBC Mundo, El Times, etc.)

-Audios (Audiria, Radio Ambulante, LibriVOX, SpanishPod, A parar bien la oreja, etc.)

-Textbooks or entire courses (LibroLibre, Spanish, Spanish II, Intermediate Spanish I, OERCommons, Acceso, Trayectos, Conversation, Para vivir con salud, Culturas hispanas a través de la pantalla, Que viva la música!, Introducción a la escritura, Español para hablantes nativos, Civilización hispanoamericana, Más arriba, LibreTexts, etc.)

Summary

Make your course more equitable and inclusive by

1. including virtual exchange
2. eliminating the textbook
3. using open educational resources or free online materials

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Works cited

• D’Agostino, S. (2022, August 30). Virtual Exchanges promote equity in global learning. Inside Highered. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/08/31/virtual-exchanges-enhance-access-global-learning
• Hilliker, S. (2020). Virtual Exchange as a study abroad alternative to foster language and culture exchange in TESOL teacher education. TESL-EJ, 3(4), https://tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume23/ej92/ej92a7/
• Hřebačková, M. (2019). Teaching intercultural communicative competence through virtual exchange. Training Language and Culture, 3(4), 8-17. https://doi.org/10.29366/2019tlc.3.4.1
• O'Dowd, R. (2018). From Telecollaboration to Virtual Exchange: State-of-the-Art and the Role of UNICollaboration in Moving Forward. Journal of Virtual Exchange, 1, 1-23, https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2018.jve.1

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Works cited

• O’Dowd, R. (2021). What Do Students Learn in Virtual Exchange? A Qualitative Content Analysis of Learning Outcomes across Multiple Exchanges. International Journal of Educational Research, 109, 1-13, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2021.101804
• Ryan, A. (2020). The role virtual exchange could play in helping prepare students for real-life study abroad. In E. Hagley & Y. Wang (Eds), Virtual exchange in the Asia-Pacific: research and practice (pp. 165-177). Research publishing.net. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2020.47.1151
• Stevens Initiative. (n.d.). Virtual Exchange boosts student confidence, forges lasting relationships. https://www.stevensinitiative.org/impact/virtual-exchange-boosts-student-confidence-forges-lasting-relationships/

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THANKS

Questions?

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