1. Memory Acts in Language Education: the “Generations” Project
Margaret Anne Clarke, Open University
Introduction
This poster outlines the “Generations” project, which formed part of a Cultural Studies unit offered to international students at intermediate, or Year 2 level. The student cohort consisted of exchange students from the Europe on the Erasmus programme, and Far Eastern students on BA English Language, Business and Communication degree programmes.
Aims
The aims of the project were multiple, building on prior knowledge from the students’ home countries, society, family and personal histories.
The students were introduced to key tools of analysis required to critically examine social identity in contemporary culture.
The project also entailed the use of a range of technologies for the purpose of knowledge creation, production and sharing.
Also the use and understanding of research methods: ethnographic knowledge, data collection, questionnaires and interviews.
Methods
The students were asked to create a 500 word story in English based on the compared experiences of their parents, grandparents and their own present situation. Using interviews with their families, and containing anecdotal detail and personal illustrations, the stories were contextualised in terms of the social, economic, political and technological events of the time, and also in terms of gender: changes in the relationships and status of men and women.
After scripting, the narratives were recorded using free and downloadable Audacity software, saved as MP3 files, and uploaded and archived in the University’s virtual Blackboard space.
While time and assessment constraints did not allow for the inclusion of images or illustrations, the format of the sound files would potentially allow for further enhancement of the recordings with other multimedia: also sharing and exchange across platforms.
Stories from three generations
What is cultural memory?
Everyday experience takes shape within larger narratives of nation and society that are rooted in stories about the past, which give meaning to present events, and propose courses of future action consistent with interpretations of the present.
Cultural memory works through the concretion of identity, or relation to the group; its capacity to reconstruct; and also formation: the objectification of communicated meaning and collectively shared knowledge; organisation and reflexivity.
We need to define the conceptual and methodological approaches which establish the theory and practice of memory as a key component of language research, acquisition and use ...
...which means asserting the role of language in recalling genealogies of memory and intergenerational transformation, and preserving the intersections between collective social memory and formal history ...
...and integrating the relations of student remembrance and recall to present uses of language in oral and written modes ...
...and putting this into practice through the integration of historical and social perspectives into language pedagogies through the applied use of cultural memory practices.
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memory
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Bilborough, Nick (2011) Memory Activities for Language Learning. .Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Grosvenor, Ian and Kevin Myers. “Cultural Learning and Historical Memory: A Research Agenda.” Encounters on Education, 2014, Vol. 15, pp. 3 – 21.
Saye, John: Thomas Brush, “Scaffolding critical reasoning about history and social issues in multimedia-supported learning environments.” Educational Technology Research and Development, 2002, Vol. 50 (3), pp. 77 – 96.
References Arial Regular 18pt / 24pt