David Sabey and Professor Jennifer Brown, Department of German and Slavic Languages

Explanation

As a student instructor of an Italian 102 class, I adopted an action-research methodology in hopes to understand more fully how to develop sense of community in a language-learning classroom environment. Thus, my research goal was twofold: 1. I wanted to work with my students to create the ideal classroom community. I hoped that my students would get to know each other, enjoy their time in class, in each other’s company, and mutually help each other to learn and use Italian. This aspect of my goal is associated chiefly with the positive affect that would derive from the kind of classroom community I hoped to establish with my students. 2. I also wanted to help my students identify themselves as members of the broader Italian speaking community, beginning with the BYU Italian department. This goal targeted the more elusive psychosocial aspect of learning communities: If my students identified themselves as Italian speakers, would that self-identification be a self-fulfilling prophecy (as I think it may have been in my own experience)? Although most of the data derived from this research is qualitative and experiential, I believe the project to have been successful, both in developing a sense of community among my students and in understanding various aspects of that process.

Publication/Presentation

This research culminated in an honors thesis which was printed and bound by the BYU Honors Department and placed in the Harold B. Lee Library. I also presented my research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in March 2012.

Conclusions

Perhaps the most striking realization about this project is that sense of community is deeply entwined in all aspects of the group experience; it is not the result of formulaic posturing or of simply checking off a few required actions. It is not enough to simply have a group name or to have enjoyable lessons. At the same time, though, this action research suggests that, by addressing the various aspects of sense of community, an educator may stimulate the development of sense of community. This implies, of course, that the he/she has a working conceptualization of sense of community. This project had found McMillan and Chavis’ to be useful, but not entirely sufficient—various other conceptualizations have supplemented McMillan and Chavis’. It may be concluded from this that the time is ripe for a more complete and implementable conceptualization of sense of community that educators may use in their endeavors to have a more community-focused education.

Another realization is that the BYU Italian department’s way of organizing classes and intradepartmental activities is, in many ways, an ideal setup for implementing community-focused lessons like those used here. Although the division into contradas is, at least initially, arbitrary, it creates a framework in which the various classes may develop their identity and students may, indeed, develop a sense of community. Recognizing this, though, should oblige the educators to use that framework to intentionally foster the development of a sense of community within their classes. Being a contrada should be more than a nominal change. This kind of significant change will be more likely to happen if instructors are informed that one of the purposes of this framework is to allow their classes to develop this sense of community, and not simply to celebrate a certain aspect of Italian culture. Recognizing this valuable educational purpose for the contrada structure and Palio culture of the department will do much to help teachers take initial steps towards a more community-focused education.

For example, the department’s framework also allows for more significant interactions of students from multiple grade levels. There are already a variety of activities in which students from different levels are able to mingle, but it might be wise for the department to organize more activities of this kind with a linguistic focus. After all, the “goods” of this community are related principally to the Italian language—this is, for the most part, what the students hope to achieve through their community membership. This is not to say that language-focused activities should replace the cultural activities. In fact, even facilitating the exchange of letters between classes of different levels (ideally with each class communicating with students both above and below their level), would be a simple and positive way to allow for multi-level interaction.

This mutually beneficial merging of different levels may parallel the leveling of the traditionally hierarchical relationship between teacher and students, for in both cases, the increased peer-like relationship seems to promote a stronger sense of community. One way for a teacher to level the hierarchal teacher-student relationship is to allow students to be involved in making decisions about the course. This need not be a dramatic shift toward an entirely student-directed education—and, in fact, a community of learning approach would not require this kind of shift (Rugoff) . Even simple ways of granting power to students, like allowing them to suggest more convenient ways of organizing the class schedule (i.e. doing an oral exam on the day after the class finishes studying a chapter rather than at the end of the week). Admittedly, this will not always be possible or beneficial, but there will probably be moments when it could help significantly to empower the students in this way. Another simple means of empowering the students is to allow them to set goals as a class. If they can accept responsibility for the desired learning outcomes (and, perhaps, for other goals), they will be more likely to reach them. This can be a simple matter of setting aside a few minutes during class to discuss together what the students would like to accomplish.

This kind of discussion would probably be more efficient in a relatively small class, because all of the students could participate and voice their opinions without taking too much time to do so. It may not always be possible to have classes with only ten students, but anything the department can do to make class-sizes smaller or to increase the teacher-student ratio would not go amiss. This not only allows the teacher to pay more attention to individual students, but it allows students to participate more unitedly in general and in decision making interactions like those described above. It also allows the members of the class to become better acquainted with each other. While it may not be ideal, a larger class may also take steps to allow students to know each other better. This can be done by simply personalizing textbook activities so that students, rather than role-playing the part of a fictional character, use information from their own lives. Anything that will allow students to share information about their lives or about themselves could augment their sense of being not just a student, but a person in the class. In addition to this kind of adapted textbook activity, there are many ways to directly discuss students’ lives and thus to both exercise linguistically and deepen the classroom relationships. A part of this may also include providing for less-formal class time and instruction. The first experimental lesson is an example of how this can be done. Student feedback suggests that the informal nature of this kind of activity is positive. Another positive side effect of this deviation from the textbook or from rote exercises is that students may be more likely to perceive that the teacher is investing in them and in the class and may thus be more likely to invest in return.

The last principle derived from this project is that it may be beneficial to explicitly discuss the creation of a positive community within the classroom. This kind of meta-cognitive approach seems to yield results and, if nothing else, reminds the students of the desired outcome. This is most easily done through a straightforward discussion about the classroom community and how it can be improved.