Moving into the Post-pandemic Realm: Authentic Digital Tasks for Integrated Language Skills

Abstract

This paper presents and discusses a revised template for encouraging student autonomy in decision-making over the content to be studied in an integrated English skills lesson or class. The challenge of teaching during a pandemic, mostly in online settings, became an opportunity to redevelop a template for student autonomy in language learning. Prior to the pandemic, this task focused on analog, print materials from authentic sources such as newspapers and magazines. The challenge and opportunity presented by the pandemic was to convert this template into using online videos in small discussion groups, with students taking turns at being responsible for the content to be studied and discussed. By taking turns as leaders of small discussion groups, and by using authentic digital video resources as ‘texts’, students can select, view, listen to, discuss, and write about, content and topics that they find appealing and interesting. This task can also be embedded into class assessment, however the rise of AI-powered sites such as ChatGPT, for example, also presents some challenges for teachers assessing written reactions to the authentic materials.