Emmanuel Bowman Anama-Green, Jr. (“Bo”)

Connecting Kids to the World-Global Connections Using Technology

Download Presentation Powerpoint

Students in Spanish classes at our school most likely will not be able to complete a study abroad program while in high school. This is due to a number of factors, ranging from socioeconomic disadvantages to a lack of desire to explore other cultures. Unfortunately, students who do not see a reason to learn Spanish will also sometimes have lower willingness to communicate (WTC). This year I will conduct an intervention that will allow the students to “place themselves” in a Spanish-speaking country while still in class. By incorporating tablets with voice capabilities, I hope to increase the willingness to communicate (WTC) levels of my students by allowing them to communicate in live time with businesses and individuals abroad. My research question for this study is, “Do novice-level students’ willingness to communicate (WTC) levels increase after they participate in an activity where they communicate with businesses and individuals in Spanish-speaking countries?” I will administer pre and post WTC surveys and engage my students in a focus group to measure the success of my intervention. Using these results and anecdotal field note observations from class sessions, I will then holistically analyze the data to see if other variables might have played a role in the students’ increases or declines in WTC.