Social-pedagogical life imitates art: Scaffolding the voices of L2 fans and critics

Abstract

This chapter describes a modular intermediate French course (Pellet & Myers, 2016) anchored by a constructivist approach to social L2 reading and writing. Connected by digital technologies fostering a community of shared readership, students encounter a metaphor of fan interaction and engagement in the contemporary French short story, “Odette Toulemonde” (Schmitt, 2006). The course incorporates multiple levels of readership and authorship by playing out the social themes of the narrative. This model redefines traditional roles by embracing continuums rather than dichotomies such as reader-writer, fiction-reality, classroom and real-world interaction. Such authentic transcultural encounters turn students into digital-footprint-making producers (Sharpe, Beetham, & de Freitas, 2010) rather than mere consumers. More specifically, social pedagogies transform potentially isolated readers and language learners into authors, fans, and critics in an extramural classroom through communal reading and textually inspired, real-life activities. Subsequently, this model dovetails current language program transformations favoring integrative curriculum design focused on cultural inquiry (MLA, 2007) that is socially inclusive, adaptive, encourages knowledge co-construction, and promotes process over product.