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Accents
Learning intentions
Each module begins with learning intentions which describe what learners should know, understand and be able to do by the end of the module. Explicit learning intentions and scaffolded assessment tasks can be used for tracking student progress, providing feedback and assessing achievement. They can also enhance student success, as students have a clear understanding of the assessment criteria. An awareness of these learning intentions plays an important role for students’ expectations for each module.
Figure 2 - Right: Example of learning intentions of French mdule
Student learning activities
The orientation module in each course introduces students to the concept of intercultural language learning and provides strategies to set goals and become a successful language learner. The integration of general capabilities, cross-curriculum priorities and authentic texts has shifted the focus to a concept-based approach. For example, through the use of stimulus texts such as a food pyramid from a French government health website, students create their own food pyramid as they learn the concept of healthy eating using their French language skills.
Discussion forums
In encouraging collaboration skills, there is a focus on discussion forums to improve student-teacher and student-student connections. Forums are valuable tools in consolidating students’ intercultural understanding and assessing the Understanding outcomes; Systems of Language and the Role of Language and Culture.
Assessment
It has been a driving force to ensure that assessment is skills-based and focuses on authentic language use. Quizzes.Next in Canvas is the tool used to create and administer online formative and summative assessment. It has been used to create activities and assessments using a variety of question types and options to measure student competence in the language and view student performance.
Canvas has enabled the Communicating outcomes; Interacting, Accessing and responding and Composing to be assessed. Canvas provisions for a variety of quiz types to be utilised which are well suited to languages
Volume 23 Number 1 Page 27
