Literature Review

Introduction 

Stonehill College’s Assessment in Action project focused on elementary Spanish language learners. Team members studied the impact of faculty/librarian collaboration and enhanced information literacy instruction and access to library services on the students’ ability to meet institutional objectives for intercultural competency and disciplinary standards for cultural learning.

This literature review describes how our project reflects growing internationalization efforts on college campuses, incorporates critical information literacy instruction into the elementary Spanish language curriculum to support intercultural learning, and focuses on a group – novice foreign language learners – who are often not the target audience for critical information literacy instruction. Our literature review will also inform future considerations about how to maximize the library’s presence in the college’s learning management system and how to use that platform to provide resources in a variety of formats to best meet the diverse learning styles of our students.

Internationalization and Foreign Language Education

The American Council on Education’s Center for Internationalization and Global Engagement defines internationalization as institutions’ efforts to meet their graduates need to possess intercultural skills and competencies “…by incorporating global perspectives into teaching, learning and research; building international and intercultural competence among students, faculty, and staff; and establishing relationships and collaborations with people and institutions abroad (Center for Internationalization and Global Engagement, 2012).”

At Stonehill College, internationalization efforts are addressed in the institution’s strategic plan. One of the objectives for implementing the strategies outlined within the plan is to “promote diversity as an integral part of the College culture by linking the curriculum with heightened intercultural and international competency (Stonehill College, p. 10).”

That objective aligns with the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Standards for Foreign Language Learning which state, in part, that students “will gain a knowledge and understanding of other cultures and be able to demonstrate an understanding of the relationships between the practices and perspectives of the culture studied and an understanding of the relationship between the products and perspectives of the culture studied (ACTFL, 2006).”

However at Stonehill, like many other institutions, efforts to incorporate information literacy instruction into foreign language courses have often been aimed at intermediate and advanced students. Often times, that instruction focused on skills-based tasks, such as searching databases or properly formatting citations, with no intentional focus placed on fostering cultural learning.

Our Assessment in Action project used a more holistic approach to information literacy instruction, teaching novice Spanish students how to access authentic texts and media in the target language, consider the factors that influenced the creation of those objects, to use what they read or watched to learn more about culture in Spanish-speaking countries, and compare those cultures to their own.

Information Literacy in a Globalized World

Researchers have examined the need to move from traditional skills-based information literacy teaching to a more holistic, content-based mode of instruction in order to equip students with the skills they will need in a globalized society (Kutner & Armstrong, 2012).

Hunter, White, & Godbey (2006, p.2 77) put forth the following definition of “global competence” : “having an open mind while actively seeking to understand cultural norms and the expectations of others, leverage this gained knowledge to interact, communicate and work effectively outside one’s environment.” Fostering critical information literacy is one way in which faculty and librarians can help students achieve global competence.

Kutner and Armstrong contend that teaching students to be information literate in globalized world requires more than traditional-skills based instruction – specifically “content- based engagement with the social, cultural, economic and political contexts of information access, retrieval use and creation (p. 24).

In our study we sought to encourage this engagement by offering student an array of authentic texts from which they could choose selections that were of particular interest to them.

Ward (2006) noted that information literacy skills without a meaningful context with inhibit learning. “…We must talk to faculty about supporting student engagement by bringing additional information into the classroom that elicits a personally meaningful response, and that permits students to understand themselves better through the content of the course (p. 401)

Providing Critical Information Literacy Instruction to Novice Language Learners

Stonehill’s AiA Project is unique in that is attempted to study the impact on critical information literacy instruction on elementary foreign language leaners. Many studies have been conducted on information literacy in the foreign language curriculum and a number of them have focused on traditional, skills-based teaching or have targeted intermediate or advanced language leaners in those efforts.

Lee (1998) studied using on-line newspapers and on line chatroom exchanges to promote cultural knowledge among advanced Spanish language students. Oliva & Pollastrini (1995) examined the impact of the integration of internet resources as a primary instructional tool at the University of Utah.  Rosell-Aguilar (2004) examined Spanish language students at Southampton University’s use of and perceptions of authentic texts found on the internet as a teaching tool.

Some researchers have looked at efforts to incorporate critical information literacy instruction into instruction for lower-level foreign language learners. Lamb & Fisher (1999) looked at a program to incorporate web-based content on World cup soccer to French-language students in a secondary school.

 Hedderich (2011) put forth an example of improving students knowledge about the country they were studying by requiring them to read current event articles on the target countries in English, from both American and international sources.

Emerging Themes

Some of our findings mirrored those of previous studies. As Rosell-Aguilar noted in his study (2004), students’ confidence in their comprehension skills increases as they recognize that learning can take place even if they don’t fully comprehend the authentic text being examined. Qualitative data collected as part of our study echoed that claim with students describing comprehension strategies they developed to understand Spanish-language newspaper articles and feature films.

Another theme that emerged from the evaluation of Stonehill’s AiA project qualitative data was students’ belief that the provision of materials in a variety of media enabled them to work with authentic texts that best suited their individual learning styles. Writing about the information seeking behavior of Generation Y students, Weiler (2004) noted that small changes in presentation are likely necessary to best address the needs of that group, who research has shown are primarily visual learners. In a study of the use of web 2.0 tools by foreign language teachers, Panagiotidis (2012) advocates for Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) in which “students have the opportunity to form their own personal way of working, using the tools they feel are most appropriate to achieve their purpose (p.420).” We believe by working with faculty, librarians can play a critical role in creating such collections by helping find and provide access to these tools. In a study at Stetson University, (Costello, Lenholt, & Stryker, 2004) demonstrated success in using the learning management system in library instruction session to address different learning styles.

The need to address students’ diverse learning styles is addressed in the Association of College and Research Libraries Best Characteristics of Programs of Information Literacy that Illustrate Best Practices: A Guideline (ACRL, 2012).

That document also recommends that information literacy instruction programs incorporate “relevant and appropriate information technology and other media resources to support pedagogy.”

Quantitative data from our study indicated students found learning management system interaction with a librarian essential or helpful when completing most of their cultural assignments. As we continue to work with Foreign Language instructors and faculty in other departments we should strongly advocate for a library presence in all learning management system courses.

Conclusion

Our project provided us with a base from which we can build additional collaborative relationships with members of the Foreign Language Department as well as with faculty from other disciplines. We must share the results of our assessment with members of the Foreign Language Department and other faculty and administrators at the College. Our findings will help us advocate for the faculty/librarian collaboration on course design and assessments, the integration of library instruction throughout the semester and the inclusion of a library presence in all classes using the college learning management system. The findings will help library staff as they work to select resources to best suit the needs of students and faculty and consider how, and in what format, they will deliver those services.

Providing students with access to these more holistic information literacy instruction, in the foreign languages and other disciplines, will require a great deal of collaboration between faculty and librarians. In the case of the AiA project at Stonehill, the faculty member and librarian collaborated on the course LibGuide, library instruction content and cultural assignments. As Kutner & Armstrong (2012) noted, “the future of meaningful information literacy instruction lies within greater collaboration between librarians and teaching faculty in order to achieve further curricular integration of twenty-first century information literacy concepts (p. 29).”