Language & Cultural Studies

The learning journal. Just like in Community Engagement and the reflective project, the learning journal in LCS is a documentation of the student's voice over the two-year course. Essentially it is a centralised learning space and has three uses for the student: 

• a learning tool as a place for learning engagements and reflections
• a learning narrative of their linguistic and cultural identity and growing awareness of the implications of this
• evidence of their entire learning process and sustained engagement for assessment 

Rather than separating this into formative and summative, assessment should be seen as more on a sliding scale of formative and summative and a mix of informal ongoing assessment, 3 scheduled review points and final completion of the course. The learning journal is the backbone of all of this. 

Informal assessment - ongoing
Interim assessment - 3 review points
Final assessment - end of programme

Key points: 

• the learning journal is mandatory and students can keep a digital, physical or a combination of the two depending on their learning preferences.
• there must be 3 review points
• students are required to complete a reflection before and/or after the review point in the IB's progress and reflection form.

This is the place for students to establish how to succeed in this course, find meaning in language and culture and find a passion. Therefore this is the place to explore: 

Aims and nature of the course →    Language & cultural portrait   →       Area of Exploration                                                                                ↘                                              ↓                                            ↙

                      Establish reflection & reflexivity & learning journal throughout

Questions

• What is LCS? What do I already understand about language and culture? What languages do I already speak?
• What concepts are associated with languages and culture? How can I best represent my language and cultural repertoire in a portrait? How do the concepts of Identities, Perspective, Communication and Power connect to my language and cultural portrait?
• What is my Area of Exploration? What are my learning goals? Can I explain the reason for my learning goals? 

Apply, Connect, Inquire

Building on the foundations of the Introductory unit, students now have an understanding of their language and culture portrait.  They are then able to choose from three Areas of Exploration, providing a forum for their learning and giving them agency to choose goals that are specific to them. The examples given below are not exhaustive. 

Career: students can explore professional or academic avenues such as learning connected to a career field they are interested in, their career-related studies or even in an internship. This is a great opportunity for a practical and applied experience of linguistic and cultural skills and capabilities.

Community: students can explore language and culture directly in relation with the community/communities. This could be a personal and familial connection, or languages in the local/global sense of community. This provides a learning opportunity based on connection and is very much complemented by the Community Engagement core component.

Personal:  students can shape a learning journey entirely forged out of personal interest and sheer curiosity. Perhaps they have an existing interest in Japanese culture and can use this platform to add to their linguistic and cultural repertoire. They could be multilingual and fascinated by the linguistic heritage of Latin or Greek. It might be that they want to explore their home language and heritage further. 

A quick overview of different parts of reflection and reflexivity

Remember that reflective and reflexive skills build throughout the course; critically reflective and reflexive skills will become more nuanced the more opportunities students have to practice them with questions and tools to help them.  

Metacognitive reflection
Thinking about one's own thinking and learning processes to understand how one learns and how to improve. 
Type of question: What is motivating/engaging you in LCS? What is standing in the way of your engagement?

Process reflection
This is thinking deliberately about the process you have undertaken: what you did and why you did it to inform future choices and actions.
Type of question: How have your learning engagements led you to new understandings?

Critical reflection 
In the context of LCS, students might think more deeply by examining experiences, assumptions, and beliefs to gain a more complex understanding and improve future actions; this could be done through a conceptual lens and the four concepts of Identities, Communication, Perspective and Power. 
Type of question: How does understanding language and culture help you understand other people and their actions?

Self reflexivity 
Thinking that leads to the examination of one's own beliefs and perceptions.
Type of question: What have you discovered about your personal values and how this impacts how you interact with others in different contexts?

Critical reflexivity 
This type of thinking leads you to examine beliefs and perceptions of wider systems such as different communities and groups and your own positionality within this. 

Type of question: Which of the concepts of Identities, Communication, Perspective, Power have been most significant in your exploration of language and culture?