Embodied aspects of intercultural pragmatic competence:investigating the effects of using authentic video-based materials on confidence, fluency and accuracyin a Year 10 mixed-attainment language class

Abstract

This paper reports on a proposed research project designed to explore the impact of using a video-baseddrama-inspiredintervention to improve levels of confidence, fluency and accuracy in relation to spoken French. Using anAction Research (AR) approach involving a sequence of 3lessons, Year 10 students of French working towards Higher-and Foundation-level GCSE were to be exposed to authentic video-based materials and invited to perform in a Conversational Shadowing activity and a process-drama exercise.Students’ confidence in relation to decoding and encoding of non-/paraverbal cues would be measured alongside the effects of the intervention on accuracy and fluency.Measures would include students’ perceptions of their own confidence and performance (to be assessed by pre-and post-viewing self-assessment tasks) and subjective teacher evaluations based on GCSE assessment criteria. The following offers a review of relevant literature and describes the proposed methodology. Anticipated findings and implications of the study for professional practice and the teaching of Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) are discussed.