Discussion forums have become a standard feature of online/distance instruction in all disciplines, and popular in F2F and remotely taught courses as well. In a F2F context, where students and instructors can engage in discussion in the same time and space, it is often helpful to include an online discussion component that allows students who may hesitate to engage in a live(ly) discussion to express themselves in writing.
In L2 courses, discussion forums can take on a particularly useful role in developing students' interactive skills. Students whose speaking proficiency lags behind that of others may shy away from expressing themselves in front of peers and instructors. Allowing them time to formulate what they want to say in writing, and a providing a safe space for doing so, gives them a voice in the group.
It can also be a space for learners to try out new vocabulary, new or relatively complex grammatical structures, particularly if the instructor is careful to supply prompts that elicit, say, the past tense, or adjectives, or embedded clauses in a way that approximates natural discourse.
“In our own work, we have found that the most important element in successful online language learning is teacher-orchestrated instructional conversations.”
Meskill & Anthony, p. 176.
Rather than spell out instructions step-by-step for creating a Discussion thread in Canvas, we recommend that you watch the this YouTube tutorial by Ashlee Espinosa, who cites examples from her course entitled History of American Musical Theatre (Winter 2020) and explains in detail the settings and functions of Canvas Discussions.
(To skip the introductory examples and move into the instructions, go to 5:18 in the video.)
Some ideas for Discussion assignments:
- Post a picture of something important to you and write 2-3 sentences (in the target language) about why you chose it.
- Watch a video (posted in the initial post) and write a short (L2) summary of what you saw or heard.
- Post a URL to an article you’ve found pertaining to the topic we’ve been discussing.
- Listen to the following audio clip and write down (in the L2) as many details as you can recall from it.
- In five sentences, describe a trip you’ve taken, using at least five past-tense verbs.
- Post a photo of your (dorm) room (or a photo you found online) and use as many adjectives [nouns / relative clauses / etc.] as you can to describe it.
- Now that we’ve watched the film [XYZ], describe in 3-4 sentences a scene you found particularly interesting / confusing / important to the plot (and if you can find a YouTube clip with that scene, post it).
- We’ve read a few poems by ______ in class. Choose one of them, or a portion of one of them, write it in the post and record yourself reading the poem.
- Choose [4] new vocabulary words in this chapter and post them with related pictures or videos.
- Choose [4] new vocabulary words and post pictures or videos of them — but don’t write down the words; instead, let the other students in the course guess the intended words and post those in their comments.
Assignments such as these will start out with an initial post by individual students; but to become an interactive thread, the instructor should require comments to be added to these posts. The resulting thread, in turn, can serve as a productive site for corrective recasts by the instructor, by re-stating the utterances intended by the contributors but with revised syntax and vocabulary.
Two final tips:
- It is crucial to make your expectations clear regarding the number of postings assigned, their length and the focus of the contents. A thread is not likely to attract students if participation is voluntary; requiring a reasonable number of posts per week is a better approach, so that posts can develop into collaborative discussions.
- Be clear about which posting assignments are graded and which are not, the criteria for grading, and any deadlines you wish to set.
Reference
Meskill, C. and Anthony, N. (2015). Language learning and teaching in written asynchronous environments (Chapter 6, pp. 176-201). Teaching Languages Online. Bristol/Buffalo/Toronto: Multilingual Matters.