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Current Entry - June/July 2008

ACTFL announces "Not just a language class" Podcast Winners

By Benjamin Redmond


actfl1As part of the national public awareness campaign Discover ‎Languages…Discover the World, ACTFL, in association with CLEAR and MERLOT ‎sponsored a video podcast contest for K-16 language students earlier this year. The ‎contest theme “Not just a language class” encouraged students to share personal ‎motivations for studying a language and to demonstrate the importance of language ‎learning beyond the classroom. Students were asked to answer questions relating to the ‎length of time they have studied a given language, why they chose to study this language, ‎as well as to detail how their experiences in the language classroom have affected other ‎areas of their lives. In addition the entries were expected to address the application of the ‎five C's of the national standards in their entries.‎
actfl2Contest submissions were accepted from January 14 to February 15, 2008. The ‎entries were divided by categories according to academic level; elementary school ‎students (K-5), middle school students (6-8), high school students (9-12) and post-‎secondary students. The winning entrants were offered cash and product prizes worth up ‎to $500 for their efforts.‎
The entries covered a broad range of languages, including Arabic, Spanish, ‎French, and Mandarin. Students applied a variety of creative approaches to the task; ‎telling stories about interactions in their language of study, imitating popular television ‎shows, and even setting a continuous recording camera in their school hallway to capture ‎the “confessions” of numerous language students. The entries were narrowed down to a ‎list of finalists, which can be viewed here: http://www.actflvideocontest.org/register.php. ‎A winner in each category was then selected from the finalists and the results were ‎recently announced.

actfl3The winners from each category are Nikki and Marissa (elementary); Neil, ‎Ankush, Vinay, and Kush for Spanish: a Step outside the Classroom (middle school); the ‎UCLS Filmmaking Club for “Confessions of a Language Student” (high school); and ‎Ben, a Stanford student, for “Make someone smile-study a language” (post-secondary). ‎Take a look at the winning videos and view many of the other quality entries as well at ‎http://www.actflvideocontest.org/.‎
The ACTFL video podcast contest encouraged students to take an active role in ‎considering the value of language learning for themselves and sharing it with others. ‎Projects like these that encourage an exploration of creative capacities and their ‎application to the task of language learning help keep the classroom exciting for many ‎students. If you have the classroom resources to do so you may find it useful to ‎encourage your students to take on a similar project in the hope that they discover for ‎themselves why language learning has such great value in the classroom and beyond.‎

 


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