Kendra Staley

Transforming Stereotypes, Classism, Racism & Misogyny through Social Media

An important aspect of Intercultural Communications courses is challenging students to question power-dynamics and privilege (Abu, 2011). For example, within this course, students crossed the borders of their own comfort zones by analyzing stereotypes in Korea, classism in Kenya, racism in Latin America, and misogyny in Somalia. In-class videos, upper intermediate (B2) level readings, and small group discussions were linked to students posting on their class blog, enabling them to bridge course work with social media and learner autonomy. While class activities focused on general understanding of audio or written text through the use of comprehension questions, the class blog emphasized the need for students to engage in critical thinking, to synthesize a variety of input, and to actively claim the English language as their own, as a way to express themselves and to connect with a larger community. Clearly, Intercultural Communications encourages mutual understanding and respect across physical and virtual borders (Irimia, 2012; Jia, 2015). With the intention of building a global community, students created videos about aspects of Colombian culture they are most proud of. They then posted them to the class blog as a way to combat stereotypes about Colombia while using English to teach others about their own country.

This presentation will illustrate how the use of social media within an Intercultural Communications course engages students´ interests and enables them to deconstruct socially-created categories within their own community as well as globally. The presenter will give lesson plan examples which can easily be adapted to fit the needs of various EFL or ESL contexts.