001.A Teaching Millenials

March 2011

Millennials Prove Themselves to the WorldCarl Falsgraff
Director, Center for Applied Language Study (CASLS)

Millennials are the most diverse and tolerant generation in American history. Able to connect with peers around the world instantly, they are the first “post-national” generation. That teenager secretly texting the girl next to her in class can just as easily text a teenager in Shanghai, provided she can write Chinese. This generation should be the best language learners in history. Yet, the decline in traditional programs, especially at the elementary level, creates a situation where the demand for language learning far outstrips the supply. The commercial success of self-study programs such as Rosetta Stone and LiveMocha is a testament of the failure to meet this demand. At the Ccenter for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS), we consider this failure to be an opportunity to provide Millennials and others with effective, personalized language learning opportunities.

First, we have to consider who these Millennials are. These characteristics, drawn from various lines of research, are of course broad generalizations that do not apply to all individuals born between 1982 and 2001, the common definition of the Millennial generation. Nonetheless, they are useful in considering the pedagogic issues arising from Baby Boomers and Generation-Xers teaching children who have grown up with a very different relationship to technology and each other.

• Achievers: Millennials’ “helicopter parents” are driven to make sure their children are special, and kids got the memo: You need to distinguish yourself through high achievement and have a life plan. Boomers were proud to announce that they would hitchhike around Europe until the money ran out and then figure out what to do. Not Millennials who are thinking about grad school before finishing high school.
• Rule followers: Unlike the rebellious Boomers and the cynical Gen-Xers, Millennials are rule followers who trust structure and institutions.
• Tech-savvy: These “digital natives” have never known a world without Internet access and cell phones. In fact, 83% report having slept with their cell phones, demonstrating the ubiquity of communications technology in their lives and the desire to be constantly connected to peers.
• Peer-oriented: Millennials are tightly tied to peer groups both through technology and traditional face-to-face groups, such as organized soccer teams, school clubs, and multiplayer online games.
• Exhibitionist: Millennials self-promote. Posting sexy photos or bragging about accomplishments on Facebook is not considered bad form. The 40% with tattoos and 25% with piercings all but scream “Look at me!”

What would a “Millennial pedagogy” look like?

First, it must appeal to Millennial’s sense that they are “special” as well as their intense desire for peer-group connections. A Millennial pedagogy would provide structure and rules. It would worry less about punishing students for slacking (Gen-Xers) or flaunting the rules (Boomers) and more about rewarding them for accomplishments. And it would give them ample opportunity to show off.

Working with partners around the country, CASLS has adopted a Millennial-friendly approach called “Can-Do Learning” and is developing tools to help facilitate that approach. The basic tenets of Can-Do Learning are:

• Learners set their own goals in terms of what they can do.
• Learning experiences, inside or outside of class, are designed to help them pursue those goals.
• Learners track their own progress toward goals through self-, peer- and teacher-assessments.
• Learners choose evidence to substantiate claims of what they can do.

CASLS has developed a tool to facilitate the Can-Do Learning approach called LinguaFolio Online. Developed in partnership with the National Council of State Supervisors For Languages (NCSSFL) and the National Foreign Language Center (NFLC), this online tool allows learners to identify goals in terms of CanDo statements such as “I can give and ask for directions” at lower levels and “I can state and defend an opinion” at higher levels. Each of these main CanDo statements can be broken into sub-CanDo statements and, more importantly, customizable CanDo statements.

In this example, a student chose to enter “I can give directions from my house to the mall.” Learners can define their own goals within a standard framework. Learners also can attach evidence to each of these statements in the form of videos, audio files, text, or images.

Once the evidence is uploaded, learners can keep it private (default) or choose to share with peers or teachers. In the picture below, the text evidence is kept private (single person icon) and the MP3 file is available for review (three person icon).

Concerns about Can-Do Learning from Boomer and Gen-Xer teachers illustrate a significant gap in the mind sets between them and their Millennial students.

Concern #1: Self- and peer-assessment is meaningless. Kids will cheat.
Boomers grew up challenging rules of the establishment, and Gen-Xers learned to manipulate the system to get what they wanted. With this mentality, self-assessment is indeed problematic. But Millennials are rule followers. In fact, initial evidence from STARTALK summer institutes indicates that learners’ estimates of their ability are often lower than that of their teachers.

Concern #2: Kids won’t do this.
Most of us who began using social networks as adults are reticent about posting anything on Facebook more intimate than a family photo. Those who grew up posting tuneless renditions of pop songs on YouTube, compromising photos on Facebook, and texting salacious pictures get a social reward for “being seen” that older Americans do not. If giving a speech in Japanese, singing an Argentine pop song, or doing a skit in Arabic prompts your friends to hit the “like” button, students are likely to do it.

Concern #3: It’s too complicated.
A recent LinguaFolio teacher training workshop, filled with Boomers and Xers, was a nightmare. It took two hours just to get everyone logged in properly. At a later session with Millennial students, however, halfway through the explanation of how to get access, kids were already starting to check off Can-Do statements and upload evidence. Technology is not a barrier for digital natives.

Of course, not all Millennials are team-oriented achievers who want to see themselves on YouTube any more than all baby boomers were radical hippies or all Gen-Xers were hopeless slackers. The general trend towards technology-mediated peer groups and a focus on achievement within a well-defined structure, however, suggests the Can-Do Learning approach may fit well within the Millennial mindset.

For more information, visit http://casls.uoregon.edu/lfo.php