Animated documentary film as a multimodal input in the language and culture classroom

AUTHOR

Solvita Burr, visiting lecturer of Latvian, Department of Scandinavian Studies, UW Seattle

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ABSTRACT

Students who choose to study a less commonly taught language or the culture of its country do not know much about the target language or the culture before starting the course. I offer students to become ethnographers learning from locals (Spradley 2016) and their social spaces (conceived, perceived, and lived, according to Lefebvre 1991).

I will present 2 online learning modules regarding the animated documentary film "My Favorite War" (2020), a multimodal text that combines various modes, perspectives, and local voices. In 2021, I practiced: 1) a four-week module (in Latvian) with 4 students at B1 level in a Latvian language course; and 2) a three-week module (in English) with 38 students in a Latvian culture course at the UW.

I will evaluate the learning modules by describing their structure and results of students’ work and highlighting the courses’ pedagogical strengths.

The learning modules allowed students to learn not only Latvia and locations therein as geographical representations on maps and perceived spaces through all course materials, but also as lived spaces through exploring personal locals’ stories. Students were ethnographers who contextually learned from people, places, and social activities to comprehend symbolic and functional meanings of differently marked spaces, internal conflicts, relationship models, and social structures. They learned not only the content of the course, but also the way to see the details (small-yet-crucial semiotic elements, intertexts, and cultural references) and the broader overview, how to talk about the film, and how to analyze it semiotically. The learning modules can be transferred to other localities, prompting instructors to consider ways in which to create such meaningful learning modules for other settings.

SUMMARY

RESEARCH QUESTION

How to meaningfully work with an animated documentary during online/in-person classes to improve students' multimodal competence and multiliteracies?

RESEARCH METHODS / SCHOLARLY BASIS

Social semiotics, ethnography, the pedagogy of multiliteracies.

RESULTS

Students learned not only the content of the course, but also the way to see the details (small-yet-crucial semiotic elements, intertexts, and cultural references) and the broader overview, how to talk about the film, and how to analyze it semiotically.

APPLICATION

The learning modules can be transferred to other localities, prompting instructors to consider ways in which to create such meaningful learning modules for other settings.