1st Semester German – Minimal Expansions
Minimal Expansions: What to say to continue the conversation.
Edited versions of classes taught at CLIC showcasing examples of teaching objectives and methodological procedures used to teach intercultural communication and to engage students in critical thinking through second language learning
1st Semester German – Repairs
Repair initiations: What to say when one doesn’t hear or understand.
2nd Semester Spanish – Being an Active Listener
In this lesson, students explore common responders in Spanish used to indicate that one is following and understanding what is being said during a conversation. Attention will also be paid to continuers such as “ah” and “ajá” and responders used
2nd Semester Spanish – Closing a Conversation among Friends
Students are guided to recognize common practices used to indicate that a conversation is winding down and that it is time to conclude it. Specifically, we look at pauses, interjections like bueno or pues (“well”), and phrases such as tengo
1st Semester Italian – Active Listening – Asking for Information
Students develop the awareness of an interaction as a co-constructed process between the speaker and the listener, and they gain the ability to take on the role of active listener by practicing the use of topic expansions in a conversation.
1st Semester Italian – Affiliation and Assessment – Listener’s Responses
Students are guided to analyze how listeners show affiliation and formulate assessments as they respond to prior turns in ordinary conversation.
1st Semester Chinese – Expressing Agreement – A Birthday Party
Students are guided to analyze the discourse functions of three expressions of agreement – 好(hǎo) , 好的(hǎo de), 好啊(hǎo a) which are used frequently in natural conversation. Then, students write short skits using these features.
1st Semester – Storytelling – Invitations
In this lesson, students are guided to analyze the basic structure of a narrative, noticing the beginning, middle and ending and conjunctions/time phrases used to connect sentences. Then, students in pair construct a narrative based on what they have learned.
1st Semester French – Discourse Markers – A Dispute
Students are guided to identify the presence of discourse fillers in a natural conversation, to develop awareness about the collaborative nature of spoken interactions, and to develop the ability to apply features of collaborative discourse to any conversational setting.
2nd Semester German – Requests – Making Requests
Students are guided to examine and analyze how language is used in request sequences in ordinary conversation. This analysis leads students to discover sentence patterns and word choices that can be used to mitigate requests.
2nd Semester Korean – Responsive Tokens – Identify Responsive Tokens
This sample lesson plan provides practical ideas for teaching responsive turns in Korean as a second language using authentic language data to enhance students’ recognition and production of responsive turns and their various functions.
2nd Semester Spanish – Invitations – A party
Students are guided to analyze and practice: a) how to extend an invitation; b) how to accept an invitation; and c) how to politely refuse an invitation.
2nd Semester Spanish – Expanding a Conversation Topic – Talking About Familiar Topics
Students learn about ways to expand a conversation by asking follow-up questions, making additional comments, and stating opinions. Additionally, they are guided to notice features such as overlaps and interruptions and how they occur in spontaneous (unplanned) conversations.
5th Semester Spanish – Affected Datives – Broken Glasses
Students are instructed to write a narrative. They are guided to compare their own grammatical structures used in the narrative with those used by Julio Cortázar in a short story and those used by a native speaker of Spanish.
5th Semester Spanish – Reflexive Verbs – Daily Routines
Students observe, analyze, and practice the use of object pronouns that express possession.
5th Semester Spanish – Planned vs Unplanned Discourse – A Doctor’s Appointment
Students compare an authentic consultation at the doctor’s office with a similar recording from a Spanish textbook. They are guided to notice and reflect on the features of a spontaneous doctor-patient interaction in order to develop conversational skills that are
5th Semester Spanish – Instructions/Assessments – A Physical Exam
Students examine language use during an authentic doctor-patient interaction. After guided analysis, they compare their findings from the authentic interaction with a role-play. Workshop
5th Semester Spanish – Paralinguistic Information – A Telephone Call
Students listen to a phone conversation, work on the content of the dialogue, try to deduce the state of mind of the speakers, and reconstruct the conversation in the context of real-life conversations.
5th Semester Spanish – Adjectives – Negotiating with Lawyers
Students are guided to find the different positions and forms of the adjectives used in native speakers’ language samples and determine the rules that govern their use.
6th Semester Chinese – Requests – Making Requests
Students are guided to examine and analyze how language is used in request sequences. The analysis leads students to discover specific sentence patterns and word choices that can be used to mitigate requests.
6th Semester Spanish – Future Tense – Texting
Students are guided to determine which forms are acceptable for talking about the future when texting and are asked to compare and contrast their answers with those of native speakers.
6th Semester – Preterit vs. Present Perfect – Political Bio
Students are guided to determine the difference between form and function when choosing between the preterit and present perfect, and to make verb tense choices according to context (e.g., political biography).
6th Semester Chinese – Refusals – Indirect Strategies
This lesson is intended to follow the lesson on requests. Here, students analyze the linguistic and sociocultural practices used to reject a request appropriately in various contexts.
6th Semester Chinese – Conversational Features/Sociocultural Elements – A Doctor’s Appointment
Students are guided to explore the lexical, structural and discourse features employed by native speakers in a doctor-patient conversation. In doing so, they develop the understanding of not only the linguistic but also the sociocultural aspects of the language. Workshop
7th Semester Chinese – Cultural Value of Words – My Hometown
Students are guided to analyze the language used in interviews with Chinese native speakers about their views of ‘hometown.’ Rich cultural values are reflected in their word choices, voices, registers, and perspectives in the language.