Teaching & Learning Uncategorized

Building Rapport Through Multimodal Lessons: Value Shields

Gwangju News

By Maria Lisak

While my students may feel lots of loyalty to each other for being Korean and united under Han (the Korean Han nation), classism, sexism, and lookism can be differences that divide instead of unite. Getting Korean learners of English to trust each other in the competitive culture of education is hard, too. When judged continuously for your knowledge and performance of that knowledge, it is a wonder that anyone shows up to class! However, tempered with the stress of these modern anxieties is Korea’s cooperative culture. A deep need for friendship and belongingness; the total trust and deep commitment of jeong (정). As a non-Korean teacher, how am I supposed to foster rapport between myself and my students for them to feel safe and take risks needed to improve their English language skills? One of the essential tools I use to foster rapport is value shields.

Rapport, Multimodality, Shields

Rapport is a positive connection between individuals characterized by trust, understanding, and empathy. It fosters effective communication, cooperation, and collaboration, creating an open and supportive environment. It goes beyond surface interactions, building deeper connections and a sense of camaraderie, enhancing educational environments through collaboration and common goals. One of the ways I encourage rapport is through multimodal activities like a value shield, which taps into learners’ interests and utilizes their digital devices.

Multimodality refers to the use and integration of multiple modes of communication. Modes can include verbal language, written text, images, gestures, facial expressions, body language, sounds, and other forms of expression. In a multimodal lesson, different modes work together to convey information, meaning, and expression. Multimodal lessons support language learning by engaging learners through a variety of modes such as visual, auditory, and kinesthetic, enhancing comprehension, retention, and overall language acquisition. In my class, the lesson for value shields incorporates text, visual imagery, and spoken presentation.

A shield originated as a handheld piece of defensive armor designed to protect the user from enemy attacks. I incorporated the shield in the lesson as a metaphor to represent the defenses we take against the challenges encountered in the world. Our values act as a shield to protect our identity. A value shield can be used to deflect harm, cushion blows, and provide protection. I started using value shields to support and encourage students to have confidence in using English instead of fitting into prescribed patterns of output. Value shield activities were designed to help students develop agency regarding their English language study and express their identity as they probe interlingual spaces. Learning and development are influenced by cultural and social factors, something that is key to my teaching pedagogy. This frames the multimodal activities I use and gives a sense of play to otherwise text-focused coursework.

My Experience with Value Shields

I have used value shields over the years with my students, and they have yielded remarkable results in fostering rapport. My previous action research studies centered on my learners’ use of value shields and superhero powers in a multimodal literacy project. The students identified five of their core values and presented them to the class in addition to introducing their superhero avatar with the special gift they give to their communities. Additionally, I have presented teacher training workshops on how I combined the value shield project with other identity work into student videos. Learners introduced themselves giving their five core values, ascribed (how others see us) and avowed (how we see ourselves) identity, as well as their dream job in a video. These videos were more lively than the standard self-introductions that occur at the beginning of every term. You can find instructions on my blog for value shields and superhero projects (Lisak, 2016). Recently, I gave a professional development seminar in Jeonju where I spoke about the underlying educational theories of value shields, and the participants each made their own value shield. We had a very interesting conversation about my students’ inclusion of “greed” as a value. Understanding the Korean context as students may be “greedy for learning” as in the use of yoksim (욕심) gets lost in translation when “greed” appears as a core value on a learner’s value shield. Teachers and learners, in my experience, feel a challenge and freedom when doing this multimodal activity.

The Teacher’s Guide to Value Shields

So, how do you actually run a lesson for value shields? I like to demo my own value shield and set up steps of what to include. I also offer non-examples, mistakes students should avoid. A few times, I have given a list of possible values.

  • I offer my own value shield as a graphic organizer. I do a short opening: “What are your values? What do you value? Companies often have a mission statement where they introduce their values.”

I then give a live demonstration of my values: “One of my core values is safety. If I do not feel safe, then I do not want to try. I like to make my classrooms a safe place so that students feel comfortable to take risks when using English, even if they make mistakes.”After my demonstration, I do some repetition. “I chose safety instead of stability, welfare, or well-being, because I want my students to improve their ability, not hit a level of comfort and stop trying. Also, I did not choose the word ‘safe’ because I wanted to use a noun form.” I then review the value shield by demonstrating one of the values again. After this, I ask students to explain why I chose each value. They can answer as a class, helping those that did not understand clearly after the first or second demonstration.

Maria’s value shield.

When making lesson plans, remember to give instructions at the proficiency level of the learners. I also think it is important to choose what resources will be used. Will they draw them in class or as homework? Will they make them electronically? Can they only use their personal photos? What is their information literacy level; can they source from the internet correctly?

Additionally, you need to make decisions about how learners will share their value shields. Will they write a sentence to introduce each value? A paragraph? An essay? Will they give speeches in class about their value shields? Will they make a video about their value shield?

I encourage students to create a video including voice-over, one slide per value, reading their script. Set time limits, aiming for 30 seconds to 1 minute. This allows every student to present in one class period. The video serves as a practice tool, providing rehearsal opportunities. In class, students present the video (with the sound off), giving their own live speech.

After presentations is a feedback opportunity. This might be a good space to translanguage to see what the learner intended as their Korean meaning. This is also a good time to make sure visuals match the language. I typically do not use a rubric to evaluate their English; my focus is to understand the student and to make sure others understand them as well. I observe varied challenges among my students, including English proficiency, visual messaging, drawing/technology, and shyness. Learners enjoy the activity and better understand one another.

I build the results from value shields into other activities. A superhero project comes next, and then other multimodal activities for goal-setting, midterm reflection posters, and final portfolio reviews. I also plan error correction activities based on word form mistakes. A synonym connection activity is used for mission statements and company website analysis. My most moving experiences have been when learners use English words to express their values and their “voice” in English. It is exciting to see some students move from machine translation into figurative, even poetic, interpretations of their values in English.

Let’s Play
Making a Value Shield I valueMy value is

Of course, value shields are not the only multimodal imaging that can support rapport-building. Other alternatives include avatars, animals, mascots for festivals, masks, ghosts or zombies, soccer clubs, totem poles, family crests, coats of arms, flags, seals, and dojang (name stamps).

Making the Most of the Modes

By incorporating multimodal activities, learners develop media literacy to create messages and interpret online content. During a lesson or course, various multimodal activities can be designed to emphasize the content of visual messages and the chosen color palette. Of course, this is an English class, so the words in the message will be an important mode, but artwork and pictures are other interpretive ways to present information. Body language and movement are also fun modes to bridge gaps in meaning. Sounds, whether humming, music, nature sounds, or even silence, can be important modes to explore and have learners understand their integrated meaning.

Transferable Experience and Skills

As I teach university students and my learners will one day be working in offices, team-building by finding common ground and respecting differences are important skills that they need to develop and transfer to a more and more complicated, international workplace. Rapport facilitates team-building by fostering trust, open communication, and mutual understanding among team members. Value shields can be an experience that helps them in their future to check in with themselves as well as to get to know others.

Even if my students later find themselves working independently at home as a freelancer, the value shield activity is helpful for their business branding efforts. Personal branding requires control of visual and textual messaging. By understanding their core values, they can align their brand’s mission, messaging, and actions with those values. Additionally, values-driven entrepreneurship often leads to socially responsible practices, contributing to positive social impact and enhancing the brand’s reputation.

When rapport is missing in a language learning class, several negative consequences can arise. Without rapport, engagement suffers and motivation to participate decreases. Rapport helps overcome some of the small barriers we encounter in daily communication. If someone is sick or grumpy, we are more likely to give them acceptance and support because we have a longer experience of good times with them as well. A lack of rapport also impacts confidence, as learners feel less comfortable and more self-conscious about making mistakes. A lack of rapport limits collaborative efforts, as there is less of a group identity that has been formed from a sense of community and belongingness. In a really bad class atmosphere, a negative classroom dynamic can develop where conflicts and misunderstandings are the norm and tools are not present to overcome these normal breakdowns in communication.

The absence of rapport in a language learning class can result in reduced engagement, communication barriers, decreased confidence, limited collaboration, and negative classroom dynamics. It is crucial for language educators to actively foster rapport to create a supportive and conducive learning environment that maximizes students’ potential and enhances their language practice journey. It is important for educators to foster an atmosphere of collaboration and deal proactively with classist and sexist actions, and subtle attitudes of judging others negatively. I have found multimodal value shields to be a fun way to get to know each other and start building a successful, friendly class.

Reference

Lisak, M. (2016). General ELT swapshop for Gwangju-Jeonnam Chapter of KOTESOL. KoreaMaria. https://koreamaria.typepad.com/gwangju/2016/10/gjkotesol.html

The Author

Maria Lisak celebrates her 20th year living in Gwangju and would like to thank all of her students, co-workers, and mentors over the years who have helped her to live her dream. She teaches administration welfare at Chosun University. Email: gwangjumaria@yahoo.com

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