Assessment

As a Result

As a result of these identity-focused classroom practices, learners will be able to identify and discuss their imagined communities, sharing their hope and dreams for the future through a variety of communicative-based tasks, including, but not limited to a personal vignette, and reflections on case studies.

Personal Vignette

From wikiHow: "A vignette should express a certain moment, mood, aspect, setting, character, or object. Most of all, it should be short, but descriptive. In terms of length, a vignette is typically 800-1000 words. But it can be as short as a few lines."

For the purposes of writing for identity exploration, the vignette can include questions based on the graphic organizer to the left (also available as a PDF) and constructed at the beginning of the semester or school year. The vignette can also be scaffolded for a variety of learner ages and levels (a graphic organizer for lower level learners and an essay form for more advanced learners).

Once the vignette has been written and collected, the data here can be used to help guide in-class discussion, relating the lesson material to the learners’ imagined communities throughout the semester. When the semester ends, learners create another vignette to assess how their attitudes may have changed about their imagined community and reasons for engaging with English in their future selves. This strategy allows for the teacher to understand potential multiple imagined communities, which in turn will allow for a deeper understanding of the learners’ investment with English (Pavlenko & Norton, 2007).

Reflection on Case Studies

Reflection on case studies entails reading a series of case studies of Japanese learners who have studied abroad or integrated into a community where English is the majority language (this could be anywhere!) and recording their reflections via a series of reflective prompts.

One possible idea is a case study on Kyoko Mori, an award-winning writer from Kobe, Japan, who has successfully integrated into Western popular culture. She and others have helped reimagine what it means to become an American writer by taking ownership of English (Pavlenko & Norton, 2007).

To engage with the interview featuring Kyoko Mori, learners can answer the following questions:

What do you think their daily life is like (before reading or watching) the study?
Where did they go?
How do they feel?
Would you like to go here?
What would you like to ask about their experience (after watching or reading)?

References

Pavlenko, A., Norton, B. (2007). Imagined Communities, Identity, and English Language Learning. In International Handbook of English Language.